Terms &
conditions.

1. The service and our agreement

Counterform is an independent website design service run by Ben. Contact ben@counterform.uk about a project or these terms.

This draft is intended for clients buying a website for their business. If you are buying mainly for personal use, tell me before booking so I can provide the appropriate consumer information and cancellation arrangements. Your legal status depends on the circumstances, not simply on what a contract calls you.

The written quote sets out the deliverables, price, payment stages, revisions and schedule. A project is agreed when you accept the quote and the supplied version of the terms in writing and I confirm the booking. Any expressly agreed project-specific changes take priority over these standard terms; legal rights that cannot be excluded still apply.

2. Scope and additional work

The service covers only the pages, content, features and setup listed in your quote. Domain subscriptions, email, paid integrations, maintenance, copywriting and branding are included only when expressly stated.

If you request work outside the agreed scope, I’ll explain the price and effect on delivery. I won’t charge for optional additional work without your written agreement.

3. Prices and payment

Your quote states the total build price, any applicable taxes, payment stages, due dates and separately payable provider costs. No deposit percentage, subscription or recurring fee applies unless it is agreed in the quote.

Payments are credited against the agreed project price. If a payment is overdue, I’ll contact you and give reasonable notice before pausing unfinished work or delaying a handover. I won’t remove or disable a live client website merely to collect a disputed bill.

4. Content and account access

You are responsible for supplying accurate business information and materials you have permission to use, including images, logos and testimonials. You retain ownership of materials you supply and give me permission to use them to complete the project.

You approve the factual claims and legal notices relevant to your business before launch. I’ll carry out my agreed design and implementation responsibilities with reasonable care and skill. Neither your review nor approval removes responsibility for faults in my work.

Use invitations and appropriate account permissions to give access to your domain, hosting or repository. Keep ownership and recovery access yourself. Do not send passwords, payment details or sensitive customer data in the website brief.

5. Timings and feedback

We agree a schedule based on the brief, availability, payment stages and content readiness. Changes to the brief, late materials, delayed feedback or provider issues may affect it. I’ll explain a known delay and discuss a revised date.

The quote specifies included revision rounds. Each round is one consolidated list of feedback within the agreed brief. Significant redesigns or new features require an agreed change to the scope.

6. Approval, launch and faults

I’ll provide a preview for review before publishing. You check the content, business details and agreed functionality, then give written approval to launch. Launch and handover follow the agreed payment stages.

Tell me promptly if the delivered website does not work as agreed. I’ll investigate and correct faults attributable to my work within a reasonable time, without charging as if they were new features. Approval does not waive rights or remedies for defective work. Changes made by you, another supplier or a platform may need separate investigation and an agreed quote.

7. Ownership and handover

Once the agreed project fees are paid, you receive the website files and any documentation listed in the quote. Original project-specific work that I own and can assign is assigned to you in writing at handover.

Third-party software, fonts, stock assets and other licensed materials remain subject to their existing licences. My pre-existing tools and reusable components remain mine; where embedded in your delivered website, you receive a continuing, non-exclusive right to use, maintain and modify them as part of that website. I’ll identify material licensing restrictions before you commit to them.

Your domain and hosting account remain yours. You can move the website to another provider; any assistance beyond the agreed handover is quoted separately. I’ll ask before using your name, logo or project as a portfolio example.

8. Hosting and external services

Hosting, domains, business email, form handling and other third-party services are supplied under their providers’ terms. Unless the quote says otherwise, you hold and pay for those accounts directly and remain responsible for renewals.

A provider’s free plan may have limits or change over time. I don’t promise permanent free hosting, uninterrupted provider availability, search rankings, sales or enquiry volumes. This does not remove my responsibility to perform the setup and other work I have agreed to provide.

9. AI-assisted tools and confidential material

I may use AI-assisted tools for design, drafting and development, with human review of the delivered work. Relevant third-party licence terms still apply; AI use does not guarantee that every generated element is exclusive or capable of copyright protection.

Each party will keep the other’s non-public project information confidential except where sharing is authorised, necessary with a suitable service provider to perform the agreement, or required by law. Confidential client material or personal data will not be put into an AI service without prior agreement on its use and appropriate safeguards.

If a feature involves handling personal data, we will agree the responsibilities, providers and any required data-processing terms before setting it up. These service terms are not a substitute for a privacy notice.

10. Ongoing support

A website build does not automatically start a maintenance subscription. Any care plan is agreed separately in writing, including its price, tasks, time allowance, response expectations, renewal and cancellation arrangements.

Without a care agreement, future content changes and new features are quoted separately. This does not affect remedies for work that was not delivered as agreed.

11. Pausing or cancelling a project

Either party should raise a request to pause or end the project in writing as soon as possible. We’ll confirm the work completed, any handover and the financial position.

If you cancel for convenience, you pay for work properly completed using the price basis agreed in the quote, plus third-party commitments you approved that cannot reasonably be recovered. I’ll take reasonable steps to limit those costs, provide an itemised account and refund any unused advance payment. There is no automatic forfeiture of the whole deposit.

If I cannot complete the agreed work, I’ll explain the position, provide any usable work covered by payment and refund money for work not supplied. Neither party loses any remedy for the other’s breach. Any consumer cancellation rights apply where required by law.

12. Client responsibilities and allocated risks

You are responsible for the accuracy, legality and permissions of the content and business claims you supply or instruct me to publish. You decide whether that content is suitable for your business and obtain any specialist legal, regulatory or professional advice needed for your industry. I remain responsible for correctly implementing the content and features I have agreed to deliver.

After handover, unless an ongoing service expressly covers the task, you manage account security, user access, renewals and keeping an independent copy of the supplied website files. Tell me before making changes that could affect work I am currently carrying out. You take responsibility for changes made by you or another supplier and for supplying lawful instructions for any personal-data processing.

Counterform is not responsible for a loss to the extent it is caused by inaccurate or unlawfully supplied client content, your failure to renew a service, unauthorised changes made by you or another supplier, or a third-party outage outside my reasonable control. This allocation does not exclude loss caused or contributed to by my own breach, negligence or failure to carry out an agreed responsibility.

13. Liability limits and resolving problems

Proposed business-client liability clause — requires review before use. The exclusions and cap below are intended only for business-to-business contracts. They do not apply to consumer clients or override any liability or remedy that the law does not allow to be restricted.

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

Subject to the preceding paragraph, Counterform’s total aggregate liability to a business client arising out of or in connection with an affected website-build project, whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, is limited to the total fees paid or payable for that project. This proposed cap does not cover a separately contracted ongoing care service, whose liability arrangements must be agreed separately. It does not reduce any obligation to refund an unused advance payment.

Subject to the same exceptions, Counterform will not be liable to a business client for indirect or consequential loss, or for lost profit, revenue, business opportunities or anticipated savings, whether those financial losses are direct or indirect. These exclusions and the cap must meet any applicable legal test of reasonableness; simply including them here does not ensure they are enforceable.

Both parties must take reasonable steps to limit avoidable loss and give the other a reasonable opportunity to investigate a problem. If something is wrong, email ben@counterform.uk with the project details and the outcome you are seeking. I’ll acknowledge the complaint, investigate and discuss a practical resolution. This does not restrict access to any legal remedy.

14. Versions of these terms

The version provided with your accepted quote applies to that project. Later website edits do not retrospectively change an existing agreement. Any change to a live project’s contract must be agreed in writing.