Terms of Use

Section 01The agreement

These terms are between you and Witnessed (“we”, “us”, “the app”). By downloading or using Witnessed you accept them. If you do not accept them, please do not use the app.

Your use of the app is also subject to Apple’s standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement and the App Store terms, and to our Privacy Policy, which forms part of this agreement.

Section 02What Witnessed does

Witnessed is an app for recording the condition and paperwork of property. It lets you keep properties, tenancies, guest stays, inspections, compliance documents and repairs in one place, suggests dates and sends reminders, and produces inspection reports.

It also seals evidence. When you seal a photo, video, audio recording, document scan or inspection report, the app creates a certificate that records:

• a SHA-256 cryptographic fingerprint of the file, calculated on your device;
• an RFC 3161 timestamp token for that fingerprint, obtained from an independent timestamp authority (currently DigiCert, with Sectigo and FreeTSA as fallbacks);
• the capture time, device model and operating system version as reported by your device, and the location if you allow it;
• whether the file was captured in the app or imported from elsewhere.

The fingerprint and timestamp token allow anyone, using standard tools and without our involvement, to check that a file has not changed since it was sealed and that it existed no later than the time the authority signed. The capture time, device and location come from your device and are recorded for context; they are not part of the authority’s signature.

Section 03What Witnessed does not do

We want to be direct about the limits of the service, because the whole point of it is honesty about evidence.

• It does not guarantee any legal or commercial outcome. Courts, deposit protection schemes and their adjudicators, insurers, booking platforms and other decision-makers assess evidence on their own terms. We cannot promise that a certificate or report will be accepted or relied on, or that you will win a dispute.
• It is not legal advice. Nothing in the app or on this website is advice about your situation. If a matter is significant, take advice from a qualified professional.
• Compliance information is guidance only. The document types, suggested expiry dates, deadlines, repair timelines and claim windows in the app are general guidance. Many follow the rules in England, requirements differ across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and they change. You remain responsible for knowing and meeting the obligations that apply to you.
• Reminders are a help, not a guarantee. Reminders are notifications scheduled on your device. They won’t arrive if notifications are turned off, the app’s data is deleted, a date is entered incorrectly, or iOS limits how many can be scheduled. Don’t rely on them as your only record of a deadline.
• It does not verify the truth of what is in front of the lens. A certificate shows that a specific file existed, unmodified, no later than a specific time. It does not prove that what was photographed is what anyone says it is, and the capture details recorded by your device are not independently verified.
• Proposed charges are yours. Charges you add to a check-out are your own figures, not an assessment by us of what is fair or recoverable.
• It cannot recover records we never held. Your records are on your device and, if you turn on backup, in your iCloud. If you delete them, or lose your device without a backup, we have no copy to restore.

Section 04Eligibility and your device

You must be at least 13 years old to use Witnessed, and at least 18 to make a purchase. Purchases and iCloud backup use your Apple ID; no separate account is needed.

Keeping your device and Apple ID secure is your responsibility. Anyone who can unlock your device, or the app if you haven’t turned on its lock, may be able to see your records. Witnessed does not run on jailbroken devices.

Section 05Your records stay yours

You own everything you capture and record. We claim no rights over your photos, videos, recordings, documents, reports, certificates or portfolio records, and we do not license them, analyse them or use them to train anything.

Your records are stored on your device and, if you turn on backup, in your personal iCloud private database. We have no technical means of accessing them. This also means we cannot retrieve, restore or produce them, including if you or a third party asks us to.

Section 06Acceptable use

You agree not to use Witnessed to:

• record people in places where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy, or otherwise in breach of privacy, data protection or surveillance law;
• create, present or represent evidence in a way intended to mislead a court, tribunal, deposit scheme, insurer, adjudicator, booking platform or any other party, including presenting an imported file as if it were captured at the time and place shown;
• harass, stalk, intimidate or threaten anyone;
• capture material that is unlawful to create or possess;
• reverse-engineer the app, interfere with the timestamping service, or attempt to create certificates by any means other than normal use of the app.

You are responsible for complying with the law wherever you use the app, including obtaining consent where the law requires it before recording someone, and handling the personal information of tenants, guests, contractors and anyone else you record in line with data protection law.

Section 07Plans, pricing and billing

Properties, compliance tracking, reminders, search and exports are available on every plan. The plans cover sealing:

• Free: three sealed certificates per calendar month at no cost. The allowance resets at the start of each month and unused certificates do not roll over.
• Single certificate: £1.49 for one certificate, as a one-off consumable purchase that does not renew. It is used once your free allowance for the month has gone. Unused single certificates are stored on the device you bought them on; because they are consumable, Restore Purchases cannot restore them.
• Witnessed Pro: £6.99 per month, an auto-renewing monthly subscription for unlimited sealed evidence and inspection reports.

What one certificate covers. One certificate seals one photo, video, audio recording or document scan. A whole inspection also uses one certificate, covering every photo and video in it and its sealed report. That certificate is used when you start the inspection.

Payment and auto-renewal. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Witnessed Pro renews automatically unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your Apple ID is charged for renewal within the 24 hours before the current period ends. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your App Store account settings.

Prices above are UK prices in pounds sterling, including VAT where applicable; the App Store shows the price in your own currency. All payments are processed by Apple through the App Store, and we never see or handle your payment details. We may change prices for future periods; where we do, Apple will tell you in advance in line with its own rules, so that you can cancel if you wish.

Section 08Cancelling and refunds

You can cancel Witnessed Pro at any time in the app under Settings → Manage subscription, or on your device under Settings → your name → Subscriptions. Cancelling stops future billing; you keep Pro until the end of the period you have already paid for. Certificates you have already sealed stay valid, and can still be checked, after you cancel.

Refunds for App Store purchases are administered by Apple under its own policies, at reportaproblem.apple.com. If the app failed to do what it should have done, contact us as well and we will support your request.

As a consumer in the UK you normally have 14 days to change your mind about digital content. When you use a certificate or start sealing straight away, you are asking for that digital content to be supplied immediately, and the right to cancel ends once supply has begun. This does not affect your rights if the service is faulty, not as described, or not supplied with reasonable care and skill.

Section 09Third-party services

Witnessed depends on services we do not control:

• DigiCert, Sectigo and FreeTSA issue RFC 3161 timestamp tokens. They receive only a fingerprint of each file.
• Apple provides the App Store and payment processing, iCloud backup, location and address lookup, and Apple Maps (including the map images in the app’s map view).

These providers operate under their own terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for their acts or omissions, though we will do what we reasonably can to help if one of them causes you a problem.

Section 10Availability and changes

We aim to keep Witnessed working reliably, but we do not promise uninterrupted availability. Sealing requires an internet connection and a reachable timestamp authority. Items captured without one are saved as pending and timestamped once a connection returns; the timestamp then shows when the authority signed, not when the item was captured.

We may update, change or withdraw features, including the guidance, templates and reminders in the app. If we make a change that materially reduces what the app does for you, we will tell you in advance where we reasonably can. Certificates already sealed are unaffected by changes to the app, because they can be checked with the file, its token and standard tools, without us.

Section 11Liability

We do not exclude or limit our liability where it would be unlawful to do so. That includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, and for breach of your statutory rights as a consumer under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Subject to that, we are not liable for losses that were not reasonably foreseeable, for business losses (including lost profit, lost rent, lost contracts or lost opportunity), or for the outcome of any dispute, claim or proceedings in which your evidence or reports are used or rejected. Where we are liable, our total liability is limited to the greater of £100 or the amount you have paid us in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim.

You remain responsible for keeping your own copies of anything important. Turn on iCloud backup, or export the records, reports and evidence packs that matter to you.

Section 12Intellectual property

The Witnessed name, logo, app and website design, and the software behind them, belong to us. You are granted a personal, non-transferable licence to use the app in the ordinary way. Nothing in these terms transfers ownership of our intellectual property to you, or yours to us.

Section 13Ending this agreement

You can end this agreement at any time by deleting the app and cancelling any subscription. We may suspend or end your access if you materially breach these terms, most obviously by using the app to mislead a tribunal or to harass someone. Where we do, we will tell you why unless the law prevents us.

Certificates you have already sealed can still be checked regardless, because checking them does not run through us.

Section 14Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and disputes fall to the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also bring proceedings in your own jurisdiction. Nothing here removes the protection of the mandatory consumer law of the country in which you live.

Section 15Contact

Questions about these terms: support@witnessed.uk.

See also our Privacy Policy and Support page.