Using this website
You may browse this website and share links to it, but you may not attack it, copy it in bulk or use it to break the law. Unless we credit somebody else, the words, layout and images on jov.co.za belong to us. You may quote a short passage with a link back; you may not republish a whole page.
Prices, availability and timelines shown here are indicative and can change. Nothing on this page or elsewhere on the site is a binding offer. A written proposal for your project is the agreement that binds us.
Quotes and proposals
Work starts with a proposal covering scope, price and a realistic schedule. It is valid for 30 days unless it says otherwise. Accepting it in writing, including by email, forms the agreement, and where a proposal and this page disagree, the proposal wins.
The proposal covers only the work it lists. Extra pages, new features or a change of direction after work starts are changes to scope. We will explain the cost and schedule effect before doing that work.
For custom software and automation, the proposal also names the users, integrations, third-party services, support period and handover included in that specific build.
Payment
- Each project is quoted individually in a written proposal, which sets out the fee, deposit and payment stages before work begins.
- Hosting, editing tools and ongoing care are quoted separately. The proposal sets out the recurring charge, billing period and included support.
- Any introductory hosting period or discount applies only if it is included in your written proposal. Existing accepted proposals keep their agreed pricing and inclusions.
- Invoices are payable within 14 days unless the proposal says otherwise.
- Prices are in South African Rand. If VAT applies it will be shown separately on the invoice.
- You are responsible for agreed third-party costs such as a domain, paid font, licensed photograph or service subscription. We will tell you about the cost first, and where possible the account or licence should be in your name.
If an invoice is substantially overdue, we may pause work or hosting after notifying you and giving you a reasonable chance to pay it.
What is yours
Your domain, your words, your images and your customers' details are yours, before and after payment. On final payment, the design and the site code we wrote for your project become yours too.
There are three exceptions. Open-source components keep their own licences. Third-party material such as fonts and stock photography stays subject to its original licence. Our general tools, techniques and reusable building blocks, including the platform behind the editing dashboard, remain ours. You may use them for as long as we look after your site.
A software or automation proposal states which project code transfers on final payment, which reusable JOV components remain ours, and which third-party accounts or licences you will need. The written proposal controls where that differs from the website position above.
If you leave, we will return your material. We will export your content and help point your domain elsewhere. We will not hold your content or domain to keep you with us.
We may show your project in our portfolio and describe the work we did. Tell us if you would rather we did not, and we will not.
Your visitors' information
Your website collects information about the people who use it — enquiries they send, the mailing list if you have one, and a record of which pages get used. Under POPIA you are the responsible party for that information and we are your operator: we process it on your instruction, for your purposes, and for nothing of our own. We do not sell it, share it, or combine it with any other client's.
POPIA section 21 requires this to be a written agreement rather than a description, so we sign an operator agreement with you covering security, confidentiality, who else touches the information, what happens if there is a breach, and what happens to everything when we part ways. It forms part of these terms. If you have not been given one, ask us — email hello@jov.co.za.
Two things stay yours to do. Your website needs a privacy notice telling your visitors what it collects and how to refuse; we give you the wording, but publishing it is yours. And if a visitor asks to see or delete what you hold, the answer is yours to give — the dashboard has the tools, and we will help.
Visitor records are deleted automatically 24 months after a person's last visit. Tell us if you want a shorter period and we will set it. If you would rather collect nothing at all, say so and we will switch it off — your site works exactly the same without it.
Dashboard accounts
The JOV Dashboard is included with the sites we build and look after. It is not sold on its own and there is nothing to subscribe to. We create an account for you; you sign in with a Google account you already have, so we never hold a password of yours.
An account belongs to one person. Do not share your sign-in, and tell us when somebody leaves so we can remove their access. Anything done from your account is treated as done by you. You are responsible for what your team publishes through it, and for keeping the account you sign in with secure.
We may suspend an account without notice if it is being used to attack the service, to break the law, or to reach another client's data. We will tell you why as soon as we can. You can close your own account at any time by emailing hello@jov.co.za, and we will delete it and the sign-in details behind it within 30 days. What happens to your content and your visitors' information is covered above and in the privacy notice.
The dashboard is offered as it stands. We keep it running and improve it over time; we do not promise that a particular screen or feature will stay exactly as it is, and we will not remove something you depend on without telling you first.
The care plan
Your proposal defines the hosting and care included in your arrangement. This may cover availability monitoring, backups, routine maintenance and content updates, such as a price, paragraph or replacement photo.
A small change is work that takes minutes, such as replacing a price, paragraph or photo. A new page, feature or redesign is separate work. We will quote for it before starting.
Care is a rolling arrangement. Either of us can stop it with one month's notice. If it stops, your site stays online for a reasonable window while you move the hosting, and we will help with the move.
What we need from you
The schedule depends on receiving your text, images and approvals when we ask for them. We also need one person who can make decisions for the project.
You confirm that you have the right to let us use anything you give us. That means you own or have licensed the photographs and have the right to use the words. You are responsible for a claim caused by material you supplied without the right to use it.
If we receive no response from you for more than 60 days, we may pause the project and invoice the work completed by then. The project can restart later, but we cannot keep its original place in the schedule open indefinitely.
What we do not promise
- Search rankings. We build the groundwork: clear titles, a sitemap, quick pages and layouts that work on a phone. Rankings also depend on factors outside our control, so we do not guarantee a position on Google.
- Uninterrupted uptime. We monitor and respond quickly, but hosts, networks and certificate authorities occasionally fail, and we do not control them.
- Perfect security. We take it seriously and describe our measures on the privacy page. No one can guarantee it.
- Business outcomes. We do not guarantee sales, leads or growth.
Where the law allows us to limit liability, our total liability for any claim is limited to what you paid us in the 12 months before it arose, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss such as lost profit or lost data. Nothing here limits liability for fraud, gross negligence, death or personal injury, or anything else that cannot lawfully be limited. Nothing here takes away rights the Consumer Protection Act gives you.
Ending the arrangement
Either of us may end a project in writing. If you end it, you pay for work done to that point and keep what has been paid for. We would end a project only for non-payment or if the work turns out to be something we should not be doing. In that case, we will refund anything paid for work not yet done and help you hand over to somebody else.
Law and disputes
These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa, and the South African courts have jurisdiction.
If something goes wrong, email hello@jov.co.za and give us a reasonable chance to resolve it before starting a formal process.
We may update these terms and will change the date at the top when we do. Changes are not retrospective. The version in force when you accepted your proposal governs that project.
Agreement is with JOV.