Terms of Service

ProperPics · Effective date: 11 August 2026

These Terms govern your use of ProperPics (the "Service"). The Service is offered to estate agents and agencies on a business-to-business basis. By using it, you agree to these Terms. Our identifying details (Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002, section 43) appear in the panel at the foot of this page.

1. The Service

ProperPics virtually stages property photographs (adding furniture and décor to listing images using an AI image model), enhances photographs, and generates listing copy. Staging is a digital visualisation, not a physical alteration of the property. Photographs containing people are automatically excluded from staging. Original photographs and outputs are automatically deleted after a default 30-day retention window.

ProperPics is a service provider to estate agents and agencies. It is not a "property practitioner" as defined in the Property Practitioners Act 22 of 2019: we do not market, sell, let, broker, canvass, or advertise property, and we hold no mandate in respect of any property. Our role is limited to producing and enhancing images and listing copy on the instruction of the agent or agency.

2. Who may use the Service

The Service is for estate agents and agencies acting in the course of their business, and is intended for business use rather than for consumer end-users. Where the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (CPA) nonetheless applies to you, nothing in these Terms limits, waives, or deprives you of any right you have under the CPA, and any term that would have that effect is to be read down to the extent necessary to comply with the CPA. Accounts may be created by self-signup (verified by email) or by invitation. You are responsible for keeping your login secure and for activity under your account.

3. Your warranties about the photographs

For every photograph you submit, you warrant that:

You indemnify ProperPics against any breach of these warranties.

4. Data protection: our operator role

For the listing photographs you submit, ProperPics acts as an operator under POPIA, processing them only on your instruction; your agency is the responsible party. This processing is governed by a separate signed operator agreement, which prevails over these Terms on all data-protection matters. As described in our Privacy Policy, the photographs are transferred to Google (Gemini) outside South Africa for processing under that agreement (POPIA section 72). For our website's own enquiry and account data, we are the responsible party.

We process client listing photographs only once a signed operator agreement is in force between us and your agency. Where no signed operator agreement is yet in place, we will not begin processing client photographs.

5. Disclosing virtual staging to buyers: your duty

Virtually staged and digitally enhanced images must be disclosed as such to prospective buyers or tenants. You must keep the on-image "Virtually Staged" or "Digitally Enhanced" mark and the accompanying disclosure sentence intact wherever the image is published (property portals, brochures, social media and print). If the on-image mark is removed, cropped, or altered for any reason, you must still retain the disclosure sentence in the listing copy. You must not present a staged or enhanced image as a true depiction of the property's actual contents. We do not remove or conceal any structural feature or defect of a property, and you must not request that we do so. These duties protect you under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (sections 29 and 41) and the Property Practitioners Act 22 of 2019 (section 67). See our Virtual Staging Disclosure.

You must check our output against the property before you publish it. Our images are a marketing visualisation, not a record of the property's condition. Although we do not remove or conceal defects, AI-generated outputs are not guaranteed free of error, so you must review each delivered image against the actual property before publishing it. You remain solely responsible for the accuracy of your listing and for disclosing the property's actual condition and any defects, and you must not rely on our images as a record of condition.

6. Acceptable use

You must not: submit photographs you have no rights to; submit images of people for staging in breach of the exclusion; ask us to remove or conceal defects or material features; ask us to insert artificial people; use outputs to mislead; resell or sublicense the platform; reverse-engineer or scrape it; or upload unlawful content.

7. Intellectual property

Input photographs remain yours (or your principal's); you grant us a limited, revocable licence to process them solely to deliver the Service. On payment for the relevant listing, you receive the right to use the delivered staged images and copy to market the relevant listing. ProperPics retains all rights in its platform, models, prompts, software and know-how, and will not reuse your photographs for marketing or model training without your authority.

Development licence. A development means a named project of multiple units built to repeated floorplans. Where we agree in writing to stage one, the licence granted on payment of the agreed fee extends beyond a single listing. You may use the delivered images and copy to market any unit of the same floorplan within that named development, for as long as you are marketing units in it. You may share them with the estate agents, portals and publications marketing that development on your behalf. You may not resell or sub-licence them, use them for a different development, or use them to represent a unit whose layout, finishes or outlook differ materially from the unit photographed. Everything in these terms that applies to a listing applies to each unit marketed under this licence, including your disclosure duty in clause 5.

8. Billing

Fees are payable in advance, online, through our payment processor (Paystack). Buying a listing, or a subscription that includes listings, adds prepaid listing credits to your account, which you redeem when you submit a listing for staging. Prices are shown in South African Rand. We may also invoice an agency by separate arrangement, in which case the invoiced amount is due within 14 days of the invoice date. Refunds and cancellations are dealt with in clause 9.

Promotional offers. From time to time we may run promotions (for example, a free first listing for new customers). Any such offer is a discretionary promotion and not a contractual entitlement: it is subject to these Terms and to any specific conditions we state alongside it, is limited to one per customer or agency unless we say otherwise, is not transferable or redeemable for cash, and we may change, limit, suspend or withdraw it at any time and without notice. Withdrawing a promotion does not affect a listing we have already delivered to you under it.

9. Refunds and cancellations

Cancelling a subscription. You may cancel a subscription at any time from your Account. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period: you keep access and any listing credits already granted until that period ends, and the subscription does not renew. We do not refund or pro-rate the current period.

Prepaid listing credits. A listing credit is refundable while it is unused, within 14 days of purchase. Email hello@properpics.co.za and we will refund the unused credit to your original payment method. Once a credit has been used (a listing has been submitted for staging), the Service for that listing has been performed and the credit is non-refundable, except where the law requires otherwise or at our discretion as a goodwill gesture.

Cooling-off. The Service is supplied to business customers and a listing begins to be performed on your instruction. Under section 42(2), read with section 44, of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002, any cooling-off right falls away once the Service has been used; for unused credits we nevertheless offer the 14-day refund above.

Validity of credits. Prepaid pay-as-you-go listing credits remain valid for at least the period required by law, and we will not expire a credit you have paid for before then. Subscription plan credits are valid until the end of the period you have paid for (plus any grace period we allow), after which they expire; pay-as-you-go credits are unaffected.

Faulty results and disputes. If a delivered staging is materially not as described, please tell us promptly, ideally within 7 days, and we will re-do it or, at our discretion, refund it. This 7-day period is to help us put things right quickly; it does not limit any longer period you may be entitled to under applicable law. Please raise any billing dispute at hello@properpics.co.za as soon as you notice it, and we will consider any dispute raised within a reasonable time.

10. Limitation of liability and indemnity

Please read this clause carefully. It limits our liability and contains an indemnity. To the maximum extent permitted by law: our total liability for any matter relating to a job is limited to the fees you paid for that job; we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss; and we give no warranty that AI-generated outputs are free of error. You indemnify ProperPics against loss arising from your misuse of the Service, your breach of these Terms or your warranties, or your failure to disclose virtual staging to buyers. Nothing in these Terms limits any liability that cannot be limited under South African law, including the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 where it applies.

11. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate an account for breach, non-payment or unlawful use. On termination, in-flight jobs stop and data is deleted in line with our retention policy. The intellectual-property, indemnity, limitation-of-liability and confidentiality clauses survive termination.

12. Confidentiality

Each party keeps the other's listing photographs, business information and outputs confidential. We keep your photographs confidential and will not disclose or reuse them except to deliver the Service (POPIA section 20).

13. Changes

We may amend these Terms on notice, with a new effective date; continued use means you accept the change. We may also change or discontinue features.

14. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by South African law, and the South African courts have jurisdiction. Before litigation, the parties will attempt to resolve a dispute by good- faith negotiation and, failing that, mediation or arbitration administered by the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA) under its rules. Venue: Johannesburg, Gauteng.

15. General

These Terms (together with the operator agreement, which prevails on data-protection matters) are the entire agreement between us. If any clause is unenforceable, the rest stand. A delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver. We may assign these Terms; you may not without our consent. Notices may be sent to the contact details below.

Who we are
Warwick Brown (sole proprietor), trading as ProperPics.
Registration: Not applicable (sole proprietorship, no CIPC registration)
Address
18 Murray Avenue, Morningside Manor, Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa
Contact
General: hello@properpics.co.za
Privacy / data requests: privacy@properpics.co.za
Information Officer (POPIA)
Warwick Brown