Terms & Conditions
in Full
Deposits - Please note that all deposits are strictly non-refundable
This is to cover our time commitment made to the project, including but not limited to: the pre-flight admin, pre-flight prep, liasing with authorities, schools, etc, as well as the dates made available for the project. The deposit also covers time commitments made by our team for the agreed date of your project.
Where you wish to move your booking (within a 1 week notice period), we will be able to accomodate avoidance of the 'Date Move Fee' and instead continue holding the project in idea, secured by your non-refunable deposit, until you are ready to proceed again.
Cancellation fee - 50% of contracted day per contracted day if cancelled before leaving or arriving at the location
Where you have contracted/commissioned us for a job but decide to cancel altogether, a fee of 50% per contracted day will apply. This covers the pre-flight planning admin we will have done, and the days booked for your work, which could result in us losing out on another job.
Cancellation On-Site - Full day rate if cancelled when leaving for a job, on-the-day, or when on/near to location.
If cancelling our booking on-the-day of the job, or when on/near to the location, we charge the full rate for the booking. This fee is to mitigate unrecoverable costs for the prep, kit hire, and the day booked out for your job where we would be unable to book another job. We advise clients if not their direct fault for the cancellation, e.g. delivery on-site cancelled last minute resulting in us not having anything to film, to bill the responsible company for the full-rate cancellation.
Inclement weather fee - £75 per flight day affected
Under the regulations of our pilot’s licence, it may be necessary at times to cancel or postpone a flight for safety reasons due to inclement weather conditions such as fog, heavy rain, snow or wind. A pilot’s professional judgement as to whether a flight can proceed takes precedent and by signing this contract you agree not to challenge the pilot’s decision. The pilot’s decision will be in the best interests of the safety of all individuals, properties and potential aircraft in the vicinity. Whilst Avatar Drones will try to accommodate rescheduling the job, it may not be possible in all instances. This particularly applies with one-off contracts where the event may still go ahead i.e. a charity fun run but the conditions are unsuitable for the flight to take place. An inclement weather fee of £75 is charged to mitigate unrecoverable costs where the flight is cancelled due to inclement weather and cannot be rescheduled. A £45 charge will be applied if the flight can be rescheduled, within 5 working days, in order to cover the costs of re-completing paperwork. Where additional airspace admin fees are in place, such as when requesting permission from airports, a full admin re-charge will need to be made, however, where we can accomodate and work with the airport to 'fast-lane' this process again, we can discount the admin charge to another fee.
Date Move Fee - £95 per date moved
If a contracted flight day is moved by the client after initial admin planning and paperwork has been started, a fee of £95 will apply. This fee applies where the job can be booked within the next 2 weeks, otherwise, our cancellation fee would apply. This cost is charged to mitigate unrecoverable costs, such as but not limited to: time spent on admin paperwork, notifying Air Traffic Control (ATC) and the local police; where we may have to call back to notify that the date has been changed and flights will not proceed, as well as losing a booked day of work.
Safety Briefing
Avatar Drones pilots will always have a safety briefing on site (unless using a drone under 250g where it is deemed safe not to do so). The present at the time the pilot takes the safety brief, as well as the site manager/developer/owner or client (if present) will have the safety briefing and emergency procedures either read out to them. If not read out, a sheet with the required information, will be provided to them. It is in all on-site’s interest and safety to read this briefing. It is not required that those must on-site to sign the document which states the person who has read the safety briefing, understands it, however, signing helps keep track of who has read and understood the briefing. Where others on-site are not present during the safety briefing, it is the on-site manager (or other of reasonable authority on-site) to relay the briefing and emergency proceedures to them. Those on site must know a drone is operating and in the case of an accident due to workers not paying attention, not being aware of the drone operating, where an emergency situation may arise and they do not follow the safety procedures, or by their own negligence, Avatar Drones, it’s associated, employees, investors or any person in relation to Avatar Drones or it’s owners will not be liable for any injuries incurred. The time taken to do the safety briefing is included in the time on site factored into the quote.
Notifying Neighbours
With new laws that came in in 2021, it is now not a requirement for pilots to get permission from the homeowner to fly drones within 50m of a person’s property, structure or building. Although this rule is in place, the residents and persons inside the building still need to be aware of the flight and what will be happening – for safety and risk reduction. Prior to any flight commencing, buildings/homes within 50m (or as deemed necessary) will be notified of the drone operation as well as shown the safety briefing and procedures to follow in the case of an emergency, same as the above paragraph. Signing is not required but helps keep track of who confirms they have read and understood the potential risks and procedures for what to do in the case of an emergency. The time taken to do this is included in the time on site factored into the quote. See below for general disputes/complaints, as well as those to do with neighbours.
Disputes/Complaints
It is good practice to notify the police prior to any flight (or series of flights) commencing and therefore Avatar Drones may advise the necessary agencies that flights are taking place. If a complaint or dispute arises between the developer and an individual during the job or between a neighbour/individual and our pilot(s) you indemnify Avatar Drones and all associated parties against liability in that dispute unless the pilot has been negligent. Avatar Drones will have been granted permission to operate on/over site, as well as will be following all laws, and therefore any disputes arising will be between the hiring company and the complainant.
Notifying Air Traffic Control (ATC)
In certain regions Air Traffic Control must be notified ahead of each flight. If for any reason ATC decline the request to operate on a particular date, you are liable for the date move fee. We will do our best to accommodate a new date within 5 working days, however, if not, or the job is a single-day project only, the cancellation fee will apply, and you agree to pay the sum in full, without dispute.
Copyright/Ownership of footage
We own the copyright and ownership to all footage shot, however when purchasing our services, we will license you rights to use the footage as agreed beforehand. Our footage cannot be sold on or used in any other way to make profit, or to be provided to other companies, third parties, news broadcasters or stock sites who may want to use the footage.
In the case where other pages or companies want to use our footage, please connect us with them via email: avatardrones@hotmail.com or phone: 07392 184394 and we will be more than happy to discuss footage licencing for them.
Footage/What we are capturing
You have requested X visits to your project in Location across the progression of the build. At the current agreed price of £_____ + travel & any fees, your price includes __________, as well as _________.
We will also be creating _____ (any additional marketing content), and image edits at _______ (price agreed).
Project Confidentiality
For project confidentiality reasons you may not wish for us to release footage to our social media platforms immediately. Please let us know this information in the notes section below. Failure to do so will mean that we will start releasing content as soon as we are able to. If you notify us after we have posted a piece of content, we can seize all posts from that point onwards however the previous posts may stay up as removing these will affect the feed design we have as well as create a bad image for our brand - due to businesses thinking we may have removed a post for to a negative reason.
Editing of Images - When booking our services, we will either be providing you with all the original JPEG photographs or enhanced and edited images. Upon receiving the footage, please do not edit the images further as this can ruin the look of the photographs. All our images will have been correctly edited on a colour-accurate screen and will look as they should for publishing. Every screen (e.g. iPhone, Samsung, TV or Laptop) has a different colour profile and light mode and therefore some images may look different to you than they did for us when producing the content. Please be assured that the content we produce looks exactly as it should when we provide it to you. Editing images further without experience or adding artificial filters can completely take away the professional look for the images we have produced for you, and therefore we request that you not to do your own editing to the content. If you wish to change the look of any of the images provided to you for whatever reason, please reach out to us and we will make any changes you require.
Requested angles and video/photography style – At the beginning of the project, we will ask you if there are any specific shots or angles you wish for us to achieve for you. Upon this request/list, we will do our best to capture these for you, provided they do not breach health and safety, aviation regulations, or laws. If you do not advise us as to angles you wish to be captured on-location, we will capture photographs, videos and angles that we believe look best, using our skills and experience. We take no responsibility if angles or shots you wish for, that have not been clearly put forward in writing or in the notes section below, have not been captured. It is your responsibility to advise us as to what you would like to be captured if there are specific shots.
Revisions & Re-Editing
We will always do an initial edit and send to the client to check that the overall look is as they wish, text is worded correctly, logos are in the desired place, logos have been used, etc. On this feedback, we will make the necessary and required changes before exporting the final product. (Note: this ‘revisions’ term relates to video editing, not photographs)
Upon receiving the finished product, if you are still not satisfied, any additional changes will cost £75 (per revision).
This £75 revision covers the time to re-edit, re-adjust logos, and make other non-major adjustments before processing, rendering and exporting. If you require a full re-edit, the same cost of the initial editing will be applied.
Music & Audio Licensing
We hold a licensing contract with Epidemic Sound for commercial production. "Commercial" covers as follows:
"You're a freelancer or a business creating commercial productions"
"Covered for social media, online platforms and websites"
"Simple clearance for client productions"
This license covers you for Social Media Marketing, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and your Website. Please let us know when and where you post it so that we can add it to our subscription whitelist. This will prevent you from getting copyright strikes. Under their 'Commercial Subscription Music License' terms and conditions, they cover what you are not allowed to do with videos that contain their music. [3.4 | 1. 2. & 3.] Click Here to view their T&Cs in full
If you wish for us to use music/audio which we do not have the rights to use, we can do this, however, the licensing responsibility will be on you if the music/track owner or licensing authority reach out to us regarding a breach by using the music/audio. Avatar Drones, its owners, associates, and anyone in relation to the company will not be held responsible for this or for using the music/audio in an edit which has been used upon your request.
Project Overrunnings
When starting a project, we will ask for the project or build schedule. Our quote and visit(s) amount will be based off this schedule. In the case that a project overruns, we will need to re-assess the project quote as we will be working for longer than expected. This is due to the fact that if we have another client job which we were supposed to be able to take on but are now not able to, due to delays out of our control, we will be working for longer than contracted and we may potentially lose out on other work. If a project or projects overrun, you agree to us re-assessing the quote and charging delay/overrunning fees which may apply. Fees are to be discussed when the project quote(s) are put together.
We pride our services on being client focused and will do our best to accommodate your wishes providing they do not contravene the Drone Code, aviation laws or general health and safety regulations.
If your desired flight is or shots to achieve are unsafe, our pilots will not go ahead with the shots but will accommodate to the best of their skill, within safety, general health and safety regulations, and aviation laws.
By signing a contract with us, you agree to the above terms and waive the right to fight Avatar Drones, it's owners, pilots, investors, advisors or anyone related to the above, in the case a dispute goes to court.
Our terms and conditions may need to be adapted, re-written or changed as Avatar Drones grows. This may be resulting from new legal action or something we have not yet encountered while working. Where our terms and conditions are updated and may be relevant to you, we will notify you. You do not have to agree to the new conditions and you have the right to stop working with us.
In the case where we are already mid-contract, the previous terms may apply until we are contracted for another job OR where the changes are so significant for safety and regulations, that a settlement fee for pulling out of the contract can be discussed.
We look forward to working with you.
Robert Siddle
Managing Director, Avatar Drones
