NTECH Terms of Service

These Terms apply to every service NTECH provides: website design and builds, hosting, care plans, website subscriptions, domains, email and once-off changes. They work together with:

• your Proposal (what we'll build, and the price)
• the Care Plan Agreement (monthly services, billing and subscriptions)
• the Service Level Agreement (SLA) (support times and uptime)
• the Privacy Policy

If any of these documents conflict, this order applies: Proposal → Care Plan Agreement → SLA → these Terms → Privacy Policy.

1. Who we are

NTECH is the trading name of NTECH Digital Solutions (Pty) Ltd, a private company registered in South Africa, registration number 2026/764182/07.

NTECH works remotely from KwaZulu-Natal and does not have walk-in premises. We work with you online, by phone, and at your premises by appointment. Email: info@ntech.website. Phone/WhatsApp: 074 038 6412. Website: https://ntech.website.

VAT: NTECH is not currently VAT-registered, so no VAT is charged.

"You" means the business or person accepting these Terms. "We", "us" and "NTECH" mean the party above.

2. How the agreement starts

2.1 The agreement starts when you accept a Proposal or these Terms, whichever is first. You can accept by:

• clicking "I accept" in the NTECH client portal
• signing (including electronically)
• replying to confirm in writing
• paying a deposit, setup fee or first invoice

2.2 Electronic acceptance is valid and binding under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (ECTA). The portal records the date, time, user, IP address and document version you accepted.

2.3 The person accepting confirms that they are authorised to bind the business.

3. Our services

3.1 Website builds: we design and build the website described in your Proposal, within the stated number of pages, features and revision rounds.

3.2 Hosting, care plans and subscriptions: see the Care Plan Agreement and the SLA.

3.3 Once-off changes: priced from our current rate card in the client portal. You approve the quote before we start.

3.4 Anything not in writing is not included. Extra work is quoted separately first. We never start chargeable work without your approval.

4. What we need from you

4.1 Content on time: text, logos, photos, product and price information, and access to existing accounts. Turnaround times start only once we have everything we need.

4.2 Content you have the right to use: you confirm that you own, or have permission to use, everything you give us (photos, logos, text, trademarks), and that it is lawful, accurate and not misleading. You are responsible for your site's content and for the claims made about your products and services.

4.3 Delays: if a build is paused for more than 30 days waiting on you, we may:

• invoice work completed to date, and
• move the project to the back of the queue.

After 90 days without content, we may close the project, and payments for work done are not refundable.

4.4 One decision-maker: please give us one person who can approve designs and changes.

4.5 Your logins: keep your portal and website logins safe. Tell us straight away if you suspect misuse.

5. Prices and payment

5.1 Prices are as shown in your Proposal or in the client portal at the time you accept a quote.

5.2 Build payment options. You choose one of these in the client portal when you place your order:

• (a) 50/50: 50% deposit before we start, 50% before the website goes live.
• (b) 3-month payment plan: one third before we start, one third at month 2, one third at month 3. The website goes live after the second payment. Ownership passes to you after the final payment (clause 7).
• (c) Pay in full: the whole build amount before we start. Ownership passes to you on payment (clause 7).
• (d) Website subscription: no build fee up front — a setup fee, then one monthly amount that covers the care plan and pays off the website until it is yours. See the Care Plan Agreement.

5.3 Invoices are due within 7 days, unless the invoice says otherwise. Payment is by EFT, or by any other method we offer in the portal. Please use your invoice number as the payment reference.

5.4 Late payment. NTECH does not charge interest, penalties or late fees on overdue amounts — ever. If an invoice is not paid, we send reminders, and if it stays unpaid we pause the service until the account is settled, as set out in the Care Plan Agreement. The amount you owe never grows; only the service stops. Once you pay, we restore the service promptly and nothing extra is due.

5.5 Deposits secure your place in our schedule and cover initial design work. Deposits are not refundable once design work has started, except where the law requires otherwise.

5.6 Price changes: we may change prices for future work and ongoing services with at least 30 days' written notice. Approved quotes and fixed-term amounts don't change during their term.

6. Revisions, approval and launch

6.1 Each build includes the number of revision rounds in your Proposal. A round is one consolidated list of changes. Extra rounds are charged at the rate card.

6.2 Approval: you'll review the website before launch. If you don't give feedback or approval within 10 business days of our request, the stage is treated as approved.

6.3 Go-live: we launch once the launch payment is received and the domain is ready.

7. Ownership and intellectual property

7.1 Your content (your logos, photos, text and data) always stays yours.

7.2 Your website: once you have paid all amounts for the build, you own:

• the final design of your website, and
• the content we created specifically for you.

We transfer it by giving you a full copy (files and database) when you ask for one.

7.3 Website subscriptions. On a subscription you pay for the website over time instead of up front. Each monthly payment covers your care plan and pays off part of the build price (Care Plan Agreement clause 3). Until the build price is fully paid, NTECH owns the website and you hold a licence to use it: for as long as your subscription is paid up, the website is yours to use for your business, on your domain, with your content, exactly as if you owned it. Once the build price is paid, ownership passes to you under clause 7.2, with nothing extra to pay.

If you leave before it is paid off, you pay what is left of the build price, and the website is then yours to keep. If that is not paid, the licence ends and the website comes down. Your own content (clause 7.1) remains yours and we will give you a copy of it on request.

7.4 NTECH tools: our starter themes, templates, code libraries, design systems, plugins, scripts, the client portal and the app remain NTECH's property. Where they form part of your website, you get a permanent, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use them for that website.

7.5 Third-party items (WordPress, plugins, fonts, stock photos, maps) are used under their own licences. Paid licences we buy for you are listed in your Proposal or on your invoice.

7.6 Portfolio: we may show your website in our portfolio and marketing (screenshots and a link), unless you ask us in writing not to. We will not publish your confidential information.

8. Domains and third-party services

8.1 Domains are registered in your business's name (you are the registrant), unless you ask otherwise in writing. We manage the renewal, and your domain transfer code (EPP key) is available whenever your account is paid up.

8.2 Your care plan covers the first R200 a year of your domain. That pays for a standard .co.za in full. Domain prices vary widely, so if your domain costs more than that (many .com domains do), you pay only the difference, at the price the registrar charges NTECH, as its own line on your invoice. We tell you the price before we register anything, and renewals are invoiced about 30 days before the domain expires, so there is time to pay. Without a care plan, the domain is billed at its full cost.

8.3 If your care plan or subscription ends, the domain remains yours. Renewing it after that is your responsibility, and we will hand over whatever is needed to take it with you.

8.4 We rely on third parties such as our hosting provider, domain registries, Google, email providers and payment providers. We choose them carefully, but we are not responsible for their outages, price changes or policy changes.

9. Confidentiality

Both of us will keep the other's non-public business information confidential and use it only for this agreement. This does not apply to information that is already public, or that the law requires to be disclosed.

10. Personal information (POPIA)

10.1 For your own personal information (as our client), NTECH is the responsible party. See our Privacy Policy.

10.2 For personal information collected through your website (e.g. enquiry forms, customer details), you are the responsible party and NTECH is your operator under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013. As your operator, NTECH will:

• (a) process that information only to host, maintain, secure and back up your website, or as you instruct in writing
• (b) keep it confidential and apply reasonable technical and organisational security measures (see the SLA)
• (c) tell you without undue delay if we believe it has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person
• (d) not sell it or use it for our own marketing
• (e) on termination, return it (as part of your site export) and then delete it within the retention period in the Care Plan Agreement

10.3 You are responsible for:

• having a lawful basis for collecting that information
• publishing a privacy notice on your website (we can provide a template)
• responding to your customers' POPIA requests (we'll help at rate-card prices)

11. Our promises and their limits

11.1 We will perform our services with reasonable skill and care, in line with good industry practice.

11.2 We don't promise that your website will be completely error-free, uninterrupted, immune to all attacks, or that it will reach any particular Google ranking, number of visitors, or sales.

11.3 Limit of liability: to the extent the law allows, NTECH's total liability for any claim is limited to the fees you paid NTECH in the 3 months before the claim arose.

• We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, such as lost profit, lost business or lost data. This limit does not apply to losses caused by our gross negligence or wilful misconduct.
• Uptime shortfalls are dealt with through the service credits in the SLA.

11.4 Your responsibility for content: you indemnify NTECH against third-party claims that arise from content or instructions you gave us (for example, a photo you didn't have the rights to).

11.5 Nothing in these Terms removes rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (CPA), ECTA or any other law that cannot be excluded.

12. Consumers (sole proprietors and individuals)

If you contract with us as a natural person (for example, a sole proprietor), the CPA gives you extra rights. Where they apply:

• (a) you may cancel a fixed-term agreement on 20 business days' written notice, and we may charge only a reasonable cancellation fee, as calculated in the Care Plan Agreement
• (b) we will remind you 40 to 80 business days before a fixed term ends. If you don't cancel, the agreement then continues month-to-month, and you can cancel it on 20 business days' notice
• (c) where ECTA's cooling-off right applies to an online transaction, you may cancel within 7 days without reason. If you ask us to start work within that period, you agree to pay for the work already done

13. Suspension and ending the agreement

13.1 We may suspend services (after notice, where reasonable):

• for non-payment (as set out in the Care Plan Agreement)
• if your website is used for anything unlawful, harmful, or abusive (spam, malware, infringing content)
• if it puts our servers or other clients at risk

In an emergency (e.g. active malware spreading) we may suspend immediately and tell you straight away.

13.2 Either of us may end the agreement if the other materially breaches it and does not fix the breach within 14 days of written notice.

13.3 Ongoing services end as set out in the Care Plan Agreement.

13.4 When the agreement ends:

• you pay all amounts due
• if your account is paid up, we provide your website export and domain transfer code within 5 business days
• clauses 7, 9, 10, 11 and 14 continue to apply

14. General

14.1 Disputes: we'll first try to resolve any dispute by talking, in good faith, within 14 days. If that fails, either of us may refer it to mediation, or go to a court with jurisdiction. The Magistrate's Court may be used even where an amount exceeds its normal limit, to keep costs down.

14.2 Law: South African law applies.

14.3 Notices: we both agree to receive notices by email at the addresses on record. The client portal also counts as a notice channel. For formal legal documents (domicilium citandi et executandi), your chosen address is the physical address in your Proposal, and NTECH's is its registered office as recorded with CIPC, which we will give you in writing on request.

14.4 Changes to these Terms: we may update these Terms with at least 30 days' notice, by email and in the portal. If you don't agree, you may end ongoing services before the change takes effect. Otherwise, the updated Terms apply from their effective date. The portal will ask you to accept new versions.

14.5 Whole agreement: these documents make up the whole agreement between us. Neither of us relies on promises that aren't written into them. If a clause is unenforceable, the rest still applies.

14.6 Force majeure: neither of us is liable for delays caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as:

• load-shedding or grid failure affecting a provider
• natural disasters
• widespread internet outages
• government action