Terms and conditions of service

These terms and conditions apply to any work done for you (the Client) by me, Sarah Barter (the Service Provider). You are required to complete my online Booking Confirmation form or to confirm the terms in writing via email. This constitutes an agreement to the contract of services between me and you.

You are under no obligation to offer me work; neither am I under any obligation to accept work offered by you.

The person accepting these terms and conditions must do so in writing and, if acting on behalf of an organisation, be authorised to do so. If anything is unclear, please ask me to clarify.

Having had these terms and conditions drawn to your attention, completing and submitting my online Booking Confirmation form will be interpreted as your acceptance of the terms and conditions herein. From thereon, the terms of the cancellation policy apply.

1. Proofreading & editing services

I will provide a proofreading and editing service as mutually agreed upon and confirmed in writing by you and me. I will carry out the work unsupervised at such times and places as I determine, using my own equipment.
The terms of the project will cover the medium in which the proofreading and/or editing service will be carried out – in Word, on PDF, or in InDesign – and how the material will be annotated, e.g. using Track Changes in Word or comments on PDFs.
Following my evaluation of your material and the time frame required to complete the job, the fee for the project will be based on a quotation supplied by me. The terms will also include the date by which the material will be delivered by you to me and the latest date by which the completed project will be returned, following my advice to you.
I DO NOT take on projects that include discriminatory, offensive or sensitive content under any circumstances (both fiction and non-fiction). This includes, but is not restricted to:

Graphic depictions of violence and abuse, such as rape, sexual violence and abuse, domestic violence and abuse, torture, abduction and kidnapping
Explicit sexual content, such as themes of BDSM and kink
Extremism and activism, both religious and political
New World Order and conspiracy theories
Racism
Animal cruelty

I will stop working on a project immediately if it, or any part of it, appears to contain sensitive, offensive or defamatory content, breaches copyright, promotes illegal activities, or promotes practice or ideas that may cause physical or mental harm to those who read the content.

2. Student services

If you are a student requiring your essay, dissertation, or thesis to be proofread, the terms of service contained in this section, 2. Student services are applicable, in addition to the terms of service as set out in section 1 above.

All students must obtain permission from their university to use my proofreading and editing services. I will require the name and contact details of your supervisor before I commence any proofreading of your work.
I DO NOT offer an essay writing service. Your essay, dissertation or thesis MUST be your own work.
I will not alter your content unless it is a simple typographical error that needs correcting.
I do not advise on the content of your work, rewrite the text or reduce your word count.
I do not carry out fact-checking of your work.
I do not guarantee that your grades will be improved by using my proofreading services.
The deadline for submission is your responsibility. When booking my proofreading or editing services, it is the student’s responsibility to leave sufficient time to allow for a final review of the returned document before the submission deadline is due. I take no responsibility for any missed deadlines resulting from the turnaround time you requested.

3. Fees and payment terms

You will pay me a fee per hour OR a fee per 1000 words OR an agreed project fee for the job, according to our prior agreement.
A non-refundable booking fee is required to secure my proofreading and editing services, as outlined in the mutually agreed-upon project terms. This will be either 50% of the total agreed fee for the project or the full agreed fee if it is £100 or less.
An invoice for the booking fee will be issued upon receipt of either your completed online booking confirmation form or an email confirmation of the mutually agreed-upon project terms. The booking fee must be paid upon receipt of the invoice. My receipt of your payment secures the provision of my proofreading, editing, or any other services described under the mutually agreed-upon project terms. Your booking will be cancelled without notice if your deposit is not received within three working days of the invoice due date.
All booking fees paid will be deducted from the total fee shown on the final invoice issued upon completion of the work.
I am not VAT-registered, so VAT will not be charged.
You will reimburse me for agreed-upon reasonable expenses (e.g., postage, travel expenses) over and above the usual expenses incurred in carrying out any editorial work.
The completed work will be delivered on or before the agreed-upon date and for the agreed-upon fee, which will be based on the description of the work required and the brief agreed upon by you and me. If, however, on receipt of the document(s) to be worked on or at an early stage, it becomes apparent that significantly more work is required than had been anticipated in the preliminary discussion/brief, I may renegotiate the fee and/or the deadline. Similarly, if you request additional tasks during the work or project, I may renegotiate the fee and/or the deadline.
If the project is lengthy, I may invoice periodically for completed stages.
Payment is due on the date of the invoice. Any outstanding sums become an unpaid debt. I reserve the right to claim statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England Base Rate from the date the debt becomes overdue in accordance with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 and to claim an additional sum for pursuing the debt as provided for in the 2002 revision of the Act. I retain the copyright in all work I have completed until payment has been made in full.

4. Cancellation and postponement

Should you need to cancel or postpone your booked service for any reason, notification must be made in writing to sarah@sarahbarterproofreading.com.

If you cancel a booked service during the project, your booking fee will not be refunded, and you will be liable to pay any outstanding agreed fees in full.
If you cancel a booked service prior to the project commencing but after making a booking and agreeing to the terms and conditions of service herein, your booking fee will not be refunded, and I reserve the right to invoice for up to 100% of the agreed fee (less the booking fee payment) if the cancellation occurs with less than 14 days notice.
If you cancel a booked service with more than 14 days’ notice, your booking fee will not be refunded, but no further charges will be incurred.
If you need to reschedule a booked service, please notify me at least 7 days prior to your scheduled service. Rescheduling requests made within this notice period will be accommodated whenever possible without incurring additional fees. If fewer than 7 days’ notice is provided, a rescheduling fee of 50% of the total agreed fee will be applied. All rescheduling requests are subject to availability.
If you are entitled to reschedule your booked service, you may do so a maximum of one time only without incurring any additional charges. Any additional rescheduling requests will incur a rescheduling fee of 50% of the total agreed-upon fee.
If you do not reschedule within 7 days of the original booked date, it will be considered a cancellation, and the cancellation policy will apply. Your booking fee will not be refunded, and you will be liable to pay any outstanding agreed fees in full.

In the unlikely event that I, as the service provider, need to postpone or cancel, I will notify you by email as soon as is reasonably practical.

If we are unable to renegotiate the project's time frame, I will invoice you for all work completed at the point when work ceases and return to you all completed work. Any overpayments made at this point will be refunded to you.
If work has not yet commenced and we cannot agree upon a new date, you will receive a full refund of any monies that have been paid to date.
Refunds will be returned to you via your original payment method (either BACS transfer or Stripe refund) within 14 days of the confirmed cancellation.

If either you or I are the victim of extraordinary events beyond our control (for example, crime, flood, strike), liability and obligation may be cancelled.
Both you and I retain the right to terminate a contract for services if there is a serious breach of its terms.

5. Acceptance, complaints and refunds

5.1 Quality assurance and satisfaction

As an Intermediate Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), I bring the training, experience and knowledge necessary to provide you with high-quality editorial services. However, while I strive to return to you an error-free document, you agree to accept that no job done by one human, however skilled, can ever be completely error-free and absolute perfection cannot be guaranteed. You agree to accept that copyediting, proofreading and proofediting are inherently subjective, and there may be differences of opinion regarding certain editorial choices rather than definitive right or wrong errors.

5.2 Acceptance and confirmation of work

You will promptly confirm the receipt of the job (or the instalments) sent back to you, and you must, within seven days of the receipt of a completed job, confirm that you are happy with it; a non-response will be interpreted as satisfaction.

5.3 Complaints and refunds

I am committed to providing you with a high-quality, efficient and effective service. However, should there be any cause for complaint in relation to any aspect of my service, please contact me at sarah@sarahbarterproofreading.com within seven days of the receipt of your completed project. I agree to carefully and promptly investigate your complaint and take reasonable steps to resolve it. Refunds will be provided in accordance with your statutory rights.
As a member of the CIEP, I am bound by its Professional Practice Code. The CIEP also has a complaints procedure in place. Please see the CIEP General Code of Conduct document for more details.

6. Disclaimers and limitations

All services provided are limited to a specific period, which will be agreed upon in advance with confirmed start and end dates.
All services are performed by Sarah Barter. None of my services are outsourced.
I confirm that I am self-employed, responsible for my own income tax and National Insurance contributions, and will not claim benefits granted to your employees.

7. Intellectual property rights

You confirm that you own all content delivered to me for the purposes of proofreading and/or editing. You warrant that the materials delivered to me are your original work and do not violate any copyright, trademark, or other protection of intellectual property.
If any part of the text provided by you for me to work on has been generated by (or translated by) artificial intelligence (AI) powered software (for example, software including, but not restricted to, ChatGPT, DeepL, Jasper, etc.), you bear full responsibility to disclose this and are also responsible for any outcomes that could result from not doing so at project commencement.
If I suspect that the manner in which such AI software has been applied has compromised the integrity of the text, I will inform you as soon as possible, along with any necessary adjustments to the project timeline and the fee payable by the client.
IMPORTANT: If you do not disclose this information prior to project commencement, I reserve the right to withdraw from the project at any time, regardless of whether you have paid a booking fee or made any other payments. You will not be entitled to a refund in this circumstance.
I will not be responsible for legal actions arising from your unlicensed use of copyright material.
I confirm that, as far as possible, the content which is created for you during proofreading and/or editing will be unique. I confirm that all copyright in any text or image prepared in the course of carrying out any proofreading and/or editing services on your behalf will transfer to you on completion of the project and when I have received in full your payment for the project, unless otherwise agreed.

8. Communication

Communication with clients will be conducted via email only, unless otherwise agreed upon in advance. You acknowledge that electronic communications are not entirely secure and that I will not be liable for any damage or loss caused by viruses.
My usual business hours are 10am to 5pm, from Monday to Friday. I do not read or respond to any communications outside of my usual business hours.

9. Data protection

Your privacy and the protection of your personal data are important to me, and will be handled in the following way:

Apart from as outlined below, your data will only be used and processed in connection with the performance of the services listed above.
Your personal data will be kept confidential and will never be shared with unconnected third parties. It will be shared with third parties, such as accountants, to enable them to perform accounting functions.
Your data will be kept secure at all times and stored electronically on password-protected devices.
To ensure that the data held is accurate, all data will be obtained from you directly.
Your data will be stored for the minimum number of years following completion of the services to allow compliance with HMRC and any insurance obligations; and
All data collected will be limited to that which is necessary to allow the services to be performed.

10. Confidentiality and retention of information

Communications between us are confidential. The nature and content of the work will be kept confidential, and I will take all reasonable steps not to disclose personal information about you and your business, save for in circumstances as required by law or by me to perform the internal operations of my business, such as disclosure to an accountant.
Documents and information in relation to your matters will not be held longer than required by my insurance provider's obligations.
You agree that I may use your name and/or your company name in my promotional material unless you request otherwise.

11. Limitation of liability

Services are provided to you with reasonable care and skill. Foreseeable risks which could arise include the breakdown of my computer equipment, software corruption or the loss of internet access. I will take all steps to avoid such an occurrence, and any liability to you is limited to the amount of any fees paid.
There will be no liability to you for any delay or failure to perform my obligations if the delay or failure is caused by circumstances outside my reasonable control.

12. Third-party rights

No person other than the person agreeing to these Terms and Conditions of Service as part of my booking process shall be deemed to have the benefit of the services or have any rights to enforce or rely on any of the terms.

13. Applicable law

These Terms of Service are my standard terms and conditions of service and should at all times be construed in accordance with the laws of England & Wales.
The courts of England & Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim or dispute arising out of this engagement or any matter arising from it.

Last updated 13 February 2025