Terms & Conditions

About These Terms

These Terms and Conditions ("Terms") apply to the website build, hosting and update services provided by Jake Wells, trading as JW Church Websites, a sole trader ("I", "me", "my"). By commissioning a build, whether by phone, email or through the website, you agree to these Terms.

Written in plain English on purpose. These Terms are meant to be genuinely readable, not just legally thorough — if anything here doesn't make sense, please just ask.

1. The Service

JW Church Websites builds and personally maintains hand-built HTML websites for churches, parishes, and groups of parishes (benefices). A standard build includes a home page written around your church, a contact form and thank-you page, a privacy policy and cookie policy, and hosting once the site is built. Because sites are hand-built rather than run through an editable platform, updates after launch are carried out by me — you send the content, I add it. Every build and update is carried out personally — there's no team, no rotating staff and no subcontractors.

What's Not Included

Online shops, ecommerce, or direct payment/donation processing — I'll link out to a giving platform you already use, but I don't process donations myself. Live-streaming and member-management systems are also outside the scope of a standard build, though I'm happy to link to third-party services you already use for these.

2. Booking & Confirmation

A build can be commissioned by phone, email, or through the contact form. It's confirmed once we've discussed your church (or group of churches) and agreed what the site needs to include. The standard turnaround for a first build is a handful of business days from confirmation, depending on you providing any requested information, files or photos reasonably promptly (Section 8).

3. Sponsorship & Cost

£0per month for your church — completely free, whatever the size of the group represented

£20per month, per site — the actual running cost, covered entirely by sponsorship

There is no fee charged to your church at any point — no setup fee, and no ongoing charge for hosting or updates, whatever the size of the group represented on the site. Running and personally updating a site costs £20 a month, whole site included; that cost is met through sponsorship rather than billed to the church.

Sponsors — church members, local businesses, or funds raised through church fundraising activity — pay into one shared sponsorship pot rather than funding a specific church directly. Contributions are allocated by me on a weekly basis, generally at £20 a month per site funded
Sponsorship is not a donation to a registered charity. JW Church Websites is not a charity, and no Gift Aid applies to a sponsor's contribution
Accepted payment methods for sponsors will be confirmed at the time of sponsoring
A sponsor may be credited on the site they help fund with a "Supported by" mention, unless they ask to remain anonymous. Sponsorship funds the site; it does not give a sponsor any editorial control over what a church's site contains
If sponsorship covering a particular site is withdrawn or lapses, the site will typically remain live for a reasonable period while alternative sponsorship is sought or the situation is discussed directly with the church, rather than being taken offline immediately
An "update round" is one batch of changes — however much or little is sent — built and published together, on a weekly cycle for every sponsored site. There's no cap on how much content can be sent within a round — only how often it's published. This does not guarantee a specific turnaround time for any single update, though I aim to publish within a couple of business days of each round

The £20 a month running cost may be reviewed from time to time. Any change will always be communicated in advance to affected sponsors, and a church is never asked to make up any shortfall itself.

4. Content & Updates

Because the site is hand-built HTML rather than a platform you log into, you don't edit the site yourself. Instead, you send me whatever you'd like added or changed — text, photos, PDFs, event details, service changes — by whichever method is easiest (email, WhatsApp, phone), and I build and publish it as part of your next weekly update round. There's no limit on how much you can send within a round. I'll use reasonable judgement to format and present what you send clearly; if something needs clarifying before it can go up, I'll ask.

Fair use: The weekly round is intended to reflect genuine, ordinary church use — regular notices, news, events and photos. If usage looks unusual for a site of your size, I'll always talk to you first rather than simply stopping the service.

5. Revisions to the Initial Build

Once a first draft of your site is ready, you'll have the chance to review it before it goes live. Reasonable revisions at this stage — wording changes, corrections, small layout tweaks — are included as part of getting the site launched. Once live, further changes are simply treated as ordinary updates under Section 4, at no extra cost.

6. Cancellations & Changes of Scope

No fee is ever due from your church, whether you cancel before work starts, partway through a build, or after the site is live — the arrangement is free for the church throughout. On the rare occasion I need to pause or delay a build, I'll let you know as early as possible and agree a revised timeline with you. There's no long-term contract — either of us can end the hosting arrangement at any time, with reasonable notice, so the site can be taken down or transferred in an orderly way.

7. Content, Copy & Images

Copy for the initial build is written by me, based on information you provide — you don't need to write anything yourself, but you're responsible for making sure it's accurate. No generic stock photography is used by default; if you supply your own photos, you confirm you have the right to use them and, where they include identifiable children, that appropriate parental consent and any relevant safeguarding permissions are already in place. If no images are supplied, the site will be built without them, or with a simple design pattern agreed with you.

8. Hosting & Domain Names

Sites are hand-built HTML rather than WordPress, so hosting is provided directly rather than through a third-party panel of your choosing. A domain name will be registered on your behalf if you need one, at no cost to your church, covered the same way as everything else under Section 3. If sponsorship covering your site ever lapses (see Section 3), you'll be given reasonable notice before the site is taken offline, and reasonable assistance will be given if you wish to move your site elsewhere.

9. Your Responsibilities

To keep the build on track and updates flowing smoothly: respond to questions about your church reasonably promptly, provide any photos, logos, files or update content clearly, review the draft site and give feedback within a reasonable time, and make sure any information given to me — including content from third parties such as event organisers — is accurate and lawful to publish.

10. Intellectual Property & Portfolio Use

You own the content of your site as built for your church — the words, your logo, and any photos or files you supplied. Underlying code structure and layout patterns remain part of how I work, and may be reused as a starting point for other builds. Unless you ask me not to, I may feature your finished site in my portfolio or as an example of my work — for instance, on the Our Work page. If you'd rather your site wasn't shown publicly, just let me know and it won't be featured.

11. Liability

Reasonable care and skill are always used when building, hosting and updating your site. I'm not liable for downtime or issues caused by factors outside my reasonable control (third-party outages, domain registrars, internet service issues), or for losses arising from inaccurate information or content you provided. My liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to the fees paid in the twelve months before the claim.

Note: Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where it would be unlawful to do so — for example, for fraud, or death or personal injury caused by negligence.

12. Data Protection

Any personal data collected as part of commissioning or hosting a build — including content sent to me for updates — is handled in line with the Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms.

13. Complaints

If you're ever unhappy with any part of the service, please get in touch directly and it will be addressed as quickly as possible: jake@jwchurchwebsites.co.uk or 07539 345928.

14. Changes to These Terms

These Terms may be updated from time to time. Any significant change will be communicated to clients with an active hosting arrangement directly. The "Last updated" date above reflects the most recent version. Continuing to use the service after a change means the updated Terms are accepted.

15. General

Governing law: these Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Entire agreement: these Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and anything specifically agreed at the time of booking, form the entire agreement between us. Severability: if any part of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest continues to apply as normal.

JW Church Websites is operated by Jake Wells as a sole trader.