Legal
These terms govern all engagements between Techster Consulting and its clients. Written to be read, not feared.
Version 1.21 · Last updated 3 July 2026
Here is a plain-English summary of how we work together. This is not the contract. It is a human explanation of what to expect from us and what we expect from you.
What we will do
What we ask of you
Contents
1. Parties 2. Nature of Services 3. Scope Control and Fair Use 4. Fees and Payment 5. Client Warranties 6. Password and Credentials Policy 7. Support and Expected Outcomes 8. Limitation of Liability 9. Confidentiality and Data Handling 10. Intellectual Property 11. Assignment 12. Force Majeure 13. Consumer Cancellation Rights 14. Termination 15. Independent Contractor 16. Governing Law and Jurisdiction 17. Ethical Use and Refusal of Service 18. Entire AgreementThese terms apply to all engagements between Techster Consulting, a sole trader registered in England and Wales (the "Consultant"), and any individual or organisation engaging the Consultant's services (the "Client").
Techster Consulting provides purely advisory, consultancy, and educational services. The Consultant does not access, operate, administer, or make any changes to the Client's systems, servers, infrastructure, or data at any time.
All guidance and recommendations are advisory. The Client is solely and exclusively responsible for implementing any advice received. Any actions taken on the Client's systems are taken by the Client alone, at the Client's sole discretion and risk. All advice is based solely on information supplied by the Client at the time of the engagement. Except to the extent required by applicable law, the Consultant accepts no liability for advice that proves incomplete or inappropriate due to information that was omitted, withheld, or inaccurately provided by the Client. It is the Client's responsibility to ensure all relevant information about their systems, environment, and constraints is disclosed before advice is sought.
Services include: IT infrastructure consultancy; VPS setup and configuration advice; Linux server and security guidance; cybersecurity consultancy and risk assessment; firewall, SSH, and access control guidance; web server and SSL/TLS advice; DNS and domain guidance; training and knowledge transfer; maintenance and monitoring scripts, custom software, and configuration templates; documentation and handover materials; and any other advisory services agreed in writing.
Except to the extent required by applicable law, the Consultant provides the Services without any express or implied warranties beyond those expressly set out in these Terms. Nothing in this clause excludes the Consultant's obligation to exercise reasonable skill and care where required by law.
The Consultant does not provide legal, regulatory, compliance, financial, or insurance advice. Any comments relating to regulatory frameworks (including but not limited to UK GDPR, Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001, or PCI DSS) are provided solely from a technical perspective and should not be relied upon as legal or regulatory advice. The Client should seek advice from an appropriately qualified professional on any such matters.
Each engagement consists of one or more agreed units of work: a specific, defined deliverable described in writing before work begins. The written description constitutes the full and complete scope of that unit. Anything not explicitly included is outside scope.
Additional requests beyond the agreed scope are not included in the original unit of work. Such requests will be treated as a new unit, scoped and priced separately before the Consultant proceeds.
Reasonable clarifications directly related to a delivered unit are included. The Consultant reserves the right to determine when further questions constitute a new unit of work, and will advise the Client before proceeding.
A unit of work is complete when the agreed deliverable has been provided in writing. The Client may raise a reasonable objection regarding apparent defects within 5 business days of delivery. Latent defects not reasonably discoverable within that period may be raised within a reasonable time of discovery, provided they relate directly to the original scope. Objections outside the original scope will be treated as a new unit of work.
The Consultant charges a fixed fee per agreed unit of work. A unit of work is a specific, defined deliverable agreed in writing before work begins, for example: a VPS setup guide, a security audit report, a hardening checklist, or a training session. There are no open-ended hourly rates. The Client knows exactly what they will pay before any work commences.
Payment is due within 14 days of invoice, issued upon completion of the agreed unit of work. Late payment may incur interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. The Consultant reserves the right to withhold further deliverables until outstanding invoices are settled. Fees are exclusive of VAT (Techster Consulting is not currently VAT registered).
The Client warrants that it owns, controls, or is duly authorised to administer any systems in respect of which advice is sought; has obtained all necessary permissions to act upon the Consultant's advice; and will not ask the Consultant to advise on anything requiring the Client to contravene applicable law.
The Client indemnifies the Consultant against any claims, losses, and liabilities arising from a breach of these warranties, including reasonable legal costs incurred by the Consultant.
The Consultant will never, under any circumstances, request, solicit, or accept passwords, passphrases, private keys, API keys, or any authentication credentials. This is an absolute and unconditional policy with no exceptions.
If a Client offers or attempts to share credentials, the Consultant will decline, document the instance, and advise the Client to change the relevant credentials immediately.
The Consultant will apply reasonable skill and care. The Consultant does not guarantee that following advice will achieve any specific outcome or resolve any specific problem. Nothing in these terms shall make the Consultant responsible for decisions ultimately implemented by the Client. The Client remains responsible for determining whether any recommendation is suitable for their particular systems, business requirements, and risk appetite before implementation.
Not all technical problems have a known solution. Security threats evolve continuously. The Consultant will communicate clearly if a problem falls outside what can currently be advised upon.
The Consultant's obligation is limited to delivering the agreed unit of work. Each engagement is self-contained unless a separate ongoing advisory retainer is agreed in writing.
The Consultant operates on a best-endeavours basis without dedicated support staff. No specific response time is guaranteed unless confirmed in a separate written SLA.
The Client acknowledges that no statement, opinion, recommendation, or communication from the Consultant constitutes a guarantee or warranty. The Client remains responsible for independently determining whether recommendations are appropriate for their systems and business objectives and, where appropriate, for obtaining further independent advice before implementation.
As the Consultant provides purely advisory services and never accesses or operates the Client's systems, the Client is solely responsible for all actions taken on their own systems. Except to the extent required by applicable law, the Consultant shall not be liable for any outcome arising from the Client's implementation of, or failure to implement, any advice provided.
Except to the extent required by applicable law, the Consultant shall not be liable for: loss of data, revenue, profit, or business; business interruption; indirect or consequential loss; loss from failure to follow advice correctly; or loss from third-party software or services.
Scripts, templates, code, and custom software provided by the Consultant, including any maintenance or monitoring scripts, are provided for the Client's own use, except to the extent warranties cannot lawfully be excluded. The Client must test all such materials in a non-production environment before any deployment to live systems. The Client is solely responsible for reviewing, testing, deploying, and maintaining such materials going forward. Except to the extent required by applicable law, the Consultant accepts no liability for any consequences arising from their use, including where they are deployed without prior testing, or where they are subject to any modification, integration, combination with other software, or use outside the documented purpose for which they were provided.
Upon delivery of any script, software, template, configuration, or other executable material to the Client, responsibility for its installation, configuration, testing, operation, monitoring, maintenance, updating, compatibility, and continued suitability transfers entirely to the Client, unless expressly agreed otherwise in writing. The Consultant has no continuing obligation to modify, maintain, support, or update any such materials following delivery. Software is provided as it exists at the date of delivery, and compatibility with future operating systems, software versions, hardware, APIs, or third-party services is not warranted.
Providing a monitoring or maintenance script or piece of software is not the provision of a monitoring or maintenance service. The Consultant does not warrant that any script or software will detect, alert on, or prevent any particular condition, that any alert will be delivered or seen, or that it will continue to function correctly following changes to the Client's systems, software versions, or environment. Ongoing monitoring, alerting, or maintenance as a managed service is only provided where expressly agreed in writing as a separate engagement.
The Consultant provides advice to reduce risk but cannot guarantee prevention of any security incident. The Client is solely responsible for the security of their own systems. Except to the extent required by applicable law, the Consultant shall not be liable for any security incident affecting the Client's systems.
The Consultant's total aggregate liability shall not exceed the greater of: (a) the fees paid for the relevant engagement; or (b) £1,000, except where such limitation is prohibited by law. This cap applies to all claims in aggregate, including claims arising under confidentiality provisions. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Consultant accepts no liability for regulatory penalties, fines, sanctions, certification failures, or compliance breaches of any kind, including but not limited to those arising under UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, PCI-DSS, Cyber Essentials, or any other regulatory framework, regardless of whether the Client followed advice provided by the Consultant.
The Client is responsible for backups, regulatory compliance, determining whether any recommendation is suitable for their particular systems, business requirements, and risk appetite before implementation, and the security of their own systems at all times.
Both Parties keep confidential any sensitive information disclosed in connection with an engagement, except where publicly available or required by law.
The Consultant handles client information with care, retains it only as long as necessary, uses it only for the agreed services, and returns or destroys it upon completion. Personal data is handled in accordance with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
The Consultant acts as Data Processor only when handling personal data on behalf of the Client. Where required, the Parties will enter into a separate Data Processing Agreement.
The Consultant may, at their sole discretion, notify the Client of security vulnerabilities discovered after an engagement that may be relevant to advice previously provided. This represents a courtesy and does not create a continuing obligation or ongoing duty of care. No liability shall arise from any failure to provide such notification.
Custom software and other materials produced specifically for the Client become the Client's property in full upon full payment. The Consultant's general methodologies, and any reusable scripts, templates, or tools not built specifically for the Client, remain the Consultant's property; the Client may use these within their own systems, but unless otherwise agreed in writing, they may not be redistributed commercially.
The Client may not assign, transfer, or novate any rights or obligations under these terms to any third party without the prior written consent of the Consultant. The Consultant may assign the benefit of any payment obligation to a third party. Any purported assignment in breach of this clause shall be void.
Neither Party shall be liable for failure caused by circumstances beyond their reasonable control, including illness of the Consultant, internet outages, third-party platform failures, acts of God, or government actions. Where such circumstances persist beyond 30 days, either Party may terminate without liability, subject to payment for completed work.
If you are an individual engaging the Consultant for personal purposes and the agreement was made without meeting in person, you may have a legal right to cancel within 14 days under UK consumer protection law. If work has begun at your request within that period, you may be charged for work completed. To cancel, contact hello@techster.uk in writing.
Either Party may terminate with 7 days written notice. The Client pays for work completed to termination. The Consultant delivers completed materials and securely destroys sensitive client information. The Consultant may terminate immediately for unlawful activity, non-payment, or abusive conduct.
The Consultant additionally reserves the right to decline to begin, or to terminate, any engagement at their sole discretion and without being required to provide reasons, subject to payment for work already completed. This right reflects the nature of an independent sole trader practice and applies regardless of whether any wrongdoing or misconduct is involved. This clause does not affect any statutory rights available to consumers under applicable UK consumer protection legislation.
The Consultant is an independent contractor. Nothing in these terms creates a partnership, employment, or agency relationship.
These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Before commencing legal proceedings, both Parties shall first attempt to resolve the dispute by written notice and good-faith discussions for a period of 30 days. If the dispute is not resolved within that period, either Party may commence proceedings. The courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to determine any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms.
The Consultant provides services exclusively for lawful, ethical, and constructive purposes. The Consultant reserves the right, at their sole discretion, to decline or immediately terminate any engagement where the advice sought or the intended use of that advice involves or appears to involve:
The Consultant shall not be required to provide reasons for declining an engagement on ethical grounds. Where an engagement is terminated under this clause, the Client shall pay for any work completed up to the point of termination. Except to the extent required by applicable law, the Consultant shall not be liable for any losses arising from such termination.
These terms, together with any written scope of work and engagement letter, constitute the entire agreement between the Parties and supersede all prior discussions, representations, or agreements. Amendments must be agreed in writing by both Parties. By engaging Techster Consulting, whether by signing an engagement letter, responding affirmatively to a proposal by email, or making a payment: the Client confirms they have read and agree to these terms.