Terms of Service

These terms explain the general basis on which Illume Web Design ("Illume", "we", "us" or "our"), operated by YOUR REAL LEGAL BUSINESS IDENTITY from YOUR FULL GEOGRAPHIC BUSINESS ADDRESS, provides website design, development, handover and managed website services. Project-specific details shown in your account, accepted proposal, invoice or payment page form part of the agreement where they apply.

You can contact Illume for general support, account issues, billing queries, complaints and cancellation requests at support@illumewebdesign.co.uk.

1. Website requests are not purchases

Submitting a website request through Illume does not by itself create a payment obligation or guarantee that we will accept the project. We may ask questions, decline a request, or propose a different scope before accepting it.

2. Acceptance, price and payment

If we accept a request, we will confirm the website build scope and one-off build price before payment. Work does not begin until the full build price has been paid, unless we expressly agree otherwise in writing. Any VAT or other tax that legally applies will be shown before payment.

Online payments are processed through Stripe. The secure checkout shows the amount due before you submit payment. Illume does not receive or store your full card number or card security code.

For a Managed Website project, the build-payment step also asks you to authorise Illume to save the payment method through Stripe for the future £49.99 monthly Managed Website charge. That recurring charge does not begin during the build.

3. Scope and project changes

The agreed build covers the pages, functionality, design route and other deliverables confirmed for that project. Requests outside the agreed scope—including substantial redesigns, new pages, advanced integrations, ecommerce, bespoke functionality or extensive content work—may require a revised price or a separate quote.

4. Client responsibilities

You are responsible for providing accurate information, decisions, feedback, access credentials and content reasonably required to complete the project. You must have the right to use all logos, photographs, text, fonts, trademarks and other material you provide. You must not ask us to publish material that is unlawful or infringes another person’s rights.

Project timescales depend on timely client responses. Significant delays in content, access or approvals may move the delivery date.

5. Reviews, previews and launch

Illume may provide progress previews and request approvals during the build. You should review previews carefully and raise material issues before approving launch. A website is considered live when it has been deployed to its agreed live domain or otherwise made publicly available with your approval.

6. Managed Website plan

If you choose the Managed Website plan, monthly billing does not begin while the website is being built. When you pay the build price, you authorise Illume to use the payment method saved by Stripe to start the £49.99/month Managed Website subscription when the completed website is made live. The first managed payment is therefore collected at launch and recurring payments continue monthly until cancellation.

While the plan is active, it includes Illume-managed website hosting, SSL/HTTPS setup and renewal where supported by the hosting platform, deployment management, routine technical maintenance, and up to 5 minor website changes per website per recurring billing period. Allowances are per website and do not transfer between websites or normally roll over into future months.

If Stripe cannot collect a recurring payment, we may ask you to update your payment method and may suspend managed services after reasonable notice where payment remains outstanding. This does not affect rights that cannot legally be excluded.

Minor changes are intended for normal content and presentation updates. New pages, redesigns, integrations, major structural changes, complex development or other substantial work may be quoted separately.

7. Cancellation and refunds

Website build payments

If you cancel before Illume has started substantive project work, the website build fee will normally be refunded in full. If you cancel after work has started but before launch, we will assess the work already supplied and any reasonable, directly resulting loss or non-recoverable project cost. We may deduct a fair amount reflecting that work or loss and refund the remaining balance. We will explain any deduction rather than applying an arbitrary cancellation fee.

If Illume cancels a paid project for reasons that are not caused by your breach, we will refund the part of the build price relating to work that has not been supplied. Where no usable project work has been supplied, this will normally mean a full build-fee refund. Different outcomes may apply where cancellation follows a serious client breach or where mandatory legal rights require another remedy.

Once the completed website has gone live, the build fee is not normally refundable simply because you change your mind, except where required by law, where contracted services have not been provided with reasonable care and skill, or where another applicable statutory remedy applies.

Managed Website monthly payments

You may cancel a Managed Website plan through the Stripe billing portal where that option is enabled, or by contacting support@illumewebdesign.co.uk. Unless a different date is agreed, cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid billing period and stops future renewals.

Monthly payments already charged for a billing period that has begun are not normally refundable. This does not remove any right to a refund, price reduction or other remedy that you are entitled to under applicable law, including where contracted services have not been provided with reasonable care and skill.

You may ask Illume to pause a Managed Website plan, but pauses are discretionary and must be approved by us. If we approve a billing pause, we will confirm what services remain available and when normal billing will resume. A pause does not create a refund for a billing period that has already begun.

8. Consumer cancellation rights

If you are contracting with Illume as a consumer rather than wholly or mainly for business purposes, mandatory consumer rights may apply in addition to these terms. Nothing in these terms limits rights that cannot legally be excluded. Where the law gives you a cancellation right, we will provide the required information before the relevant paid contract is concluded. If you expressly ask us to begin a service during a statutory cancellation period, the law may permit a proportionate charge for services supplied before a valid cancellation, but only where the applicable requirements have been met.

9. Domains, hosting and third-party services

The client should retain ownership of their domain name. Where required to provide the service, you may authorise Illume to configure DNS or other domain settings on your behalf, but this does not transfer ownership of the domain to Illume. If you do not yet have a domain, we may help you choose one and guide you through registering it in your own name/account.

Domain registration, renewal and transfer charges are separate from the website build price and Managed Website monthly fee unless we expressly agree otherwise in writing.

For Build & handover projects, responsibility for ongoing hosting, maintenance and associated third-party costs transfers to the client at handover unless a separate arrangement is agreed. Illume websites are developed using Next.js and are not normally supplied as a set of standalone HTML files. A handover includes the relevant project source and reasonable deployment guidance. The website must be deployed on a hosting platform compatible with the project's Next.js requirements, such as Vercel or another suitable Next.js/Node.js-capable environment. If you require a particular hosting provider or deployment format, you should tell us before the build is completed so we can confirm compatibility. For Managed Website projects, Illume manages the website hosting, SSL and deployments while the Managed Website plan remains active. If the managed plan ends, we will reasonably cooperate with a handover or transfer of the website and domain configuration, subject to any outstanding charges and third-party platform requirements.

Projects may rely on third-party services such as domain registrars, hosting platforms, email providers, content systems, APIs, plugins or payment providers. Stripe is used for online build payments and Managed Website recurring billing. Unless expressly included, third-party fees and licences are separate from the website build price. We are not responsible for outages, policy changes or failures caused solely by third-party services outside our reasonable control, although we will take reasonable steps to help resolve issues within the service you have purchased from us.

10. Ownership and intellectual property

You retain ownership of content and branding you provide. Once the agreed build price has been paid in full, you may use the completed website deliverables created specifically for your project for your business. Illume retains ownership of its pre-existing tools, reusable code, systems, know-how, development framework and other materials that were not created exclusively for your project, while granting the rights reasonably necessary for the completed website to operate.

Third-party assets remain subject to their own licence terms.

11. Service standard and liability

We will provide our services with reasonable care and skill. We do not guarantee particular search rankings, traffic, sales, revenue or uninterrupted availability because those outcomes depend on factors outside our control.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability where it would be unlawful to do so. Subject to that, we are not responsible for indirect or unforeseeable losses that were not reasonably contemplated when the contract was made. If you contract with us for business purposes, neither party is responsible for the other’s loss of profit, revenue or business opportunity where that loss is indirect or consequential.

12. Accounts and security

You are responsible for keeping account credentials secure and for promptly telling us if you believe your account has been compromised. You must not attempt to access another client’s data, interfere with Illume’s systems or use the service unlawfully.

13. Complaints

Please send service complaints to support@illumewebdesign.co.uk so we can investigate and try to resolve them. Data protection complaints are handled under our Privacy Policy.

14. Changes to these terms

The version presented when you enter a paid agreement will apply to that agreement unless a change is required by law or expressly agreed with you. We may update these public terms for future projects and future billing periods.

15. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you are a consumer, you keep any mandatory rights you have to bring proceedings in another UK jurisdiction where applicable.

Legal · Last updated 18 August 2026