Terms & Conditions

Conditions of service

Throughout these terms & conditions, I/me refers to Tim Hammerton and you/your refers to the client receiving my services. We/us refers to me and the client.

The terms & conditions will be supplemented with the content of a brief that outlines specific aspects of work to be completed.

We must agree the terms & conditions and the brief before work begins. Your representative must be authorised to make this commitment.

Terms of service

  1. You are under no obligation to offer me work; neither am I under any obligation to accept work offered by you.
  2. I provide services as mutually agreed with you. After an initial discussion to assess requirements, these services will be confirmed in writing (the brief).
  3. I will undertake the work unsupervised, at times and places determined by me, using my own equipment.
  4. I confirm that I am self-employed and responsible for my own income tax and National Insurance contributions, and will not claim benefits granted to your employees.
  5. I am not registered for VAT.
  6. You promise that you own the copyright to your work and you have written the text yourself.
  7. The ownership of all work remains yours. You should check the content, my recommendations and choices carefully before accepting them and signing off the project. I am not responsible for any changes you make after I have delivered the work.
  8. You are responsible for the content of your work and how it is used.
  9. I will not use AI in the editing or production of text while working with you.
  10. Although I will do my best on any piece of work I do for you, I do not promise perfection and cannot be held accountable for the success or failure of your final submission.
  11. My privacy policy provides further details of my working practice.

Process

  1. The process will start with an initial discussion (potentially via an online meeting) that will outline your requirements and my services.
  2. You will provide details of the description of work required, e.g. background information and objectives, and include a sample of any text/project information for me to assess and consider the level of support needed.
  3. A written brief will be prepared to outline the activity to be completed, responsibilities (of both parties), cost and dates for any milestones/stages and final delivery, as well as the price and payment model. You should provide as much detail as possible to ensure that I have sufficient understanding of the task(s). We must agree the content of the brief before work begins.
  4. You will provide all files and materials to me in a usable and editable format ahead of the scheduled start date. I may request an extension to the deadline to compensate for any delay. If the delay is extensive, I may cancel the agreement.
  5. You will be available to answer queries raised by me, attend any planned review meeting and/or provide supplementary information. I may request an extension to the deadline if there is a delay to the work.
  6. I will aim to deliver the completed work on or before the deadline, for the agreed fee.
  7. Unless agreed otherwise, I will only be available to provide minor amendments or answers to your questions after the work has been delivered and reviewed.
  8. I will contact you as soon as possible if it becomes apparent that I will not be able to return the completed work on time. You have the right to either negotiate a revised deadline or only pay for the work that I have undertaken by that date.

Renegotiation

  1. We are both able to renegotiate these terms, specifications and deadlines during the project, but we must both agree this in writing.
  2. If at an early stage it becomes clear to me that the work is materially different to that agreed in the brief or that the work is not ready for the service, I may cancel the agreement.
  3. If at an early stage it becomes clear to me that significantly more work is required than agreed within the brief, I may renegotiate the fee and/or the deadline.
  4. If you change the terms of the work and/or request additional tasks (in writing), I may renegotiate the fee and/or the deadline. I may accept or decline additional tasks or consider them to be supplementary projects that are charged at a different rate.
  5. If we are unable to negotiate new terms, I may withdraw from the project or complete only the originally agreed work. I would invoice for the work completed.

Cancellation

  1. Either of us has the right to terminate a contract for services if there is a serious breach of its terms.
  2. If you decide to cancel the project after it has been agreed, I must be informed in writing as soon as possible. You will be liable to pay me for any work undertaken, including preparatory work.
  3. If you cancel the project at any time between the point of accepting the brief and the halfway stage of the project, I reserve the right to charge you for up to 50% of the price agreed.
  4. If you cancel the project after the halfway point, I reserve the right to charge you for up to 100% of the price agreed.
  5. If we cancel the project before the halfway stage, and where the payment model required you to pay me a per centage in advance, I should refund the proportion of the funding allocated for the work that had not been completed.

Dispute

  1. If you wish to make a complaint, it should be sent to me in writing within 10 working days of the work being delivered. (Making a complaint does not remove your obligation to make payment to me for work undertaken.)
  2. If I acknowledge that my work is unsatisfactory, I will rectify it (using the delivered version) within a reasonable period and at my own expense or reduce the fee.
  3. As a member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, I am committed to its Membership Codes, including its Professional Practice Code. If we can reach no agreement, the Institute may arbitrate between us for an editorial project.

Finance

  1. You will provide me with the name, billing address and contact details before work begins. This should include the name of any specific contact that I would need for financial issues.
  2. Where your organisation issues purchase orders or requires me to be added to a finance system, this process should be initiated as soon as the brief is agreed and concluded as soon as possible. You should provide me with clear instructions for the supply of information and provide regular updates on the status of approval.
  3. The brief will specify the price that has been agreed between us for me to undertake the work and the payment model to be used.
  4. We may agree that a deposit is paid to reserve time in my schedule.
  5. The payment model may require a per centage of the fee to be paid in advance, with the remainder forwarded on completion of work. For longer projects the model might include staged/milestone payments or monthy invoicing for work undertaken.
  6. I will issue invoices for the project for the amounts outlined in the brief. My invoice will provide bank account and other relevant details.
  7. You are responsible for paying any bank or other charges when transferring the payment. I should receive the full amount agreed.
  8. Should I be required to attend your (or other) premises for meetings, or schedule additional online calls (other than the initial or planned meetings), the time spent should be reimbursed by you at my designated hourly rate, together with any agreed reasonable expenses incurred.
  9. Unless agreed otherwise at the outset, payment will be made within 30 days of receipt of my invoice. I will add interest from the due date for payment, until payment is made, with a set rate of interest of 8% above the Bank of England base rate.

Confidentiality

  1. We may both keep information on record in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Only necessary information will be held at any time for the purpose of completing the work and record keeping, e.g. name, contact and payment details. See my privacy policy for further details.
  2. The nature and content of the work will be kept confidential and not made known to anyone other than you or your contractors without prior written permission.
  3. As a member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, I am committed to its Membership Codes, including its Professional Practice Code. This includes the clauses on respecting the confidentiality of your material.
  4. My editorial/project reports and any comments made within a manuscript or email to you are confidential exchanges between us. If you would like to use excerpts from any of these sources, you should inform me first and ask for permission.

Acknowledgements

  1. After the project, I may ask for feedback about the service you have received from me. I may request a testimonial to use in promotional material or on my website: you will need to give permission in writing for me to use this.
  2. Should you wish to acknowledge or credit me in your work, you should seek my permission. I should have the opportunity to review any such mention prior to publication or to decline to be mentioned.
  3. I am unable to write reviews for projects when I have had editorial involvement. As well as being a conflict of interests and unethical, it contravenes the policy of some companies (such as Amazon) and could result in you being penalised.

Legal

  1. Any content I create as part of the editing/project management/content writing process will become your copyright, unless otherwise agreed. This status is effective once I have received full payment from you.
  2. You will indemnify me against claims by third parties due to an alleged infringement of any copyright, property, patent or other intellectual property rights associated with the project.
  3. You will indemnify me against all claims by third parties ensuing from the use of the project’s work.
  4. In the case of a force majeure event – the occurrence of an event or circumstance that prevents or impedes you or I from performing one or more of our contractual obligations – we should contact the other in writing as soon as possible. Obligations to complete the work agreed in the brief will be suspended and may, after an agreed (project specific) period of time, be cancelled. We should make every reasonable effort to complete the work or mitigate the situation; otherwise any benefits derived should be repaid.
  5. A force majeure event would not change any payment requirements for work completed before the event took place.
  6. This agreement is subject to the laws of England and Wales, and we both agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the English and Welsh courts.
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