Website plan terms
These terms apply when a conveyancing firm or law practice signs up to the managed website plan. They are for businesses, and they sit alongside the written order you accept when you sign up.
Who these terms are for
"We" and "us" means the business that provides the website plan, named at the end of these terms. "You" means the firm or practice that signs up. The plan is offered only to businesses, for use in their business. It is not offered to consumers.
The agreement between us is these terms together with the written order you accept, which names your firm, your domain and the date the plan starts. If the order and these terms differ, the order applies.
What we supply
- A website for your firm, built from the content you supply and live within 14 days of us receiving that content. Days spent waiting for your approval or for missing details are not counted.
- Hosting for the website, an SSL certificate, and security and software updates.
- Up to 5 content edits each month. An edit is a change to existing pages, such as new wording, a new photo or updated contact details.
- A listing for your firm beside our guides for the state you practise in, on the terms in the listing section below.
- A report each month of the enquiries your website received.
Not included: paid advertising, logo or brand design, writing your content, new sections or a redesign, domain registration fees and email accounts. If you ask for any of these, we quote first and do nothing until you agree in writing. We do not promise search rankings, visitor numbers or a number of enquiries.
Your content and your professional obligations
You are responsible for the content you give us and approve: that it is accurate, that you have the right to use it, and that publishing it complies with the law and with the conduct rules that bind your practice. For solicitors that includes rule 36 of the Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules, which requires advertising not to be false, misleading, deceptive or offensive and restricts the words "accredited specialist"2. Licensed conveyancers are bound by the rules of the state that licenses them.
You approve each page before it goes live. We may decline to publish content that we reasonably believe is unlawful or misleading, and we will tell you why. You must tell us promptly if your licence or practising certificate is suspended, cancelled or not renewed.
The listing
The listing has no separate price. It is part of the monthly fee, and that fee does not change with the number of enquiries, clicks or clients the listing produces. We do not collect, forward or sell client enquiries through the listing: people contact your firm directly.
- Every listing uses the same format: firm name, licence or practising certificate number, area served, phone number and a link to your website.
- Listings are labelled as paid, shown in alphabetical order, and never described as recommended, best or specialist.
- A listing is shown only after your licence or practising certificate is confirmed on the public register for your state, and is removed if it lapses.
- Having the plan has no effect on whether your firm receives buyer quote requests. Those, if offered, are covered by a separate written agreement.
The listing is set up so that you pay nothing for the referral of a client. That is deliberate: the Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules allow a solicitor to act where a third party is paid for referring the client only after first disclosing that payment to the client1, and in South Australia the Law Council's commentary points to section 29(1) of the Land and Business (Sale and Conveyancing) Act 1994 as an effective prohibition on solicitors paying a fee for conveyancing referrals3. Listings are not offered in South Australia unless a lawyer confirms they are lawful there. If we are advised that a listing is not permitted in a state, we remove it there. The rest of the plan continues unchanged.
Fees and payment
- Monthly fee: A$249, GST may apply.
- Setup fee: A$499, paid once, GST may apply.
The setup fee is invoiced when you accept the order. The monthly fee is invoiced monthly in advance from the date your website goes live. The payment method and due date are stated on the order and each invoice.
GST is not added while we are not registered for GST. A business with GST turnover under $75,000 that has not chosen to register does not include GST in its prices4. If we register, we will tell you in writing before any invoice includes GST.
If an invoice is not paid, we will remind you in writing and give you a reasonable time to pay before we suspend the website. We restore it once the invoice is paid. We will not change the monthly fee during the minimum term, and after it we will give you written notice before any change takes effect, so you can end the plan instead.
Term and cancellation
The plan runs for a minimum of 12 months from the date your website goes live, then continues month to month. After the minimum term, either of us can end the plan by written notice given before the next billing month starts; it ends at the close of the month already paid for.
If you end the plan during the minimum term, the monthly fees for the rest of that term remain payable. That does not apply if you end it because we have seriously failed to supply the plan and have not fixed the problem within a reasonable time after you told us in writing. Either of us may end the agreement straight away if the other seriously breaches it and does not fix the breach within a reasonable time after written notice.
Your domain, your content, and what happens at the end
Your domain name is registered in your firm's name and belongs to you. The text, photos, logos and other material you supply stay yours; you allow us to use them only to build, host and maintain your website and show your listing. We host the website. The design template and code we use to build and run it remain ours.
When the plan ends, we send you a copy of your content in a common file format, and the site stays online until the end of the last month paid for. Because the domain is in your name, you can point it to any new host.
Enquiries and personal information
Enquiries sent through your website are for your firm. We handle the personal information in them only to deliver them to you, keep the site running and prepare your monthly report. We do not use it for anything else, and we do not sell it. We will tell you promptly if we become aware of unauthorised access to it. Your website carries your own privacy policy, which we publish from the text you supply. How we handle information about you as our customer is in our privacy policy.
Availability and liability
We take reasonable care to keep your website online and secure, but we cannot promise it will never be unavailable. Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or changes any right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot lawfully be excluded, including where that law treats a business as a consumer.
Subject to those rights, and to the extent the law allows: we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, such as lost business or profit; and our total liability to you under this agreement in any 12 months is limited to the fees you paid us in those 12 months.
Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. We will tell you in writing before a change affects you, and no change reduces what you are entitled to during your minimum term unless you agree to it.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the law of the Australian state or territory where the business that provides the plan is based. That state or territory will be named here, and in your written order, before the plan is offered.
Who provides the plan
The business details of whoever runs this site will be published on this page before it launches.
These terms were last updated on . The plan and its price are described on the websites for conveyancers page.