Terms of Service
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.
2. Who may use the Service
The Service is for estate agents and agencies acting in the course of their business; you warrant that you are not contracting as a consumer end-user. Accounts are created by invitation or manual provisioning — there is no public self-signup. 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 own it or are licensed to use it, and you grant us the limited licence needed to process it;
- you hold the mandate of the property owner, seller or lessor;
- you have obtained all consents required under POPIA for any personal information in or associated with the photograph; and
- submitting it does not infringe any third party's intellectual-property, privacy or other rights.
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.
5. Disclosing virtual staging to buyers — your duty
Virtually staged images must be disclosed as such to prospective buyers or tenants. You must keep the burnt-in "Virtually Staged · properpics.co.za" watermark and the accompanying disclosure sentence intact wherever the image is published (property portals, brochures, social media and print), and you must not present a staged 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 44). See our Virtual Staging Disclosure.
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 of the relevant invoice, 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.
8. Billing
Fees are billed by invoice; no payment is processed through this website. Payment is due within 14 days of the invoice date. Because the Service is supplied to a business customer and begins on your instruction, the consumer cooling-off right in section 44 of the ECTA does not apply. If you dispute an invoice, raise it with us at hello@properpics.co.za within 7 days of the invoice date.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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).
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. 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