Terms of Service
Agreeing to these terms
These terms apply when you use this site and when we work together on a project. By browsing the site, requesting a quote, or engaging us, you accept them.
The site is operated by [Registered legal entity name], registered at [Full registered address]. In these terms "we" and "us" mean that company, and "you" means the person or business using the site or engaging us.
If you are agreeing on behalf of a company, you confirm you have authority to bind it.
What governs your project
Every project is defined by a written proposal covering scope, deliverables, price, and timeline. You accept it in writing before work begins.
Where the proposal and these terms conflict, the proposal wins. Anything not described in it is outside the agreed scope, including work discussed verbally but never written down.
Prices shown on this site are indicative ranges to help you budget. They are not offers and do not bind either of us. Only a written proposal is a quote.
Quotes and changes to scope
A quote is valid for 30 days from the date we send it, unless it says otherwise. After that we may requote.
You may request changes at any point. Where a change adds to the agreed scope, we will tell you the cost and the effect on the timeline before starting, and will not proceed until you approve in writing. We will never add charges you have not agreed to.
Additional pages, features, integrations, or design directions requested after the concept stage are new scope, not revisions.
Payment
Unless the proposal says otherwise:
- A [50%] deposit is payable before work begins and is non-refundable once design work has started
- The balance is due on completion, before the site goes live
- Projects over [your milestone threshold] may be split into agreed milestone payments
- Invoices are payable within [14] days
Late payments may attract interest at [statutory rate, or 4% above base rate] from the due date. If an invoice is more than [30] days overdue we may pause work and withhold delivery of files until it is settled.
Quoted prices exclude [VAT / sales tax] and any third-party costs such as domains, hosting, premium themes, plugins, or stock images. We will tell you about those costs before incurring them.
What we need from you
Projects run to schedule when content arrives on time. You are responsible for supplying text, images, logos, and any access credentials by the dates in the content checklist we issue at the start.
You are also responsible for reviewing work and giving consolidated feedback within the agreed review windows.
If materials or feedback are more than [14] days late, the timeline moves accordingly and we may need to reschedule around other commitments. Where a project is stalled on your side for more than 60 days, we may invoice for work completed to date and close it.
You confirm that anything you supply is yours to use, and that using it will not infringe anyone's rights.
Revisions
Two rounds of revisions are included at the design concept stage unless the proposal states otherwise. A round means one consolidated set of feedback, not a series of separate requests.
Approving the concept means approving the visual direction. Changing direction after the build has started is new scope and will be quoted.
Corrections to our errors — broken links, layouts that do not match the approved design, features that do not work as specified — are not revisions. We fix those at no charge.
Timelines
Timelines in a proposal are estimates made in good faith on the assumption that content and feedback arrive on schedule. They are not guarantees, and we are not liable for losses caused by a delay.
Where a delay is caused by something outside either party's control, both timelines and obligations are suspended for as long as it lasts.
Ownership of the finished work
On receipt of final payment, all rights in the completed design and any custom code we wrote for you transfer to you. That includes the design files, the domain, and the hosting account, all of which are registered in your name.
Until final payment, we retain ownership and you have no licence to use the work.
Two things sit outside that transfer. Third-party components such as themes, plugins, fonts, and stock images remain with their owners and are licensed to you on their terms, and our trademark notice lists the platforms we name; we will tell you which apply and what they cost. And we keep ownership of our own general tools, code libraries, and working methods, which we reuse across projects and which are not specific to you.
You are free to modify the site, hand it to another designer, or move it anywhere you like. We will not withhold logins or hosting access at any point after final payment.
Showing your project in our portfolio
We may display completed work in our portfolio, in case studies, and in marketing, including screenshots, your business name, and general outcomes.
Tell us in writing if you would rather we did not, either before we start or at any time afterwards, and we will remove it. There is no charge and it will not affect anything else. Email contact@hire-web-designer.com.
We will never disclose confidential figures, internal documents, or credentials.
Confidentiality
Each of us will keep the other's confidential information private and use it only for the project. How we handle personal data is covered by our privacy policy. This covers business plans, financial data, customer information, and credentials.
It does not cover information that is already public, that either party knew beforehand, or that must be disclosed by law.
These obligations continue for three years after the project ends.
After launch
We fix defects in anything we built free of charge for [30] days after launch. A defect means something not working as the approved specification said it would.
Outside that, and after the warranty period, support is chargeable at our current rate or under a maintenance plan.
The warranty does not cover changes made by you or another party, problems caused by third-party platforms, plugins, or hosting, content updates, or new features.
Cancellation
You may cancel at any time by writing to us. You will be invoiced for all work completed up to that point, and the deposit is not refundable once design work has begun.
We may cancel if an invoice is more than [60] days overdue, if you ask us to do something unlawful, or if the working relationship has broken down to the point where we cannot deliver properly. If we cancel for any reason other than non-payment, we will refund payments for work not yet done.
Where work has been paid for but rights have not yet transferred, cancellation means you do not receive a licence to use it.
Warranties and limits on our liability
We will carry out the work with reasonable skill and care, to the standard expected of a competent professional.
Beyond that, the site and our services are provided as they are. We do not warrant that a website will produce any particular volume of traffic, search ranking, enquiries, or revenue, as the clause on guaranteed results sets out in full. Those depend on your market, your pricing, your competitors, and decisions by search engines that are outside anyone's control.
Our total liability in connection with a project is limited to the total amount you have paid us for it.
We are not liable for lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, lost business opportunity, or any indirect or consequential loss, whether or not we were told such loss was possible.
Nothing here limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited. If you are a consumer rather than a business, your statutory rights are unaffected.
Indemnity
You agree to cover us against claims, losses, and reasonable legal costs arising from content or materials you supplied, from your use of the site after handover, or from your breach of these terms.
Using this site
The text, design, images, and code on this site belong to us. You may read it, print it, and share links to it. You may not republish it, sell it, or present it as your own.
The site is provided for general information. We may change or withdraw any part of it without notice, and we do not guarantee uninterrupted availability.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the law of [jurisdiction — e.g. England and Wales, or the State of New York], and the courts of [same jurisdiction] have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute.
If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.
Before starting formal proceedings, both parties agree to attempt to resolve the dispute in good faith by direct discussion.
Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. The version in force when you accepted your proposal is the one that governs your project; later changes do not apply retroactively to work already agreed.
Questions: contact@hire-web-designer.com.