Appraiser Terms

1. About these Terms

These Appraiser Terms govern the participation of independent appraisers ("you", "the Appraiser") in the appraisal marketplace offered through the Visionary Studios platform ("the Platform", operated by MTSTGEORGE LTD). They apply alongside our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, which remain in force. Where these Appraiser Terms conflict with the general Terms in respect of appraisal services, these Appraiser Terms prevail for that service.

These terms will be presented for acceptance before your first paid engagement. Participation as an appraiser is conditional on that acceptance.

2. Our Role — Facilitation Only

Visionary Studios facilitates introductions between members who commission appraisals and independent appraisers. We provide the directory, booking flow, payment collection through Stripe and document exchange — nothing more.

We do not appraise, authenticate, attribute, verify or endorse any artwork, and we do not verify or guarantee the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of any valuation. Any reference on the Platform to an appraisal attributes the valuation to the named Appraiser alone ("Valued by [Name]"). Nothing in the presentation of the marketplace, the directory or any badge converts an Appraiser's valuation into a statement of Visionary Studios.

We act strictly as an intermediary and facilitator. We are not the seller, the agent, the merchant of record or the appraiser in respect of any valuation, and we never take custody of appraisal funds.

3. Your Independence and the Valuation

Every valuation you deliver is your own professional work product, prepared by you and attributable solely to you. You act at all times as an independent professional and not as our agent, employee or partner.

You warrant that each valuation is prepared in accordance with the professional standards applicable to your practice (such as USPAP, or the standards of your professional body), that it reflects your own professional judgement, and that it is not influenced by the Platform, the commissioning member or any prospective sale outcome.

You are solely responsible for the methodology, comparables, assumptions, valuation date and limitations stated in your report, and for ensuring the report states its intended use (for example, insurance, estate or market value) — the same quality standards applied during our concierge review of founding appraisals.

4. Fees — Flat Only, Never Contingent

Your appraisal fee is a flat amount per work, set by you and displayed on your directory profile. Contingency fees — any fee calculated as a percentage of an artwork's value, sale price or sale outcome — are prohibited. This mirrors the ethics rules of the appraisal profession (for example, USPAP's prohibition on fees contingent on value or outcome) and is a condition of participation.

If you offer both remote (desk) and in-person appraisals, you may set a separate flat fee for each — your desk fee may be lower than your in-person fee, reflecting the difference in time and travel, but each remains a flat amount per work, never a percentage. Where you have not set a separate desk fee, your standard fee applies to both service modes.

When a member books you, the fee is collected through Stripe on your connected Stripe Express account. Our standard referral fee is 20% of your appraisal fee, deducted from the collected amount at the time of collection. Stripe's own processing fees are deducted by Stripe from your account balance in the normal way.

From time to time, at our sole discretion, we may offer you a lower referral fee (which can be reduced to 0%) for a fixed trial period — for example, as a founding-appraiser incentive, or as a negotiated arrangement agreed with you directly. Any such reduced rate and the date it ends will be shown in your appraiser dashboard; once that date passes, the standard 20% referral fee applies again automatically unless we agree a further period with you. This is a promotional or negotiated arrangement only — it does not alter the flat, non-contingent nature of your own appraisal fee described above, and it may be amended, shortened or ended by us on reasonable notice in the same way as the seller-side promotional waivers described in our Terms of Service.

Because the charge is made to your connected account, the collected fee (net of our referral fee and Stripe's fees) lands in your Stripe balance immediately but is not released to your bank account straight away: once you deliver your report, we hold the payout for a further 3 days — a short window for the client to review it — before it is released, unless we place it on hold for a flagged concern. We never receive, hold or pay out appraisal funds ourselves; Stripe does, on the timing described here. You are responsible for your own income tax, VAT and any other taxes arising from your fees.

4A. Cancellation and Refunds

A client may request to cancel a booking at any time after paying but before you have delivered the completed report. You will be notified and have 72 hours to approve or decline the request, with a reason either way.

If you approve, or if you choose to withdraw from a booking yourself (for example, because the work falls outside your specialty or an in-person viewing proves impractical), the client is refunded in full immediately and no fee is collected by either you or us for that booking.

If you decline a client's cancellation request, the booking continues and you remain expected to deliver the engagement. The client may ask us to review the matter directly, including where you have not responded within the 72-hour window; we will not rule on the merits of the underlying disagreement, but may, at our discretion, cancel the booking and refund the client under this clause where the procedural window has passed or a decline has been escalated to us.

Once you have delivered the completed report, the booking is final and this cancellation process no longer applies — a client's concern about the content or quality of a delivered report is a matter between the client and you as the report's author, though we may place your payout on hold while such a concern is being resolved.

5. Professional Indemnity Insurance

You must hold and maintain professional indemnity insurance appropriate to the valuations you issue, for the whole period of your participation. This is a condition of listing: evidence of cover is collected when you join, and you must notify us promptly if your cover lapses or is cancelled.

If your insurance lapses, your directory listing and receipt of new requests may be suspended until cover is evidenced again.

6. Credentials and Your Directory Profile

The credentials, experience and specialities you declare must be truthful and accurate. We verify credentials manually before publishing your profile and may request supporting evidence at any time.

Your directory profile (name, credentials, specialities, fee, professional background) is displayed publicly to market your services. We may edit, decline or remove profile content, or delist an appraiser, where content is inaccurate, misleading, unlawful or inconsistent with the standards of the Platform.

7. Data and Confidentiality

We process the information you provide in your application and in the course of appraisals in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Appraiser Terms. Details of a commissioning member and their artwork are shared with you only for the purpose of delivering the commissioned appraisal.

You must treat commissioning members' information and artwork details as confidential, use them only to deliver the appraisal, and not retain, resell or republish them (including as marketing material or comparables in other reports) without the member's consent or adequate anonymisation.

Retention of report files: the Platform retains a copy of each delivered valuation report for as long as reasonably necessary to support the appraisal — currently up to 7 years from the valuation date, reflecting common professional record-keeping practice (for example USPAP's own record-retention rule) and our obligations around insurance, dispute and tax records. Reports are then deleted in the ordinary course unless a longer period is required by law, an open dispute, or a regulator. Full detail is in our Privacy Policy.

Your own retention: you remain subject to your own professional body's record-keeping requirements (for example USPAP's rule to keep your workfile for the later of five years, or two years after final disposition of any related judicial proceeding) independently of anything the Platform retains or deletes.

8. Ownership of the Report

Copyright and all other intellectual property rights in a valuation report belong to you, the Appraiser, as its author — the Platform does not take ownership of your work product.

By delivering a report through the Platform, you grant Visionary Studios a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, transmit and display it to the commissioning member and, where relevant, to facilitate the sale it relates to, and you grant the commissioning member a licence to use the report for its stated purpose (for example insurance, estate planning or a prospective sale) and to share it with professional advisers acting for them for that purpose.

No one may present your report, in whole or in part, as having been prepared by a different appraiser, or edit its valuation conclusion or methodology without your consent; formatting it for on-platform display is not a change to its substance.

9. Deliverables and Conduct

Valuation reports are delivered to the commissioning member through the Platform's secure document channel, not by unsecured email. You must deliver within the turnaround you represent, keep the member reasonably informed, and promptly flag any circumstance that changes the scope (for example, a work falling outside your declared specialities).

You must not solicit commissioning members to transact outside the Platform, misrepresent your credentials, or accept work you are not qualified to perform.

10. Liability and Indemnity

You are solely responsible for your valuations and any liability arising from them. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Visionary Studios is not liable for the accuracy, use or consequences of any appraisal, and gives no warranty in respect of it.

You agree to indemnify Visionary Studios and MTSTGEORGE LTD against claims, losses and reasonable costs arising from your appraisals, your breach of these Appraiser Terms, or your breach of professional standards or applicable law.

11. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend or end your participation if you breach these Appraiser Terms, lose professional indemnity cover, deliver work that falls materially below professional standards, or where we are legally required to do so. You may stop participating at any time.

Ending participation does not affect appraisals already commissioned, your obligation to deliver them, or the liability and confidentiality provisions of these Appraiser Terms, which survive termination.

12. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Appraiser Terms as the service develops. Where a change materially affects existing appraisers we will give notice before it takes effect, in line with our Privacy Policy's notice period for changes affecting personal data.