What am I signing in this freelance contract?

Payment terms, who owns the work, and what happens when the client changes their mind.

What it looks for

• Payment terms, and what happens when payment is late
• Kill fees — what you are owed if the project is cancelled
• Who owns the intellectual property in the work
• Unlimited or unbounded revisions
• Exclusivity that stops you taking other work
• Indemnity clauses that put personal liability on you
• Whether expenses are covered

The clause that hurts freelancers most is not a dramatic one. It is payment terms of sixty or ninety days with no interest on late payment, which quietly makes you the client's lender.

The second is unbounded revisions. "Revisions until the client is satisfied" has no defined end, and converts a fixed-price job into an open-ended one. A specific number, or an hourly rate beyond a threshold, is the difference between a profitable project and a trap.

Then there is cancellation. If a client can walk away at any point owing nothing for work already done, you are carrying all the risk of their change of mind. A kill fee — a percentage owed on cancellation — is the normal remedy, and its absence is worth noticing before you start.

Indemnity clauses deserve a careful look because they can make you personally liable for consequences far larger than the fee. An uncapped indemnity on a two thousand pound job is a genuinely bad bargain.

Related questions

• What is a kill fee?
• Who owns the work in a freelance contract?
• Are 90 day payment terms normal?
• What is an indemnity clause in a contract?

Signing something else?

• What am I signing in this employment contract?
• What am I signing in this rental agreement?
• What am I agreeing to in these terms of service?
• What does this privacy policy actually let them do?
• What am I signing in this loan or credit agreement?
• A crypto transaction

This is a reading aid, not legal advice. For anything that decides the next few years of your life, talk to someone qualified.