Terms of Service

1. Our agreement

We provide website services under the Northlane name. Contact us at [email protected]. These terms apply to business-purpose purchases. Your project order identifies both parties and their contact details. The agreement starts when we both sign the project order incorporating these dated terms; browsing this page or making a payment alone does not create it. Each signatory must have authority to bind their party.

The agreement comprises the signed order, these dated terms, its listed schedules and agreed written changes. The processing schedule takes priority for personal-data processing; otherwise the signed order takes priority over these terms. We give you these documents before commitment. Neither party can change the agreement by updating a webpage. A purchase mainly for personal purposes requires different terms before we accept it.

2. What we build

We build the pages and features listed in your order for one business, brand and language. Essential allows up to five published pages, 1,500 commercial words and eight supplied pictures. Plus allows up to ten published pages, 3,000 commercial words and sixteen pictures in total, including up to six sourced open-licence alternatives. Privacy counts as a page; its words sit outside the commercial word limit. Service/location variants count as separate pages. Technical error-page, navigation and sitemap work is included.

We agree actual scope before the deposit. Unused capacity does not become a future credit. Both packages include one design direction and two consolidated rounds of changes within the brief. We draft words from your confirmed facts and prepare privacy wording from confirmed data flows for your review. We include responsive layout, initial titles/descriptions/headings and sitemap, and keyboard, focus, contrast, label, link and performance checks. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA is our target, not a certification or a promise that every possible use is accessible.

Plus can include one agreed browser-local tool: at most eight fields, one output or draft view, and bounded rules with acceptance examples. No credit arises if you omit it. Contact tools prepare email drafts; visitors must send them themselves. Opening a draft does not prove receipt. Backend services, application programming interfaces, customer accounts, bookings, payments, customer-management systems, integrations and safety or diagnostic advice are outside this service.

3. Facts and approval

You provide accurate business information and material you have permission to use, including permissions for identifiable people. You confirm claims, prices, registrations and licences before publication. We flag apparent unlawful or unsupported content and do not publish material we know is unlawful. Your approval does not remove our responsibility for our work or our own legal duties.

You remain responsible for operating your business lawfully, your sector-specific claims and permissions, and telling us when approved information changes. Our service does not include a legal opinion, regulatory certification or specialist security audit. We draft privacy wording from the processing facts you confirm; obtain specialist advice where your business needs it. These boundaries do not remove our duty to perform the agreed work with reasonable care and skill.

You keep client-controlled accounts secure, use available multi-factor authentication and maintain domain, email and other renewals allocated to you in the order. Keep copies of your supplied material. Tell us promptly about lost access, suspected compromise and changes made by other suppliers. These duties do not replace any backup, security or renewal work we expressly agree to perform.

We send a preview for written sign-off against the order. Tell us which agreed requirements need correction or confirm approval. We correct in-scope defects; additional scope needs an approved quote. Silence is not acceptance or permission to launch. Sign-off confirms visible content and scope, without waiving hidden defects or legal remedies.

Dates depend on timely facts, assets, access and approval. Your order records an achievable target and dependencies. We explain delays, mitigate their effects and agree revised dates. Client delay can require rescheduling, without an automatic restart fee. Material failure by us remains subject to section 10.

4. Payments and extras

Essential pricing

• Subscription: £299 setup, paid as £149.50 at start and £149.50 at written sign-off; £69/month from launch.
• Outright: £850 build, paid as £425 at start and £425 at written sign-off; optional care £69/month.

Plus pricing

• Subscription: £399 setup, paid as £199.50 at start and £199.50 at written sign-off; £99/month from launch.
• Outright: £1,450 build, paid as £725 at start and £725 at written sign-off; optional care £99/month.

The order selects one route and states the complete payable charges and supplier costs. Setup/build instalments are collected through PayPal Business invoices. Monthly subscriptions and optional care are paid monthly in advance through a separately authorised PayPal recurring payment arrangement, starting from launch on the agreed billing date. There is no second setup charge within the recurring plan. The sign-off balance is due before launch. Your order must state the invoice due dates, how billing works in shorter months and how payments are verified. No later invoice creates an unagreed fee.

We confirm the price and first collection date before you authorise recurring payments. PayPal's own terms govern its payment service; they do not replace this agreement or remove your remedies against us. A payment failure does not create a minimum term or accelerate future monthly fees. Cancelling a PayPal mandate stops that payment authority; email us as well so we can confirm which services you wish to end. We investigate disputed payments without requiring you to give up rights available through PayPal or law.

Both website subscriptions include hosting for the agreed standalone website and one domain registration or annual renewal up to £15/year while subscribed. Your domain stays registered in your name. After cancellation you retain it and take over future renewals; there is no domain-cost clawback. The order records the registrar, renewal date and payment or reimbursement arrangements. Email, additional domains, domain costs above the allowance and approved paid licences are separate. Outright builds and optional outright care retain client-paid domain and hosting arrangements. Separately payable supplier costs are agreed before work, with no added margin. Extras cost £40/hour in half-hour units, minimum £20, only after your written approval of the scope and estimate. We seek further approval before exceeding it.

Raise disputed invoices promptly with reasons; we investigate and agree next steps. We contact you about missed payment and give you the reasonable notice period set in your order to pay or explain a dispute before pausing discretionary new work. We may claim statutory commercial late-payment interest and recovery costs where legally available. We do not seize your domain, disable your email or delete your content to collect a debt.

5. Subscription

The subscription rolls monthly. It grants non-exclusive use of the agreed hosted website for your business during paid service. We retain rights we own in its code and design. You retain your domain, supplied content and underlying business facts. You allow us to use your supplied material only as needed to deliver and manage the service.

There is no minimum term, exit fee or remaining build debt. Email cancellation to [email protected] before the next billing date, using the order reference or domain. The order defines the date and UK time boundary. Cancellation does not require our approval; our acknowledgement confirms receipt and the end date. We stop future recurring collections for the cancelled service and refund any charge we collect in error after effective cancellation. You do not need to obtain PayPal's approval to cancel our service. If email fails, use the alternative written notice route specified in your order.

Use and management end, and the subscription website goes offline, at the end of the paid period. Ordinary cancellation does not prorate that period; refunds and remedies for our breach or required by law remain available. We do not end a paid period early solely because the following period is unpaid.

There is no automatic ownership transfer, twelve-payment transfer, buyout or credit towards an outright build. Third-party and open-source licences continue according to their own terms; we cannot revoke rights those licences give you. Your order specifies any rights to continue using Northlane-written commercial copy after the subscription ends. We return your supplied material and cooperate with redirecting your domain without making access to your own property conditional on settling a disputed invoice. Your order sets the handover format and timing.

Prices do not rise automatically. For a future price change, we give the notice specified in your order, covering at least one full billing cycle, so you can cancel before the affected billing date. Changes do not apply retrospectively.

6. Outright ownership

After payment of the agreed build price and approved build extras, the signed assignment in the order transfers the copyright we actually own in its identified project deliverables. We hand over the identified files and licence record. Payment alone does not replace our signed assignment. Future care invoices do not condition ownership of the paid-for build.

Third-party assets remain subject to their listed licences. Any retained background components must be identified before signature and licensed on the terms in the order so you and replacement suppliers can host, maintain and modify the delivered site. We cannot classify all delivered code as background material to defeat the agreed transfer.

Optional care is monthly in advance and cancellable by email before the next billing date, without an exit fee. Ending care ends our future management duties after the paid period. Your paid-for files, rights and client-owned hosting remain with you; we do not take the site offline because you cancel care.

7. Management and support

Management includes monthly key-page, contact-link and hosting checks, deployment administration, a work record, and the source/release backup and recovery arrangements specified in the order. Your order specifies what is backed up, how often, how long copies are retained, who can access them and the restoration process. We do not promise recovery beyond those agreed arrangements.

Essential includes 3 small update requests each month; Plus includes 6. These counts stay the same after twelve paid months and apply to optional outright care too. One request covers one small set of related changes to existing content, such as updating opening hours across the site, changing an existing price list or replacing a few supplied photos in an existing gallery. We confirm what is included and the expected completion date before starting. New pages, features, layout changes, extensive rewriting and image sourcing are quoted separately before work. Requests do not roll over. Routine checks, backups and corrections to our own errors do not use the allowance. From the thirteenth paid subscription month, an annual existing-site review is included: up to one hour for Essential or two hours for Plus. Outright care includes that annual review from launch. Changes resulting from a review use the normal request allowance or separately approved extra work. Unused reviews have no cash or credit value.

For thirty days after launch we correct our own errors without using your edit allowance. That service promise does not cut off claims after thirty days. We perform agreed work with reasonable care and skill. We do not guarantee search rankings, leads, uninterrupted hosting or absolute security.

We notify planned disruption where practicable, investigate outages and use reasonable efforts to restore affected services. Third-party failure does not automatically excuse our own failure to select, configure or manage services with reasonable care. No emergency response deadline or uptime percentage is promised unless expressly agreed.

We handle enquiries, feedback, approvals and support by email at [email protected]. Phone and video calls are outside the service. Text messaging may be agreed if you request it; scope, prices and approvals remain confirmed by email. We aim to reply promptly, without a guaranteed response time unless the order expressly provides one.

You control your business decisions and how you use the site. Search-engine, browser and third-party platform rules can change. We do not promise revenue, profit, a particular number of enquiries, search rankings or compatibility with every future third-party change. New requirements beyond the agreed scope need a separate approved quote. Corrections needed because our work failed the agreement are not automatically chargeable extras.

8. Confidentiality and data

Both parties protect non-public information received through the project, limit access to people who need it and are bound to confidentiality, and use it for the agreement. This does not restrict lawful disclosures, information already lawfully known or public information. Where legally permitted, we notify each other of compelled disclosure.

We each remain responsible for processing where we determine its purposes. Where we process personal data on your instructions, we agree a data-processing schedule with you before that processing begins. Approval of copy or a privacy notice is not permission for arbitrary data uploads. We use OpenAI and Anthropic tools with human review for non-personal, non-confidential business content and sample details. We keep identifying client details outside our personal AI subscriptions and add them locally outside the AI workspace before your final approval. Business names, locations and photographs can also identify people. Any future use of personal data in AI needs separately agreed, verified provider arrangements before it begins. We grant only intellectual-property rights we own or can license; this does not excuse our own duties concerning rights checks and reasonable care.

9. Before-launch cancellation

Either party can cancel in writing before launch. Your order must state the value of each stage of the build within the selected setup or build price, and the refund period. We use those agreed stage values to account for completed work, explain the calculation and refund the unused part of sums paid within that period. Supplier costs are only those expressly approved and properly incurred.

An amount beyond payments already made can become due on cancellation only if your order expressly agrees that charge and its basis. These terms alone do not create such a charge. Cancellation never accelerates future subscription payments or recreates an outstanding build balance. The extras rate does not retrospectively value unapproved work. No deposit is automatically non-refundable.

10. Ending service

For a material breach, give written details and allow the reasonable remedy period specified in your order to put it right where remediable. If it remains unresolved, the affected party can end the affected services. For a prolonged material outage or inability to complete, the termination period and escalation process in your order apply. We refund paid fees for services we do not provide, preserving other remedies.

We can restrict affected services immediately only where reasonably necessary to address unlawful content or a serious security risk, explain the reason promptly where lawful, and restore service when the reason ends. Restrictions must be proportionate. If we cease providing a service, we give the notice specified in your order, normally covering at least the paid period. We avoid charging for service we cannot deliver, refund unprovided service and arrange return of client materials.

Neither party is responsible for delay caused by events genuinely outside its reasonable control to the extent it could not reasonably avoid them. The affected party must notify, mitigate and resume performance. This does not excuse an accrued payment obligation or our own negligence. Either party can end affected services after the prolonged-event period specified in your order, with refunds for unprovided service.

11. Responsibility

Nothing in this agreement excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited. This protection applies to every clause.

Causes of loss

We are not responsible for loss to the extent caused by inaccurate client-supplied facts, material supplied without permission, changes made without our involvement, or failure to protect or renew accounts allocated to you. Third-party outages, attacks and platform changes excuse performance only to the extent covered by section 10. None of these circumstances excuses our own breach, negligent handling of access or failure to perform agreed checks, backups or management. Where both parties contribute to a loss, responsibility follows their respective contribution, subject to applicable law.

Neither party must reimburse the other automatically for every third-party complaint. If a claim concerns supplied material, each party promptly notifies the other, preserves evidence and reasonably cooperates. Liability depends on the party's breach and contribution to the loss; no unlimited client indemnity is imposed.

Financial cap

Subject to the non-excludable liabilities above, our total liability to you arising from an order, whether in contract, negligence, misrepresentation or otherwise, for all claims allocated to any one Contract Year is limited to the greater of:

• £1,000; or
• the agreed setup fee or outright build price for that order, plus twelve times its Monthly Service Fee.

A Contract Year is each successive twelve-month period starting when the order becomes binding. Claims are allocated to the year in which the act or omission giving rise to them first occurred. Claims arising from the same originating cause share the cap for the year of its first occurrence, regardless of when discovered or claimed. Other claims allocated to that year also share that cap. A separate cap applies to each order.

Monthly Service Fee means the highest agreed monthly subscription or optional-care rate applicable to that order at any time during that Contract Year, including a rate continuing from an earlier year. Before launch it includes the agreed launch rate. It is zero if no monthly service applies during that year and none is agreed to start at launch. The calculation excludes third-party costs passed through without a margin. The full cap applies from the outset regardless of payments collected. It creates no minimum term, remaining build debt or obligation to pay future months.

Losses and remedies

We exclude indirect or consequential loss only to the extent lawful. Those words refer to the legal category of loss, rather than every financial consequence of a problem. We do not exclude a direct loss merely because it concerns revenue, profit or business activity. No claim arises merely because an outcome we did not promise, such as a search ranking or number of enquiries, was not achieved.

Reasonable, foreseeable direct costs of restoring the agreed website or client material, or obtaining replacement performance following our breach, are not excluded. Monetary damages for those costs remain subject to the cap. Each party takes reasonable steps to reduce avoidable loss; neither can recover twice for the same loss.

The cap does not reduce our express duties to correct our work, restore agreed services, return client-owned material or refund fees for services not provided. Those refunds do not consume the damages cap. Confidentiality, personal-data and intellectual-property duties continue; monetary claims between the parties for their breach fall within the cap only so far as lawful. This agreement does not bind regulators or third parties or remove non-excludable rights of affected individuals.

12. Complaints and law

Send complaints to [email protected]. We investigate and seek a practical resolution before either party considers proceedings, without restricting urgent relief or statutory rights. Your order states the governing law and courts for the agreement, subject to any mandatory legal requirements. Any unenforceable provision is separated only so far as lawful; it does not authorise rewriting the bargain.