Terms and conditions

Last updated: 9 November 2026.

These terms cover any website, design, app, or search work you order from Volatile Design, whether you buy a fixed-price site on this website or agree a quote with us by email. “We” and “us” means Volatile Design. “You” means the person or business ordering the work. If something here doesn’t match what we agreed in writing for your project, the written agreement wins.

1. What you’re buying

Fixed-price sites. Each plan on the Sites page lists what’s included. Anything not listed there is extra. That usually means a logo, photography, writing or rewriting your copy, hosting, and connections to other software.

Quoted projects. For larger work we send a written quote that sets out what’s included, the price, and a rough timeline. Work starts once you’ve accepted it in writing (an email is fine).

If you ask for something that wasn’t in the plan or the quote, we’ll tell you what it costs before we do it. We won’t add charges you haven’t agreed to.

2. Payment

• Fixed-price sites are paid in full when you order.
• Quoted projects are normally paid as a deposit before we start and the rest before the site goes live. The quote says how it’s split.
• Prices on this site exclude VAT unless they say otherwise.
• We don’t put a site live, or hand over logins, until it’s paid for.

2a. Pay-monthly plans

Pay-monthly plans include the website, hosting on our servers, an SSL certificate, backups, security updates, and the monthly edit allowance shown on the plan. Edit time that isn’t used in a month doesn’t roll over. Bigger changes are quoted separately.

Payments. The first monthly payment is due when we start work, then on the same day each month. We send each invoice by email and in your client portal, with a link to pay by card. Prices exclude VAT and are fixed for the first 12 months; after that we’ll give you at least 60 days’ notice of any change.

Minimum term. Plans run for at least 12 months from the first payment, then carry on month to month. After the minimum term you can cancel with 30 days’ notice. If you cancel during the minimum term, the remaining months up to 12 are still due.

Ownership. Your words, images, logo, and other content are always yours. While the plan is active, the site’s design and code are licensed to you and hosted by us. Once the 12-month minimum is paid, we’ll give you a full copy of the site on request, free, to keep or move to another host.

Late payment. We’ll remind you if a payment is late. If it’s more than 14 days overdue we may pause edits, and if it’s more than 30 days overdue we may take the site offline until the account is up to date. We’ll always warn you first.

Domain names are registered in your name. Renewal fees aren’t included unless we’ve agreed otherwise.

3. What we need from you

We need your words, pictures, logo, and any logins (domain, hosting, existing site) to build the site. If they arrive late, the project moves back by the same amount. If we haven’t heard from you for 60 days during a project, we may close it. You can restart it later, and anything already paid for stays yours to use.

You’re responsible for having the right to use anything you send us, such as photos, text, and logos. Please don’t send us material you don’t own or have permission to use.

4. Design and changes

You see the pages, with your wording in them, before we build. Fixed-price sites include two rounds of changes to the design. Quoted projects include the rounds set out in the quote. Further rounds, or changes after you’ve approved a design, are charged at an agreed rate. We’ll always tell you before that happens.

5. Timelines

Any timeline we give is our honest estimate, not a guarantee. It depends on getting content and feedback from you on time. If we’re going to be late for a reason on our side, we’ll tell you as soon as we know.

6. Launch and fixes afterwards

Once the site is live, you get a login and a walkthrough of what you can edit. For 30 days after launch we fix, free of charge, anything we built that doesn’t work as agreed. That doesn’t cover problems caused by later edits, plugins or updates added by someone else, or changes at your hosting company. New features after launch are quoted separately.

7. Hosting, domains, and other services

Hosting and domain names aren’t included unless we’ve agreed otherwise in writing. If you use your own hosting, its uptime, backups, and security are the hosting company’s responsibility. Third-party services you use (payment providers, email, plugins, fonts) are covered by their own terms.

8. Who owns what

Once you’ve paid in full, the design, content, and code we made for your site are yours to use, change, and move to another developer. Software made by other people (WordPress, plugins, themes, fonts) stays under its own licence. We keep the right to reuse general techniques and code we’ve written before, and to show the finished site in our portfolio unless you ask us not to.

9. Cancelling

If you’re buying as a consumer (for yourself, not for a business), you have 14 days from ordering to cancel and get a full refund. If you ask us to start work within those 14 days and then cancel, we’ll refund what you’ve paid minus the cost of the work already done. Once the work is finished within that period at your request, you can no longer cancel.

If you’re buying for a business, you can cancel at any time by email. We’ll charge for the work done up to that point and refund anything paid beyond it. Deposits cover the time we reserve for your project and are refundable only if we haven’t started.

We can cancel a project if you break these terms or ask us to do something unlawful. If we cancel for any other reason, we’ll refund anything you’ve paid for work we haven’t done.

10. Liability

We build things carefully, but we can’t promise a site will never have a fault, or that it will rank in search engines or bring in a particular amount of business. Our total liability to you for a project is limited to the amount you paid us for it. We aren’t liable for indirect losses such as lost profit, lost data, or lost business. None of this limits liability that can’t be limited by law, such as for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud. If you’re a consumer, nothing here affects your legal rights.

11. Your information

How we handle personal information is explained in our privacy notice. Where we handle personal data on your behalf (for example, enquiries sent through your new site’s forms), we only use it to do the work you’ve asked for.

12. The legal bits

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales deal with any dispute. If you’re a consumer living elsewhere in the UK, you can also bring a claim in your local courts. We may update these terms. The version that applies to your project is the one in place when you ordered.

Questions

Email [email protected]. We’d rather sort a question out early than argue about it later.