I have a client that would like to assign administrative and theme level update responsibilities of a wordpress website to an in-house employee. I have warned that this may cause breakages etc. when working at that level. They still want to move forward and groom this internal person. Does anyone have or know of a release that a client could sign acknowledging the risks and releasing me of responsibility of any actions after the hand-off?
I purchased the Web Design Business Kit but do not see such a form in the binders.
Thank you in advance.
I would view this as a great opportunity for more income.
Simply ask the client to sign a very short form stating your rate ($) for any changes, updates or fixes as a result of the in-house person making mistakes.
And, with Wordpress, just ensure you have regular backups.
I agree it’s a great opportunity - they will break the site and you’ll fix it for them. Why would you have them sign anything at all?
It’s not really your role to say what they can and can’t do with the site that they purchased, so if you ask them to sign something like that it’s antagonistic to the client, and sends the wrong message. And unless there is some reason you think you would be responsible for their actions, why are you concerned about this at all?
I would turn it around and send them a much more positive message like this:
[SIZE=4][FONT=Comic Sans MS]- I’ll be happy to help transition the administrative/theming work to your employee.
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Wordpress can be tricky I recommend that the following resources for learning your way around the system
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Please make sure you take backups before doing any modifications to the system. I am happy to help ensure that this is well covered. (make a big deal about this)
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In the event that you get in a jam, don’t hesitate to call me for assistance. [/FONT][/SIZE]
Then wait for the phone to ring and bill them your hourly rate for any help you give them. You do have a contract in place that has all your rates in it, right? 
Well, it depends on your contract I think.
If you are already working hourly, there isn’t a reason to change anything. They need more fixes, you do those fixes and bill them, easy.
However, if the contract was for the website, not really based on hours but on some other criteria (like the site would have x, y, and z), I think it would be important to have them sign something that says any extra work this causes will be billed at an hourly rate. If not, they could turn around and say “well, this is a bug and you need to fix it”.
I don’t know of any forms that are just generically available. Like Parkin said, just write a short contract that states in a sentence or two that any problems caused by the in-house developer can be fixed and an hour rate of $X. Obviously, clean up the language so it is more polite (i.e., don’t use “problems caused by” =p).
A client can ‘turn around and say’ whatever they like, but having them sign a contract to prevent every possible scenario is pretty cumbersome and unworkable. There is no need for them to ‘sign’ anything unless there is no contract in place and any good contract will describe when a project is over.
Just make it clear that you are handing over the site to them and that they are assuming responsibility for it. Asking a client to sign something so that they explicitly accept responsibility for something that is obviously their responsibility is amateurish.
If there is confusion about any of this, then the original contract is hugely flawed or there isn’t good communication.
As the others stated, I wouldn’t worry about having them sign any liability release as that isn’t really necessary. Depending on the project, I will occasionally have the client sign off on the project that it is “complete”. Since I have milestones set, the client has to sign off on the design stage, so having them sign off that you are complete as stated in your Agreement will give you the “end” that your work is set as of that date. If there were to be something that breaks later, it could truly be a bug, or it could be something that their person broke. You would need to address that on a case-per-case basis.
To assist with that side of it, just ensure that you set up a User in WordPress specifically for that person. All of the changes are recorded in WordPress and you can point out which User worked on it and that it was not originally a problem. Of course you can fix it for them … for a nominal hourly fee.
Never turn away potential future business … even if it is because someone is going to destroy all the hard work you put into it. If you get paid to do it once, why not get paid to fix it and essentially do it twice, or three / four / five times? 