Terms of service

These are the terms I work under. They apply to work I do for you unless we have signed something else that says otherwise. Plain English on purpose - if any of it is unclear, ask me before we start rather than after.

Who you are dealing with

Aditya Kumar, a sole trader based in Melbourne, Australia, ABN 41 525 696 165. When these terms say "I" or "me" that is who they mean. "You" is the person or business I am doing the work for.

Quotes and agreeing on work

You get a number before I start, not after. Depending on the job that is either a fixed price for the whole thing or an estimate of the hours it will take, and I will tell you which one you are getting.

Rates depend on the size and nature of the job. Ask and I will tell you straight away.

A quote holds for 30 days. Work is agreed when you accept it in writing - an email is fine, nothing formal is needed.

If it becomes clear part-way through that a job is materially bigger than what we agreed, I will stop and talk to you before doing the extra work. I will not quietly run up hours and present you with the bill afterwards.

Hourly work

Hourly work is billed for the time actually spent, recorded as I go. I will tell you how long something took when I tell you it is done.

There is no lock-in, no minimum term and no monthly retainer. You use me when you need me.

Prepaid hours

If you would rather buy a block of hours up front, you can. Work is drawn down against the balance as it is done, and I tell you the remaining balance each time I finish something.

Prepaid hours do not expire. There is no deadline to use them and they are not forfeited if you go quiet for a while.

When the balance gets low I will talk to you before invoicing for another block, rather than topping it up automatically. Unused hours can be refunded on request; I will refund the balance at the rate you paid.

Invoices and payment

Invoices are payable within 14 days of the date of issue.

I am not registered for GST, so no GST is charged and invoices are issued without it.

Prepaid blocks are invoiced up front. Everything else is invoiced when the work is done, unless we have agreed otherwise for a larger job.

If an invoice goes unpaid past 14 days I may pause work in progress until it is settled. I will tell you before doing that, not after.

Hosting and third-party costs

Where I host a site for you, hosting is invoiced once a year and kept separate from any maintenance hours, so the two are never tangled together.

Anything bought from someone else on your behalf - domain registration, licences, paid plugins, third-party services - is passed on to you at cost. I will tell you before committing you to a recurring cost.

Services run by other companies are governed by their terms, not mine, and I cannot control their pricing, availability or decisions.

What I need from you

To do the work I usually need access to things: hosting, the domain registrar, the site itself. Getting me that access reasonably promptly is on you, and delays in it move the timeline.

Anything you give me to publish - text, images, logos - needs to be yours to use, or properly licensed. If a third party comes after me over material you supplied, that is on you.

Who owns the work

Once the final invoice for a piece of work is paid, you own it - the code, the content and the design I produced for you, transferred outright.

Until then I retain ownership of it.

Two sensible exceptions. First, anything that was already mine before the job - general tools, snippets and techniques I bring to every project - stays mine, and you get an unrestricted right to keep using it as part of your site. Second, open source and third-party components keep their own licences; I cannot sell you something I do not own.

I would like to describe the work publicly - on this site, as a case study. If you would rather I did not, say so and I will not.

Cancelling

You can stop a job at any time. You pay for the hours worked up to that point, and I hand over what is finished.

If I cannot continue for some reason, I will tell you as early as I can, hand over everything done so far, and refund anything you have paid for work I have not done.

Guarantees and your rights under Australian law

I will do the work with reasonable care and skill. If something I built breaks because of a mistake I made, tell me and I will fix it at no charge.

That said, I cannot promise a website will be free of every fault, that it will rank a particular way in search results, or that services run by other companies will always be available.

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any guarantee, right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot be excluded. Where my liability can be limited by law rather than excluded, I limit it to re-supplying the services or paying the cost of having them re-supplied.

Limits of liability

Subject to the section above, my total liability for any claim connected to a piece of work is limited to the amount you paid me for that work.

I am not liable for indirect or consequential loss - lost profits, lost revenue, lost business opportunities or loss of data - even where I was told those were a possibility.

Keeping your own backups is worth doing. Where I run backups as part of an agreed maintenance arrangement I will say so explicitly; otherwise do not assume they exist.

Changes to these terms

I may update this page. The terms that apply to your job are the ones published when we agreed the work, so a later change does not alter something already underway.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia, and the courts of Victoria have jurisdiction.

Getting in touch

Aditya Kumar, ABN 41 525 696 165, Melbourne, Australia.
[email protected]