Articles - Property Release Forms
This is my understanding / interpretation of current UK law with respect to photography and is meant as a guide only. The only firm recommendation I can make is if in doubt seek professional legal advice. My article on Model Release Forms deals with a lot of common ground in detail and I recommend you read this first.
What Are They?
In brief, this is very similar to the model release where the notion of a model or person is replaced with property. A property release form must be signed by the owner of the property. Where the owner is under 18 a legal parent or guardian must sign.
As with a model release, the three main clauses still apply; Identification, Subject of the Image and Use of the Image.
What Is Property?
Before we go any further, a clear understanding of the idea of property is required. Within this context property can be defined as…
• Any identifiable private property such as a house, office or building with identifiable features.
• Any car, boat, plane etc.
• Any pet, farm or zoo animal which can be explicitly identified. This does not include wildlife.
• Any famous location or landmark not considered being in a public domain.
• Any trademark or logo.
• Any privately owned artwork on view in a public place.
You do not need a property release form under similar conditions for models whereby the property is not the main subject of the image. Obviously houses don’t just walk in front of the camera. However if you take an image of a landscape (from a public place), unless you really are in the middle of nowhere it would be difficult not to include someone’s property. Under these circumstances a release form is not required.
Images of public buildings and wildlife also do not require property releases.
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