The small print

Terms of business

Last updated: 8 July 2026

These terms apply to all editing, writing, and related services provided by Refinery Editing (“we”, “us”). By accepting a quote, you accept these terms. Anything different needs to be agreed in writing. They are written in plain English on purpose; if anything is unclear, please ask.

1. Quotes and acceptance

Every project starts with a written quote setting out the service, the hourly rate, the estimated hours, and the delivery date. Your email confirmation of the quote is what engages us; no work begins before it. If it becomes clear during the work that the estimate will be exceeded, we pause and tell you before continuing, and you decide how to proceed.

2. Rates and payment

Our rates are hourly and are published on the rates section of this site; bespoke work is quoted individually. Invoices are payable on receipt unless the invoice says otherwise. For new clients and larger projects we may ask for payment in part or in full before work begins. We may pause further work while an invoice is overdue.

3. What editing is, and isn’t

We improve the clarity, correctness, and structure of your text according to the service you commission. You remain the author: responsibility for the content, its factual accuracy, and its originality stays with you. Careful editing dramatically reduces errors, but no editor can guarantee a text entirely free of them; if we miss something material, tell us and we will put it right at no charge. We cannot guarantee publication, acceptance, funding, or grades.

4. Academic work

We edit student and academic work within the rules of your institution, and it is your responsibility to check what those rules allow. On request, we provide an editing certificate describing exactly what we did.

5. Your responsibilities

Please send the final version of your document, make sure you have the right to share it with us, and respond promptly if we have questions. If material or answers arrive late, the delivery date moves with them.

Clear instructions matter as much as the document itself: we work to the brief agreed in the quote. If your instructions are ambiguous, incomplete, or contradictory, we will ask; where an answer isn’t forthcoming, we apply our professional judgement, and work done in good faith on that basis counts as delivered work.

6. Delivery and follow-up

We deliver by the agreed deadline, usually as a Word document with tracked changes, so you can see and control every edit. We do not provide ‘clean’ versions with the changes already accepted: reviewing the edits and responding to the comments we leave in the text is an essential and inseparable part of the editing process, and many of those comments need decisions only the author can make. Questions after delivery are welcome, and brief follow-up clarifications cost nothing. New text, or a further round of editing after you have revised, is quoted separately.

7. Confidentiality

Your documents and our correspondence are confidential, as described in our privacy policy. We are happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement before you send anything.

8. Copyright

Your work remains yours. Our edits and suggestions become part of your document, and we claim no rights in it. For ghostwritten material, all rights transfer to you on payment in full.

9. Cancellation

You may cancel at any time; you pay only for the hours worked up to that point, and any prepaid balance beyond that is refunded. We may decline or stop work on material that is unlawful, and will refund any unworked prepaid portion.

10. Liability

We provide our services with reasonable skill and care. Our total liability for any project is limited to the fee paid for that project, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss.

11. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of South Africa. If something goes wrong, talk to us first; we would much rather fix it than argue about it.

12. Contact

Questions about these terms: hello@refineryediting.com.