Between the Business [Joseph Melville Freelance web Design]
and you [the Client]

 

Summary

We (the Business) will always do our best to fulfil your needs and meet your goals, but sometimes it is best to have a few things written down so that we both know what’s what, who should do what and what happens if something goes wrong. In this Contract you will not find complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text. we have no desire to trick you into signing something that you might later regret. we do want what’s best for the safety of both parties, now and in the future.

In short

By accepting in writing, by email or by telephone, you [the Client], are hiring us [Joseph Melville Freelance Web Design] (herein referred to as “we”, “I” or “us”), with our registered office at 32 Saint Peters Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 1PA and website http://www.josephmelville.co.uk to carry out website design, website development, website maintenance, website testing, digital marketing, photography, audio production, and/or graphic design (herein referred to as the Work) for the estimated total price as outlined in the Provision of Service quotation.

Once you receive our Provision of Service quotation (which details the Work we intend to provide and details of this Contract including any specific clauses) you must reply within 14 working days to accept or decline the Provision of Service. This is usually provided by email to the nominated correspondence email address. Accepting this confirms acceptance into this Contract, and you will have 30 days from this date to settle the deposit (as detailed below in the Payments section).

What do both parties agree to do?

As our customer, you have the power and ability to enter into this Contract on behalf of your company or organisation. You agree to provide us with everything that we will need to complete the project (including text, images and other information as and when we need it and in the format we require). You agree to review our work and provide feedback and approval in a timely manner. Deadlines work two ways and you will also be bound by any dates that we set together. You also agree to keep to the payment schedule set out.

We have the experience and ability to perform the services agreed you require and we will carry them out in a professional and timely manner. Along the way we will endeavour to meet all the deadlines set but cannot be responsible for a missed launch date or a deadline if you have been late in supplying materials or have not approved or signed off our work on time at any stage. On top of this we will also maintain the confidentiality of any information that you give us, as governed by our Privacy Policy.

Design
In the case of website design and or development work, we endeavour to create designs for the look-and-feel, layout and functionality of your website. This Contract includes one main design plus the allowance of a maximum of two design revisions, inclusive. If you are not happy with the designs at this stage, you will pay us in full for all of the work that we have produced up to that point, and you may either cancel this Contract or continue to commission us to make further design revisions at the daily rate set out in our original estimate.

We develop using HTML for markup and CSS for styling. Often, we often also use dynamic functionality such as PHP, JQuery and XML technologies. The landscape of web browsers and devices changes regularly and our approach is to look forward, not back.

With this in mind we test all our markup and CSS in the current versions of all major browsers and, for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, one version prior to the current release.
Users of older or less capable browsers or devices will experience a design that is appropriate to the capabilities of their software. For people using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, this means a universal, typographically-focused design but no layout.

We do not test using old or abandoned browsers, for example Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or previous versions of Apple’s Safari, Mozilla Firefox or Opera unless otherwise specified.

Text content

We are not responsible for writing or inputting any text copy unless stated in the original estimate. We are happy to provide this though, and in addition to the estimate we will charge at our standard rate per hour for copy writing or content input.

Photographs

You will supply us photographs either in digital or printed format, if required for the Work. If you would like to use images from this website in your solution, you will be charged at our standard rate per photograph you choose. If you solely require our photography services you will be charged at the appropriate rate per hour.
If you decide to buy stock photographs we can suggest vendors of stock photography. Any time that we spend searching for appropriate photographs will be charged at our standard rate per hour.

Changes and revisions
We know that fixed-price contracts are rarely beneficial, as they often limit you to your first idea about how something should look or how it might work. We don’t want to limit either your options or your opportunities to change your mind.

The estimate/quotation prices we provide are based on the number of hours that we estimate we need to accomplish everything that you have told us you want to achieve. If you do want to change your mind, add extra pages or templates or even add new functionality this is not a problem but you will be charged the standard rate per hour set out in the estimate we gave you. Along the way we may ask you to put requests in writing so we can keep track of changes.

Technical support
If you don’t manage your own website hosting or do not yet have any hosting solution, we can set up an account for you. We will charge you a one-off fee for installing this site as well as the installation of a Content Management System.

If you already have website hosting we reserve the right to ask for access credentials to FTP, database and control panel accounts to allow us to put your website ‘live’. This information will be stored in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 as governed by our Privacy Policy.

We do not offer or include technical support for hosting, email or other services relating to hosting.

Legal stuff

We cannot guarantee that the functions contained in any web page templates or in a completed web site will always be error-free and so we cannot be liable to you or any third party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages arising out of the operation of or inability to operate this website and any other web pages, even if you have advised us of the possibilities of such damages.

If any provision of this agreement shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Copyrights

You guarantee to us that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork that you provide us for inclusion in the web site are either owned by you, or that you have permission to use them.
When we receive your final payment, copyright is automatically assigned as follows:

You own the graphics and other visual elements that we create for you for this project. We shall give you a copy of all files and you should store them safely as we are not required to keep them nor provide any native source files we used to make them.

You own the text content, photographs and other data you provided, unless someone else owns them.

You own the copy we provided for this project with the strict proviso that it is for use on only this project. Copy we write for a project cannot be transferred to other projects unless we authorise this.

We own all photographic content created by us, and we license it to you for use on only this project.

We own the markup, CSS and other code and we license it to you for use on only this project.
We reserve the right to display and link to your completed project as part of our portfolio and to write about the project on web sites and in magazine articles. We also reserve the right to continue to link to your site even if you no longer host that website at the given URL or have a new version of your website on the given URL.

Payments
We are sure you understand how important it is as a small business that you pay the invoices that we send you promptly. As we’re also sure you’ll want to stay friends, you agree to stick tight to the following payment schedule.

Payments must be received and cleared within 30 days of an invoice being issued. We ask for a non-refundable deposit of 25% of the quoted figure upon acceptance of the Contract, with the remaining 75% after the work has been completed to a standard deemed satisfactory to the client and invoiced, within the aforementioned timescale. We reserve the right to refuse work initially if this deposit is not paid.

As in compliance with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 and the amended Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations 2002 (link), we understand and will exercise our statutory right to interest and compensation for debt recovery costs under the late payment legislation.

Miscellaneous
You cannot transfer this contract to anyone else without our prior permission. This Contract stays in place and need not be renewed. If for some reason one part of this Contract becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts of it remain in place.

Although the language is simple the intentions are serious, and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of [English] courts.

By entering into an agreement with Joseph Melville Freelance web Design (this includes but is not limited to confirming in writing, by email or by telephone for us to carry out Work for you), you are effectively signing agreement to this contract as stated above, under English law.

Clauses
This section is reserved for specific clauses that relate to clients on an individual basis. Where applicable, please see the Clauses section of your Provision of Service quotation.