Terms

Last updated: 2026-06-01.

These terms cover your use of this website and the general basis on which Kestrel (Smith Software) provides websites to small businesses. Before we start work, we will agree the details of your project with you in writing, and those details apply together with these terms.

Using this website

You may browse this site and send us a message through the contact form. Please do not misuse it: no attempts to break or overload it, no automated submissions, and no sending us anything unlawful or harmful. We may block access if the site is being misused.

Our service

We design, build and launch a custom website for your business, then host and look after it for a monthly fee. Current prices are on the pricing page. They are in Canadian dollars and shown before tax. We may change our prices for new customers at any time. For existing customers, we will give at least 30 days' notice of a change to the monthly fee.

Design and approval

You see your design first, and we refine it with you before anything goes live. We do not launch your site until you have approved it.

Payment

We invoice the build fee in two parts: 50% to begin work and 50% before your site launches. Monthly hosting is billed in advance from launch day. Invoices are due within 14 days and can be paid by e-transfer or another method we agree with you.

If a payment is more than 14 days overdue, we will remind you. If it remains unpaid after a further 14 days, we may suspend your site until it is paid. We will not hand over site files while fees are outstanding.

We do not currently take payment through this website. If we add online payments later, they will be handled by a third-party payment provider, and we will update these terms and our privacy page first.

Add-ons and larger updates

Optional extras and larger content updates are priced separately. We always quote them and get your agreement before we start.

What you provide

You are responsible for the text, images and other material you give us, and you confirm you have the right to use it. You are also responsible for your domain name registration and its yearly cost, even where we manage it for you.

Ownership

Your website, domain and content are yours. If you leave, we can hand over your site files and help move everything across for a one-time handover fee, which we quote before we start. We keep the right to reuse our own general tools, code and methods that are not specific to your business.

Cancelling

You can cancel at any time, with no contract. Cancel by emailing hello@kestrel-sites.com. No minimum notice is needed. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the monthly period you have already paid for, so your site stays online until then. We do not refund the current month, and you will not be billed for the next one.

If you cancel before your site launches, you pay for the work completed up to that point, and the deposit covers it unless the work done is worth more. We may end the service if fees stay unpaid or the site is used unlawfully, and we will tell you first where we reasonably can.

Availability

We take reasonable care to keep your site online and secure, but we cannot promise it will never be interrupted. Some interruptions come from services outside our control, such as hosting networks or domain registries.

Our responsibility

We will do our work with reasonable skill and care. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect losses such as lost profit or lost business, and our total liability for any claim is limited to the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose. Nothing in these terms limits any right you have under consumer protection law that cannot be limited.

Privacy

How we handle your personal information is explained in our privacy page.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The date at the top shows when they last changed. Changes do not affect work already agreed in writing.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Alberta and the federal laws of Canada that apply there.

Contact

Questions about these terms? Email hello@kestrel-sites.com.