Terms and Conditions of work
So look no-one likes the horrible lawyer bit but frankly, as a small business, I have to protect myself.
You understand, after all, you have Terms and Conditions too!
If you have any problem with these then please feel free to contact me, I don’t mind talking.
Please read these Terms and Conditions. They exist to provide clarification for us both in the highly unlikely event of a dispute. All commissions will be undertaken on the basis of these terms having been read and agreed.
Throughout, “You” means you, the person agreeing to the Terms and Conditions, and any company on behalf of which you claim authorisation to act. “I” or “Me” “Us” or “We” refers to my business, Yellow Tomato Copy.
If you hire me, Stuart Walker t/a Yellow Tomato Copywriting, to write for you, you are contracting with Me.
When you contract with me to write for you, you acknowledge that as the basis for the contract between us, these Terms and Conditions take precedence over any other terms and conditions, express or implied. If you need to discuss any aspect, please contact me.
1. Contracts: you or your agent agree to either send a purchase order or confirmation email to me prior to work starting place: this shall constitute a contract. It should indicate the nature of the work to be undertaken, the budget and any deadline.
2. Creative brief: if you choose not to provide a written, detailed brief for the work to be undertaken but rely instead on a verbal or vague briefing, you accept that this brief by its very nature may contain ambiguities that may be reflected in the resulting creative work: you accept responsibility for this ambiguity and for any additional costs incurred in re-writing the copy accordingly. If you change the brief after work has commenced, you will inform me as soon as possible and adjust the budget to reflect the increased time spent on a job.
3. Services provided: I will provide you with the concepts and/or copywriting required in a professional manner, by the deadline agreed. All quotations include a maximum of two sets of revisions unless otherwise specified. Requests for revisions should be made within ten working days of the copy being supplied.
4. Errors and literals: I make every effort to ensure that copy is free of spelling mistakes and other literals. Early drafts may sometimes contain such errors, and my practice is to ensure that these are removed before a final draft is submitted to you. However, the responsibility for checking for spelling mistakes and literals is yours, and you indemnify me against any costs incurred as a result of the appearance of such errors in the final published form of any collateral in which you use the copy concerned, whether or not these errors appeared in any draft of the copy supplied by me.
5. Fees: These will be agreed to in advance. I can quote on a daily or hourly basis, or by the project. Any other costs incurred will be agreed upon in advance.
If you ask for any other work to be done in addition to the brief then you will be charged at a rate of £60 per hour or part thereof
6. Terms of payment: Depending on the terms agreed in writing beforehand, jobs will either be invoiced in advance and full payment made before commencing the project, or partially paid in advance, or paid on completion of the copy.
Please note that copy is deemed to be complete once revisions have been made – and any amends must be requested within ten working days of delivery of the first draft.
Payment is due upon receipt of the invoice unless we have expressly agreed otherwise in writing.
You should make payment by bank transfer to the account number shown on the invoice, or via PayPal using the details and link shown on your electronic invoicing.
The existence of an ‘end of following month’ payment practice in your company’s handling of accounts payable will in no way alter your obligation to make a payment on the due date shown on my invoice. If your company operates such a payment policy, please discuss this with me before contracting.
7. Late payments: If payment is not received by me on the due date, I reserve the right to charge interest. This will be applied in line with the ‘Pay on Time’ guidelines of 8% plus the Bank of England reference rate. Under the terms of the guidelines, a compensation payment may also be due.
8. Financial stability: You should only commission work if you know you / your company is financially secure, and not about to enter liquidation or appoint a receiver or administrator. If you do commission work on behalf of a company that is financially unstable you agree to personally indemnify me against any loss due to the insolvency of said company.
9. Copyright: Copyright means all matters which are the subject of protection under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, as may be amended by subsequent legislation, and includes all creative work prepared by me for clients. The copyright and intellectual property rights for any work commissioned by any agency or client will be retained by me until full payment for the work has been received.
10. Collaboration: When you contract with me to write copy for you, you acknowledge that I may, from time to time, engage the services of other competent professional copywriters to help me deliver all or part of the work which you require. In such a case, I undertake to review and amend the work before it is presented to you, and to ensure that the work is of the quality and professionalism you would expect had I written it in its entirety myself.
11. Liability: I will not be liable to you for any loss of profits, consequential, economic, or indirect loss arising in any way in connection with the performance (or non-performance) of the obligations related to any commission.
In short, it is your responsibility to make sure the copy I provide is accurate.
In addition, you will indemnify me against any loss incurred as a result of civil claims or proceedings brought against me based upon any advertising and other work prepared for the client and approved by the client before publication.
12. Usage: Upon payment of the invoice copyright on the work passes to you however you agree that I may use images or copy in marketing or for testimonial purposes.
If you do not agree to this you should contact me before commissioning work.
13. UK law: This agreement is subject to the Laws of England and Wales, and the parties agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the courts in respect of any dispute or difference arising under the agreement.