Version: 1.1 — May 2026 | Effective date: 1 June 2026 | Last updated: 11 May 2026
1. About these Terms
1.1 These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding agreement between Chiao-Lin Chen, trading as "QS Guidance Notes" ("we", "us", "our") and the person or organisation subscribing to or using the Service ("you", "your").
1.2 By creating an account, subscribing, or otherwise using qsguidancenotes.com (the "Site") or any service we provide through it (the "Service"), you confirm you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy.
1.3 If you are subscribing on behalf of an organisation, you confirm you are authorised to bind that organisation to these Terms and references to "you" include that organisation.
1.4 If you do not agree to these Terms, do not create an account or use the Service.
2. The Service
2.1 The Service provides a subscription-based reference library of written guidance notes, checklists, and downloadable templates aimed at RICS-regulated quantity surveyors and QS trainees in England & Wales.
2.2 Access model. Parts of the library are freely viewable (e.g. listings, titles, summaries). The full content of each guidance note (including detailed sections, checklists, APC material, and downloadable templates) is accessible only to active paid subscribers.
2.3 No professional advice. The Service is an educational and reference resource only. The content does not constitute legal, regulatory, contractual, commercial, or professional advice, and is not a substitute for the independent judgement of a qualified professional. You must not rely on the Service as the sole basis for any decision on a live project, matter, or dispute. You remain solely responsible for all professional decisions you make.
2.4 No RICS affiliation. QS Guidance Notes is an independent publisher. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). References to RICS publications are for educational context only.
2.5 Customer responsibility for verification. Subscribers are themselves regulated professionals (or trainees working towards a professional qualification) and are responsible for cross-referencing the library content against the relevant RICS guidance, applicable local standards, and other authoritative source materials before relying on it. The Service is a reference tool only and does not replace your own professional judgement, your professional body's rules, or the requirements of any project, regulator, or jurisdiction in which you operate. Where you believe library content does not align with current RICS guidance or other authoritative sources, you are responsible for raising this with us in good time. In the event of any inconsistency, the relevant RICS publication (or other authoritative source) is the controlling document and prevails over the Service.
2.6 Content sources. All guidance notes are original works. Where we reference RICS publications, statutes, or third-party standards, we do so for citation, education, and commentary purposes only and do not reproduce those works in full.
3. Eligibility and accounts
3.1 You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a legally binding contract.
3.2 You must provide accurate, current, and complete information at signup and keep it up to date.
3.3 You are responsible for all activity under your account and for safeguarding your login credentials. Notify us immediately at hello@qsguidancenotes.com if you suspect unauthorised access.
3.4 Account use.
(a) Individual plans. Individual plans (Basic, Enhanced Individual) are licensed to a single named user. Accounts may not be shared, pooled, or used concurrently by multiple people.
(b) Firm/team plans. Firm/team plans are licensed to a single subscribing organisation. The firm subscriber may permit current employees of that organisation to access the Service using the firm's login credentials. Login credentials must not be shared with anyone outside the subscribing organisation. The firm subscriber is responsible for updating the firm password promptly when staff leave the organisation, and for the conduct of all persons accessing the Service under the firm's account. All acts and omissions of persons using the firm's account are the responsibility of, and attributable to, the firm subscriber for the purposes of these Terms.
(c) Concurrent use. Reasonable concurrent use by current staff of the firm subscriber is permitted. We may apply technical limits on concurrent sessions to protect the Service.
4. Subscriptions, fees, and billing
4.1 Subscriptions are offered on the plans and at the prices published on the Site at the time of purchase. Current plans include Student, Pro, and Firm Starter tiers; additional tiers may be offered in future.
4.2 Payment processor. Payments are processed by Lemon Squeezy (Lemon Squeezy, LLC / Paddle.com Market Ltd as merchant of record). By subscribing, you also agree to the payment processor's terms. We do not store your full payment card details.
4.3 Billing cycle. Subscriptions are billed in advance on a recurring monthly or annual cycle (as you select at checkout) and automatically renew at the end of each cycle at the then-current rate until cancelled.
4.4 Price changes. We may change subscription prices. Any price change takes effect at your next renewal and we will give you reasonable advance notice (at least 30 days) by email. If you do not accept a price change, you may cancel before the new price takes effect.
4.5 Taxes. Prices displayed may exclude VAT or other applicable taxes, which will be added at checkout where legally required. The merchant of record is responsible for collecting and remitting relevant taxes.
4.6 Failed payments. If a renewal payment fails, we may suspend or terminate your access until payment is received.
5. Cancellation
5.1 You may cancel at any time from your account dashboard (via the Lemon Squeezy customer portal) or by emailing hello@qsguidancenotes.com.
5.2 Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing cycle. You retain access until then. Subject to clause 6, cancellation does not entitle you to a refund of any fees already paid for the current or previous billing cycles.
6. Refunds
6.1 14-day money-back guarantee. If you are unhappy with the Service for any reason within 14 days of your initial subscription (the "Refund Window"), you may request a full refund of your initial subscription fee by emailing hello@qsguidancenotes.com with your account email and a brief reason. We will process the refund through our payment processor within a reasonable period (typically 5–10 business days).
6.2 The 14-day Refund Window applies to your initial subscription only. After 14 days, fees for the current and previous billing cycles are non-refundable except as set out in clauses 6.4 or 6.5 below.
6.3 The Refund Window does not restart on subsequent renewals (monthly or annual). If you want to cancel a renewal, do so before it is taken — see clause 5 and our Refund Policy.
6.4 Refunds for technical or billing issues. Outside the Refund Window, we will refund (in full or in part as appropriate) where:
- (a) we have charged you in error (e.g. duplicate billing, billing after cancellation);
- (b) the Service has been unavailable to you for a materially extended period due to our fault;
- (c) we are required by law to issue a refund (e.g. under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 where digital content is not as described, unfit for purpose, or of unsatisfactory quality).
6.5 Statutory rights preserved. Nothing in these Terms limits any statutory rights you may have under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.
6.6 Refunds in case of breach. Where we terminate your subscription for breach of these Terms (see clauses 7 and 11), you are not entitled to a refund.
6.7 For a plain-English summary of how refunds work, see our Refund Policy.
7. Acceptable use
7.1 You may use the Service only for your own personal or internal professional reference and study (including preparation for the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence).
7.2 You must not, and must not permit any third party to:
(a) copy, reproduce, scrape, download, republish, redistribute, sell, sublicense, rent, lease, or otherwise make available any part of the Service (including the text of any guidance note or any template) to anyone other than yourself;
(b) share, disclose, or transfer your login credentials to any other person, or allow any other person to access the Service using your account, except as permitted under clause 3.4(b) for firm plans;
(c) use the Service, or any content obtained from it, to create a competing product, service, or training resource, including any derivative work, summary, index, database, or AI training dataset;
(d) remove, obscure, or alter any copyright, trademark, watermark, user-identification stamp, or other proprietary notice embedded in any page, template, or download;
(e) circumvent, disable, or otherwise interfere with any security, access control, digital rights management, copy-protection, or usage-monitoring feature of the Service (including right-click disabling, print disabling, watermarking, and rate-limiting);
(f) use any automated system (robot, crawler, scraper, browser automation) to access, index, or extract content from the Service, except as expressly permitted;
(g) use the Service for any unlawful purpose, or in any way that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the Service or the Site.
7.3 Suspected misuse. If we reasonably believe you are in breach of this clause, we may suspend your account immediately pending investigation, and on confirmed breach may terminate your subscription without refund.
8. Intellectual property
8.1 All content in the Service — including every guidance note, checklist, template, image, layout, branding, and the compilation and arrangement of the library — is owned by us or our licensors and is protected by UK and international copyright, database, and trademark laws.
8.2 Licence grant. Subject to your compliance with these Terms and your payment of the applicable fees, we grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable licence to access and view the Service during your active subscription, and to download templates strictly for your own internal professional use on your projects.
8.3 What you may not do with downloaded templates. Downloaded templates may be adapted for use on your own projects under your own firm's branding. You may not redistribute them as templates, re-sell them, publish them, share them with anyone outside your subscribing organisation, or incorporate them into any training, teaching, or resource library outside your own internal project use.
8.4 No rights, title, or interest in the Service pass to you other than the limited licence described above. We reserve all rights not expressly granted.
8.5 Any feedback or suggestions you send us about the Service may be used by us without obligation or compensation to you.
9. Copy protection and enforcement
9.1 The Service incorporates technical protective measures including (without limitation) disabling of right-click, text selection, and printing on gated content; email-watermarking of template previews; and monitoring of unusual access patterns.
9.2 You agree not to attempt to bypass, disable, or circumvent any of these measures.
9.3 We reserve the right to monitor use of the Service (including IP address, access time, and content accessed) for the purposes of preventing and detecting breaches of these Terms. Monitoring is carried out in accordance with our Privacy Policy and UK data protection law.
9.4 Breach remedies. Because content misuse causes disproportionate and often irreversible harm to our business, you agree that in addition to any other remedies (including damages), we may:
- (a) terminate your subscription immediately without refund;
- (b) publish a digital notice of breach;
- (c) issue DMCA or equivalent takedown notices against any republished content;
- (d) seek injunctive relief to prevent continued misuse;
- (e) recover our reasonable legal costs of enforcement.
9.5 Liquidated damages. Where content is proven to have been redistributed in breach of clause 7.2, you agree that a reasonable pre-estimate of our loss is £2,500 per guidance note or template redistributed, payable as liquidated damages, in addition to any other remedies available at law. The parties acknowledge this is a genuine pre-estimate of loss and not a penalty.
10. Availability and changes
10.1 We aim to keep the Service available 24/7 but do not guarantee uninterrupted access. Maintenance, updates, third-party outages (including hosting, payment, or authentication providers), and force majeure events may cause occasional unavailability.
10.2 We may change the content, features, or functionality of the Service from time to time. We will not materially reduce the scope of what your subscription provides during a paid billing cycle without your consent or a pro-rata refund.
10.3 We may retire individual guidance notes or templates (e.g. where superseded by updated RICS standards) without notice.
11. Termination by us
11.1 We may suspend or terminate your account, with or without notice, if:
- (a) you materially breach these Terms;
- (b) your payment fails and is not cured within a reasonable period;
- (c) we reasonably suspect fraudulent, illegal, or abusive activity;
- (d) we are required to do so by law.
11.2 On termination, your licence to access the Service ends immediately and you must stop using any downloaded content. Clauses that by their nature survive termination (including 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15) continue in force.
12. Liability
12.1 Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot legally be excluded or limited, including liability for:
- (a) death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
- (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
- (c) any other liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.
12.2 Subject to clause 12.1, and to the maximum extent permitted by law:
(a) the Service is provided "as is" and "as available". We exclude all warranties, conditions, and representations (express or implied) not set out in these Terms;
(b) we are not liable for any indirect, consequential, special, or punitive loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, business, goodwill, opportunity, data, or anticipated savings, arising out of or in connection with the Service; and
(c) our total aggregate liability to you in any 12-month period, however arising (including in contract, tort, or under statute), is limited to the total fees you paid us in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the liability.
12.3 Professional reliance. The Service is a reference resource only and is not a substitute for independent professional judgement. You acknowledge that you are a professional acting in the course of your own practice, that you alone are responsible for the application of any content to a live project, matter, or dispute, and that you will independently verify all material against current RICS publications and other authoritative primary sources before relying on it. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any loss, error, cost, penalty, claim, dispute, or professional consequence arising from your use of, or reliance on, any part of the content.
13. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claim, liability, loss, cost, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from:
- (a) your breach of these Terms;
- (b) your misuse of the Service or content obtained from it;
- (c) your infringement of any third party's rights through your use of the Service.
14. Data protection and privacy
Our collection and use of your personal data is described in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms.
15. Governing law and jurisdiction
15.1 These Terms and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them (including non-contractual disputes) are governed by the laws of England and Wales.
15.2 The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any such dispute or claim, save that if you are a consumer and habitually resident in another part of the UK, you may also bring proceedings in the courts of that part of the UK.
15.3 Nothing in this clause affects any non-waivable rights you have as a consumer under applicable local law.
16. General
16.1 Entire agreement. These Terms (together with the Privacy Policy and any plan-specific terms presented at checkout) are the entire agreement between us in relation to the Service.
16.2 Severability. If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
16.3 No waiver. Our failure to enforce any right is not a waiver of that right.
16.4 Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign them to a successor in our business.
16.5 Changes. We may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by email and/or a prominent Site notice at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use after the effective date is acceptance of the updated Terms.
16.6 Notices. Notices to us should be sent to hello@qsguidancenotes.com. Notices to you may be sent to the email address on your account.
16.7 Third-party rights. A person who is not a party to these Terms has no right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce them.
17. Contact
Questions about these Terms? Email hello@qsguidancenotes.com.
QS Guidance Notes is operated by Chiao-Lin Chen, a sole trader. All rights reserved.