These Terms & Conditions set out what’s included in Serif Systems’ Managed Hosting services, what isn’t covered, and the responsibilities of both parties. Our aim is always to provide a reliable, transparent service that supports your business and gives you peace of mind.
Scope of Hosting
Our Managed Hosting packages include:
- Daily website backups (retained for a minimum of 7 days – extended backup periods can be added).
- Monthly plugin updates.
- Ongoing site monitoring.
- Technical support during our business hours (see Support & Service Levels).
- Resolution of issues caused by system failure.
We take technical measures to keep your hosting secure, but you are responsible for ensuring your own compliance with data protection laws, including providing appropriate legal content such as privacy policies and cookie notices.
Our Managed Hosting packages do not include:
- Website development or design work.
- Issues arising from third-party plugin or software updates.
- Content changes or updates.
- Fixing issues caused by misunderstandings of website technologies in use.
- Website updates to resolve issues caused by advancing technology.
If you require additional services beyond what’s included, or if you need extra support beyond the scope of your package, we can provide a quotation for development or consultancy work.
Support & Service Levels
We will endeavour to provide a continuous high quality service. If you experience problems with your service, you should consult our Helpdesk. Should you fail to find a resolution, contact details can be found on our Contact page.
Please note we may require suspension of some of our services for short scheduled periods to carry out maintenance or repair to our services. Please view our Service Levels for more information.
Scheduled maintenance (usually plugin updates) takes place at least once per month. This typically causes no downtime, but if downtime is expected, we’ll let you know in advance. Should your site require any updates to bring it in line with the latest required specifications then we will contact you to discuss your options.
Liability & Fair Use
- While we take every care to protect your site and data, we cannot accept liability for outages, data loss or issues outside of our control.
- A fair usage policy applies to bandwidth and storage. If your site usage significantly exceeds what is considered reasonable for your package, we’ll contact you to discuss suitable options.
- If you exceed the limits on our database products (MS SQL and MySQL) then we will automatically charge you for the additional space you use at our current prices.
- Resources are defined as bandwidth, processor utilisation or disk space. Serif Systems Limited may implement the following policy to its sole discretion: When a website is found to be monopolising the resources available, Serif Systems Limited reserves the right to suspend that site immediately. This policy is only implemented in extreme circumstances and is intended to prevent the misuse of our servers. Customers may be offered an option whereby Serif Systems Limited continues hosting the website for an additional fee.
- Serif Systems Limited reserves the right to refuse service and/or access to its servers to anyone.
- Serif Systems Limited does not allow any of the following content to be stored on its servers:
- Adult material including all pornography, erotic images or otherwise lewd or obscene content;
- Excessive download content or non-linked content;
- Illegal or copyrighted content.
Refusal of service based on content matching any of these criteria is entirely at the discretion of Serif Systems Limited.
Reselling of Services
- All accounts other than our Reseller Accounts are to be used by the primary owner only, and do not allow the holders to resell, store or give away web hosting services of their website to other parties.
- Web hosting services are defined as allowing a separate, third party to host content on the owner’s website. Exceptions to this include ad banners, classified ads and personal ads. Customers may, however, resell all of our services with our Reseller packages.
Billing & Payment
- Hosting is billed on an Annual basis as standard.
- Quarterly billing arrangements (of Annual Hosting) are available on our larger hosting packages.
- All accounts are set up on a prepay basis. Although Serif Systems Limited reserves the right to change prices of accounts or services at any time, all pricing is guaranteed for the period of prepayment. Payment is in advance of any monthly, quarterly, yearly or biennially charges. Customers will automatically be charged again at the end of their prepay period unless closure notification has already been given.
- Serif Systems Limited reserves the right to suspend other services until the outstanding debt is cleared. The customer is responsible for all money owed on the account from the time it was established to the time that the customer sends a written cancellation request.
- All payment is in UK sterling.
Please note: Whilst your account’s email is primarily used for billing purposes, Serif Systems Limited reserves the right to email you information about enhancements to our systems and product offerings. Your email will not be passed to any other parties at any time.
Termination
If you wish to move your site away from Serif Systems, we will work with you to make the transition as smooth as possible. We may make a charge for assistance.
Serif Systems Limited reserves the right to cancel the service at any time. In this event, customers will be entitled to a pro-rata refund based upon the remaining period of membership. If a customer contravenes Serif Systems Limited’s terms of service, a refund will not be issued in the event of a cancellation.
Customers may cancel their account at any time. All services are offered on an annual basis and no refunds are given for partial use of services. Cancelled domains are also not refundable and when cancelled will not be renewed. Customers are not entitled to receive a refund unless the service is cancelled by Serif Systems Limited. In addition, some accounts incur setup fees. These charges are also non-refundable.
Intellectual Property Rights
Our Intellectual Property Rights Terms & Conditions are available on request.
Indemnification
The Customer agrees that they shall defend, indemnify, save and hold Serif Systems Limited harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable legal fees asserted against Serif Systems Limited, its agents, its customers, officers and employees, that may arise or result from any service provided or performed or agreed to be performed or any product sold by customer, its agents, employees or assigns.
The Customer agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Serif Systems Limited against liabilities arising out of:
- Any injury to person or property caused by any products sold or otherwise distributed in connection with Serif Systems Limited’s servers;
- Any material supplied by customer infringing or allegedly infringing on the proprietary rights of a third party;
- Copyright infringement;
- Any defective products sold to customer from Serif Systems Limited or our suppliers’ server(s).
Disclaimer
Serif Systems Limited will not be responsible for any damages your business may suffer. Serif Systems Limited makes no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied for services we provide. Serif Systems Limited does not back up your data/website unless it is placed on a load balanced server, and whilst every attempt would be made in the unlikely event of any corruption or hardware failure, Serif Systems Limited cannot guarantee to be able to replace lost data. Serif Systems Limited disclaims any warranty or merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, wrong delivery, and any and all service interruptions caused by Serif Systems Limited and its employees. Serif Systems Limited reserves the right to revise its policies at any time.
Governing Law & Jurisdiction
These Terms & Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms & Conditions shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.
Please note: By signing up for any of our services you agree to be bound by all of Serif Systems Limited’s Terms & Conditions. We reserve the right to make reasonable updates to these terms and will notify you of any significant changes.
