Website Contract

Oaktree IT Services Ltd

Website Commissioning Contract

Any website design and development should be the subject of a contract between the customer and the client. The contract should clearly state the details of the work to be carried do that each party understands what is to be delivered and their respective responsibilities. This page attempts to define aspects that need to be considered when agreeing a contract between contractors and clients.

A small website consisting of a few days work may be subject to a fixed charge. More extensive work may be charged on a time basis. Where an on-going maintenance service is required, there may be a monthly payment or other periodic agreement for the service.

All websites being developed must be subject to testing by the designer/developer and the client. This may be when a prototype has been developed or at pre-defined stages throughout the development. If the website development fails the acceptance tests these matters should be addressed immediately and the reason identified.

If the failure is due to the contractor misunderstanding the requirements, it is the contractor's responsibility to correct the failures at their own cost. If the failure is due to changes in requirements by the client, then additional costs may be charged by the contractor to correct such failures.

There should be a clear division between which code and content is the property of and copyright of the contractor and which is the property of the client, i.e. corporate logos belong to the client but specially created graphics and animation may belong to the contractor and reused on other sites. Clients may insist that such matters should be restricted to their site only in which case they may be licensed to the client.

The client will want to own any bespoke design of web pages and software code but the contractor may wish to retain the ownership so as to reuse the routines and structures for other clients. In this case the contractor may retain the ownership rights and issue permanent licence rights to the client.

The client should ensure that any design and development is transportable to another provider to avoid maintenance problems should the contractor no longer be able to provide such services.

Linking to other websites is essential for most website but there are risks in breaching third party rights such as copyright and database rights. In these cases, the express permission of the owners of these sites should be obtained. The owners of linked sites should be acknowledged so that visitors know who is responsible for those sites and the website should contain a disclaimer that the client has no control or responsibility for the content of these linked sites.

Once the website has been accepted, on-going support may be provided which may be purely technical error correction or full maintenance of content and appearance. The client is legally responsible for the content of the website and where the contractor maintains this aspect, there must be a clear statement that the contractor must comply with the design and content requirements of the client. This may relate to subject matter, length of information, format and appearance, its source and frequency of updating.

The design must also comply with laws and regulations such as data protection if personal information is gathered through the website. If the website is owned by a specific trade or profession there are likely to be guidelines to be followed as to what can be displayed and the nature of the design. A prime example is for Government websites where strict design guidelines have been defined.

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