Website Terms and Conditions: Do You Need Them?
Website terms and conditions aren't something UK law asks every small business site to carry. What the rules do ask for is specific information, shown before a customer commits, and that's a different thing. A page of terms becomes genuinely worth having once you take bookings, deposits or payments online, because it's where you set out what happens when plans change. Below, the two are kept apart: what you have to show, and what you'd be wise to set. It's general information, not legal advice.
Do I legally need terms and conditions on my website?
Not as a page with that name, for most small businesses. The government's guidance on online and distance selling for businesses lists the information you have to give a customer before an online sale: who you are and how to reach you, what they're buying, the full price with taxes, how they can pay, delivery arrangements, any deposit conditions, and their right to cancel. It asks for that information to be easy to understand and in a form the customer can keep, such as an email. It doesn't ask for a document called "terms and conditions".
So the honest answer splits in two. A site that only shows your work and a phone number needs the basic identity details our guide to website legal requirements covers, and probably nothing more. A site where someone books or pays is where the information list above kicks in, and a terms page is often the tidiest place to keep it.
What's the difference between required information and terms?
Required information is what the law tells you to say; terms are the rules you choose to set. The first is a checklist of facts, like your address, the price and the cancellation rights the customer already has. The second is your own policy: how much notice you want for a cancellation, what happens to a deposit, what you do when someone turns up late.
It's easy to worry about the first and skip the second. But the argument a terms page heads off is rarely about a missing address. It's about a cancelled appointment, a deposit nobody agreed on, or a refund policy that was never written down anywhere.
| Your site | What the rules ask you to show | What is worth setting yourself |
|---|---|---|
| A brochure site with a phone number and an enquiry form | Your name, address and contact details, plus company details if you are a limited company. | Usually nothing more. A quote or a confirmation email can carry the detail when a job is agreed. |
| Online bookings with no payment taken | The same, plus the information a customer needs before agreeing, if the booking forms the contract. | A short cancellation and lateness policy, shown before someone books. |
| Bookings that take a deposit | Clear deposit conditions and the cancellation rights that apply, before payment. | What happens to the deposit if either of you cancels, in plain words. |
| Selling products online for delivery | The full list of pre-contract information in the distance selling guidance, including cancellation rights. | Delivery, returns and refunds terms in one place the customer can save. |
Can my terms say no refunds, or take away a customer's rights?
No, a term can't take away rights the law gives a customer, and an unfair one won't hold. Section 62 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says an unfair term in a consumer contract is not binding on the consumer. A term counts as unfair if, against the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the two sides' rights to the customer's detriment, judged on all the circumstances when it was agreed.
The same Act goes further for services. Under section 57, a term can't exclude your duty to do the job with reasonable care and skill, and can't stop a customer getting their money back in an appropriate case. A line saying "no refunds under any circumstances" doesn't change any of that. It just tells a careful customer you haven't read the rules.
Cancellation has its own catch. The gov.uk guidance says that if you don't tell an online customer about their right to cancel, they can cancel at any time in the next 12 months, which is a far longer window than you'd have chosen.
How do I know if a term is fair?
The official place to check is the Competition and Markets Authority's unfair contract terms guidance, which the CMA updated in July 2026 after a consultation. It's written for businesses and sets out how to make terms fair and transparent to consumers. It's long, but you only need the parts that match what your own terms cover.
A rough test before you open it: would a customer be surprised by this term if it were read out to them? Terms buried in small print, or that only ever work in your favour, are the ones most likely to cause a problem. Plain wording, shown before someone pays, is the safest habit.
What should a small business put in its terms?
Only what you actually do, in the words you'd use on the phone. Take a salon that takes a deposit for longer appointments as the worked example. Its terms might cover four things, and nothing else:
- Booking and deposit. Which appointments need a deposit, and whether it comes off the final bill.
- Changing or cancelling. How much notice the salon asks for, and what happens to the deposit inside and outside that notice.
- Lateness. What happens if someone arrives late for a timed appointment.
- If something goes wrong. How to raise a problem, and how it'll be put right.
A short, honest version you can adapt and show beside the booking button:
Some longer appointments need a deposit when you book, which comes off your final bill. If you need to cancel or move your appointment, please give us [your notice period] notice and we'll [what happens to the deposit]. If something isn't right after your visit, tell us within [a reasonable time] and we'll put it right. None of this affects your legal rights.
Fill in the brackets with what you'd genuinely do, then check the result against the CMA guidance before it goes live. Products sold online for delivery bring their own cancellation rules, which our guide to taking orders in DMs walks through for made-to-order work.
Where should terms go on the website?
Where the customer sees them before they commit, not only in the footer. A link to a terms page in the footer is fine as the full record, but the parts that bite, like a deposit or a cancellation notice, belong next to the booking button or in the booking confirmation email. The gov.uk guidance asks for the key information in a form the customer can keep, and an email does that better than any web page.
If you'd rather have a site built with that in mind from the start, ByRender's setup is from £495, and you see a preview before you pay anything. The policy is still yours to write, because only you know how you work.
What should you do next?
Write down how you really handle bookings, deposits, cancellations and refunds today, in plain sentences. If you don't take bookings or payments online, check the basics in the legal requirements guide and you're probably done. If you do, turn those sentences into a short terms section and put it beside the button. For the rest of what a new site needs, start with our guide to your first website, or ask us how we'd set it up for your business.
Frequently asked questions
Can I copy terms and conditions from a bigger website?
It's risky for two reasons. Their terms were written for their business, so they'll describe deliveries, refunds or services that don't match yours, and a term that doesn't reflect what actually happens is a term you can't rely on. Write down how you really work first, then check it against the CMA's guidance on fair terms.
Do I need a separate terms page for a business-to-business site?
The Consumer Rights Act sections quoted in this guide are written for consumer contracts, meaning selling to the public, so a site that only deals with other businesses is in different territory. If real money rides on those contracts, that's a conversation for a solicitor rather than a template.
Is a template from a website builder good enough?
It can be a starting point, as long as you edit every line to match how you actually work. A template doesn't know your deposit, your notice period or what you do when a customer is late, and those are the parts that matter when something goes wrong.