THE CEARDACH

THE CEARDACH // TERMS OF SERVICE

1. The Agreement & Instant Acceptance

This Master Services Agreement (“Agreement”) is entered into by and between The Ceardach (“Company”, “we”, "us") and the person or entity purchasing our services (“Client”, "you"). This Agreement is governed strictly by Scots Law and is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Scottish courts. By processing any payment via our invoice, Stripe link, or digital payment platform, you explicitly agree to, accept, and are legally bound by all terms outlined below. Payment of the mobilisation deposit constitutes a binding digital signature and full acceptance of these terms.

2. Scope of Work, Re-Quotes & Intellectual Property

• Defined Scope: The exact features and deliverables for your project are strictly limited to what was outlined in the initial project scope email sent to you by The Ceardach prior to payment.

• Exclusions: Unless explicitly stated in writing within that initial email, copywriting, custom logo design, ongoing SEO campaign management, premium third-party software/plugin/font licenses, stock asset sourcing, and media licensing fees are strictly excluded and subject to a formal re-quote.

• The Build Guarantee: We ensure your website is built exactly to your specification. We do not charge overtime or extra fees for modifications to the visual layout during the initial build phase. The Build Guarantee covers a maximum of two (2) comprehensive rounds of layout revisions based on the original scope. Any structural modifications requested after the second round of revisions are completed will be subject to our standard hourly development rate of £75/hour.

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Disclaimer: The Ceardach ensures that all developed websites are fundamentally optimised for search engines, meaning the platform’s code, structure, and metadata are engineered to be fully indexable and discoverable by search crawlers (ensuring your business can be found online). However, the Company provides absolutely no guarantee of specific search engine rankings, keyword positions, or traffic volume. Ongoing search visibility depends entirely on third-party search engine algorithms, local competition, and the Client’s independent, ongoing content marketing efforts.

• Intellectual Property Protection: The Ceardach retains full ownership, copyright, and control of all design files, source code, and assets until your final project balance has fully cleared into our account. Upon final payment clearing, visual design copyrights transfer to you. Underlying development frameworks, core CMS structures, and software infrastructure remain the property of their respective owners or the Company.

  
  

3. Mobilisation Deposits & Dispute Forfeiture

• Non-Refundable Allocation: Client explicitly acknowledges that the initial fifty percent (50%) payment is classified as a Mobilisation Fee required to book development capacity, initiate onboarding infrastructure, and clear project scheduling. This fee is non-refundable and is fully earned by The Ceardach immediately upon receipt for resource allocation and scheduling blockout.

• Dispute Resolution: In the event of an uncertified or bad-faith payment dispute or card chargeback, the Client immediately forfeits all rights, titles, and licenses to any strategic briefs, wireframes, designs, or code produced by The Ceardach during development.

4. Content Pauses, Grace Periods & Late Fees

• Asset Delivery: To deliver your project efficiently, you agree to provide all text, logos, branding assets, and login credentials promptly. If you fail to communicate or provide required assets for 14 consecutive days, your project will automatically be placed on hold. The Ceardach holds absolutely no liability for delays in project completion or launch timelines caused by missing client assets.

• Total Client Abandonment & Full Fee Acceleration: If a project remains on hold due to missing client assets, lack of approval, or total lack of communication for more than 30 consecutive days, the project will be deemed contractually abandoned by the Client. Abandonment triggers immediate contract acceleration, rendering the entire remaining 100% project balance immediately due and payable within 48 hours to cover reserved engineering overhead and lost agency capacity.

• Mid-Project Cancellation: If works have been carried out and the project is cancelled mid-way by the Client, the Client remains legally liable to pay for all work completed up to that point within 48 hours of cancellation notice.

• Completion Trigger, Grace Period, and Gatekept Launch: The final 50% balance is strictly triggered and legally due immediately upon the Company delivering a completed, functional project to a private staging review link. To accommodate standard corporate accounting procedures, invoices are subject to a 7-day payment grace period from this completion trigger date. The completed website will be deployed to the live domain and handed over strictly upon receipt of the cleared final payment into our account; no files or live hosting privileges will be released while a balance remains outstanding.

• Statutory Late Interest: Failure to settle any invoice within 7 days of its due date will result in the immediate, retroactive application of statutory interest and debt recovery costs under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 at a rate of 8% above the Bank of England base rate, calculated daily until the balance is cleared in full.

  
  

5. Joint Marketing & Mandatory Portfolio Credit

• Portfolio Rights: The Client agrees that The Ceardach may use the client's logo, project photos, and screenshots of the finished site in our professional portfolio, case studies, and marketing materials.

• Mandatory Footer Credit: A subtle credit link reading "Website by The Ceardach" will be permanently placed in the footer of the completed website. Both parties acknowledge that this cross-linking acts as a mutual digital asset, generating valuable backlinks that actively improve Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and domain authority for both the Client and the Company.

  
  

6. Hosting, Infrastructure Ownership, and Service Disruption

• Hosting Terms: Hosting is provided via our managed third-party cloud infrastructure and is quoted dynamically at the deposit phase, payable either as a monthly recurring fee or as an upfront package.

• Limitation of Infrastructure Liability: While we host your site on elite, world-class global cloud servers to ensure maximum uptime, The Ceardach acts as an intermediary integrator. The Company holds absolutely zero legal or financial liability for upstream service disruptions, global hosting platform outages, data center failures, or consequential loss of business revenue should the third-party infrastructure experience temporary downtime.

• Included Maintenance: While actively hosted with us, we handle your core website updates, software security updates, text modifications, image swaps, and the addition of new portfolio pieces to your site.

• Turnaround Time Guarantee: We guarantee that these requested updates and maintenance updates will be fully executed within 72 hours of receiving your formal digital request.