SmartDeCat terms & conditions

Please read these terms carefully before placing an order or using any of our sevices.
By placing an order or using our services you agree to these terms.

Payment terms

All invoices are issued as payment due by return unless otherwise stated or a written agreement has been received from SmartDeCat® detailing a credit term.

Payment can be made in the following ways;

• By bank transfer using the information supplied on your invoice or our payment page
• By Credit card using our online payment gateway
• By Cheque

New sites & custom developments will require a 50% deposit before work commences with the balance due on completion. If work has already commenced the deposit will be non-refundable in the case of cancelations.

Payments shall be made by you without any deduction whatsoever unless you have a valid court order requiring an amount equal to such deduction to be paid by you.

Goods and services, Payment will be required before or at the time of obtaining the goods or services such as but not limited to SSL certificates, domains names, backups, mail exchange services and transfers.

Credit notes must be used within six months of the date they are issued. Any credit notes over six months old are invalid.

Quotations are valid for 1 month from the date of issue and are subject to change without notice in the event of additional work or services

Hosting

We host our websites on low population servers which are located in the United Kingdom. Our servers are fully managed by a professional team 24/7 with security and redundancy in mind.

Our hosting services are charged annually and you will receive advanced notification of any renewals by email up to 4 weeks before the hosting service anniversary.

We may at our discretion change the hosting fee required to reflect inflation.

If you cancel your hosting or do not pay a renewal your website and any services reliant on it will cease to function.

Whilst we typically operate a 99% up time this cannot be guaranteed and SmartDeCat takes no responsibility for loss of income or content during any outages.

Price changes Standard.

Each year we will adjust the amount customers pay for their plans according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate of inflation plus an additional 3.9%.

The CPI rate is announced in January each year and we will adjust a customer's bill by this amount plus an additional 3.9% from 31 March of the same year. For example, the CPI rate announced in January 2021 was 0.6%, so customers’ yearly plan prices from 31 March 2021 will increase by 4.5%.

Use of data

Incompliance with GDPR SmartDeCat stores personal information securely and only holds information that is relevant. Sensitive personal information is stored encrypted and is only accessible by the client or an authorised SmartDeCat member by way of a passworded access and areas operating an SSL.

We do not pass personal details on to third parties unless relevant in obtaining services such as registering a domain name.

SmartDeCat does not sell, lease or give away information to third parties unless required by law.

Domain names

The majority of our packages come complete with a UK domain name that we will register for you free of charge for the first year or first two years depending on the domain type. Thereafter a renewal fee will be applicable on the anniversary of the domain name.

When registering a domain name through SmartDeCat you are authorising SmartDeCat to act on your behalf to register and maintain the registration of your domain name.

By registering OR renewing a domain name you promise that:

• You have the permission of any person whose personal data is to be held on the register
• All contact and identity information supplied to us is accurate and will be kept up to date.
• You will not infringe the intellectual property of anyone else or company by obtaining a domain name.

Before purchasing a UK domain name please refer to nominets' own terms

Domain ownership

A domain has no owner and is not an item of property. SmartDeCat is bound by the terms & conditions of Nominet and other providers, which we use to guide us.

A domain name can be used for the duration of its registration and whilst it has been purchased and / or renewed subject to our terms & conditions and that of the relevant Naming Authority.

We are not liable for the actions or omissions of any Naming Authorities.

Domain cancelation

• A domain name can be cancelled by the user at anytime.
• If it is believed the information held when obtaining a domain is significantly inaccurate or false information has been given the domain maybe cancelled or moved to a special status.
• If a domain is used for illegal activity, such as but not limited to selling drugs, spreading viruses, DOS attacks.
• If you remove your permission for your personal data to be held and processed a domain can be cancelled.
• A domain has not been paid for or renewed.

Domain transfer

You can at anytime choose to transfer your domain away to another developer without penalty from SmartDeCat. Once we have received the correct information from you we will act on your instruction as soon as possible. Once we start the transfer process we will not be able to manage or maintain the domain on your behalf.

Once a domain has been transferred out all services such as hosting, emails ssl etc will stop functioning immediately or within 24 hours of instruction at the latest. Please ensure you have your new site and services ready prior to transferring away.

You can view Nominet domain name terms and conditions here

Reporting abuse

If you have a genuine abjection to the contents or use of a website we host you should first try and complain directly with the person or company that has registered the domain name. If this course of action is unsuccessful you can inform SmartDeCat by emailing us at abuse @ smartdecat.co.uk who will look in to the matter on your behalf.

If SmartDeCat is unsuccessful in assisting you and you believe a UK domain to be committing a crime please email abuse@nominetregistrar.co.uk

Making a complaint

If you have a complaint or a problem with a UK domain name you should contact us using complaints @ smartdecat.co.uk and we will do our very best to resolve your complaint as soon as possible, usually within 24 hours however during peak times this might take a little longer. If you feel that you need to escalate the issue you can contact Nominet directly by using their website at www.nominet.uk/resources/complaints

Appeals procedure

From hosting, design and content we aim to fulfil your requirements and we will work until your are completely happy as part of our standard terms. In relation to domain name disputes we will always transfer domains in and out free of change and follow guidance set by the relevant registrar. Change of ownership for a site or domain name must comply with our internal security checks, in the case of domains we will, in the event we are not satisfied with the information supplied will pass your details and complaint to the relevant registrar and will abide to their outcome regardless.

Ownership

Domain names

Whilst you have exclusive right to use a domain it has no owner and is not an item of property, working much like a contract you would have with your broadband provider. SmartDeCat is bound by the terms & conditions of Nominet and other providers, which we use to guide us.

Website code / CMS (Content Management System)

From Wordpress to sitebuilders each use temple framework like Foundation or Bootstrap as a few examples and the developer / provider owns the software and intellectual property associated with the CMS, and you have a license to use the software to manage your content.

Images / Text

Ownership of your website content is yours if it was created by you or your employee. However, if stock images have been used then the original creator has the ownership and you have a license to use the image in line with their terms.

Trademarks & copyrights

SmartDeCat is a registered trademark as listed with the Intellectual Property Office number UK00002474832. SmartDeCat is a trading name of Alistair Miller. All other trademarks or trading names used on this site or our software are that of their respective owners.

Images are either developed in house or obtained from sources under the Creative Commons Zero for both domestic and commercial usage.

Updates

As part of SmartDeCats continued improvement with both software features and security we, SmartDeCat reserve the right to gain access to a site to implement any such update and improvements as and when required. This service is provided free of charge whilst the software is within its end of life support, updates are provided free of charge and at our timing. Clients and sites wishing to update earlier or who have customised versions will be subject to normal redevelopment charges for the relevant customised area.

End of life product support.

Whilst we endeavour to support and provide updates to our software range on an ongoing basis, inevitably there maybe instances when a product is no longer cost effective or suitable for this service to be carried out. An example is when major changes occur to standards or working requirements on the World Wide Web as a whole, one being the change to HTML responsive.