It’s the end of the month, and you need to pay rent and a stack of other bills. But your biggest client is refusing to pay because of a dispute, even though you did the work. The situation is getting critical… if only you had solid terms and conditions to fall back on! But how do you actually establish your terms and conditions anyway? We explain everything you need to know in this article.
Are terms and conditions mandatory for the self-employed?
In Belgium, self-employed individuals, or freelancers, are not required to have terms and conditions, even if it’s strongly recommended. There are several advantages to drawing up general conditions:
📚 Clarity and security: Terms and conditions clarify the rights and obligations of both the seller and the client. They form a legal basis for what’s expected of both parties.
🛡️ Protection: Strong terms and conditions can protect you from unreasonable demands and limit your liability.
⏳ Efficiency: By having standard conditions, you won’t have to create individual agreements for each mission or client. You save time, and all your clients are treated the same way.
💼 Professionalism: With clear terms and conditions, you give yourself a more professional image.
Key criteria for your general conditions
Of course, you can’t just write anything you like in your terms and conditions. You need to make sure that your client doesn’t feel at a disadvantage. So make sure to communicate clearly and at the right times. Below, you’ll find the main rules to respect.
📄 Accessibility: Your client must be able to easily access your terms and conditions. Referring them to your website is not enough; you need to share them explicitly. If they’re on the back of a page, make that clear on the front.
🕵️ Legibility: Your terms and conditions should be easy to read. Avoid hard-to-read fonts, small print, or low-contrast colours.
🗣️ Understandability: Your terms and conditions should be written in clear and accessible language. Avoid technical terms, abbreviations, or expressions that your clients may not understand.
✅ Acceptance: For your terms and conditions to be applicable, your client must accept them. You can include a clause indicating that the recipient has read and accepted the conditions. Even better, you can ask them to sign them.
⚖️ Fairness: Make sure to find a fair balance between the rights and obligations of both parties. Firstly, because the law requires it, but also because fairness improves business relationships.
If your terms and conditions don’t meet these criteria, one or more clauses could be considered void. And speaking of clauses…
What clauses should you include in your terms and conditions?
There’s no universal model to follow. Every self-employed individual or freelancer will have different terms and conditions depending on the work they do and their expectations. We’ve listed the most common clauses below to give you a good basis for establishing your own general conditions.
- Scope: Indicates to which parties and to which projects or products the conditions apply.
- Unilateral modification: Allows you to modify the conditions unilaterally and at any time. This clause is especially relevant for long-term collaborations.
- Exclusion of client terms: Ensures that only your terms and conditions apply to your contract. This avoids conflicts due to contradicting conditions.
- Quotes and orders: Specifies the validity period of quotes and the conditions for cancelling orders.
- Rates: States the applicable VAT regime, the rates you charge, and how work that’s not included in the quote will be invoiced.
- Delivery and force majeure: Describes the conditions and delivery times. Defines the consequences of a case of force majeure, as well as the client’s rights in the event of late delivery.
- Retention of title: Protects you as the seller of products. This clause states that the products remain the property of the seller until they’ve been paid for in full.
- Complaints and disputes: Explains how to file a complaint and within what time frame. Describes the procedure the client should follow.
- Termination and dissolution: Stipulates under what circumstances the contract may be terminated and the procedure to follow.
- Payment terms: Specifies the methods of payment accepted, payment deadlines, and any down payments required. Also indicates the consequences of late payments.
- Processing of personal data: Clarifies how you store personal data and the ways in which you protect it.
- Applicable law and competent jurisdiction: Indicates which law applies and the competent jurisdiction in the event of a dispute. This will avoid you having to travel far from home in the event of a dispute.
Terms and conditions for online stores
The rules on terms and conditions are more strict for selling to individuals (B2C) than for selling to other businesses (B2B). Do you have an online store? Then you’ll need to take additional rules into account, particularly relating to distance selling.
In short, you must clearly indicate that the sale is a paid online order. The price and characteristics of the product being sold always need to be clearly stated.
How and when to share your terms and conditions with your client
The client must always be informed of the terms and conditions before concluding the contract. It’s therefore not enough to mention the conditions on your invoice. You need to share them earlier, for example with your quote or via email.
Equally important, the client must confirm that they’ve read and accepted your general conditions. This can be done explicitly by checking a box on a form or signing the terms and conditions, or implicitly by starting the project or accepting the quote.
💡 Accountable tip: The Accountable app offers templates for quotes and invoices, with space for your terms and conditions. Try Accountable for free for 14 days.
How to establish terms and conditions for your freelance activity
Since your terms and conditions are effectively a legal document, we don’t recommend writing them on your own. Of course, if you’re starting out as self-employed, you probably don’t have the budget to have detailed terms and conditions drafted.
An alternative is to write your terms and conditions as clearly as possible yourself and then have them checked.
But how do you write your general conditions? Here’s our advice.
📝 Base yourself on templates or checklists, like the one we shared above.
🔍 Take a look at your competitors’ terms and conditions (without blindly copying them).
🔢 Add numbers and headings to your clauses to give clarity and structure.
🧑⚖️ Choose a law of application and jurisdiction that suits you in order to avoid long journeys in the event of a dispute.
🔧 Be flexible when it comes to your client’s wishes and the evolution of the market.
📈 Develop your terms and conditions with your growth and expansion in mind, especially in terms of expanding internationally or broadening your offer.
⚖️ Find a balance between protecting your business and ensuring good client relationships.
Finally, don’t forget to reread your terms and conditions regularly and update them if needed, asking an expert to check them.
