Terms of Service
Please take the time to read these terms of service. Engaging our services automatically signifies that you accept these terms of service. The information contained in this web site should not take the place of professional advice. These terms of service are subject to change without notice.
DEFINITIONS
“Key Photography”, "us", "we", "our" and similar means the business operating under the names "Key Photography" and “Key Real Estate Photography” that were both incorporated in the state of Western Australia. It includes our partners, directors, employees, officers, and any other person or entity associated with us, and each of our successors, licensees, and assignees.
"You", "your" and similar refers to the property owner if they’ve booked us or (in any other case) the real estate business, agency, licensee or agency representative or any other party (as the case may be), that is involved in the selling or leasing of a property (including the leasing of short-term rental properties) that engaged our services. It includes any entity that has engaged us to produce the materials that we supply.
“Agent” includes a sales representative of an agency and, for expediency, any other person working within the agency.
“Business Day” means any day except a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday in Western Australia.
“Client”, “your client” or “owner” means the person or business that owns the property being sold or leased and includes any party who is legally entitled to sell or lease the property (e.g. any party involved in executing an estate, the Public Trustee or the mortgagee).
“For sale by owner” means a property being sold by the owner without significant involvement by a real estate agency.
“Location photos” and similar refers to photos taken either away from the property, such as a nearby park, school, shopping centre, beach etc or of the complex, or of facilities within the complex, that the property is in. In all cases, these are generic photos that could be used in the promotion of other properties. Location photographs taken or provided in relation to a particular property may only be used in the marketing of that property and not in the marketing of any other property. A separate licence will be required for such photos for each additional property.
"Materials" means any goods or services created by us.
“Metropolitan area” is the area referred to in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Perth_suburbs.
“Property” means everything physical that is contained within the boundary as described in the Certificate of Title that is currently lodged with Landgate.
“Short-term rental” means temporary accommodation made available for recreational or business purposes where the occupier/tenant determines the length of their stay.
“Strata title dwelling” means buildings or group of buildings that have been divided into 'lots', such as an apartment, townhouse or villa. The owner of the dwelling also shares ownership of common property with other lot owners. This may include shared gardens, external walls, roofs, driveways and stairwells.
APPLICABILITY
When you engage our services, you agree to abide by all of the terms of service outlined on this page. You should print out these terms of service for legal purposes when you engage our services as they may change without notice.
RELATIONSHIP
We are an independent contractor and not your employee. You cannot make agreements, appointments or undertakings on behalf of us.
When you book a shoot with us, a legal contract is created between you and us and, unless you are the owner, all dealings (including invoicing) will be between you and us and not the owner. While we are happy to discuss aspects of the shoot with the owner, any direction and/or interference by the owner and any additional shots requested by the owner may result in additional charges, especially if we are unable to complete the assignment in the allotted time.
CONFIDENTIALITY
You and we will not discuss our arrangement, dealings, business practices, personnel, photographic techniques etc with any other parties. No recording (including by security or covert cameras) that includes us shall be made while we are at the property (unless we agree to be recorded beforehand) due to the sensitive, commercial-in-confidence nature of our techniques and processes as such recordings may be illegally used by our competitors. Please note that in Western Australia it is a criminal offence under sections 5 and 6 of the Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA) to make an audio recording of a private conversation or a visual recording of a private activity if one of the parties has not been made aware prior to the recording. It is also a criminal offence under section 9 of that act to publish either those recordings or information derived from those recordings.
RECORDING OF COMMUNICATIONS
You agree that any verbal communications between you and us may be recorded by us for quality and training purposes.
COPYRIGHT
All rights are reserved, meaning that all copyright ownership rights (expressed or implied) will be retained by us.
MORAL RIGHTS
Moral rights protect the personal relationship between a creator and their work even if the creator no longer owns the work, or the copyright in the work. As creators of the materials we produce, we assert the following moral rights:
The right of attribution: this is the right of an author to be identified and named as the author of his/her work;
The right against false attribution: this is the right of an author to stop someone else being credited as the author of their work; and
The right of integrity: this is the right of an author to ensure that his/her work is not subjected to derogatory treatment which is any act in relation to the work that is in any manner harmful to the author’s honour or reputation.
LICENCE TO USE
Basically, upon payment of a licensing fee, you are allowed to use the images that we supply to you without any restrictions to sell or lease a single property until it’s sold, leased, taken off the market, or the contract between the you and the owner ends.
We will grant you, upon payment of an appropriate fee, a non-transferable, non-exclusive licence (and sub-licence where third parties, such as real estate websites, are involved) to use the materials to assist you in the marketing (in whatever form, including uploading images to real estate and social media websites, printing brochures and flyers, using images on signboards, etc) of the real estate property that you are selling or leasing, or that you have been engaged to sell or lease. Usage for any other purpose (for example, using the images on your website or in print media to market your services to prospective clients) is forbidden unless we agree to such usage in writing.
At no time shall the rights to those materials be assigned by you to, or used by, any third party without our express written permission.
The licence granted to you to use the materials expires if:
Payment is not received at our bank account within 28 days from the date on the invoice in relation to the property (prior to the shoot in the case of owners who are selling their own property), or
The property is sold or leased or the agreement to sell or lease the property has been terminated, or
12 months (6 months in the case of basic/rental shoots) has elapsed since the materials were delivered unless we have agreed, in writing, to extend the licence (i.e. you will need to obtain an extension of the licence period from us before the previous period has elapsed to ensure continuous coverage).
If we have delivered the materials and you have used them, and the licence to use the materials has expired (per the previous paragraph), the licence to use the materials will be deemed to have never applied and the matter will consequently be considered a copyright infringement (rather than a breach of contract) and we will pursue restitution on that basis. You agree that any use beyond the scope of the license is copyright infringement.
Materials may not be sold, leased, used or reused (including in a later sale or leasing of the property), or transmitted or transferred to any other person or business (including the forwarding of materials or links to materials to the owners of the property, or to another agency or business), unless it has been expressly agreed to by us in writing. Further usage of the materials for commercial purposes will subsequently require a new licence and will require the payment of a new licensing fee. All efforts must be made to remove materials from all web sites, social media etc after the property has been sold or leased or the agreement to sell or lease the property has been terminated.
Modifications to materials, for example the adding to a photograph of text, graphics (including the agency’s logo), borders, arrows, marker pins or virtual staging, the cropping of a photograph, or the combining of two or more photographs into a single image, are allowed for the purpose of marketing the property for the purposes of selling or leasing the property by the agent. However, such modifications are “derivative works” and, as such, copyright in the modified materials is still retained by us, including the modification, and the licence to use the materials still expires when the property associated with those materials is sold, leased or the agreement to sell or lease the property has been terminated.
As copyright owners, we reserve the right to use the materials for promotional purposes and to transfer copyright or to relicense the images to others - this includes to other real estate agencies.
SENDING PHOTOS TO OWNERS
Photos may only be sent to owners if they contain the agency logo and that logo has been added to the photos by us. However, we are happy to send much higher resolution images to owners free-of-charge after the property has been sold for them to use for private or domestic purposes (for example, for them to create photo books and to give a copy to other family members as a memento of the time they lived there) - in such cases, you or they should send their email address to us in writing (via email or SMS to get the correct spelling) so that we can send them out to the owners. The reason why we will only send images after the property is sold is that we’ve found other agents using our images without permission and resolving this can be very time-consuming.
LICENSING FEE
Real estate agencies typically sell or rent properties quickly and tend to stick with the same photographer. The package prices that are quoted in our Price List page are accordingly based on limited time usage (typically a few weeks to several months, although currently it’s often mere days) and recurrent business and the price is set correspondingly low. Home owners, short-term rental operators, commercial businesses etc, on the other hand, typically require the photos for an indefinite period of time and are one-off engagements, and so the price charged will be more.
The amounts shown in this website relate to each separate property, are a guide only and are made in good faith based on an assumption that the session will be completed without any issues or complications and within the allotted time. They do not constitute a formal offer and may change at any time. The final price may vary accordingly. We will give you a written quote of the total cost beforehand, if requested, but the quote may also vary, depending on the qualifications at the start of this paragraph.
BOOKINGS
All booking engagements (including the relicensing of photos) must be made through our Book Now page. This page lets you see when we’re available so you can book in shoots yourself at any time, day or night. The booking system will send you an email confirming the appointment that also lets you reschedule or cancel shoots, as long as you do so at least 2 hours before the scheduled start time of the appointment. The system is set up to allow us at least 30 minutes to travel to the next property and is used to automatically generate invoices. If you require assistance, please call us and we will show you how to book your shoot in.
Please note that if you have booked a shoot in as a basic day or rental shoot, the images that we deliver may not be suitable for use in certain types of printed media where high resolution images are required, such as signboards.
INTERPRETATION
You are responsible for providing us with clear, detailed instructions of particular items and features you would like us to include, remove or avoid in photographs to be taken at the property before the shoot. If necessary, you should be present at the start of the shoot (before leaving) to provide us with direction. If no such instructions or direction are provided, our interpretation of the shoot shall be deemed to be acceptable.
With regards to virtual staging, if no specific requirements are mentioned, the staging will be edited as per our editor’s discretion. Any changes will be charged at our hourly rate.
SHOT LIST
We have a range of standard packages that accommodate a set amount of deliverables at a fixed price. If you require more or less photos, you should contact us so that we can work out a package that suits your needs. You should also contact us if there are specific features that are to be avoided or included. Unless you advise us, we will decide which shots to take or not take per this shot list.
INTERFERENCE AT THE PROPERTY
Direction by either you or the owner may result in additional time being spent at the property and may result in additional charges being incurred. Also, we are quite capable to turn lights on, open blinds, moving small objects etc so we do not require any assistance. Where additional time has been spent at the shoot because of interference or assistance by you or the owner, we reserve the right to leave if we need to get to our next scheduled appointment - if we need to return to complete the shoot because of this, there will be an additional charge.
CANCELLATIONS/RESCHEDULING
All shoots incorporate a fee that is chargeable if the shoot is cancelled or rescheduled and less than two hour’s notice is given prior to the start time of the appointment.
If we arrive at the property and are unable to complete the shoot (eg. because the property isn’t ready or if we can’t get inside the house), we will shoot what we can and you will be charged the cancellation fee plus a per delivered photo fee amount.
If the shoot is cancelled due to our fault, we will, at our absolute discretion, not charge you the cancellation fee.
Unless the shoot is cancelled due to our fault, returning to the property later to conduct the shoot will constitute a separate, chargeable job, and will be subject to additional, full payment of the appropriate fee.
No-shows, reschedules and cancellations less than 2 hours before the appointment will require payment of the fee, regardless of whether photographs were taken or travel had commenced. Please refer to our Price List page for more details.
LATE ARRIVAL
If we are to meet someone at the property and they are not there when we arrive, we will attempt to call the agency, or the owner or tenant (if we’re given their details) to find out what’s happening. If we do not get through, we will allow 15 minutes and if no-one has turned up by then, we will leave and a cancellation fee will apply. On the other hand, if we get through and are advised that someone is on their way to the property and they arrive more than 10 minutes after the appointment time, our hourly rate fee will apply from the original time of the appointment (per our Price List page). We reserve the right to leave if we need to get to our next scheduled appointment - if we need to return to complete the shoot because of a late arrival, there will be an additional charge.
WEATHER
We may decide to leave and return to the property (at no charge) in cases where bad weather, glare from the sun etc has prevented us from obtaining acceptable materials.
PRESENTATION
You are responsible for ensuring that the property is ready to be photographed before we arrive, that no items are to be moved and that people, pets and vehicles are removed from areas that we are working in. In other words, it is your responsibility to make sure that the site is in photo-ready shape on the agreed-to shoot day. Failure to do so may result in those items being included in the materials that are delivered to you. To ensure that the property is ready and that additional fees are not applied, we will text a link to our Preparation Guides to owners and tenants if you request that be done when you make a booking.
If the property is tenanted, we will not touch or move the tenant's belongings and we do not clean or declutter areas being photographed. You are responsible for ensuring that the property is presented in the way you require before we attend. However, we may move or hide certain minor items in order to improve, in our opinion, the overall composition of each photograph. If necessary, you or your representative should attend prior to the shoot to ensure that the property is ready before we arrive.
COLOUR CASTS
When arriving at a property, we decide whether to shoot each room or area with the lights turned on or off according to the quality of the lighting. Older lighting sometimes throws off yellow, blue or even green colour casts that can turn everything in the room that colour. We always use portable, powerful strobes that generate light that is consistently white. However, if we can see that the house lighting is of high quality (as is the case with more recent LED lights), we may choose to shoot with those lights turned on.
Coloured window treatments (for example, window tinting and the colour of drapes and curtains), reflections from things outside windows (such as the green foliage on trees and lawns and blue from the sky) may have some impact on the walls, floors, ceilings and furnishings inside the room, causing the colour of objects to take on or be modified by those colours. There are techniques that we can employ to reduce or negate the colour cast effect in these situations but we normally do not apply them in real estate shoots due to the amount of extra time, and therefore cost, required to shoot and edit those photos. If, however, you require this level of quality to be done, please contact us to discuss before the shoot.
PICKING UP AND RETURNING KEYS
We will, at our absolute discretion, pick up and return keys for free as long as the distance between the pick up and drop off points and the property is no more than 5 kilometres. If it’s more than 5 kilometres, we will charge a travel fee (see here for further details) based on the distance to and from the property. We will attempt to return keys promptly but this service is subject to our other business obligations - this means that if we can’t return them immediately because we need to get to another shoot and you need them urgently, you may need to pick them up from us. Accordingly, it’s often better to install a lock box at the property, leave the key at the property (e.g. in the meter box), or have someone meet us there if you’re unable to attend.
It is imperative that the keys be ready for pickup at the pickup point or at the property no later than 9am on the day and that the keys allow us to access all relevant areas at the property. We reserve the right to do the shoot at any time during the day unless you let us know the reasons why we can't shoot the property at a particular time during that day. Failure to ensure that keys are available for collection at the office or the property when we arrive to collect them will result in a cancellation fee being charged.
UNATTENDED SHOOTS
Where we are not meeting anyone at the property, we reserve the right to do the shoot at any time during the day that the shoot was booked UNLESS you advise us otherwise when booking in the shoot. For this reason, it’s imperative that you inform us if circumstances change (eg. we ARE meeting someone, in which case you should inform us ASAP). The property must be ready to be photographed before that day and that people are not working at the property. Failure to do so will, depending on the circumstances, result in us either shooting the property as is (including the people and materials) or returning later and charging a cancellation fee, at our discretion.
Also if we will be by ourself at the shoot, it’s important that you answer your phone immediately. If we set off an alarm that we weren’t told about, we will need the alarm code fast so that we aren’t challenged by neighbours. If we can’t locate the key or lockbox in order to get inside, we will need to get through to you quickly so that we can complete the shoot in the allotted time and not have to charge extra to return later because we needed to get to our next shoot.
PROPERTY DETAILS
You are responsible for advising us of any details we should know about before we visit the property, including the correct address of the property. We need to know about anything that will affect the time taken for us to complete our work, including specific details regarding the location and boundaries of the property, access and egress to the property, the location and operation of alarm and lighting panels, whether power to the property has be cut off and so on. Also, you need to advise us before the shoot about any specific shots you require us to include (or to avoid) or features that we might miss or deem not worthy to include (for example, "hidden" rooms, rooms that appear to be storage areas and are likely to be missed, ornate ceiling roses and cornices that may be of interest to potential buyers, and tack rooms or stables on horse properties).
HEALTH AND SAFETY
You are responsible for advising us of any safety issues, such as when a building is unsafe to enter (e.g. where the building is likely to contain structural damage or hazardous material), whether people at the property are likely to be threatening, aggressive or violent and whether pets and animals within the property may possibly be dangerous. We reserve the right to leave the property at any time that we feel threatened (including where persons at the property appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol) and, if so, we will deliver the photos we’ve managed to take and you will still be liable to pay for the cost of the full shoot. If you then make another booking to complete the shoot, you must ensure that no-one is present at the property when we return and a second cancellation fee will apply.
We will not engage in any unsafe activities involving going up, down or across surfaces or structures, such as climbing up ladders and trees, over gates and fences or on top of roofs or platforms (unless in the company of safety professionals and while wearing appropriate safety gear) as these may result in falls risks and such hazards could potentially make us unable to work for a considerable amount of time due to injury. Please refer to this document for more information.
ACCESS TO THE PROPERTY
You are responsible for ensuring that we are legally entitled to be on the property. You are responsible for damage caused to our equipment on-site by any person or animal present at the property. We will take all efforts to ensure that property is not damaged by us, however, as an invitee to the property, we are not liable for accidental damage to any structure or item therein, unless it can be shown that we caused the damage intentionally. You will indemnify us against all claims, actions, costs, losses, damages, charges or other liabilities arising out of any claims made by any party against us as a result of us being on the property.
ACCESS TO SERVICES
You agree to allow us to access, without charge, to power, water, air conditioning and toilet facilities at the property, unless the property is tenanted.
LEAVING AREAS BEING PHOTOGRAPHED
We require people (including agents, home owners, tenants and contractors) and pets leave areas that we’re shooting for the following reasons:
People are sometimes visible either directly (through windows), or in reflective surfaces such as TVs, glassed picture frames, windows, mirrors etc, or when they cast shadows even though they’re not visible directly. Any additional editing required to remove their presence from photos will result in an additional fee being charged.
Distracting the photographer may lead to mistakes being made, for example, when the photographer misses shots or forgets camera settings. If the photographer has to go back to complete the shoot as a result, a return fee will be charged.
Directing the photographer how to shoot, or wanting to move or rearrange items and take shots again may distract the photographer and add time to the shoot, which is especially problematic when the photographer has another shoot to get to immediately after.
If the place is not ready and the photographer is told that the occupier of the property will move items before a room or area is shot can mean additional shooting and editing time, which is why we send owners and tenants a Preparation Guide when a booking is made which states that the place must be completely ready before the shoot.
People often forget to socially distance themselves away from the photographer while inside their own property. This is why we try not to shake hands, touch or move items unnecessarily, or place our equipment on kitchen and table surfaces.
There’s the possibility that people and pets inside the property may damage camera equipment when they are moving around. Our equipment is expensive and is necessary for us to do our job - if damaged, the property owner(s) will be required to pay for the replacement of, or repairs to, the damaged equipment.
ADDITIONAL EXPENSES
You agree to reimburse us for additional expenses reasonably incurred by us that relate to the assignment, for example specialised equipment hire and parking fees (but not speeding or parking fines).
ADDITIONAL TRAVEL
We travel within the Perth metropolitan area. We reserve the right to reschedule appointments where travel time exceeds 30 minutes. Travel outside the Perth metropolitan area will be charged at an hourly rate - please contact us at the time of booking for a quote.
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS
Where you request that we take additional photos at the shoot (for example, one with the garage door open and another with the door closed), there will be a separate charge to cover the increased time and cost to edit those photos.
ADDITIONAL TIME
Additional time spent, on or off site, will, at our absolute discretion, be charged at our hourly rate in 10 minute segments or part thereof.
RETURNING TO THE PROPERTY
If we need to return to the property because we’ve missed a shot, there will be no charge. If, however, you ask us to return because the property wasn’t ready, we were unable to access parts of the property (e.g. the keys didn’t work) or something at the property has been fixed, changed or updated, a return charge will apply. It is therefore important that the property is ready to be photographed before we arrive.
ADDITIONAL EDITING
Requests for additional editing will attract an additional fee, especially if the property has not been prepared in accordance with the recommendations outlined in our owner and tenant Preparation Guides (whether or not they’ve been sent to the owner or tenant), which is why it’s important to have the property ready before we arrive. Also, we will not edit structural items that would, in our opinion, constitute misrepresentation of the property at the time that the property is sold unless you authorise us to do so in writing.
Re-editing requests must be in writing and must give specific details (including the last 4-digits in each file name) of what needs to be done.
OUTSOURCED WORK AND THE HIRING OF RENTAL EQUIPMENT
Occasionally, we incur additional production costs in order to complete complicated or difficult work, such as for specialised equipment hire, for temporary labour engagement (eg. assistants) and for any outsourcing of work done. We will advise you beforehand of an estimate of the cost and obtain your acceptance before proceeding. In the event that later you are unhappy with the materials we supply to you and we agree to reduce our fee, the additional production costs that we’ve incurred is nevertheless to be paid by you in full.
If we outsource work, we will endeavour to get the work sent, returned and delivered as quickly as possible (and we’ll do our best to keep you up-to-date as to what’s happening) but we have no control over the external businesses we deal with. Accordingly, you will need to be patient.
TURNAROUND TIME
We generally deliver the materials by 5pm the next business day (unless, in our opinion, we are unable to due to circumstances beyond our control, for example where there is an extended power outage). However, if you require the photographs urgently, as long as the shoot was done in the morning, we’ll drop everything and place your order on top of the queue for a small priority processing fee and you will receive your photos by 5pm that day. If so ordered but we find we are unable to deliver them by 5pm that day, we will rescind the fee. Please note that, unless you agree to pay that fee, we will not prioritise your job over our other clients’ work (otherwise all our clients will request that their work be prioritised).
If you ask for the photos to be delivered urgently (whether or not you have selected the “Urgent turnaround” option when booking the shoot), an urgent turnaround fee will apply.
ACCEPTANCE
When you receive materials from us, you must carefully check them to make sure they are acceptable. You agree to notify us before the materials are used and within 7 days of receipt of the materials if you believe they are not acceptable, in which case our obligation, at our sole discretion, will be to re-edit those materials, reshoot the parts of the property that are considered unacceptable or withdraw our involvement in relation to that property (in the case that we withdraw our involvement, there will be no charge). If you notify us after the materials are used or after 7 days, if we deem that the materials are of acceptable quality, full payment is required. In addition, extra charges will apply for any additional work carried out by us, or any supernumerary expenses incurred by us (i.e. payments made to third parties).
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
We do not get involved with issues occurring because you are unable to download or open Zip files or if you are having problems with your computer systems. This is because we may be held to be legally liable if we instruct you and our instructions cause loss of information or damage to your systems.
STORAGE OF MATERIALS
We have no obligation to store, retain or archive any of the material after they have been delivered to you. Although we may store the materials, it is ultimately your responsibility to ensure the materials that you receive are securely archived.
PAYMENT
Invoices will only be sent to the person, company or business that engaged our services. We do not send invoices to your clients as we do not have a legal relationship with them. If your client requires an invoice or receipt, we suggest that you send them an invoice or receipt as they are your client.
Payment is due whether or not the materials are actually used (for example, where the property is sold, leased or withdrawn from sale or leasing before the materials are delivered). Invoices will generally be issued when the photos are delivered unless requested otherwise and must be paid within 14 days from the date on the invoice (prior to the shoot in the case of owners who are selling their own property), whether or not you have received payment from your client. Where invoices are outstanding for more than 28 days after the due date, we will not undertake any further work until all overdue invoices are paid in full. Furthermore, failure to make payment by the due date may also result in legal action being taken to recover monies owing. Additional costs, fees, charges and interest (calculated in accordance with the prevailing rate specified by the Magistrates Court of Western Australia) incurred as a result of debt recovery actions undertaken by us are to be met by you.
We only accept payment by way of Electronic Funds Transfer - we do not accept payment by way of cash, cheques or credit cards.
When paying by EFT, please include the 4-digit invoice number (or the last 2 digits if there’s not enough room in the bank’s description field) or send us a remittance advice by email so we know which invoice the payment relates to - if we are not advised, we will allocate payments to the progressively oldest invoices outstanding.
LEGAL LIABILITY
All materials are made available to you as-is, as-available, and with all faults. We make no representation or warranty, express or implied, including, without limitation, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. We further make no representation or warranty that your usage of our materials will be uninterrupted, free of computer viruses, or other damaging materials. When you access our web site, you do so at your own risk.
We shall not be liable for any indirect, special, consequential, or economic damages including, but not limited to, loss of revenue or profits, arising out of the use, or inability to use, the materials. We will, in no event, be liable for any damages to exceed the amount paid by you for accessing, acquiring, and/or using materials from us.
You agree to fully indemnify and hold us harmless from any and all claims, liabilities, costs, losses, damages, expenses, including legal fees and expenses, arising in connection with your use of the materials and this website or of any breach or alleged breach of any representation, warranty, or other promise made by you in these terms of service.
PRIVACY
Our privacy policy is outlined here.
APPLICABLE LAW
These terms of service are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Western Australia. Any disputes concerning this website are to be resolved by the courts having jurisdiction in Western Australia.
We retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breach of these terms of service in your country of residence or any other appropriate country or jurisdiction.