Terms and Conditions

1. Scope

These terms and conditions apply to all contracts between Paul Burghardt, Burghardt Design, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring 29 / 4, 55118 Mainz, Germany (“we”), and its clients (“client”) for designing and building websites and for their maintenance and hosting.

We work with consumers and businesses. A consumer is any natural person entering into a transaction for purposes that are predominantly outside their trade, business or profession (§ 13 BGB). A business is a natural or legal person or partnership with legal capacity acting in the exercise of its trade, business or profession (§ 14 BGB).

The client’s own terms only apply if we expressly agree to them in text form. Individual agreements in the quote take precedence over these terms.

2. Formation of the contract

Our services and prices on this website are not a binding offer. Sending a brief and creating an account are free and non-binding and oblige neither the client nor us to enter into a contract.

Based on the brief and a conversation, we prepare an individual quote in text form (e.g. by email) setting out scope, price and schedule. The contract is formed when the client accepts that quote in text form.

The contract language is German. The client receives the contract text (quote and these terms) in text form with the quote.

3. Services

The type and scope of services follow from the accepted quote. The packages described on the website are starting points; the quote is decisive.

Unless the quote says otherwise, two revision rounds are included. A revision round covers the collected change requests on one presented draft. Further rounds and changes beyond the agreed scope are agreed with the client in advance and billed by time spent.

We do not provide legal advice. Legal texts for the client’s website (e.g. legal notice, privacy policy) are supplied by the client or reviewed by a qualified professional; the client is legally responsible for the content and operation of their website. Technical implementations we offer (such as a cookie banner) are not a legal review.

4. Client cooperation

The client provides the content needed for the work (e.g. texts, images, logos, login details) in good time and in a suitable form, and gives feedback on drafts within a reasonable time. If the work is delayed because the client does not provide such cooperation, agreed dates move accordingly.

The client warrants that they hold the necessary rights to all content they give us (in particular copyright and trademark rights and the consent of people shown) and that using it on the website does not infringe third-party rights. If the client is a business, they indemnify us against third-party claims arising from a breach of this warranty for which they are responsible.

5. Prices and payment

The prices stated in the quote apply. All prices are final prices. As a small business under § 19 UStG we do not charge or show VAT.

For website projects, a deposit of 50% of the agreed price is due when the contract is formed; it reserves the project slot. The balance is due on acceptance (section 6).

The monthly fee for maintenance and hosting is due at the start of each calendar month.

Invoices are payable without deduction within 14 days of receipt.

6. Acceptance

Once finished, we make the website available for acceptance. Acceptance cannot be refused because of insignificant defects (§ 640(1) BGB).

The website is deemed accepted if, after completion, we have set the client a reasonable deadline for acceptance and the client has not refused acceptance within that deadline, naming at least one defect (§ 640(2) BGB). If the client is a consumer, this only applies if, together with the request for acceptance, we informed them in text form of this consequence and of the consequences of an unjustified refusal.

7. Rights of use and references

On full payment, the client receives the exclusive right, unlimited in time and territory, to use the designs created for them for their website and their own advertising, and to edit them or have them edited. For general components not created specifically for them (e.g. reusable code), the client receives a non-exclusive right of the same scope.

Until full payment, drafts and previews may only be used for review and coordination.

Third-party material (e.g. fonts, open-source software, stock photos) is subject to its rights holders’ licence terms. We only use material whose licence permits the intended use and, on request, tell the client the sources and licences.

We only name the client or show their website as a reference with their express consent, which they can withdraw at any time with effect for the future.

8. Maintenance and hosting

Maintenance and hosting contracts (e.g. in the “Build + Care” package) run for an indefinite period. The client can cancel at any time, effective at the end of the calendar month in which we receive the cancellation. We can cancel with one month’s notice to the end of a month. Cancellation must be in text form (e.g. email).

The scope (e.g. updates, backups, monitoring, included hours) follows from the quote. Included hours apply to the respective calendar month; unused hours expire at the end of the month and are neither carried over nor refunded.

When the contract ends, we hand over the website’s files and related content in a common format on request so the client can keep running or move it. We then delete the hosted data unless we are legally required to keep it.

9. Defects

The statutory rights for defects apply.

10. Liability

We are liable without limitation for injury to life, body or health, for damage caused intentionally or by gross negligence, under the Product Liability Act, and to the extent of any guarantee we have given.

For slight negligence, we are only liable for breach of essential contractual obligations — obligations whose fulfilment makes proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose fulfilment the client may regularly rely. In that case, liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for the contract at the time it was formed.

These limitations also apply in favour of our vicarious agents.

11. Consumers’ right of withdrawal

Consumers have a statutory right of withdrawal for contracts formed exclusively by means of distance communication (e.g. email, phone) or away from business premises. Details and the model withdrawal form are in the withdrawal notice at burghardt.design/en/widerruf; the client also receives it in text form with the quote.

12. Final provisions

German law applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. For consumers, this choice of law only applies insofar as it does not deprive them of the protection granted by mandatory provisions of the law of the country of their habitual residence.

If the client is a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law, the place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the contract is Mainz.

We are neither willing nor obliged to take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.