Terms

About these terms

These terms are between you and Matthew Stapley, a sole trader trading as Stapled. ("I" or "me"). You can reach me at stapledweb@gmail.com.

My full business details, including my business address, are on the business details page.

They apply alongside the written quote I send you. Your quote says which version of these terms applies, by its date. When you accept a quote by email, the quote and that version of these terms make up our agreement. If you agreed a different arrangement with me before 28 October 2026, that arrangement still applies.

Business and personal buyers

I work with businesses and with individuals. Some parts of these terms depend on which you are, because the law gives extra protection to people buying for personal use.

• Buying for a business: you're buying mainly for your trade, business or profession. That includes sole traders and partnerships buying for their business.
• Buying for personal use: you're buying mainly for purposes outside any trade or business. The law calls you a "consumer", and the parts marked "personal buyers" apply to you.

Homepage previews

For some projects, I may offer to put together a first look at how your homepage could feel and read, based on what you've told me. I don't offer one with every enquiry. If I do, it's free, and you're under no obligation to go ahead afterwards.

Quotes and accepting them

Before any work starts, I'll email you a quote that sets out:

• the agreed scope of the build, including any rounds of revisions
• the deliverables: the transferable source code and website assets, and design files only where the quote expressly includes them
• its total build price, and the value of each stage of the work
• how work on a partly completed stage is valued
• if you'd like to spread the cost, each payment amount, the stage it relates to, and when it's due
• whether you'd like me to host and look after the website (this is optional), and if so: what hosting and care costs, the work it includes, any domain costs, and how it can be cancelled
• whether you're buying for a business or for personal use
• which version of these terms applies

You accept a quote by replying to say so. Nothing is payable until you do. Any extra work you ask for later is quoted separately and only goes ahead if you agree.

Paying for your website

Your quote sets your website's total build price and the value of each stage. You can pay it in one go or, if we agree, in stages: your written quote sets out each payment amount, the stage it relates to, and when it's due.

Payments are made by bank transfer. I'll send you the details with your quote. I'm not registered for VAT, so no VAT is added to any price.

If you're paying in stages, you can pay the remaining balance at any time to finish paying early.

When your build is finished

Your build is finished when I've completed the agreed scope and any revisions included in your quote, delivered it to you for review, and you've approved it in writing (an email is fine). It isn't treated as approved just because time has passed.

Once it's finished, any remaining payments are due as your quote sets out. Cancelling at that point doesn't replace paying for the finished build. If anything hasn't been done with reasonable care and skill, your rights in refunds and your rights still apply.

What becomes yours, and when

Ownership passes to you in one of two ways:

• Full payment: once you've paid the full build price, the finished website's deliverables listed in your quote.
• Cancellation settlement: if you cancel an unfinished build, once you've paid the agreed settlement, the work completed up to the cancellation, as described in cancelling an unfinished build.

In either case:

• Work made for you: I transfer to you the ownership rights I hold in the design and code I created specifically for your website, and send you its deliverables.
• My reusable components: some parts of your website may be tools, code or design components I made before your project, or use across projects. I keep ownership of those, and you get permission to keep using them as part of your website, including if you move it to another host.
• Third-party materials: some parts may be licensed from someone else, such as a stock photo, a font or a third-party service. They're not mine to transfer. They stay subject to their own licences, and I'll tell you about any restrictions before you accept your quote.

Nothing transfers before full payment or an agreed cancellation settlement has been paid.

Paying in full doesn't end hosting and care. If I'm hosting your website, that carries on under its separate arrangement until it's cancelled as described in hosting and care.

Cancelling an unfinished build

You can cancel the build at any time before it's finished, by emailing me. If you cancel before I've started any work, you owe nothing and I'll refund anything you've paid.

The cancellation settlement

• What you pay: the value of the work completed up to when you tell me you're cancelling, using the stage values in your quote and its method for a partly completed stage. You don't have to pay the whole remaining balance, and no part of the price is a non-refundable deposit.
• Payments you've already made count towards that amount. If you've paid more than the value of the work completed, I'll refund the difference. If you've paid less, you pay the difference.
• I'll confirm the settlement in writing, showing how it was worked out.

The cancellation handover

Within 14 days of receiving the agreed settlement, I'll send you:

• the work completed up to the cancellation, as the deliverables listed in your quote, in its current state
• a note of its condition: what's finished, what isn't, any problems I know about, and that it may need more work before it can go live
• a list of any third-party materials it contains, whether their licences carry over to you, and anything I've had to remove or that you'd need to license yourself
• the content you gave me

Ownership of the completed work passes as described in what becomes yours, and when. If the settlement isn't paid, the handover waits until it is (see if a payment is late). Your domain and your own content are yours whatever happens.

Hosting when you cancel a build

If I'm hosting the website when you cancel the build, I won't assume you want hosting and care to continue. Tell me in your cancellation email whether you'd like it to. If you don't confirm that you do, it ends as the cancellation arrangements for hosting and care in your quote set out.

None of this affects your rights if work hasn't been done with reasonable care and skill (see refunds and your rights). Personal buyers also have the 14-day cancellation right described below.

Hosting and care

Hosting and care is optional, and separate from your build. If you'd like me to host and look after your website, your quote sets out what it costs, the work it includes, any domain costs, and how it can be cancelled.

• It starts when I start hosting your website, including while you're still paying for the website.
• It's separate from the build price and doesn't count towards paying it off.
• It's cancelled under the arrangements in your quote. Finishing or paying for your build doesn't end it. If you cancel the build, see hosting when you cancel a build.

Work that your quote doesn't include, such as new pages, redesigns and new features, is quoted separately and only goes ahead if you agree.

Cancelling hosting and care never means losing a website you've already paid for, and it doesn't cancel any payments still due for the build.

Backups

If your hosting and care includes backups (your quote says whether it does), I back up your website's code and the files stored in its repository once a week, and keep the copies with a cloud storage service.

• Timing: a check runs once a day and takes a backup when one is due, aiming to create a backup each week. If the computer that runs them is switched off, asleep or offline, the backup runs late, usually at the next daily check it can complete. A missed week isn't recreated afterwards.
• Upload: a backup needs that computer to be connected to the internet and the storage service to be available. If an upload fails, it's retried, and otherwise tried again at the next daily check.
• What's covered: the website's code and the files saved in its repository.
• What isn't covered: databases, emails, third-party services (such as booking or form tools), account settings (such as your domain registrar account), passwords and other secrets, and any changes that haven't been saved to the repository.
• How long copies are kept: weekly copies for about 8 weeks and one copy a month for about 6 months. After that they're removed automatically and permanently deleted within a further 30 days.

Backups make it possible for me to try to restore your website if something goes wrong. I can't guarantee that a restore will succeed, or how long it will take. That doesn't change my duty to provide hosting and care with reasonable care and skill, or any of your rights under the law (see refunds and your rights).

Using your own hosting

You don't have to host with me. If you use your own hosting, you don't pay me for hosting and care. Once the full build price is paid, I'll provide the deliverables listed in your quote and basic setup instructions.

I don't provide the files, or transfer ownership, before then, as described in what becomes yours, and when. Choosing your own hosting doesn't cancel any payments still due for your website.

Handover

When I'm hosting a website you've paid for and that hosting is ending, I'll send you, before hosting ends:

• a ZIP file of the deliverables listed in your quote
• basic instructions for putting it online with another host
• a note of anything that needs moving separately or can't be transferred, such as a database, a third-party service, a licence or an account in my name

After hosting ends

Once hosting has ended and the handover is complete, I keep a recovery copy of your website for 30 days, in case anything goes wrong with the move. After that I delete it from my active storage. Backup copies made while I was hosting your website are deleted automatically when they reach the end of the retention periods in backups.

This doesn't cover business records I have to keep, such as quotes, agreements and invoices. Those are kept for the periods set out in the privacy policy.

Your domain and content

Your domain, photos, text and logo are always yours, whatever happens.

• If you already have a domain, you keep it and stay in control of it. I only need enough access to point it at your website.
• If you need a new one, I'll register it with you as the named owner (the registrant).
• Cost: your quote sets out any domain costs while I host your website.
• When hosting with me ends, I'll help you take over the domain: either by moving it into a registrar account of your own, or by giving you its transfer code so you can move it to another provider. From then on, renewing it is up to you.

If a payment is late

1. I'll email you a reminder saying what's overdue, what I'll pause if it's still unpaid, and the date that would happen. That date will be at least 14 days after the reminder.
2. If you pay before then, nothing else happens. If something's wrong, reply to the reminder and we'll sort it out.
3. If it's still unpaid on that date, I may pause unfinished work on your website and hold back any handover (including a cancellation handover) until it's paid.
4. If I'm hosting your website, I may also suspend hosting, which takes the website offline.

If your website is hosted somewhere else, I won't access, change or disable it because of a late payment.

Pausing work and suspending hosting are temporary. They don't delete your website, they don't end our agreement, and they don't add any charges. Once the overdue amount is paid, I'll restart the work and, if I'd suspended hosting, put the website back online.

Pausing work, suspending hosting, cancelling and deleting data are separate things. The agreement only ends as described in these terms, and website data is only deleted as described in after hosting ends.

Refunds and your rights

Whether you buy for a business or for personal use, the law requires my work to be carried out with reasonable care and skill. If something isn't, tell me and I'll put it right. If that isn't possible, you may be entitled to a price reduction or a refund.

Beyond those rights, I don't offer an extra refund if you simply change your mind about work that's been completed and supplied properly. Nothing in these terms takes away or limits any rights you have by law.

14-day cancellation (personal buyers)

If you're buying for personal use and you accept a quote by email, phone or anywhere other than my business premises, you can cancel within 14 days of accepting it. You don't need to give a reason. To cancel, email me at stapledweb@gmail.com with a clear statement that you're cancelling.

I won't start work during those 14 days unless you ask me to in writing. If you ask me to start and then cancel within the 14 days, you pay a proportionate amount for the work done up to when you tell me you're cancelling, and I'll refund anything you've paid beyond that within 14 days.

If you ask me to start early and the work is completely finished within the 14 days, you lose the right to cancel once it's finished, but only if you confirmed in writing, when asking me to start, that you understood this.

Questions and complaints

If something isn't right, email me at stapledweb@gmail.com and I'll do my best to sort it out. For how I handle your personal information, see the privacy policy.

You can also write to me at the business address on the business details page.