Terms & conditions

1. The agreement

These terms and conditions govern your use of hanicinterior.com and set out the general framework under which Hanic Software Tutor and Interior Design PLC (“Hanic Interiors”, “we”, “us”) provides design, visualisation, construction and training services.

By using this website you accept these terms. If you engage us for a project or a course, a separate signed proposal or contract will govern that work; where it conflicts with these terms, the signed document takes precedence.

1.1 Who we are

Hanic Software Tutor and Interior Design PLC is a private limited company registered in Ethiopia, operating from Bole sub city, Wereda 04, House no. 281, first floor, office 1-10, Addis Ababa. Contact: [email protected], +251 91 241 9005.

1.2 Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The version published on this page at the time you use the site is the version that applies. Material changes affecting active contracts are notified directly.

2. Using this website

2.1 Permitted use

You may browse, print and download extracts of this website for your own information and for the purpose of evaluating our services. You may share links to any page.

2.2 Prohibited use

• Copying, republishing or redistributing substantial parts of the site, including project photographs and article text, without written permission.
• Using automated systems to scrape, mirror or harvest content or contact details.
• Attempting to gain unauthorised access to the site, its server or any connected system.
• Introducing malicious code, or conducting any attack designed to disrupt availability.
• Using the contact forms to send unsolicited commercial messages, or to submit false or misleading information.
• Using our name, logo or project images in a way that implies endorsement or partnership that does not exist.

2.3 Availability

We aim to keep the site available continuously but we do not guarantee it. We may suspend, withdraw or restrict all or part of the site for maintenance or for business reasons, without notice and without liability.

3. Intellectual property

3.1 Our rights

All content on this website — text, photographs, renders, drawings, diagrams, the arrangement of the pages, the code and the design — is owned by or licensed to Hanic Interiors and is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. The name Hanic Interiors and our logo are our marks.

3.2 Design deliverables

Unless a signed contract says otherwise, copyright in drawings, models, renders and specifications produced for a project remains with Hanic Interiors. On full payment of all fees due, the client receives a licence to use those deliverables for the construction, operation, maintenance, letting and sale of that specific project at that specific site.

That licence does not permit:

• Reproducing the design at another site, or repeating it as a type;
• Passing the drawings to another designer to develop without our written consent;
• Altering the deliverables and continuing to present them as our work.

3.3 Course material

Course handouts, exercise files and recordings are licensed to the enrolled student for personal learning. They may not be shared, resold, republished or used to deliver training to others.

3.4 Your material

You retain ownership of anything you send us — plans, photographs, brand assets. By sending it you grant us the licence we need to use it for the purpose of delivering your project.

3.5 Moral rights and credit

We ask to be identified as the designer of a project in any publication of it, and we reserve the right to photograph and publish completed work subject to the consent arrangements described in our privacy policy.

4. Design and construction services

4.1 Proposals

Every engagement begins with a written proposal setting out the scope, the deliverables, the fee, the payment stages and a dated programme. A proposal is valid for thirty days unless stated otherwise. Work begins when the proposal is signed and the first payment is received.

4.2 Your responsibilities

• Providing accurate information about the property, including any existing drawings, title documents and known defects.
• Giving safe access to the site at reasonable times.
• Obtaining the consent of landlords, condominium associations or co-owners where required.
• Responding to requests for approval within the time stated in the programme. Delay in approvals moves the programme.
• Paying invoices on time.

4.3 Variations

Changes to the agreed scope are recorded in writing with their cost and programme effect before they are carried out. We will not proceed with a variation on a verbal instruction alone, because that protects both of us.

4.4 Estimates, budgets and third parties

Cost figures we provide are estimates based on current market rates and the information available. They are not quotations from contractors or suppliers, and they are not guarantees. Where we recommend a contractor or supplier, the contract for those works is between you and them; we are not liable for their performance unless we have been separately engaged to manage the works.

4.5 Visualisations

Renders and animations are representations of a design intent. Colours, textures, daylight and the appearance of manufactured products will differ from the final built result to some degree. Material decisions should be made from physical samples, not from a screen.

4.6 Approvals and permits

Where a project requires permits or authority approval, we will prepare the necessary drawings and support the application, but we cannot guarantee the outcome or the timescale of a decision by a public authority.

5. Courses and training

5.1 Enrolment

A place is reserved when the registration is confirmed and the first payment is received. Places are limited and allocated in order of confirmation.

5.2 Fees, cancellation and transfer

• Cancellation more than 14 days before the start date: full refund less any administration cost stated at registration.
• Cancellation between 14 and 3 days before the start: 50 per cent refund, or a full transfer to the next intake.
• Cancellation within 3 days of the start, or after the course has begun: no refund, but one transfer to a later intake may be granted at our discretion in cases of illness or family emergency.
• If we cancel a course, you receive a full refund or a place on the next intake, at your choice.

5.3 Attendance and conduct

Certificates require satisfactory attendance and completion of the mini project. We may exclude a student, without refund, for conduct that endangers or seriously disrupts others, or for sharing licensed course material.

5.4 Software licences and equipment

Students are responsible for their own computer and for obtaining valid licences for the software taught. We provide guidance on educational licensing but we cannot supply commercial licences, and we do not support the use of unlicensed software.

5.5 No employment guarantee

We introduce strong graduates to practices we work with, and we help with portfolio preparation. We do not guarantee employment, freelance work or any particular income outcome.

6. Fees and payment

• Fees are stated in Ethiopian birr and are exclusive of VAT and any other applicable tax unless expressly stated.
• Design fees are invoiced in stages tied to deliverables, as set out in the proposal.
• Invoices are payable within fourteen days of issue unless the proposal states otherwise.
• We may suspend work on any project with unpaid invoices more than thirty days overdue, after giving seven days' written notice. A suspension moves the programme and any resulting cost is for the client's account.
• Reimbursable expenses — printing, travel outside Addis Ababa, accommodation, courier — are charged at cost and agreed in advance.
• The licence to use design deliverables takes effect on full payment; unpaid deliverables may not be used for construction.

7. Liability

7.1 What we are responsible for

We are responsible for exercising the reasonable skill and care of a competent design practice in the preparation of our deliverables, and for performing the services described in the signed proposal.

7.2 What we are not responsible for

• The workmanship of contractors, suppliers or consultants we did not employ.
• Defects arising from information supplied by you or by third parties that we could not reasonably have known was wrong.
• Changes made to the design on site without our knowledge or approval.
• Loss of profit, loss of opportunity, loss of data or any indirect or consequential loss.
• The content, security or availability of external websites linked from this site.
• Any decision you take based solely on general information published in our journal articles, which is offered as guidance and not as project-specific professional advice.

7.3 Cap on liability

Except where liability cannot lawfully be limited — including death or personal injury caused by negligence, and fraud — our total liability arising out of any engagement is limited to the total fees paid to us under that engagement.

7.4 Time limit

Any claim must be notified to us in writing within one year of the date on which you became aware, or ought reasonably to have become aware, of the matter giving rise to it.

8. Suspension and termination

Either party may terminate an engagement by giving fourteen days' written notice. On termination:

• Fees are payable for all work carried out up to the termination date, plus any costs committed on your behalf.
• We will hand over the deliverables completed and paid for at that date.
• Licences to use deliverables apply only to those that have been paid for in full.
• Clauses on intellectual property, liability, confidentiality and governing law survive termination.

We may terminate immediately if a client behaves abusively towards our staff, asks us to act unlawfully or unethically, or fails to pay after formal notice.

9. Confidentiality

Each party will keep confidential the other's non-public information and use it only for the purposes of the engagement. This does not apply to information that is already public, that is received lawfully from a third party, or that must be disclosed by law or by a regulator.

We may refer to the existence of an engagement and publish images of the completed work in accordance with the consent arrangements set out in our privacy policy. Where a client requires complete confidentiality, that must be agreed in writing at the outset and will be respected without exception.

10. Events beyond reasonable control

Neither party is liable for failure or delay caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including natural disaster, epidemic, civil disturbance, government restriction, interruption of power or telecommunications, currency or import restrictions affecting specified materials, or the failure of a public authority to act within a normal timescale.

The affected party will notify the other promptly and both will use reasonable efforts to mitigate. Where such an event continues for more than ninety days, either party may terminate on written notice, with fees payable for work completed.

11. General provisions

• Entire agreement. The signed proposal together with these terms forms the whole agreement and replaces any earlier discussion or representation.
• Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remainder continues in force.
• No waiver. A delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver of it.
• Assignment. You may not assign an engagement without our written consent. We may assign to a successor of the business.
• Notices. Written notice may be given by email to the addresses in the proposal, and is deemed received on the next working day.
• Third parties. No person other than the parties has a right to enforce these terms.

12. Governing law and disputes

These terms and any engagement are governed by the laws of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, and the courts of Addis Ababa have exclusive jurisdiction.

Before starting proceedings, both parties agree to attempt to resolve any dispute in good faith: first by direct discussion between the project leads, then by a meeting between senior representatives, and then, if both agree, by mediation. Most disagreements in design work come from a difference in expectation rather than a breach, and a conversation resolves them faster and more cheaply than a court.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms should be sent to [email protected] or posted to Hanic Software Tutor and Interior Design PLC, Bole sub city, Wereda 04, House no. 281, first floor, office 1-10, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.