Terms of Service and Fair Usage Policy.

1. Who these terms apply to

Web Host Services operates WebHostServices.co.uk and supplies website design, hosting, email, internet radio and stream support, server services, co-location and related technical work. The supplier details and geographical address applicable to an order are provided on the written quote or invoice before a contract is formed.

These terms apply when a customer accepts a quote, pays an invoice or deposit, asks for work to begin, or continues to use an ongoing service. A quote or order summary, these terms and any separately agreed service specification form the contract. If they conflict, the order-specific written terms take priority, but they cannot remove statutory consumer rights.

2. Quotes, orders, prices and payment

• Sending an enquiry does not create a contract. A contract starts when a written quote is accepted or payment is made, unless the quote says otherwise.
• Prices shown on the website are starting prices. The quote confirms the total price, what is included, the payment schedule and whether any tax applies.
• Extra work is charged only after the customer is told what it will cost and agrees to proceed.
• Invoices must be paid by the stated due date. Work or ongoing services may be paused for overdue payment after reasonable notice, where it is practical and safe to give notice.
• Third-party fees, premium domains, paid licences, specialist hardware and unusual usage are not included unless the quote says they are.

3. Website projects

The quote describes the pages, features, content, revisions and launch work included. The customer must provide accurate business details, approvals, content and access reasonably needed to complete the project. Timescales move if required material or feedback is delayed.

Web Host Services will perform the service with reasonable care and skill. Browsers, devices, search engines and third-party platforms change, so identical presentation everywhere, uninterrupted compatibility and particular search rankings cannot be guaranteed.

The customer is responsible for checking names, prices, claims, spelling and contact details before approving launch. Report mistakes promptly and reasonable launch defects within the agreed scope will be corrected.

4. Domains, licences and renewals

• Where an offer or quote says a domain is included, this means one standard available .co.uk domain registration for the period stated in the quote. Premium domain names, unusually priced domains and other extensions are excluded unless separately quoted and agreed.
• A requested domain cannot be guaranteed until the registry confirms registration.
• Domain, hosting, mailbox, software and certificate renewals after an included period are chargeable unless the quote says otherwise. The renewal price and period will be given before a new commitment is made.
• No optional care package or recurring upgrade is added without the customer’s agreement.
• Subject to payment of outstanding sums and registry rules, reasonable help will be given to transfer a customer’s domain or service away.

5. Fair Usage Policy

This policy keeps shared services reliable without penalising ordinary, legitimate use. It applies to website hosting, email, radio streaming, game or application servers, managed servers, storage, backups, network traffic and co-location unless an order has its own fixed limits.

What fair usage means

Use should be reasonable for the service and must not materially reduce stability, performance, security or availability for other customers or the underlying platform. A brief legitimate traffic spike is not, by itself, unfair use.

When assessing sustained or abnormal use, relevant factors can include CPU time, RAM, disk space, disk input/output, bandwidth, request rate, concurrent connections, email volume, backup size, listener slots, stream bitrate, power draw and the effect on other services. Any fixed allowance stated in a quote or control panel remains the applicable allowance; this policy is not used to take away capacity that was expressly sold.

How excessive usage is handled

1. Where practical, Web Host Services will explain the issue and provide enough information for the customer to understand it.
2. The customer will normally be given a reasonable chance to reduce usage, fix a fault or agree a more suitable service.
3. If the issue continues, proportionate limits, isolation, migration or temporary restriction may be used to protect the service.
4. Immediate restriction is permitted where use creates an urgent security risk, outage, legal issue, attack, spam incident or material harm to other customers.

Fair usage for website care packages

Care packages are for maintaining and updating an existing website. They include reasonable changes within the site’s current design and structure, such as updating supplied text, prices, opening hours or contact details; replacing supplied photographs; making small layout or styling adjustments; correcting minor faults; and carrying out the maintenance listed for the chosen package.

Care packages do not include a partial or full website redesign, a rebuild, a replacement site, moving to a different platform, rebranding, bulk content entry, a substantial group of new pages, or major new features such as bespoke booking, membership, e-commerce or other custom systems. “More regular edits” and “extra page/content updates” still mean reasonable updates using the existing website and design; they are not unlimited development time.

Fair use is assessed using the combined time, frequency and complexity of requests, not just the number of messages sent. Related requests may be grouped together. If requested work falls outside the care package, Web Host Services will explain why and provide a separate price. Website redesigns and rebuilds are charged as separate projects, and no additional work or charge will be applied without the customer’s agreement.

There are no surprise excess charges. A paid upgrade or additional resource is supplied only after it has been explained and agreed.

6. Acceptable Use Policy

Services must be used lawfully and responsibly. Customers must not use, or allow others to use, a service for:

• unsolicited bulk email, purchased mailing lists, mail bombing or messages that breach anti-spam or privacy law;
• phishing, malware, credential theft, fraud, botnets, denial-of-service activity, scanning or unauthorised access;
• content or activity that is unlawful, defamatory, deceptive, abusive, or infringes copyright, trade marks, privacy or other rights;
• open proxies, public relays, cryptocurrency mining or similarly intensive workloads unless expressly agreed in writing;
• circumventing technical limits, hiding the source of abusive traffic, or interfering with another customer or network;
• radio, music, software, games, images or other material for which the customer does not hold the licences or permissions required.

Customers must keep passwords secure, install updates they are responsible for, and tell Web Host Services promptly about suspected compromise. Reasonable investigation and remedial action may be required before a suspended service is restored.

7. Email, radio streams and specialist servers

Email delivery cannot be guaranteed because receiving providers, reputation systems, DNS and recipient rules are outside one provider’s control. Mailboxes must not be used for spam or unusually large automated mailings unless a suitable service has been agreed.

Radio and stream customers are responsible for music, broadcast and content licences, royalty reporting and the legality of what they transmit. Listener capacity, bitrate, storage and transfer limits are those stated in the order.

Game, application and managed-server customers are responsible for permitted software licences and lawful content. Management covers only the systems and tasks stated in the quote; it does not make Web Host Services the operator of the customer’s business or content.

8. Availability, maintenance, backups and data

Services are provided with reasonable care, but uninterrupted or error-free operation is not guaranteed. Planned maintenance, emergency work, attacks, registry failures, upstream network faults and third-party outages can affect availability. Reasonable efforts will be made to restore affected services promptly.

Where backups are included, they are a recovery aid rather than an absolute guarantee. Customers should keep their own current copy of important websites, mail, databases, media and configuration. Restoration may be limited by the backup period, corruption, encryption, compromise or third-party failure.

For co-location, the quote states rack space, power, bandwidth, remote-hands work and access arrangements. Hardware remains the customer’s responsibility unless the order expressly includes supplied hardware or insurance.

9. Suspension and ending a service

A service may be suspended or ended for serious or repeated breach, non-payment, unlawful activity, urgent security risk or material harm to the platform. Where the problem is not urgent, reasonable notice and an opportunity to put it right will normally be given.

Monthly care or hosting services can be cancelled before the next billing date unless a quote states a minimum term. A paid fixed period normally continues until its end date. On closure, the customer should arrange transfer or download of required data before the stated closure date. Data may then be deleted in line with operational and legal requirements.

10. Consumer cancellation rights

A consumer who enters a service contract at a distance will normally have 14 days from the day after the contract is made to cancel without giving a reason. Cancellation can be made through the website contact form or by any other clear written statement.

If a consumer expressly asks for work to begin during that 14-day period and later cancels, a proportionate amount may be charged for work supplied up to cancellation. If the service is fully completed during the cancellation period following the consumer’s express request and acknowledgement, the cancellation right may end where the law permits.

Irrecoverable third-party costs, such as a domain registered at the customer’s express request, are handled only as permitted by law and as explained before work begins. Business customers do not receive the statutory consumer cooling-off right.

Nothing in these terms limits rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. If a consumer service is not performed with reasonable care and skill, the customer may be entitled to repeat performance, a price reduction or another remedy required by law.

11. Content and intellectual property

The customer confirms that material supplied for a project can lawfully be used. The customer keeps ownership of their existing names, logos, text, photographs and data. After full payment, the customer receives the rights in bespoke website work described in the quote, excluding Web Host Services’ existing tools, reusable code, know-how and third-party components.

Third-party software, fonts, images, plugins and platforms remain subject to their own licences. A completed public website may be shown as an example of work unless the customer asks in writing for it not to be displayed.

12. Privacy, cookies and visitor analytics

The full Privacy & Cookie Policy explains how enquiry information, essential form-security cookies and optional visitor analytics are used.

13. Liability

Nothing excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, or anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded. Nothing limits a consumer’s statutory rights.

For consumers, Web Host Services is responsible for loss that is a foreseeable result of breach or failure to use reasonable care and skill, but not for business losses arising from a consumer contract.

For business customers, to the fullest extent permitted by law, Web Host Services is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, lost profit, lost opportunity or loss caused by customer content, credentials, instructions or unsupported third-party systems. Aggregate liability relating to an affected service is limited to the charges paid for that service during the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

14. Changes, complaints and governing law

Terms may be updated for legal, security or operational reasons. A material change affecting an ongoing paid service will be notified before it takes effect where reasonably possible. The version accepted for a fixed project continues to apply to that project unless a change is agreed or legally required.

Please raise a complaint through the contact form so it can be investigated and answered. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. A consumer keeps any mandatory rights to bring a claim in the part of the UK where they live.

15. Contact and model cancellation wording

Use the contact form for questions, complaints, cancellation or notice under these terms.