Client Terms
Last updated: 17 June 2026
Agreement
These Client Terms apply when James Hoy trading as Web Development UK Studios (“we”, “studio”) provides bespoke design, development, or related services to you (“client”, “you”).
By submitting a project brief with consent, accepting a written quote or briefing pack, or paying an invoice or Stripe checkout link, you agree to these terms together with our Privacy Policy and Refund & Cancellation Policy.
If you are a business client, you confirm you have authority to bind your organisation.
When a contract starts
Browsing the site or sending a brief does not create a binding contract to deliver work.
A project contract is formed when we accept your brief in writing (email or dashboard) and you accept the quoted scope and price, or when you pay a deposit or milestone we have issued for that quote.
If there is a conflict between these Client Terms and a signed or accepted proposal, quote, or statement of work for a specific project, the accepted project documents prevail for that project.
Scope, delivery, and changes
Work is limited to the scope described in the accepted quote, briefing pack, and any written change notes we both agree.
Delivery means completion of the agreed scope—not unlimited future changes. Requests outside scope (extra pages, features, integrations, content entry beyond agreed limits, or revision rounds beyond what was agreed) are change requests and may require a revised quote before work proceeds.
You will provide timely feedback, content, logins, and approvals. Delays on your side may shift delivery dates.
We may use subcontractors or specialist tools where appropriate, remaining responsible for our services.
Your responsibilities
You warrant you own or have sufficient rights to all materials you supply (logos, brand assets, copy, images, video, menus, pricing, testimonials, and third-party data). You are responsible for claims arising from materials you supply without proper rights, except to the extent caused by our negligence.
Unless explicitly included in scope, you are responsible for your own business compliance—including food safety, licensing, bookings and cancellations, consumer rights, tax, and UK GDPR / data protection for your operations and customer data. We implement agreed technical features; we do not provide legal advice.
Projects often rely on third parties (hosting, domains, Firebase, Stripe, email providers, app stores). You are responsible for accounts, fees, and compliance on services registered in your name unless the quote explicitly includes management by us.
Payments
Prices are in the currency shown on your quote (typically GBP unless stated otherwise).
Unless agreed otherwise, we use Stripe-hosted checkout. Card details are handled by Stripe, not stored on our site.
You may choose milestone payments or upfront payment where offered on your dashboard. Instalment counts and amounts match the written quote.
Each payment is for the milestone or phase described on your quote and dashboard at checkout. By paying, you ask us to perform that agreed work and you accept our Refund & Cancellation Policy for that payment.
Work on a milestone or phase generally starts after the required payment is received, as described in your briefing pack. Once work on a paid phase has started (as defined in the Refund & Cancellation Policy), that payment is treated as earned for that phase except where the law requires otherwise or we agree in writing.
Late payment may pause work, withhold launch, or suspend access until resolved. Unpaid future milestones are not due until we issue checkout for them. Statutory interest and reasonable recovery costs may apply to business clients under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts regime where applicable.
You remain liable for fees for work properly performed, time reserved, and reasonable costs incurred up to termination.
Intellectual property
You retain ownership of (or your existing licences to) materials you supply. You grant us a licence to use them to deliver the project.
We retain all ownership and rights in materials, tools, libraries, frameworks, templates, code, design systems, and know-how we created before the project or independently of it (“Pre-existing Materials”).
We retain ownership of generic, non-client-specific elements developed during the project, including layout patterns, component architecture, CSS and token structure, admin navigation patterns, authentication flows, booking or payment integration patterns, and other technical approaches that are not unique to your brand or confidential business logic (“Reusable Know-how”).
Upon full payment for the relevant deliverable (or as stated in your quote), we grant you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence (except to a successor of your business) to use the delivered website or application for your own business purposes, including operating, hosting, and updating the site with us or another developer.
Unless your quote expressly states full copyright assignment or exclusive buyout, we do not assign copyright in Pre-existing Materials or Reusable Know-how. Your licence covers the assembled deliverable as deployed for your business, not an exclusive right to our underlying toolkit.
Until payment is received, we retain ownership of work product. We may grant you a limited licence to review work in progress.
If you require exclusive ownership of all code including reusable components, or industry or territorial exclusivity, that must be agreed in writing and separately priced before work starts (see Exclusivity addendum below).
What is not included unless agreed in writing
- Exclusive rights to our admin layout patterns, component library, or technical architecture.
- Transfer of our full reusable codebase or “work made for hire” assignment of all intellectual property.
- Industry non-compete or regional exclusivity.
- Ongoing hosting, SEO guarantees, legal compliance advice, or unlimited support.
Reuse and portfolio
We may reuse, adapt, and improve Pre-existing Materials and Reusable Know-how for other clients and future projects.
We may display the completed project in our portfolio, case studies, social media, and marketing, and describe the work at a high level, unless you request confidentiality in writing before launch and we agree in writing. Confidentiality requests may affect pricing or scheduling.
Portfolio use does not grant other parties any licence to your brand or content.
Confidentiality
We treat non-public business information you share as confidential and use it only to deliver the project.
You should treat our pricing, internal processes, and unpublished methods as confidential.
Warranties and defects
We will perform services with reasonable skill and care in line with agreed scope.
Except as stated in your quote, we do not warrant uninterrupted or error-free operation, permanent compatibility with all devices, or specific commercial results (bookings, revenue, rankings).
If you report a defect in delivered scope within the period stated in your quote (or 30 days from delivery if none is stated), we will investigate and, where the issue is within agreed scope, use reasonable efforts to correct it. Support beyond agreed fixes is chargeable unless covered by a separate agreement.
Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for loss of profit, revenue, goodwill, business interruption, data, or indirect or consequential loss.
Our total aggregate liability under these Client Terms for any single project (whether in contract, tort, negligence, or otherwise) is limited to the fees you paid us for that project in the twelve months before the claim.
These limits set contractual expectations and allocate risk; they do not prevent all disputes, but they clarify the financial exposure each party accepts.
Nothing limits liability for death or personal injury from negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any liability that cannot be limited under the laws of England and Wales.
Termination and cancellation
Either party may terminate if the other materially breaches and does not remedy within a reasonable period after written notice.
You may stop the project by written notice, but you remain liable for fees for work properly performed, time reserved, and costs reasonably incurred to the termination date.
On termination or your cancellation, amounts already paid for phases where work has started or deliverables have been supplied are not refundable except as set out in our Refund & Cancellation Policy (including any fair refund of genuinely unperformed work).
We may deliver work paid for in an incomplete state where appropriate. Refund treatment is described in our Refund & Cancellation Policy.
Consumers
If you are a UK consumer, statutory rights apply and are not excluded by these terms.
Bespoke digital services made to your specification may have limited cancellation rights once performance has begun with your express agreement — including when you pay to start a milestone. Our Refund & Cancellation Policy explains how we handle cancellation and refunds in practice.
Disputes
Before starting formal proceedings, both parties agree to try to resolve disputes in good faith through direct contact at info@jameshoy.dev.
These Client Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction, subject to mandatory consumer protections.
General
The accepted proposal or quote, these Client Terms, our Privacy Policy, and Refund & Cancellation Policy form the contract. If they conflict, the signed or accepted proposal prevails, then these Client Terms, then other website policies.
We may update these Client Terms for future projects by publishing a new version with notice. They apply to new quotes after the effective date unless otherwise agreed.
If any provision is invalid or unenforceable, the remainder continues in effect. Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of rights.
We may assign our rights to a successor business entity. You may not assign without our consent except to a successor of your business.
Exclusivity addendum (optional)
The following template applies only when both parties sign a separate addendum or tick agreed options on a written proposal. Without a signed addendum and separate fee, standard Client Terms apply (non-exclusive licence; portfolio rights retained).
Full code buyout: we may assign to you copyright in bespoke code created for the project, excluding Pre-existing Materials and generic open-source or third-party libraries. We may retain a limited internal licence to retain anonymised know-how and non-identifiable technical learning.
Industry exclusivity: we will not deliver a substantially similar admin layout or website package to a direct competitor in an agreed industry or niche within an agreed region for an agreed period from launch.
Portfolio restriction: we will not display the project publicly or name you without prior written approval.
Exclusivity options must be priced in writing before work starts. Contact info@jameshoy.dev to discuss.