Terms and Conditions

Who we are

Deliberate Design is run by two people, Kai and Charlie, working together as one studio. Your agreement is with Deliberate Design, whichever of us you are speaking to, and every one of these terms applies the same either way.

Prices and payment

Every job is quoted at a fixed price up front, so you know exactly what it costs before anything starts. Prices are in pounds sterling. A ready-to-go website is paid in full up front and has its own section below.

The build cost is split in two. We send you a simple example first, at no cost. Once you are happy with it and ask us to go ahead, we take the first half to begin the full build. The other half is due when your site goes live, or when you opt for delivery of the site files and they are sent to you.

Monthly plans are separate from the build and are billed monthly. There is no setup fee. On Fully Managed the first month is paid in full up front, and monthly hosting and care plans are then billed monthly, in advance. That first month pays for the setup work at the start, buying your domain, setting up hosting, your Google Business Profile, an email address on your domain forwarded to your inbox, and analytics, so monthly billing continues from your second month. Once that work has begun the first month is non refundable, as it covers time and third party costs already spent on your behalf.

Late or missed payment

The balance is due as set out above. Where a payment is outstanding, we hold your completed work for one calendar month from the point it is made available to you. During that month the site stays offline, or the files are held, until payment is settled.

If no payment is made and no arrangement is agreed within that month, you forfeit any rights to the work done so far, and any services set up on your behalf may be closed. Your domain name is dealt with separately and is covered below. If you later want the site remade and your details sent over, that can be arranged at the original price, paid in full up front.

Reversed payments and chargebacks. If a payment is reversed, recalled or charged back after the work it paid for has been carried out, that amount counts as unpaid from that moment and everything above applies to it. Where a payment is disputed without the problem being raised with us first, we will give the payment provider our written agreement and the record of what was delivered.

Your domain name

Your domain belongs to you, not to us. On any of our hosting plans we buy it for you and register it in your name, so you are the legal owner of it from the first day. We are only the people looking after it.

The domain included in a monthly plan is a .co.uk. If you would rather have a .com, or any other extension, or you want to reserve one alongside your .co.uk so nobody else registers it, we will do that at cost on request. You pay what the registrar charges and we add nothing to it. Any extra domain is registered in your name on the same terms as the one included.

While you are on a plan we keep it inside our own provider account so we can handle renewals, security and the technical settings without you having to think about them. That is for convenience, and it does not change who owns it.

If you leave, it comes with you. Once your final payment has cleared we will give you the transfer code within five working days, and you can move it to any provider you like. If the registrar charges a fee to move a domain out, that fee is passed on to you at cost and nothing is added to it. Your new provider may also charge you to bring it in, which is between you and them.

We will not release or transfer a domain while money is owed. If an invoice is unpaid, or a payment has been reversed or charged back, we can hold the transfer and take the site offline until it is settled. Holding it does not make it ours, and it is released as soon as you have settled up. If a debt is still outstanding when the domain comes up for renewal, we are not obliged to keep paying to renew it on your behalf, and it may be allowed to lapse.

The happy or you do not pay guarantee

You pay nothing until you have seen a design you are happy with. That is the whole promise, and it is simpler than most people expect, so here it is written out.

• We build you a real first design before any money changes hands. Looking at it costs you nothing and commits you to nothing.
• If it is not what you were after, you can walk away right there and you owe us nothing at all. There is no invoice, no fee for the work we have done, and nothing to claim back, because you have not paid anything.
• The moment you approve that design, or ask us to change it, we are building and the first half of the build cost is committed. That is the line, and it is the only one.
• After that point, problems are fixed by changing the work rather than by refunding it. Every build includes two rounds of changes for exactly that reason, and we would always rather put something right than leave you with a site you do not like.

In plain terms: the risk of the first design is ours, and once you have told us to go ahead, the commitment is real on both sides.

One thing worth being straight about, because vagueness here helps nobody. Once you have approved a design and paid, the money is committed and there is no refund. Each site is built to your brief from scratch, so the work cannot be resold to anyone else. What you get instead is the two rounds of changes, and us actually answering you. Nothing here removes any right you have under law that cannot be excluded, and if you are an individual buying for personal use, see the cooling off section below.

Changes and revisions

Every build includes two rounds of changes to get it right. A further round is free if you are on a monthly plan, otherwise quoted. Changes means text, images and small tweaks. A full redesign or brand new pages are quoted separately.

How long it takes

We aim to get most sites live within one to two weeks. That depends on you getting your words and photos to us and giving feedback promptly, so it is a target rather than a fixed deadline. If an order goes quiet with no response for 30 days, we may pause it until you are ready to pick it back up.

Who does the work

The work is done by the two of us. Some projects are built by one of us, some by both. Whoever does the building, nothing about your agreement changes: the price stays the same, your point of contact stays the same unless we tell you otherwise in writing, and your site, your files and your domain are yours exactly as set out in these terms. Your content, your logins and anything we know about your business stay inside Deliberate Design and go no further.

Search, SEO and results

Our work sets up the search basics so your site is ready to be found, but we do not specialise in SEO or rankings and we make no promise about your position on Google, your visitor numbers or your sales. Those depend on Google and the market, not on us. The service is there to get you up and running as a solid starting point. Beyond that, we recommend you carry out further SEO work, or have it done, once your site is live.

Owning your site

You own your website. If you take the yours to host option, we hand you the complete files to host wherever you like. On a hosting plan we host it for you, but it is still yours and you can take it with you whenever you want. Your domain name is yours too, and how that works is set out under Your domain name above. A ready-to-go website works differently: the site files are not included, as set out in its own section below.

Showing our work

We keep the right to display any site we have built in our portfolio and our own marketing, and to link others to it. We may use this right or choose not to, at our discretion.

Hosting and care plans

Hosting is £20 a month for a ready-to-go site or a ready-to-go shop. For a site we build for you, hosting and Fully Managed are quoted with the build. Plans are billed monthly, in advance. You can cancel whenever you like by giving one month's notice, so your plan runs for one more monthly payment after you tell us, and there is no refund for a month already started. On every hosting plan we renew your domain for you, and on Fully Managed we also set up the email forwarding described on the site.

Your own editor. On every hosting plan you get your own login to our editor, protected by a password and a code from an authenticator app, so you can change the words, prices and photos on your site yourself and see each change before it goes live. The login is for your site only. If you are locked out, call or email us and we will reset it. The editor comes with the plan, so it ends when the plan ends, and it is not included with the yours to host option.

Same price promise

The monthly price you agree when you take out a hosting or care plan is the price you keep for as long as you stay on it. When our list prices change, existing clients stay on the price they signed up at. We believe in honouring the deal that was made.

The one exception is a major change outside our control that makes the price impossible to keep, for example a sharp rise in what we pay for hosting, domain registration or a third party service your plan depends on. If that happens we will tell you in writing, explain the reason, and give you at least one month’s notice before any new price applies. You can cancel within that month with nothing further to pay.

The plan price

Every build we quote has two prices. The lower one applies when we host the site for you on a monthly plan. The higher one applies when you take the files and host the site elsewhere. Both are in your quote. The mailing list and any extra round of changes are free on a plan for the same reason.

Cancel whenever you like with a month’s notice. Leave inside the first year and the difference between the two build prices is due back, on top of the hosting you have already paid for the months you used. That is the only condition. It is not a penalty for leaving, it is simply that the lower price was given on the basis of the plan, and it is due before your site files are released or your domain is transferred. After the first year nothing is owed and everything is released as normal.

Ready-to-go websites

A ready-to-go website is the site you build in our editor at deliberate-design.co.uk/diy. You choose the look, type the words and add your own photos, then send it to us. We check it, register your web address, and put it live. Nothing in this section changes the rest of these terms, but where the two differ, this section applies to ready-to-go websites.

What it costs. The site is £99 and hosting is £20 a month. To go live you pay £119, which is the site plus your first month of hosting. We email you an invoice within one working day of receiving your site, and it can be paid by card or bank transfer. Hosting is then billed monthly in advance from your second month. There is no half now, half later on this option, and the leaving rule in the section above does not apply to it.

Ready-to-go shops. A shop built in our editor is £99 and hosting is £20 a month. To go live you pay £119, which is the shop plus your first month of hosting. Everything else in this section applies to shops in the same way. Customers pay through your own Stripe account, or PayPal or SumUp outside the UK: the money goes straight to you, the card rate is set out under Card payments on shops we host below, that provider's terms apply to the transaction, and we never hold your customers' money or card details. You are the seller, so orders, delivery, refunds and the rights your customers have when they buy from you are yours to handle. You get your own login to add products and change prices, photos and delivery whenever you like.

Going live. Your site goes live within 48 hours of your payment reaching us, provided it passes our check and your web address is available. If either holds it up we will email you straight away with what we need.

Your web address. One web address is included and is registered in your name, as long as it costs us under £10 a year, which covers a .co.uk and most common endings. If the address you ask for costs more, we tell you the difference before anything is registered and you choose whether to pay it or pick another. That difference is due again each year when the address renews, for as long as we renew it for you. If it is already taken we suggest the nearest one. Everything under Your domain name above applies once it is registered.

Our check. The site goes live as you built it. We do not rewrite, redesign or add to it, though we may tidy an obvious slip if it takes a moment. We may decline to put a site live if it is unlawful, misleading, adult in nature, attacks someone, uses words or images you do not have the right to use, or is not a site for a business or organisation. If we decline, we tell you why and refund everything you have paid in full, including any hosting. The one exception is a site we decline because it is illegal in nature, for example it promotes or carries out something unlawful. In that case nothing is refunded.

Changes after launch. While we host it we make small changes when you ask, such as new prices, wording or a photo, in the same way as our Hosted by us plan. New pages, a new look or a rebuild are priced separately.

If a hosting payment is missed. Hosting is invoiced monthly in advance. If an invoice is still unpaid seven days after its due date, your site is taken offline and replaced with a holding page until it is paid. Nothing is deleted, and the site comes straight back once the payment arrives. Any month already invoiced remains due while the site is paused.

Cancelling hosting. There is no minimum term. You can cancel whenever you like with a month's notice, so hosting runs for one more monthly payment after you tell us, and there is no refund for a month already started.

What is yours. Your web address, and the words, photos and logo you put into the site, are yours. The site itself is built on our template and runs on our hosting, and the site files are not included with a ready-to-go website. If you leave, your web address moves with you as set out under Your domain name, once any hosting already invoiced is settled.

Changing your mind. If you are a consumer, the cancellation right under Changing your mind and cooling off below applies to this option too. By paying, you ask us to start at once, registering your web address and putting the site live, and you accept that the right to cancel ends once the site is live. If you cancel before it goes live, we refund what you have paid less the cost of any web address already registered for you, which then moves into your name.

Your words and photos. Everything in the site is yours and you confirm you have the right to use it, exactly as under Your content below. We store the site you send us, the words and photos in it, and your order details, in order to put it live and host it. What we hold and for how long is set out in our privacy notice.

Refer a friend

If you send us a new client, we pay you 10% of what that client pays us for their build. This applies to anyone with a site we built or host, and to anyone we have given a referral code to, such as a page, a group or a promoter working on commission. The new client gives your code or names you when they order: the ready-to-go site or shop price, or the quoted build price. It does not include monthly hosting, domain costs or anything the client buys from someone else. The reward is paid within 30 days of the new client's first invoice clearing in full, either taken off your next hosting bills or paid to you by bank transfer, whichever you prefer. It may be the next day, but it can be later within that window depending on our workload, as each one is processed by hand. The new client must give your code or name you, or you must tell us about them, before their site goes live. Partners paid on commission are paid by bank transfer only, are responsible for their own tax, and must make clear that their posts and adverts are promotional where advertising rules require it. We can withdraw a code if it is used in a misleading way. If we only hear about it after that, paying the reward is at our discretion: we will usually honour it, but we may not be able to if the money has already gone on advertising or elsewhere. You cannot refer yourself or a business you own. There is no limit to the number of people you can refer. We may change or end the scheme with a month's notice on this page; referrals already made are honoured.

Changing your mind and cooling off

Most of our work is for businesses. Where you are buying as a business, the consumer cancellation rights below do not apply.

Where you are an individual buying for personal use, you have a legal right to cancel a contract made by email or online. Under Jersey law, the Distance Selling (Jersey) Law 2007, that right lasts for seven working days starting the day after you agree to go ahead. If the law of the country you live in gives you longer, for example the fourteen days a consumer has in the United Kingdom, you have that longer period instead.

Because each site is custom built to your brief, and because setup work such as buying your domain begins right away at your request, you agree that work starts as soon as you tell us to go ahead, even if that is inside the cancellation period. The law allows your right to cancel to end once work has begun with your agreement, and this paragraph is us telling you that plainly before you agree, as the law requires.

If a cancellation right does apply and you cancel within the period, you remain responsible for costs already incurred on your behalf. Where a domain has been registered for you, a domain fee at cost is payable to cover that registration and the transfer, and your site files will be released and the domain moved into your name once that fee is settled.

Cancelling an order

Once payment is received, work starts right away. From that point an order cannot be cancelled simply because you have changed your mind, as the work is already under way. This does not affect the guarantee above, or any cancellation right a consumer has under the section before this one.

Hosting, third party servers and backups

Websites are hosted on servers run by a third party hosting supplier. We choose a reputable host and set everything up with care, but that infrastructure is not owned or directly controlled by us. From time to time a technical problem can happen, such as downtime, a server fault, a service interruption or a problem at the host. If it does, we will do everything we reasonably can to put it right and get you back up and running as promptly as possible.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any website outage, server issue, crash, loss of data or other problem that arises from the third party host or from events outside our reasonable control. Nothing in these terms removes or limits any rights you have under law that cannot be excluded.

For sites we host, we run periodic backups of hosted files as part of looking after the servers, so a recent backup may exist on the standard hosting plan, though this is not guaranteed. On the fully managed plan we go further and take reasonable steps to back up your site files and data to a separate server once each week, so a recent copy is kept away from the main server in case of a failure. All backups are provided on a best efforts basis and we cannot guarantee that any particular backup will exist, be complete, or be fully recoverable.

For any site we host, other than a ready-to-go website, we also keep the original build files. If you choose to leave our hosting, we will give you both the live version and the original version of your site, so you can take it elsewhere.

If you have taken delivery of your site files to host yourself, we do not keep a copy once they have been sent to you. Storing those files and keeping them safe is then your responsibility, and if they are lost after delivery that is not something we can recover for you. Once the work has been delivered the job is complete, unless you are on one of our hosting or management plans.

Your content

You provide the words, images and logo for your site, or tell us to use what you send over. By doing so you confirm you have the right to use them. We are not responsible for content you supply.

Payments and other services

Card payments on any shop we build run through a trusted provider such as Stripe, SumUp or PayPal, and that provider's terms apply to those transactions. Card payments on our own invoices are taken the same way, on the provider's secure page, and we never see your card details. Domains are registered with a domain provider on your behalf.

Card payments on shops we host

Shops we build in the UK take card payments through your own Stripe account. You open the account, you own it, and Stripe pays you directly. We never hold your money and cannot move it. The card rate is 1.9% plus 20p per sale. Of that, Stripe takes 1.5% plus 20p and 0.4% comes to Deliberate Design. That small share helps cover the cost of running and supporting the checkout and is what lets us keep the up front price of a shop where it is. It is still under what most platforms charge per sale. The share shows on each payment in your Stripe dashboard as an application fee. Shops outside the UK, including Jersey, use PayPal or SumUp at those providers' own rates and no share comes to us.

Fair use and liability

We build every site with care and to the brief you give us. Under the Supply of Goods and Services (Jersey) Law 2009 we carry out our work with reasonable care and skill, and nothing in these terms takes that away. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any loss arising from your site, its hosting or any service we provide, including indirect losses, issues caused by content you supply, or changes someone else makes after handover. On the yours to host option, the site is provided as it is at handover.

Where, despite this, we are found liable for anything, your sole entitlement is a refund of the fee you paid, less any costs already paid to third parties on your behalf. Nothing in these terms removes or limits any right you have under law that cannot be excluded, including any protection a consumer has under the law of the country they live in.

Which law applies

These terms, and any work we carry out, are governed by the law of Jersey, and any dispute is dealt with by the courts of Jersey. Claims up to £30,000 go to the Petty Debts Court, which also offers free mediation, and larger claims go to the Royal Court. We would always rather sort a problem out by email first.

If you are a consumer living outside Jersey, choosing Jersey law does not take away any protection the law of your home country gives you that cannot be excluded by agreement.

Getting in touch

Everything goes through email at hello@deliberate-design.co.uk. That is the only official contact for Deliberate Design.