Terms and Conditions

By engaging me to work with you, you agree to the following terms and conditions. Because of their importance to how we will work together, please contact me if you have any concerns so that I may address those.

General

1. These terms & conditions apply to any work done for the you (the Customer) by me (PHW Proofreading).
2. You are under no obligation to offer me work; neither am I under any obligation to accept work offered by you.
3. I will provide editing/proofreading services as mutually agreed in writing, which may include by email or other messaging exchange.
4. The work will be carried out unsupervised at such times and places as determined by me, using my own equipment.
5. The work will be carried out by me; I will not subcontract work to others.
6. I confirm that I am self-employed, am responsible for my own income tax and National Insurance contributions and will not claim benefits granted to your employees.
7. I am not VAT-registered.
8. All edits made to your work by me are suggestions only; you are under no obligation to take them, and I will not be responsible for any changes made after I have worked on the document.
9. I do not guarantee perfection; I am, after all, only human.
10. If I have made a substantial contribution to the editing/proofreading of the work, I will be entitled to receive one free copy of the work.
11. I may use your name and a link to the work in my promotional material.
12. This agreement is subject to the laws of England and Wales, and both you and I agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the English and Welsh courts.

Scope and Payment

13. Before starting work, we will agree in writing:
a. The format in which the editing/proofreading work will be done (e.g. in Word, on PDF, etc.)
b. How I will annotate the document (e.g. Track Changes, PDF annotations and markup, etc.)
c. The length of time required to complete the project
d. The latest date by which the completed project will be returned
e. A fee for my work, which will be based on my review of a sample, the amount of work necessary and the time frame required
f. Any expenses (e.g. postage) that you will pay in addition to the fee for my work in proofreading/editing your work
14. Unless agreed otherwise at the outset, payment of half of the agreed fee will be payable up front, with payment of the balance to be made on receipt of my invoice.
15. If, however, it becomes apparent that significantly more work is required than had been anticipated in the preliminary discussion/brief or from the sample provided, I may renegotiate the fee and/or the deadline or decline to carry out the work.
16. Similarly, if, during the term of my work, additional tasks are requested by you, I may renegotiate the fee and/or the deadline or decline those additional tasks.
17. I will provide my invoice upon completion of the work agreed.
18. If, however, the project is lengthy, I may invoice periodically for completed stages.

Confidentiality, Copyright and Data Protection

19. The nature and content of the work will be kept confidential and not made known to anyone other than you and your contractors without prior written permission.
20. All content that you deliver to me for editing/proofreading is owned by you.
21. You agree to hold me harmless from and against all liabilities, expenses and claims against you.
22. Following payment of my invoice, any content created by me as part of the editing/proofreading process will become the copyright of you unless otherwise agreed.
23. See my Privacy Policy, which describes the data that I need from you and how I use it in order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 (GDPR).

Cancellation

24. Either of us has the right to terminate a contract for services if there is a serious breach of its terms.
25. Cancellation of service by either one of us must be in writing.