Terms and Conditions

1. General

1.1 What these terms cover.

These are the terms and conditions on which Snappy Host Ltd (“Snappyhost”) supply services to you. All terms are effective from the date of your electronic submission of order.

1.2 Why you should read them.

Please read these terms carefully before you submit your order to us. These terms tell you who we are, how we will provide services to you, how you and we may change or end the contract, what to do if there is a problem and other important information.

1.3 Amendment of Terms.

Snappyhost may at any time, at its sole and absolute discretion, change or modify this Agreement and any policies or agreements that are incorporated herein. Any changes or modifications will take immediate effect. Your continued use of the website or our services will constitute your acceptance of the amended Agreement. The obligation is upon you to ensure that the email you have provided to us is up to date. We accept no liability or responsibility for your failure to receive any email communications from us if such failure results from an inaccurate email address.

2. Information about us and how to contact us

2.1 Who we are.

We are Snappy Host Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 12659438. Our registered office is at Oak House A, Southwell Road West, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, NG21 0HJ.

How to contact us. You can contact us via the contact methods mentioned at snappyhost.co.uk/contact-us/ or by logging into your client area at my.snappyhost.co.uk and raising a support ticket.

2.2 How we may contact you.

If we have to contact you we will do so by telephone or by writing to you at the email address or postal address you provided to us at the time of placing your order.

3. Our contract with you

3.1 How we will accept your order.

Placing an order on our website does not guarantee acceptance of your order. Our acceptance of your order will take place after your order is placed at the point you receive confirmation that your order has been fulfilled. At this point a contract will come into existence between you and us. Payment must be received before any services will be provided.

3.2 If we cannot accept or fulfill your order.

If we are unable to accept or fulfill your order, we will inform you of this and refund any money you have paid to us. Examples of when we will not be able to fulfill your order include when your desired domain name is no longer available to register, where the registry has decided to charge a non-standard price or where the domain transfer you have requested can no longer be transferred.

3.3 Account Details.

In order to access our services you will be asked to create an Account. You may be allocated a username and password when your order is placed. We reserve the right to change any username or password allocated to you. Any changes will be notified to you in writing. You warrant to Snappyhost that all information submitted in order to set up and utilise your Account is true, accurate and complete.

You are solely responsible for activities on your Account, whether authorised by you or not. You must keep your login details secure. You must notify us immediately of any unauthorised use of your account or security breach.

4. Domains

4.1 Domain Registration.

We make no representations as to the availability of a particular domain name requested for registration by you (Domain). A Domain will always be registered in or transferred into your name, not Snappyhost’s. You should manage your Domain’s WHOIS data through your Snappyhost client area at my.snappyhost.co.uk. It is your responsibility to ensure that all data is accurate. Your Domain may be taken offline if you fail to keep your contact data up to date and it cannot be verified. To provide the best service we may from time to time change the registrar that a Domain is held with, at our discretion and without notice. Such a change does not impact your domain name usage.

4.2 Designated Agent.

For all applicable gTLDs you agree that we will act as a Designated Agent, in accordance with ICANN’s Transfer Policy, for you whenever a request is made to update the registrant contact details associated with a Domain. In that respect, you authorise us to approve a change of registrant of any change to the registrant’s details on behalf of you.

4.3 Checking the registration/renewal.

Our service is limited to the forwarding of your order to the registry. It is your sole responsibility to ensure that the domain has been registered, renewed and/or transferred as appropriate. We accept no liability for any failure to register or transfer the Domain.

4.4 Third Party terms and conditions.

Domain registration is subject to third party terms and conditions including those from the relevant registry for the Domain extension. By submitting your order to us you are confirming that you will at all times and in all respects comply with ICANN’s and any relevant registry’s terms and conditions for domain registration and use. You will indemnify us in respect of any failure by you to comply with the terms of this Agreement or any failure to comply with ICANN or the registry’s terms and conditions.

4.5 Domain Renewals.

We will endeavor to automatically renew a Domain on your behalf when it is due for renewal, save where you have given notice in accordance with clause 4.6, below or where you have set the Domain to either cancel or manual renewal in your control panel. We will not renew a Domain where no up to date payment method has been provided or where you fail to make payment as required.

4.6 Detail of renewal.

Renewals will ordinarily be renewed for the same duration as the initial registration period, unless you instruct in writing of any required amendment or modify the renewal settings in your client area. The renewal will be charged at the prevailing rate at the time of renewal. We shall take payment for Domain renewals up to 7 days prior to the Domain renewal date in order to ensure that the Domain is renewed on time.

4.7 Domain Transfers and Ownership Terms.

We shall determine the ownership of a registered Domain by reference to the details held on the Whois database. If the Whois database details are not determinative then we shall be entitled to request whatever supporting evidence we may require to ascertain ownership. It is your obligation to resolve any dispute over ownership with a third party. We are under no obligation to carry out a transfer request if we are not satisfied that the correct consents and permissions have been obtained.

4.8 Basis of Transfer.

You are solely responsible for completing any steps required to transfer the domain, including but not limited to: changing the Nominet IPSTAG of the domain, unlocking the domain name, providing the Authorisation code, and approving a transfer request. You must inform us if you wish to cancel a transfer and request a refund in accordance with our refund policy.

4.9 Transfer Restrictions.

You acknowledge that one year may be added and charged to some domain extensions when transferred. Some domains have maximum registration periods and you acknowledge this may prevent a transfer if the renewal would push the registration over the registry term limit. We will not initiate transfer of a Domain until the order has been placed and fully paid.

4.10 Expired Domains.

In the event that a domain name is not renewed by its expiry date it shall cease to operate and shall be deemed to be expired. A registered Domain shall expire if we are unable to take payment via the method provided, or where you have set the Domain to expire or fail to manually renew the Domain before the renewal date.

4.11 Grace and redemption periods.

Following the expiry date a domain may enter a grace and/or redemption period. In this situation you acknowledge that we may at our discretion, within three calendar days after the date of expiration of a Domain renew the Domain; or, park the Domain on different name servers from those set by you. Domains from registries which do not allow for a grace and/or redemption period may be unrecoverable by us following the expiry date, in which case our agreement will terminate immediately and without liability to us. Further, we are under no duty to attempt to recover such Domain.

4.12 Grace Period renewal.

Provided that the relevant registry for the Domain allows a grace period, you acknowledge that you have the length of their grace period (for example, 30 days) following the expiry of the Domain (‘the Grace Period’) to contact us to retrieve and renew the Domain provided that you pay for said renewal in full and in cleared funds. On receipt of the renewal fee by us within the Grace Period, you will retain ownership of the Domain and as soon as reasonably practicable we shall restore the Domain to your control panel.

4.13 Post-Grace Period actions.

You acknowledge that following the end of the Grace Period we may at our sole discretion carry out the following actions:

• 4.13.1 auction the Domain;
• 4.13.2 change the contact details; and/or
• 4.13.3 transfer the Domain.

4.14 Redemption Period.

If we do not receive the renewal fee within the Grace Period then our Agreement for that Domain will terminate immediately and without liability to us. Provided that the relevant registry of the Domain allows for a redemption period, if we receive a request from you to renew the Domain after the end of the Grace Period (‘the Redemption Period’), you agree to pay the applicable redemption fee(s) plus the renewal fee(s) for the Domain(s). You acknowledge and agree that we are not obliged to take any action to renew or recover a Domain in the Redemption Period and will only make such attempts once the you have paid both the redemption and renewal fees. We make no guarantee that attempted renewals will be successful.

4.15 Registry agreements.

You agree to the terms of the applicable domain name registration agreement (as amended from time to time):

• www.nominet.uk for .uk domains
• www.icann.org for .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz domains

Agency clients who are reselling .uk domains must also ensure their clients adhere to Nominets terms and conditions. The relevant Nominet documents are the Terms & Conditions of Domain Name Registration, the Rules of Registration and the Dispute Resolution Service Policy.

5. Providing the services

5.1 When we provide the services.

We will supply the Services to you from the date your order is accepted until either you or we end the contract in accordance with clause 8 or clause 10. We will make the Services available to you as soon as reasonably practicable after we accept your order and receive payment in full.

5.2 What standard we provide them to.

We will provide the Services with reasonable care and skill. Our uptime commitment for your Service, our support response targets and the service credits available if we fail to meet the uptime commitment are those published on our website and stated in your plan at the date of your order, and they form part of this Agreement.

5.3 Maintenance.

We may suspend the Services to carry out maintenance, to apply security patches or to upgrade the platform. Where the work is planned we will give you as much notice as we reasonably can and will publish it at status.snappyhost.co.uk. Emergency work needed to keep the platform secure or stable may be carried out without notice.

5.4 Changes to the services.

We may change the Services to reflect changes in relevant law or regulatory requirements, or to implement technical adjustments and improvements. These changes will not materially affect your use of the Services. Where we need to make a more significant change we will notify you in advance and you may then end the contract and receive a refund of any sums paid in advance for Services not yet provided.

5.5 Acceptable use.

Your use of the Services is subject at all times to our Hosting Acceptable Use Policy, which forms part of this Agreement. That policy sets out what you may and may not host, our fair use and resource limits, our email sending limits and our backup retention. You should read it before you order.

5.6 Backups.

Backups are a safety net, not a substitute for your own copies. Where your plan includes backups, the schedule, the retention period and the exclusions are set out in the Backups and data retention section of the Hosting Acceptable Use Policy. You remain responsible for keeping your own independent copies of anything you cannot afford to lose.

5.7 If you do not give us the information we need.

We may need certain information from you so that we can supply the Services, such as verification of your identity or access to a domain you are transferring. If you do not give us that information within a reasonable time of us asking, or you give us incomplete or incorrect information, we may either end the contract or charge you a reasonable additional sum to compensate us for any extra work. We are not responsible for supplying the Services late or not supplying any part of them if this is caused by you not giving us the information we need.

6. Charges and payment

6.1 Where to find the price.

The price for the Services is the price shown on our website at the time you place your order, or the price set out in a written quotation we have given you. Prices shown on our website are exclusive of VAT unless stated otherwise. Where the rate of VAT changes between your order date and the date we supply the Services, we will adjust the VAT you pay unless you have already paid in full.

6.2 Payment in advance.

All Services are paid for in advance. We will not begin providing the Services until payment has been received in cleared funds.

6.3 How to pay.

You can pay by debit or credit card, by Direct Debit, or by PayPal. Bank transfer and BACS are available by prior agreement, normally on annual invoices or larger accounts. Where you provide a payment method to be stored, you authorise us to take payment automatically for each renewal on or before its due date, until you tell us otherwise or cancel the Services.

6.4 Recurring payments and renewal.

Unless you have told us otherwise, the Services renew automatically at the end of each billing period for a further period of the same length, and are charged at our prevailing rate at the time of renewal. We will attempt to take payment up to 14 days before the renewal date so that there is time to resolve a failed payment before the Services are affected.

6.5 Notice of renewal price.

Where the renewal price is higher than the price you paid for the current period, we will tell you the new price at least 30 days before the renewal date. That is the same period as the notice you must give us to cancel, so you always have time to act on it. If you do not wish to renew at the new price you may cancel in accordance with clause 8.

6.6 Changing our prices.

We may change our prices for future billing periods. A price change will never affect a period you have already paid for.

6.7 If you do not pay.

If we are unable to take a payment when it falls due we will contact you. If the payment remains outstanding after 7 days we may charge a late payment fee of £5 or 3% of the outstanding amount, whichever is greater. We may suspend the Services if payment remains outstanding after 14 days, and may terminate the contract if payment remains outstanding after 30 days. Suspension for non-payment does not relieve you of the obligation to pay.

6.8 Disputed invoices.

If you think an invoice is wrong, contact us promptly and we will not charge interest or a late fee while we investigate. You must pay any undisputed part of the invoice by its due date.

6.9 Chargebacks.

Raising a chargeback in place of contacting us first is treated as a payment failure. We may suspend the Services and pass on to you the fee our payment provider charges us in respect of it, which is charged to us whatever the outcome of the dispute. We will not add anything on top of that fee.

7. Introductory offers and our money-back guarantee

7.1 Introductory pricing.

Where we advertise an introductory price, such as a first month at a reduced rate, that price applies to the first billing period only. The Services then renew at our standard rate for the plan, which is shown on the product page and on your invoice at the point of order. The full terms of any current offer are set out in our Promotions and Offers terms.

7.2 Our money-back guarantee.

If you are not happy with a new hosting plan you may cancel within 30 days of your order and we will refund what you paid for the hosting. This is in addition to, and does not affect, any legal right to cancel you may have as a consumer under clause 8.

7.3 What the guarantee does not cover.

The following are not refundable under the money-back guarantee:

• Domain name registrations, transfers and renewals, because we pay the registry for these and cannot recover the fee.
• Third-party licences and add-ons bought through us, such as control panel seats, SSL certificates and application licences. These are non-refundable, because they are bought in your name from a vendor on a fixed term.
• VPS, dedicated servers and any plan sold on a bespoke quotation. The guarantee applies to shared, WordPress, reseller and agency plans.

Everything else you have paid us for the plan is refunded in full, including any set-up or professional service work. Migrations are free in any case.

Where a plan included a free domain, the cost of that domain at our standard registration price will be deducted from your refund, and the domain remains registered to you.

7.4 One guarantee per customer.

The money-back guarantee is available once per customer. It is not available on a renewal, on a plan you have previously claimed it on, or where we have ended the contract because you breached it.

7.5 How we refund you.

We will refund you by the method you used to pay, within 14 days of accepting your cancellation.

8. Your right to end the contract

8.1 Ending the contract by giving notice.

You may end the contract at any time by giving us 30 days notice in writing, either by raising a ticket in the client area or by setting the Services to cancel at the end of the current billing period. The Services will continue until the end of the period you have paid for.

8.2 No refund on the unused part of a term.

Where you have paid in advance for a period longer than one month, we do not refund the unused part of that period if you cancel part way through, except where you are cancelling for one of the reasons in clause 8.4 or under the money-back guarantee in clause 7.

8.3 Your legal right to change your mind (consumers only).

If you are a consumer and you bought the Services online or over the telephone, you have a legal right under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 to change your mind within 14 days of us accepting your order and receive a refund. If you asked us to begin providing the Services during that 14 day period, you must pay us for the Services provided up to the point you tell us you have changed your mind. This right does not apply to domain name registrations, which are supplied and personalised to you as soon as the order is placed.

8.4 Ending the contract because of something we have done.

You may end the contract immediately, and receive a refund of any sums paid in advance for Services not yet provided, if:

1. we have told you about an upcoming change to the Services or these terms which you do not agree to;
2. we have told you about an error in the price or description of the Services you ordered and you do not wish to proceed;
3. there is a risk that supply of the Services may be significantly delayed because of events outside our control;
4. we have suspended the Services for technical reasons for a continuous period of more than 30 days; or
5. you have a legal right to end the contract because of something we have done wrong, including because we have delivered the Services defectively and have not put it right.

8.5 What happens to your data.

You are responsible for taking a copy of your website, databases and email before the Services end. Please do this before your final day, not after.

Once the Services end we make no commitment to retain your data and you should not rely on being able to recover it. It is deleted as part of our routine housekeeping and, once deleted, cannot be recovered. If you think you will need help retrieving something, tell us before the end date and we will do what we can while it is still there.

9. Suspending the services

9.1 When we may suspend.

We may suspend all or part of the Services where:

• payment is overdue, in accordance with clause 6.7;
• we reasonably believe you are in breach of the Hosting Acceptable Use Policy;
• your account has been compromised, is sending spam, is distributing malware or is being used in an attack;
• your use is causing, or is likely to cause, harm to the platform or to other customers;
• we are required to do so by law, by a court, by a regulator or by a registry; or
• we need to deal with a technical problem or carry out essential maintenance.

9.2 Notice of suspension.

We will tell you before we suspend the Services, and why, unless the problem is urgent, is causing live harm to others, or telling you first would prejudice an investigation or breach a legal obligation. In those cases we will tell you as soon as we reasonably can afterwards.

9.3 Charges during suspension.

You remain liable for the charges during any suspension caused by your breach or by non-payment. Where we suspend the Services for a reason that is our fault, we will not charge you for the period of suspension and clause 8.4 may apply.

9.4 Reinstatement.

We will restore the Services once the cause of the suspension has been resolved. We do not charge a reinstatement fee.

10. Our right to end the contract

10.1 Ending the contract for breach.

We may end the contract at any time by writing to you if:

1. you do not make any payment to us when it is due and you still do not make payment within 30 days of us reminding you;
2. you materially breach this Agreement and, where the breach can be put right, you fail to put it right within 14 days of us asking you to;
3. you breach the Hosting Acceptable Use Policy in a way that is serious, deliberate or repeated, in which case we may end the contract immediately and without notice;
4. you do not, within a reasonable time of us asking, provide information that is necessary for us to provide the Services; or
5. you become insolvent, enter into an arrangement with your creditors, or have an administrator or receiver appointed.

10.2 Ending the contract for convenience.

We may end the contract for any other reason by giving you at least 30 days notice in writing, and we will refund any sums you have paid in advance for Services not provided.

10.3 What we may charge you.

If we end the contract for one of the reasons in clause 10.1 we may charge you reasonable compensation for the net costs we will incur as a result, and no refund is due for the remainder of the period you have paid for.

10.4 Consequences of the contract ending.

When the contract ends for any reason: your right to use the Services stops immediately; any sums owing to us become immediately payable; and your data will be deleted in accordance with clause 8.5. Any clause which by its nature is intended to survive termination, including clauses 11, 12, 13 and 16, will continue in force.

11. Your content and your responsibilities

11.1 You own your content.

You keep all intellectual property rights in the content you upload to the Services. Nothing in this Agreement transfers ownership of it to us.

11.2 The licence you give us.

You grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, copy, transmit and display your content only so far as is necessary for us to provide the Services to you, to take backups, and to comply with our legal obligations. That licence ends when your content is deleted.

11.3 What you are responsible for.

You are responsible for your content and for anything done using your account, whether by you, by someone you have authorised, or by someone who has gained access because your credentials were not kept secure. In particular you are responsible for:

• ensuring your content is lawful and does not infringe anyone else's rights;
• holding any licence, consent or registration your content or business requires;
• keeping the software you install, including WordPress core, themes and plugins, patched and up to date;
• keeping your own independent backups; and
• the acts and omissions of your own clients and end users where you resell our Services.

11.4 Our intellectual property.

We keep all intellectual property rights in our platform, our control panel, our documentation and our brand. You may not copy, resell or reverse engineer any part of it except as this Agreement expressly allows.

12. Our responsibility for loss or damage

12.1 What we never exclude.

Nothing in this Agreement limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for breach of the terms implied by section 2 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, or for any other liability which cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.

12.2 If you are a consumer.

If you are a consumer, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of us breaking this contract or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable. Loss or damage is foreseeable if either it is obvious that it will happen, or if at the time the contract was made both we and you knew it might happen. We are not liable for business losses: if you use the Services for any commercial or business purpose, the limits in clause 12.3 apply to you instead.

12.3 If you are a business.

If you are a business customer, then subject to clause 12.1:

1. we are not liable to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, loss of revenue, loss of anticipated savings, loss of goodwill, loss of or corruption of data, or any indirect or consequential loss, however arising; and
2. our total liability to you in respect of all losses arising under or in connection with this Agreement, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise, is limited, in any month, to the amount you paid us for the affected Service in that month.

12.4 Downtime.

Where we fail to meet the availability commitment for your Service, the service credits we publish for that Service are your sole and exclusive remedy for that failure. Our support response times are targets rather than guarantees, and no service credit attaches to them.

12.5 Things we are not responsible for.

We are not responsible for: the content of your website; loss or corruption of data where you have not kept your own backups; third-party software, themes, plugins or scripts you install; the acts of a domain registry or registrar; interruption caused by your own network or equipment; or any failure caused by you not following our reasonable instructions.

13. Indemnity

If you are a business customer, you will indemnify us against all liabilities, costs, expenses, damages and losses (including reasonable legal fees) we suffer arising out of or in connection with your content, your use of the Services in breach of this Agreement or the Hosting Acceptable Use Policy, your breach of a registry or ICANN requirement, or any claim brought by one of your own clients or end users in respect of Services you have resold to them.

This clause does not apply if you are a consumer.

14. Events outside our control

We are not liable for any failure or delay in performing our obligations where that failure or delay results from an event outside our reasonable control, including power or network failure at a level above our own infrastructure, failure of a third-party supplier or registry, denial of service attack, fire, flood, epidemic, industrial action, act of terrorism, war, or an act or restriction of government.

We will contact you as soon as reasonably possible to tell you, and will take reasonable steps to minimise the effect. Where the event continues for more than 30 days either of us may end the contract, and we will refund any sums you have paid in advance for Services not provided.

15. Data protection

How we handle personal data about you, as our customer, is set out in our Privacy Policy. In respect of that data we are the controller.

Where we host a website or email for you and that website or email contains personal data about your own visitors, customers or staff, you are the controller of that data and we are your processor. Our obligations as your processor, as required by Article 28 of the UK GDPR, are set out in our Data Processing Agreement, which forms part of this Agreement and applies automatically from the date your order is accepted. You do not need to sign a separate copy, although we will provide and countersign one on request.

Each of us will comply with our respective obligations under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

16. Complaints and disputes

If something has gone wrong, please tell us first. Our complaints procedure sets out how to raise it, what we will do and how to escalate it if you are not satisfied with our answer.

Nothing in this clause prevents either of us from applying to a court for an injunction or other urgent relief.

17. Other important terms

17.1 Transferring this agreement.

We may transfer our rights and obligations under this Agreement to another organisation, for example if our business is sold. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and will make sure the transfer does not affect your rights under the contract. You may only transfer your rights or obligations to another person if we agree in writing.

17.2 Nobody else has rights under this contract.

This contract is between you and us. No other person has any right to enforce any of its terms, including under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

17.3 If a court finds part of this contract unlawful.

Each paragraph of this Agreement operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them is unlawful, the remaining paragraphs will remain in full force and effect.

17.4 Delay in enforcing this contract.

If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under this Agreement, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breaking it, that will not mean that you do not have to do those things or prevent us taking steps against you at a later date.

17.5 The whole agreement.

This Agreement, together with the Hosting Acceptable Use Policy, the Data Processing Agreement and the Privacy Policy, is the entire agreement between us in relation to the Services and replaces any earlier agreement, representation or understanding. If there is a conflict between them, the order of precedence is: this Agreement, then the Data Processing Agreement, then the Hosting Acceptable Use Policy.

17.6 Which laws apply and where you may bring proceedings.

This Agreement is governed by the law of England and Wales. You and we both agree that the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, except that if you are a consumer resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in your local courts.