Terms of Service

Last updated 8 August 2026

Short version: we agree a fixed price in writing before starting, you pay half up front and half on launch, and you own everything we build. The detail is below.

1. Who these terms are with

Build First Site, a web development studio operating from Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Contact contact@buildfirstsite.com or 0413 146 498. In these terms, "we" and "us" means Build First Site, and "you" means the client.

2. Quotes and scope

Before any work starts you receive a written scope and a fixed price in Australian dollars. That price does not change unless you ask for something outside the agreed scope, in which case we quote the change openly and you decide before we proceed. We do not add hours to an invoice without telling you.

Published prices on our pricing page are starting points for the scope described. Quotes are valid for 30 days.

3. Payment

• 50% on acceptance of the quote, 50% on launch.
• Larger projects may be split into three milestones by agreement.
• Invoices are payable within 7 days.
• All prices are in AUD and exclude GST unless stated otherwise.
• Monthly plans are billed in advance and cancel with 30 days notice.

If an invoice is more than 30 days overdue we may pause work until it is settled. We will always tell you before doing so.

4. What we need from you

Content, images, logins and feedback, supplied within a reasonable time. Delivery timeframes assume this — the most common cause of a project running long is waiting on content, not development. You confirm you own or have permission to use any material you give us.

5. Ownership of the code

On final payment, you own everything we built for you — the source code, the repository, the design files and the content. The hosting and domain accounts are in your name. You can take the site to any other developer at any time without asking us and without a rebuild.

We keep ownership of any general-purpose tools, libraries or techniques we developed before or independently of your project. That does not affect your ability to use, modify or move your site. We may also describe the work publicly and link to it, unless you ask us not to.

6. Third-party services

Projects often rely on services we do not control — hosting providers, payment gateways, APIs, plugins. We choose reputable ones and set them up properly, but we are not responsible for their outages, pricing changes or discontinuation. Ongoing subscription costs for those services are yours, and we tell you about them before you commit.

7. What we do not promise

We build SEO into every site — semantic markup, structured data, performance, mobile usability. We do not guarantee any particular Google ranking, traffic volume or number of enquiries. Rankings depend on competition, backlinks, reviews and Google's own changes, none of which anyone controls. Any agency promising a specific ranking is guessing.

8. Your rights under Australian Consumer Law

Our services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. These include that services will be provided with due care and skill, be fit for the purpose you told us about, and be supplied within a reasonable time.

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies those guarantees. Where we are permitted to limit liability, we limit it to resupplying the service or paying the cost of resupply. Otherwise, and subject always to the ACL, our total liability is capped at the amount you have paid us for the project, and neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss such as lost profits.

9. Cancellation and refunds

You can cancel a project at any time. You pay for work completed to that point, and we hand over whatever has been built. The initial 50% covers scoping, design and early development, so it is generally not refundable once that work has started — but if we have not begun, we refund it.

Monthly plans cancel with 30 days notice, no penalty, no lock-in. None of this affects your rights under the Australian Consumer Law if something genuinely goes wrong with the service.

10. Support after launch

Every project includes post-launch support at no extra cost for the period stated in your quote. That covers fixing anything that does not work as agreed. It does not cover new features, content changes or third-party problems, which are quoted separately or covered by a monthly plan.

11. Confidentiality

We keep your business information confidential and will not share it with anyone outside our studio without your permission, except where the law requires it. This continues after the project ends.

12. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia. If a dispute arises, both parties agree to attempt to resolve it in good faith by discussion before taking any other step.

13. Changes

We may update these terms. The version that applies to your project is the one in effect when you accepted the quote.

See also our Privacy Policy.