Terms & Conditions

You (the Client) are hiring me (the Designer), Chiara Broom, to design and develop a website or carry out related web work as agreed in your cost estimate or email correspondence.

These Terms apply to project work. Website Care Plans are a separate monthly subscription and are covered under their own agreement.

These Terms are written for business clients. If you are hiring me as a private individual rather than a business, please ask for the consumer version before booking, as different cancellation rights apply.

Which Document Takes Precedence

Your signed Cost Estimate and these Terms & Conditions form the agreement for your project, covering scope, pricing, payment schedule, revision allowances, responsibilities, and cancellation.

Supporting materials such as the Welcome Pack are provided to explain the process in plain terms. Where there is any conflict between those materials and this agreement, the signed Cost Estimate and these Terms & Conditions take precedence.

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1. Rates

Ad hoc and out of scope work is charged at my current standard hourly rate, in 30 minute increments. Urgent work is charged at time and a half.

Current rates are confirmed in writing before any additional work begins. Where these Terms refer to the standard hourly rate, this is the rate in force at the time the work is carried out.

Clients on a Website Care Plan receive a reduced hourly rate for additional work.

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2. Quotes, Booking & Start Dates

Quotes

Quotes are valid for 30 days from the date of issue.

Booking

Projects are booked via a project form and confirmed once the initial 50% deposit is received. This secures your start date in my schedule.

Acceptance of Terms

By approving a project estimate, paying a deposit, confirming by email, or submitting a booking form, you agree to these Terms & Conditions and authorise work to begin.

Start Dates

The project start date is confirmed once payment has cleared. Please choose your date carefully, as dedicated time is reserved for your project.

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3. Project Scheduling & Rescheduling

A project start date is reserved once the deposit has been paid and booking is confirmed.

Projects run to a booked slot. A typical 5 page website runs for approximately two weeks, subject to the size and scope of the project. Prompt feedback at each review stage keeps your project within that slot.

Clients may reschedule their project start date up to two times.

If content or required materials are not provided at least one week before the agreed start date, the project will be removed from the schedule and moved to the next available slot. This counts as one of your two reschedules.

Short Notice Changes

If a project is postponed or rescheduled within 14 days of the agreed start date, a rescheduling fee of 25% of the total project cost, capped at £250, will apply. This covers reserved time and schedule disruption.

If I am able to fill the original slot, this fee may be reduced or waived.

Further Changes

After two reschedules, a new quote may be required depending on availability, scheduling, or project scope.

Fees Are Not Cumulative

Where a single event could trigger both a rescheduling fee and a reactivation fee, only the higher of the two will be charged.

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4. The Project Process

Every project follows the same steps. Several sections of these Terms refer back to these stages.

Before We Begin: Content Submission

All copy and images are delivered via WeTransfer at least one week before your start date. I will remind you a week ahead so there is time to review everything and give feedback before we start.

A typical 5 page website project slot runs for approximately two weeks. This is subject to the size and scope of the project. Prompt feedback keeps the project on schedule.

Stage 1: Design & Layout Review

This stage builds the foundations of your website: overall design direction, page structure and content hierarchy, navigation and user journey, imagery and visual style, and desktop and tablet layouts.

Once the first draft is ready I will send it for review. You have five working days to gather and submit your feedback in one consolidated batch.

The goal at this stage is to agree the overall direction rather than fine detail.

Stage 2: Mobile Optimisation & Final Tweaks

Once the overall design and structure have been agreed, we move into refinement. Your Stage 1 feedback is applied and the site is optimised for smaller screens.

This review focuses on mobile responsiveness, navigation behaviour, spacing and layout adjustments, buttons and forms, image presentation, device specific refinements, and final content placement.

Responsive websites adapt across desktop, tablet and mobile. It is normal for some sections to need further refinement once viewed on smaller screens. This stage is specifically for reviewing and improving the mobile experience.

Site-Wide Review & Sign-Off

Once the agreed revisions are complete I will send the site back for a final review. This is your opportunity to confirm that feedback has been implemented, content is correct, and links and forms are working, and to confirm you are happy to proceed to handover.

This is a confirmation check rather than a further round of design feedback.

Launch & Handover

Once final payment has been received we will agree a launch or handover date. You will receive your website login details, training resources and guides, any agreed documentation, and 30 days of warranty support for launch related issues.

After this period, ongoing support is available at my standard hourly rate or through a Website Care Plan.

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5. Project Scope

All work will be carried out as detailed in the signed estimate or agreed in writing via email.

Any requests that alter the agreed structure, design direction, or functionality will be treated as new work and quoted separately.

Project quotes are based on the estimated time required to complete the work, using the information provided at the time of quoting and my professional experience.

Estimates are calculated based on the expected scope, functionality, content requirements, and revision time discussed before the project begins.

If the project scope changes, additional functionality is requested, or substantially more time is required because of revised content, delayed feedback, missing materials, or new requests, additional charges may apply.

Design Process

My design process is collaborative and consultative. I use the information, examples, goals, and feedback you provide, alongside my professional experience, to create a design direction that best suits your business and audience.

The project includes structured review and refinement stages. The quoted cost does not include unlimited exploratory concepts, repeated redesigns, or trying multiple entirely different creative directions once the design phase has begun.

Significant changes in direction, layout, structure, or functionality after Stage 1 has been approved may require additional time, scheduling changes, or additional cost.

Payment Gateways & Ecommerce

Where a payment gateway is included in your project, this covers installation of the official plugin, connection using credentials you supply, configuration of the standard checkout, and testing.

You are responsible for opening and maintaining your own merchant account, including any identity or business verification required by the provider. Approval decisions and timescales sit with the payment provider and are outside my control. If approval is delayed, your project may be rescheduled in line with the Project Scheduling & Rescheduling section.

You remain responsible for transaction fees, refunds, chargebacks, disputes, tax settings, PCI DSS compliance as the merchant, and your own terms of sale, refund, and delivery policies. I can configure tax rates based on the information you provide, but I do not advise on tax liability.

Setup of one standard payment gateway is included where quoted. Additional gateways, custom checkout fields, subscription products, or multi currency setups are quoted separately.

After handover, changes made by payment providers to their plugins, APIs, or policies are not covered by the warranty. Ongoing gateway maintenance is charged at my standard hourly rate.

Third Party Licences

Some projects require premium plugins, themes, fonts, or other licensed software. These costs are quoted separately and are paid for and owned by you.

Licences are registered in your name where the provider allows this. Annual renewals, and any lapse in functionality caused by an expired licence, remain your responsibility.

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6. Supplying Content

Deadlines

All content, including text, logos, and images, must be supplied one week before the start date. If content is not provided by the deadline, the project may be rescheduled to the next available slot.

Copywriting

Website copywriting is an optional service. If included in your project, it covers the full writing or rewriting of your page content for the web.

SEO copywriting means your content is written or restructured for clarity, readability and search performance. This includes decisions about copy length, paragraph structure, use of headings and bullet points, reduction of repetition, and keyword placement. It is not a light edit of existing text. It is content built for how people read and search online.

I work from your brief, your tone and your key messages throughout this process. Your meaning and voice are always preserved. The structure and formatting will change. That is the service.

Before the site goes live, you have the opportunity to review all copy in place and make wording adjustments directly. Minor tweaks at that stage are part of the process.

If you have not included copywriting in your project, you must supply complete, proofed copy one week before your start date. I will place your content into the design as provided and may make small adjustments for fit and flow. I will not restructure, rewrite, or optimise content that falls outside the agreed scope. Requests to do so after content has been placed will be quoted separately.

Reverting to original unformatted or unoptimised text after optimised copy has been agreed and placed falls outside scope and will be treated as a new request.

Images & Logos

Please provide editable vector logos and high resolution images. If none are supplied, I can source suitable stock images for £70, including licence.

Access

Full access to your hosting and domain is required upfront. If access is not available, development will take place on my server and a £45 migration fee may apply.

Post Placement Edits

Once Stage 1 has been reviewed and approved, further structural, stylistic, or content changes that fall outside the included review allowance may be treated as additional work and billed at the standard hourly rate. See the Feedback, Revisions & Time Allowances section for what is included.

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7. Feedback, Revisions & Time Allowances

Projects include two structured review stages: Stage 1 covering design and layout, and Stage 2 covering mobile optimisation and final tweaks. A site-wide sign-off follows, which is a confirmation check rather than a further round of feedback.

Each page includes an edit allowance of approximately 30 minutes across both review stages combined.

Unless specifically agreed in writing, the quoted cost does not include unlimited revisions, unlimited refinement, multiple entirely different concepts, or ongoing exploratory design changes once the project is underway.

How Feedback Should Be Provided

Feedback should be submitted through the agreed review platform wherever possible. If sent by email, please consolidate everything into one message rather than sending separate emails, messages, or voice notes across different platforms.

Where several people are involved in reviewing the site, please nominate one person to gather and submit feedback.

You have five working days at each review stage. If feedback or sign-off is not received within that time, the stage may be treated as approved and the project timeline may continue or be rescheduled accordingly.

What Is Included in Revisions

• Layout refinements
• Mobile optimisation
• Image changes
• Content formatting
• Button styling
• Navigation adjustments
• General usability improvements

Larger changes are normally identified at Stage 1. Stage 2 focuses on refinement rather than redesign.

What Requires Additional Work

The following fall outside the included review stages and are quoted separately:

• New pages
• New functionality or features requested after approval
• Additional integrations
• Significant content rewrites, or complete changes in copy
• Major changes to the agreed page structure
• A new or revised design direction after Stage 1 has been approved
• Reverting to earlier versions of copy or layout
• Additional review rounds beyond those included in your project

I will always discuss additional work with you and agree the cost before carrying it out.

Anything I have missed or applied incorrectly from your feedback is corrected at no extra cost.

Additional, fragmented, extended, or out of scope revision requests will be billed at the standard hourly rate in 30 minute increments.

Work Shown for Review

To help you evaluate ideas in context, I may occasionally build a feature, layout, or design concept so you can see it on a live page. This does not mean the element is final or that it forms part of the agreed scope. It can be adjusted, refined, or removed during the review process.

Meetings & Consultation

Projects are structured around clear written feedback and scheduled review stages to keep the process efficient and organised.

Reasonable project related calls and meetings are included where needed. Projects typically include up to one hour of calls or consultation time across the project.

Excessive meetings, extended consultation time, training sessions, or repeated calls outside the normal project process may be billed separately at the standard hourly rate.

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8. Delays, Pauses & Cancellations

Delays

If feedback, approvals, content, imagery, branding, access details, or other required materials are not received within 10 working days, the project may be paused and removed from the active schedule.

Reactivation

A fixed reactivation fee of £150 applies before paused projects can resume.

Projects paused or inactive for more than 60 days may be treated as closed. Future work may require a new quote and updated timeline.

Client Cancellations

If you cancel after work has begun, all completed work will be invoiced and the initial deposit remains non-refundable.

If I am able to fill your original slot, any applicable fee may be reduced or waived.

Design Stage Completion Fee

If you decide not to continue with the project after Stage 1 is complete, the initial deposit remains non-refundable and any work completed beyond the deposit value will be invoiced before the project is closed, less any staged payments already received.

Completion of Stage 1 is generally considered to represent around 75% of the total project value, due to the strategy, layout planning, design, setup, and development work completed at this point.

Any completed work, licensed assets, or third party costs incurred up to the cancellation date remain payable.

If I Cancel

If I decide not to continue with the project, you will be invoiced only for work completed up to that date, and any balance already paid above that amount will be refunded. Any third party costs already incurred on your behalf remain payable.

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9. Payment Terms

A 50% deposit is required to confirm your booking. This becomes non-refundable once your project has begun or your start date has passed.

If you cancel before the start date and I can fill your slot, your deposit will be refunded minus a £75 admin fee.

Projects under £1,500

The remaining 50% is due once site-wide sign-off is complete, or 30 days from the official start date, whichever comes first.

Projects of £1,500 or more

Payment is split across three stages:

• 50% deposit to confirm your booking
• 25% on completion of Stage 1, invoiced once your consolidated Stage 1 feedback has been applied
• 25% before handover, or 45 days from the official start date, whichever comes first

Stage 1 is treated as complete once I have applied your consolidated round of Stage 1 feedback. Any further requests made after that point are handled in line with the Feedback, Revisions & Time Allowances section, and do not delay the Stage 1 invoice.

If Stage 1 feedback is not received within five working days, Stage 1 may be treated as approved and invoiced accordingly.

The payment structure that applies to your project is confirmed on your estimate.

General

Websites are not launched, and login details are not released, until the final invoice has been paid.

Work completed, draft designs, development files, and website access remain the property of the Designer until full payment has been received.

Payments are accepted by BACS or secure online payment link.

I am not VAT registered, so no VAT is charged. All prices are in GBP and are non-transferable.

Late Payments

Work may be paused if payment is not received by the due date.

Where a website is hosted on my managed hosting platform, I reserve the right to suspend the website and any associated hosting services if an invoice remains unpaid for more than 14 days.

Hosting accounts suspended due to non-payment may be subject to a £50 reinstatement fee, in addition to the outstanding balance, before services are restored.

If payment remains outstanding for 90 days after the invoice due date, I reserve the right to terminate the hosting agreement and permanently remove all website files, databases, email accounts and backups stored on my servers. I will give at least 14 days' written notice before any data is permanently removed.

Once hosting has been terminated and data has been deleted, recovery cannot be guaranteed.

Interest may be charged on overdue invoices in accordance with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 where applicable.

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10. Warranty & Support

A 30 day warranty is provided from the date of handover. The warranty covers functional issues directly caused by my work, identified and reported within the 30 day period.

What the warranty covers

• Features or functionality that were working at sign-off and have since stopped working without any changes being made by you or a third party
• Broken links or forms that were confirmed as working at sign-off and are no longer working
• Display errors that were not present at sign-off and have not been caused by client edits, third party updates, or changes to the hosting environment

What the warranty does not cover

• Design preferences, spacing adjustments, colour changes, font changes, or any visual refinements that were not raised during the review stages
• New features, new pages, or new functionality not included in the original scope
• Issues caused by third party plugins, theme updates, or platform changes made after handover
• Issues caused by changes you or anyone acting on your behalf has made to the website, including edits to content, settings, plugins, or code
• Issues caused by your hosting environment, server configuration, or changes made by your hosting provider
• Issues with payment gateways caused by changes made by the payment provider after handover
• Content changes, copy edits, or image swaps
• Browser or device differences that fall within normal responsive behaviour, as described in the Technical & Performance section

Pre-launch testing

The site is tested across modern browsers and standard screen sizes before handover. You are given a structured review period and a site-wide sign-off stage specifically to identify and raise any issues before the site goes live. Issues that could reasonably have been identified and raised during the review stages, and were not, are not covered by the warranty.

After the warranty period

Support after the 30 day warranty period is available at my standard hourly rate in 30 minute increments. Alternatively, clients with brochure websites may be eligible for a Website Care Plan. Urgent repair work is billed at time and a half.

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11. Technical & Performance

Your website will be tested across modern browsers and standard mobile devices. Minor differences between browsers or devices are normal and are not considered defects.

Delays, outages, or technical issues caused by third party providers, hosting companies, plugins, software platforms, or external services fall outside my direct control.

Hosting & Migration

Tasks such as DNS changes, email setup, SSL setup on third party hosting, server configuration, or website migration fall outside standard project scope and may be billed at my standard hourly rate.

SSL certificates are included as standard for clients on my managed hosting. For clients using third party hosting, SSL availability depends on your hosting provider.

Managed Hosting

Where I provide managed website hosting, renewal invoices are issued in advance of the renewal date and must be paid by the due date to ensure uninterrupted service.

Managed hosting includes the hosting environment only, unless a separate Website Care Plan subscription has also been purchased.

Clients remain responsible for maintaining current contact and payment details, and for ensuring renewal invoices are paid on time.

Failure to renew hosting may result in suspension or termination of hosting services in accordance with these Terms & Conditions.

Mobile Responsive Design

Websites are built to be responsive, meaning the layout adapts to different screen sizes including mobiles, tablets, and desktops. This is one website, built to work across devices, not a separate mobile site.

Responsive design means the layout reflows and adjusts to fit the screen. It does not mean every element will look identical across all devices or screen sizes. Minor differences in spacing, font size, or layout between devices are normal and are not considered defects.

If you would like specific layout adjustments for particular devices beyond the standard responsive build, this will be quoted separately.

Performance

Website speed, uptime, and overall performance depend partly on your hosting provider, third party services, plugins, and content usage. I recommend 20i.com for reliable hosting and performance.

SEO

Websites are built following current on-page SEO best practice. This includes correct heading structure, page titles, meta descriptions, alt text, sitemap creation and submission, and basic RankMath configuration on WordPress builds.

Search engine rankings, traffic levels, and indexing cannot be guaranteed.

Further SEO work beyond the above, including keyword research, SEO copywriting, local SEO, schema markup, and ongoing technical SEO, is available as a separate service and quoted individually.

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12. Web Accessibility

Websites I build follow good accessibility practice as standard. This includes correct heading structure, alt text on images, readable colour contrast, and clean navigation.

Full WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 Level AA compliance is not included in a standard website build. It requires a formal audit, remediation across all pages, and an accessibility statement. This is available as a separate add-on and quoted accordingly.

In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 requires businesses to make reasonable adjustments so that their website is accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG conformance is a widely used benchmark for demonstrating this.

If you require a formal accessibility audit, please request this before the project begins so it can be scoped and quoted separately.

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13. Design Credit & Portfolio

A small footer credit may be added to your website. You may request removal after launch for a £45 admin fee.

Your project may also be featured in my portfolio or marketing materials.

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14. Legal, Liability & Intellectual Property

My total liability is limited to the fees paid under this agreement.

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law.

I am not liable for loss of profit, loss of business, loss of data, or any indirect or consequential loss.

You confirm that all materials supplied, including text, images, video, and branding, are legally owned or licensed for use.

Upon full payment, ownership of your bespoke website design and written content transfers to you.

I retain rights to:

• Pre-existing tools, frameworks, and libraries used across projects
• Non-confidential design elements and techniques used in future work

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15. Confidentiality & Data Protection

Both parties agree to keep confidential any information that would reasonably be considered private or commercially sensitive. This includes pricing, customer data, business information, unreleased material, and login details.

Confidential information does not include information already publicly available or required to be disclosed by law.

This obligation continues after the project has ended.

GDPR & Cookie Policies

I can install or recommend cookie consent tools as part of your build.

You remain responsible for supplying legally compliant privacy policies, cookie policies, and GDPR wording. I can assist with setup or amendments at my standard hourly rate.

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16. Force Majeure

Neither party will be held responsible for delays or failure to perform obligations because of circumstances outside reasonable control.

This includes illness, accidents, family emergencies, fire, flooding, government restrictions, or other unforeseen events.

If this happens, revised timelines will be agreed where possible.

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17. Platform

Unless agreed otherwise, websites are delivered using WordPress with either Divi Theme Builder or Elementor.

WordPress is straightforward to use and most clients manage day to day updates without difficulty. Training is not included within the website design price.

Guidance, tutorials, or additional support can be provided separately if needed. If you have tried to find an answer yourself and are still stuck, email me and I will help where I can.

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18. Small Print

This agreement cannot be transferred to another person or business without written consent.

If any clause is found unenforceable, the remaining sections will still apply.

These Terms may be updated from time to time. The version in force at the date of your booking applies to your project.

This agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales.

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19. Fairness & Good Faith

Both parties agree to:

• Communicate clearly and promptly
• Respond within agreed timeframes
• Work collaboratively throughout the project

These terms are designed to support a fair and professional working relationship.