Please read the terms and conditions carefully. The contract of service requires that you acknowledge you have read, understood, and agreed to these terms and conditions.
Having had these terms and conditions drawn to your attention, completing and submitting the order, a verbal-only or a non-response will be interpreted as acceptance of the terms and conditions in full.
If you have questions concerning them, please ask before entering into a contract with me by email hello@writinglevels.com.
Your attention is particularly drawn to the provisions of:
- Clause 3 (Your acceptance of our Quotation)
- Clause 5 (Charges and payment)
- Clause 6 (Cancellation by you or me)
- Clause 7 (Warranty and acknowledgements)
- Clause 8 (Limitation of liability)
- Clause 9 (Our losses caused by you)
- Clause 11 (Intellectual Property)
1. General Terms
1.1 In these terms and conditions, the following terms shall have the following meanings: ‘Me’, ‘my’, ‘myself’, ‘our’, ‘I’: Dorota Crockford.
‘You’ or ‘your’: the person buying services from me.
‘Services’ or ‘Service’: the services to be agreed by you and me in writing, which include (but are not limited to) one or more of the following:
- copywriting services (writing the text of advertising, marketing or publicity materials);
- technical writing (descriptions, specifications and information written in connection with specialised topics);
- proofreading (finding and correcting mistakes, improving grammar, flow and consistency of text) and
- copyediting (reviewing structure and content of writing).
‘Material’: the content produced by myself in carrying out the Services.
1.2 Interpretation:
1.2.1. A reference to writing or written excludes fax but not email.
1.3 These terms and conditions apply to any work done for you by me.
1.4 You are under no obligation to offer me work, neither am I under any obligation to accept work offered by you.
1.5 I will provide the Services, the scope of which have been mutually agreed and confirmed in writing by you and me.
1.6 The Services will be carried out by myself and not subcontracted to any third parties, in part or in whole.
1.7 I will carry out the Services unsupervised at such times and places as I determine, using my own equipment.
1.8 I am not VAT registered.
2. Quotation
2.1 Before I provide any Services to you, I will perform an initial consultation. During the initial consultation, we will discuss the Services required, the medium in which the Services will be carried out (e.g. in Word, on PDF) and how the Material will be produced. There is no charge for an initial consultation.
2.2 If I am willing to perform the Services, I will then provide a written quotation of my fee for carrying out those Services (Quotation) and the estimated length of time required to complete the Services. The Quotation shall not constitute an offer, and is only valid for 4 weeks from its date of issue.
3. Your acceptance of my quotation
3.1 To instruct me to perform the Services, you must indicate your acceptance of the Quotation and these terms and conditions by confirming by way of email that you would like to proceed with the Quotation in accordance with these terms and conditions (Order).
3.2 The Order shall only be accepted or deemed to be accepted once I issue a confirmation email (Confirmation Email), on which date the contract between me and you shall come into existence (Contract), subject to clause 3.3.
3.3 I will not carry out any Services until I receive 30% of the total amount stated in the Order (Initial Fee). Unless I agree otherwise, you shall pay the Initial Fee to me within 7 days of the date of the Confirmation Email. The Initial Fee shall be non-refundable unless clause 6.3 (Cancellation by you) applies.
3.4 If you fail to pay the Initial Fee within the timescale, I shall not provide any Services to you and the Contract shall be terminated.
4. Services
4.1 The scope and specification of the Services and Materials will be clearly set out in the Quotation. For the avoidance of doubt, the Services do not include any excluded services specified in the Quotation (if any).
5. Charges and payment
5.1 The fee payable by you to me will be as set out in the Quotation, unless one or both of the following circumstances applies:
- 5.1.1 you request, and I agree to provide, Services which are beyond the scope and specification contained in the Quotation;
- 5.1.2 the Services you have requested from me no longer match the scope and specification contained in the quotation and/or
- 5.1.3 whilst the Quotation is based on our best assessment of the time it will take me to perform the Services requested, if I find that it takes more hours than I estimated to complete the Services, you will be charged for the additional time incurred
5.2 If one of the situations in clauses 5.1 above occurs, I will recalculate my fee and send you a revised quotation (Revised Quotation). If you do not wish to pay the fee specified by the Revised Quotation, you may cancel the Contract between us by giving notice to me in writing. You will be charged for any Services already carried out and any reasonable costs, expenses or other amounts which I cannot reasonably avoid because of your cancellation. Cancellations are dealt with further in clause 6 (Cancellation by you) below.
5.3 I will send you an invoice for the Services once Services are performed. Payment should be made to the account specified by myself in writing within 30 days from the date of the invoice. I reserve the right to send an invoice to you periodically, as appropriate.
5.4 I only accept payment by bank transfer to the account specified by myself in writing on conclusion of the Services or when the first invoice is sent.
5.5 I will provide you with a receipted invoice within 5 Business Days post receipt of payment, pursuant to clause 5.4.
5.6 If you fail to pay any amount due to me at the time it is due, then I may:
- 5.6.1 charge you interest (at Bank of England’s base interest rate plus 2% on any outstanding amounts if those outstanding amounts remain unpaid for more than 30 days from the date of my invoice or when I asked you first to pay them); and
- 5.6.2 suspend performing the Services until you make payment.
6. Cancellation by you or me
6.1 If you cancel the Contract between us, you will be charged for any unavoidable costs incurred by me as a result of cancellation.
6.2 At the time you cancel the Contract, I may already have commenced the Services. If you cancel the Contract between us, you will be responsible for the cost of my time in performing the Services up to the date I stop providing the Services.
6.3 If the circumstances stated in clause 6.2 arise, I will first deduct the amounts for which you are responsible from any Initial Fee you have paid. Any remaining Initial Fee will be returned to you. If the amount owing is greater than the Initial Fee, I will send an invoice to you for the amount in excess of the Initial Fee.
6.4 I will stop working on a project and cancel the Contract immediately if it, or any part of it, in my opinion appears to contain offensive or defamatory content, breaches copyright, promotes illegal activities, or promotes practice or ideas that may cause physical or mental harm to those who read the content. If such cancellation happens, you will be responsible for the cost of my time in performing the Services up to the date I stop providing the Services and clause 6.3will apply.
7. Warranty and acknowledgements
7.1 My aim is to provide the Services:
- 7.1.1 using reasonable care and skill; and
- 7.1.2 in compliance with the commonly accepted practices and standards of the copywriting, technical writing, proofreading and copy editing practices (as appropriate and in accordance with the Services carried out)..
7.2 For the avoidance of doubt, I cannot accept any liability for lack of acceptance for publication, grade(s) received, or other failure to achieve the desired outcome not contained within the specification in respect of the Services
7.3 You warrant that all information, text and materials supplied by you are accurate, complete and not misleading
7.4 You acknowledge that:
- 7.4.1 the Services carried out by me will not be completely current or, 100% error-free due to the nature of human error; and
- 7.4.2 the final Material may differ from the original provided to the extent generally accepted by the trade in question;
- 7.4.3 all Material is created on the basis of and in reliance on the information provided by you and you therefore bear all responsibility and any liability for the accuracy and completeness of the Material.
8 Limitation of liability
8.1 My liability to compensate you for any loss or damage is limited to the fee that has been paid by you (and received by me), having regard to such factors as whether the damage was due to a negligent act or omission by me.
8.2 I shall have no liability whatsoever for the following
- 8.2.1 errors or omissions caused by your failure to communicate the requirements clearly;
- 8.2.2 any delay of the Services if you do not submit the work to us within the timeline I have agreed with you;
- 8.2.3 any losses that were not foreseeable to you and me when the Contract was formed;
- 8.2.4 any losses that were not caused by any breach on my part;
- 8.2.5 any business or goodwill losses, losses to non-consumers, loss of revenue, loss of business, loss of data, consequential or indirect loss suffered by you, such as loss of earnings, loss of time, or any other expenses caused by delay not caused by me; or
- 8.2.6 any direct, indirect, special or consequential losses or costs incurred by any errors remaining in your work, be they factual or grammatical.
8.3 I also cannot be held responsible and liable for delays that result from unforeseen circumstances beyond my control, however if I might be prevented from meeting a deadline or service, I will let you know as soon as reasonably possible.
8.4 To the fullest extent permissible pursuant to applicable law and subject to the warranty provided in clause 7.3, I disclaim all guarantees, warranties, and conditions, expressed or implied, in respect of my services and any information, content, or materials on this site, including any implied warranties or conditions of fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, or non-infringement.
8.5 Notwithstanding the foregoing, nothing in this Contract is intended to limit any rights you might have as a consumer under applicable local law or other statutory rights that may not be excluded nor in any way to exclude or limit our liability to you for any death or personal injury resulting from my negligence.
9. Our losses caused by you
9.1 You agree that you will be responsible for all costs and disbursements awarded against me for any and all loss or damage I suffer (including any legal fees or costs), as a result of any negligence or breach of this contract and/or terms and conditions by you.
10. Confidentiality
10.1 I shall treat all personal and business information supplied by you as confidential. Subject to clause 10.2, I shall not disclose such information to any third party without your prior permission, except where required by law or where action might be necessary to protect you or someone else. I shall treat all personal data in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018.
10.2 I may add the Material to my portfolio. For the avoidance of doubt, you consent to the inclusion of Material in my portfolio, and this will not be in breach of clause 10.1. Any highly sensitive or personal information contained within the Material will not be added to my portfolio without your prior consent.
11. Intellectual Property
11.1 You own all content delivered to me for the project. You warrant that any materials delivered by you to me for use in connection with the Services are your original work and do not violate any copyright, trademark, or other protection of intellectual property. Breach of copyright is a serious offence, and you are responsible for any breach of copyright contained within your work.
11.2 I will not be responsible for legal actions arising from your unlicensed use of copyright material. You agree to fully indemnify me against any action or any claim, including that of a third party, for compensation or damages resulting from the use of your materials or from unsought permissions to use my material.
11.3 Any intellectual property rights vested in the Material created and modifications to this Material made by me in connection with the Services will be owned by me, unless I otherwise agree in writing to assign such intellectual property rights to you.
11.4 Upon full payment of my final invoice or unless otherwise agreed in writing, you are granted a licence to use the Material and any intellectual property rights connected to the Material. The licence is limited to the use envisaged by the scope and specification of the Services as set out in the Quotation
11.5 If you wish to make any amendments to the Material or use for a different purpose to that envisaged by the Quotation, you must obtain my prior written consent.
11.6 If any part of the text provided by you for me to work on has been generated by (or translated by) artificial intelligence (AI) powered software (for example, software including, but not limited to, ChatGPT), you bear full responsibility to disclose this and are also responsible for any outcomes that could result from not doing so at project commencement. If I suspect that the manner in which such AI software has been applied has compromised the integrity of the text, you will be informed by me as soon as possible, along with any adjustments required to the project timescale and the fee payable by you.
11.7 If you do not disclose this information prior to commencement of the Services, I reserve the right to withdraw from the project and cancel the Contract at any time, regardless of whether you have paid Initial Fee or made any other payments. Cancellations are dealt with further in clause 6 (Cancellation by you) above.
12. Amendments to the contract terms and conditions
12.1 I will have the right to amend these terms and conditions where:
- 12.1.1 I need to do so in order to comply with changes in the law or for regulatory reasons;
- 12.1.2 I need to correct any errors or omissions (and the right includes the right to change any of the documentation which forms part of the contract), as long as such correction is minor and does not materially affect the contract.
12.2 Where I am making any amendment, I will give you 30 days’ notice (unless the contract is terminated before that period).
13. Contacting each other
13.1 If you wish to send me any notice or letter then you should send it to hello@writinglevels.com. If I wish to send you a letter or notice, I shall use the email address you have given us during the initial consultation.
14. End of the contract
14.1 If the Contract is terminated it will not affect my right to receive any money which you owe to me under it.
15. Disputes
15.1 I will try to resolve any disputes with you quickly and efficiently.
15.2 If you are unhappy with:
- 15.2.1 the Services
- 15.2.2 our service to you generally; or
- 15.2.3 any other matter;
please contact me as soon as possible
15.3 If you and me cannot resolve a dispute using our internal complaint handling procedure, I will:
- 15.3.1 let you know that I cannot settle the dispute with you; and
- 15.3.2 give you certain information required by law about our alternative dispute resolution provider.
15.4 If you want to take court proceedings, you must do so within the courts of England and Wales.
15.5 The laws of England will apply to the Contract.
16. Third party rights
16.1 No one other than a party to the Contract has any right to enforce any term of this contract.