Who we are
UpInTown is the trade name of Raphaël Genu, a sole trader, Kerkedelle 51 boîte A, 1200 Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Belgium, company number 1034.448.184 ("UpInTown"). Contact: hey@upintown.dev, +32 456 97 28 48.
These terms apply to all UpInTown services: website creation, monthly care and visibility plans, and additional work.
UpInTown works only with professionals (companies, sole traders, liberal professions) acting for their business ("the Client"). Consumer protection rules therefore do not apply.
The contract is made up of the accepted quote and these terms. If they conflict, the quote prevails. The Client's own terms do not apply unless UpInTown agrees in writing.
Quotes, acceptance and communication
The first discovery call is free and without commitment. Each quote states the service, the price and the link to these terms. It is valid for 30 days.
The Client accepts the quote and these terms formally: by replying by email ("I accept the quote and the terms of service") or by signing the quote.
In these terms, "in writing" means by email or by message (WhatsApp included). An approval must be explicit (for example "I approve the text") and refer to a specific version. A reaction or an emoji is not an approval.
UpInTown works Monday to Friday, excluding Belgian public holidays. Deadlines in working days follow this calendar.
Website projects
A project runs in 4 stages, each invoiced at 25% of the quoted price:
- Planning: questionnaire, analysis call and page list.
- Content: writing, then written approval by the Client.
- Design: homepage mockup with the real text, then written approval.
- Build and launch: building the site, preview link, one round of corrections, then launch.
The first three stages start once their invoice is paid. The invoice for the last stage is sent when the preview link is ready, and the site goes live once it is paid. Each invoice is sent when the previous stage is approved and states which stage was approved and when.
Before the analysis call, the Client provides their logo, existing materials and the completed questionnaire. Missing photos are provided before the Design stage.
No fact is added to the text unless the Client provided it. Changing the text after approval is additional work.
The correction round covers adjustments (text, images, spacing), not a change to an approved structure or design. Anything beyond that is billed at €50 an hour, with an estimate given before starting.
Announced timelines (usually 3 to 5 weeks) are estimates. Any delay on the Client's side (content, approvals, access) shifts the schedule accordingly.
With no response from the Client for 30 days, the project is paused with written notice. With no response for 90 days, it is considered abandoned: paid stages are kept, the work done so far is handed to the Client, and a restart is treated as a new project.
The Client may stop a project at any time in writing. The current stage, already paid, is kept and nothing more is owed.
For a Client without a monthly plan, UpInTown fixes errors caused by its work free of charge for 30 days after launch. After that, fixes are billed at the hourly rate. No plan is required after launch: the Client may host the site elsewhere.
Monthly plans
The content of each plan (Essential, Visibility, Growth) is described on upintown.dev and in the quote.
Small changes (text, photos, opening hours, prices) are made within 2 working days, with no limit on their number. A request that creates a new section, page or feature is quoted separately.
The Visibility and Growth plans include a one-off setup fee of €150, also due when moving up from the Essential plan.
For sensitive professions, each reply to a Google review is approved by the Client before it is posted.
Results on Google (ranking, visits, calls) depend on many outside factors and build over several months. They are not guaranteed. Monitoring usually allows an outage to be fixed quickly, but continuous availability of the site is not guaranteed.
Plans are billed monthly by subscription. Moving to a higher plan applies immediately, prorated. Moving to a lower plan applies from the next month.
The Essential and Visibility plans have no minimum term. The Growth plan has a minimum term of 3 months.
The Client may cancel a plan in writing with 1 month notice. The subscription ends at the end of the billing period in which the notice expires. UpInTown may end a plan in writing with 2 months notice, with the full handover described under "Ending and leaving".
UpInTown may announce, at least 2 weeks ahead, periods of longer response times, up to 8 weeks a year in total. Site monitoring and emergencies (site down, hacked) remain covered.
Any price increase is announced in writing 2 months ahead. The Client may cancel free of charge before it takes effect, including during the Growth minimum term.
Prices, invoicing and payment
Prices are in euros and final. Small business subject to the VAT exemption scheme. VAT not applicable.
Stage invoices follow the "Website projects" section. Other invoices (additional work, hourly work) are due within 14 days.
Late payment is governed by the Belgian law of 2 August 2002 on combating late payment in commercial transactions: late interest at the legal rate and a flat indemnity of €40 per invoice. UpInTown may choose not to apply them.
Unpaid monthly plan
- If a payment fails, the payment provider retries automatically and UpInTown informs the Client in writing.
- After 15 days, change requests are paused.
- After 30 days, UpInTown sends a formal written notice. The Client has 8 days to pay.
- Without payment by then, the site is suspended. Mailboxes are never cut off. UpInTown may then end the plan.
The Client's data remains available under "Ending and leaving" once invoices are paid. The domain name is registered in the Client's name and is never withheld in a dispute.
Client obligations
The Client guarantees they have the right to use everything they provide (logo, photos, text, trademarks) and handles any third-party claim about it. Images supplied by UpInTown are its own responsibility.
Once the text is approved, the Client is responsible for its content: accuracy, commercial claims and compliance with the rules of their profession.
UpInTown sets up the site's legal pages from information provided by the Client. UpInTown does not give legal advice: the Client remains responsible for their accuracy and for their own GDPR compliance.
The Client provides the content, approvals and access needed (domain, email, Google profile) within a reasonable time.
Ownership and credit
Once the project is fully paid, the Client owns everything created specifically for their site: design, text, images made for them and the code of their pages.
For the reusable tools and components of UpInTown built into the site, the Client receives a free, perpetual and unrestricted licence: they may use them, change them and hand them to another provider. UpInTown keeps the right to reuse them in other projects. Open source software used remains under its own licence.
The site carries a discreet "Designed by UpInTown" credit in the footer, in the site's style. It stays as long as the site keeps the design created by UpInTown. The Client may remove it if the design is redone by another provider.
UpInTown names the Client, their site or their results as a reference only with their written consent.
Liability
If UpInTown makes a mistake, it fixes it free of charge and as a priority. If a paid service did not work through its fault, the period concerned is refunded or not charged.
Beyond that, the liability of UpInTown is limited to the total amounts paid by the Client in the 12 months before the event giving rise to it. For a website project alone, this is the price of the project. This limit does not apply to gross or intentional misconduct.
UpInTown is not liable for indirect damage (lost revenue, lost clients, harm to reputation), for outages of third-party services (hosting, email, Google, payment), or for the consequences of changes made to the site by the Client or another provider.
Confidentiality and force majeure
Each party keeps confidential the non-public information received from the other (access, data, business information), during the contract and after it ends.
Neither party is liable for a delay or failure caused by an unforeseeable event beyond its control (major supplier outage, disaster, serious illness). Deadlines are suspended for the duration of the event.
Ending and leaving
The Client may request the handover of their site and access in writing. Once invoices are paid, UpInTown completes it within 14 days:
- source code and site files;
- the list of DNS records;
- administrator access to the email service;
- removal of UpInTown's access to the Google profile;
- an export of the statistics.
The Client is the holder of their domain name and the primary owner of their email service and Google profile. UpInTown only manages them or acts as technical contact. After the handover, their data is deleted as described in the annex.
UpInTown may end the contract without notice in case of serious breach by the Client: non-payment as described under "Unpaid monthly plan", abusive behaviour or illegal content. The handover remains due once invoices are paid.
Personal data
For its own administration (quotes, invoicing, communication), UpInTown processes its Clients' data under its privacy policy.
When UpInTown hosts the Client's site or email, it processes data on the Client's behalf as a processor. The data processing agreement in the annex is part of the contract.
Changes to these terms
UpInTown may change these terms. Clients with an active plan are informed in writing 1 month ahead and may cancel free of charge before the change takes effect. A website project already accepted stays under the version accepted.
Language, governing law and disputes
These terms exist in French and English. If they differ, the French version prevails. The contract is governed by Belgian law.
In case of disagreement, the parties first seek an amicable solution for 30 days from written notice of the problem. Failing that, the French-speaking courts of Brussels have exclusive jurisdiction, including for Clients established abroad.
Annex: data processing agreement
This agreement applies Article 28 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Client is the controller, UpInTown the processor.
Subject and duration
UpInTown processes personal data on the Client's behalf only to provide its services: site hosting, delivery of contact form messages, email management, visit statistics and Google profile management. The agreement lasts as long as these services.
Data and data subjects
- Site visitors: contact form messages (name, contact details, content) and cookieless visit statistics.
- The Client's correspondents: mailbox content.
- Google review authors: name and review content, read in order to reply.
Contact form messages are only sent by email to the Client. They are not stored on the server.
Commitments
UpInTown:
- processes data only on the Client's written instructions, and tells the Client if an instruction seems to breach the GDPR;
- keeps the data confidential: only Raphaël Genu has access to it;
- applies the security measures described below;
- helps the Client, as far as possible, to answer requests from data subjects (access, rectification, erasure);
- informs the Client in writing within 48 hours of discovering a personal data breach, so the Client can notify the Data Protection Authority within 72 hours;
- makes available to the Client the information needed to check compliance with this agreement.
Security
- Two-factor authentication on all admin accounts, with a hardware key for hosting, email and Google.
- Server access by SSH key only, no passwords.
- Firewall exposing only web ports.
- Regular updates of the server and sites.
- HTTPS on all sites.
- Passwords kept in a password manager.
Subprocessors
The Client authorises the use of the following subprocessors:
- Hetzner Online GmbH (Germany): hosting of sites and statistics
- Zoho (European Union): email
- Resend (United States): delivery of contact form messages
- Google Workspace (Ireland, possible transfers outside the EU): storage of files provided by the Client
Transfers outside the European Union are covered by the safeguards provided by the GDPR (European Commission standard contractual clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework). Google (Business Profile, Search Console) acts as an independent controller for its own services.
UpInTown informs the Client in writing at least 1 month before adding or replacing a subprocessor. The Client may object on legitimate grounds and, if no solution is found, cancel free of charge.
End of the agreement
When the contract ends, UpInTown hands the data to the Client as described under "Ending and leaving". It is then deleted from its servers within 30 days, and from backups within the following 30 days.
