Maia Karnecka — karnecka.dev
These terms apply to all work carried out by karnecka.dev (“I”, “me”) for a client (“you”) unless I have signed a separate written agreement that says otherwise. Accepting a quote, issuing a purchase order, or instructing me to begin work means you accept these terms.
Quote — the written proposal or scope document I send you for a specific piece of work, including the fee and what is included.
Deliverable — the output described in the quote: a file, spreadsheet, report, script, website or other work product.
Source material — data, files, credentials, images, text or access that you supply to me so the work can be done.
Personal information — as defined in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”).
2.1 A quote is valid for 30 days from its date unless it says otherwise.
2.2 No work starts, and no time is spent on your files, until you have accepted the quote in writing. Email is writing.
2.3 The quote defines the scope. If something is not in the quote, it is not in the fee.
3.1 I do the work described in the accepted quote.
3.2 If you ask for something outside that scope, I will tell you before doing it and quote for it separately. I will not carry out extra work and invoice you for it afterwards without your agreement.
3.3 If the source material turns out to be materially different from what the quote assumed — a much larger volume, a different format, or data that needs cleaning before it can be used — I will tell you promptly, explain the effect on the fee and timeline, and wait for your decision before continuing.
3.4 Small changes after delivery, and work that cannot be scoped in advance (for example a fix in someone else’s code, or “please look at this”), are charged at the hourly rate in your proposal, with a minimum charge of one hour. After the first hour, time is charged in 30-minute steps, and a part step is charged as a full step. I will tell you before starting if I expect the work to take more than two hours.
4.1 The fee includes one round of corrections after delivery, raised within 14 days of delivery.
4.2 A correction means fixing something that does not match the accepted quote, or an error on my side. That is free, and there is no time limit on genuine errors in my own work.
4.3 A change of mind, a new requirement, an added column, sheet or feature, or a re-interpretation of the brief is a change, not a correction, and is quoted separately.
4.4 Re-running the same process over new or updated source material at a later date is new work and is quoted separately. Where the work can be scoped to only the changed records, I will price it that way.
4.5 Where a change or re-run under 4.3 or 4.4 is small enough not to need its own quote, it is charged as set out in 3.4.
5.1 Fees are as stated in the accepted quote and are quoted in South African Rand.
5.2 Unless the quote says otherwise, invoices are due within 14 days of the invoice date, by electronic funds transfer to the account shown on the invoice.
5.3 For larger projects, or work expected to run more than two weeks, I may require a deposit of up to 50% before starting. The threshold and the deposit will be stated in the quote.
5.4 Overdue accounts bear interest at the prime lending rate plus 2% per annum, calculated daily from the due date until payment is received.
5.5 If an account is more than 14 days overdue, I may pause work in progress and withhold undelivered deliverables until it is settled. I will tell you before I do this.
5.6 karnecka.dev is not a registered VAT vendor. No VAT is charged, and the fee quoted is the total payable.
5.7 Prepaid hours. You may buy a block of 5 hours in advance, at the hourly rate in your proposal. There is no monthly commitment.
The block is paid before any of it is used.
Hours are used in the same way as 3.4, including the one-hour minimum and billing in 30-minute steps.
The block must be used within 3 months of payment. Hours not used by then lapse and are not refunded.
I will tell you when a block is nearly used up, and will not work past it without your agreement.
A prepaid block is separate from any monthly care plan. Care covers upkeep only.
6.1 Some work depends on paid third-party services — cloud hosting, AI or machine-learning compute, data licences, domain registrations, software subscriptions. Where these apply, the quote will say so and will state either a fixed allowance or that they are billed at cost.
6.2 Where a quote includes a fixed allowance for such costs, that allowance covers the work as originally scoped. Costs above the allowance caused by changes you request, or by source material that differs materially from what was quoted, are billable in addition, and I will tell you before incurring them.
6.3 I do not mark up third-party costs billed at cost. Receipts are available on request.
7.1 You will supply the source material, access and information I need, complete and in a usable form, at the time agreed.
7.2 You confirm that you are entitled to give me the source material, and that doing so does not breach anyone else’s rights, any contract, or any law.
7.3 You will respond to questions and approval requests within a reasonable time. Where a delay on your side pushes the work past the agreed dates, the dates move accordingly and I am not liable for the delay.
7.4 You will review deliverables on receipt and tell me about any problem within the correction window in clause 4.1.
8.1 Where the work involves personal information, you are the responsible party and I act as an operator as those terms are used in POPIA.
8.2 You confirm that you have a lawful basis for the processing you ask me to carry out, and that the processing is compatible with the purpose for which the information was originally collected.
8.3 I will process personal information only on your documented instructions, keep it confidential, apply reasonable technical and organisational safeguards, and not use it for my own purposes.
8.4 I will not transfer personal information outside South Africa without telling you, other than through ordinary business tools and infrastructure disclosed in the quote.
8.5 I keep working copies only while they are needed for the work and for a short period afterwards in case of queries. I will delete them sooner on your written request, subject to any records I am required by law to retain.
8.6 If I become aware of a security compromise affecting your personal information, I will notify you without undue delay and give you the information you need to meet your own obligations under section 22 of POPIA.
8.7 Advice on your lawful basis is your responsibility, not mine. I can tell you what the data shows. I cannot tell you whether you may lawfully contact a person, and nothing in a deliverable should be read as legal advice or as a legal opinion on your right to process or use the data.
9.1 Each of us will keep the other’s confidential information confidential and use it only for the purpose of the work.
9.2 This does not apply to information that is already public, that I knew before you gave it to me, or that I am required by law to disclose.
9.3 This clause continues to apply after the work ends.
10.1 Ownership of a deliverable passes to you when the invoice for it is paid in full.
10.2 I keep ownership of anything I bring to the work that existed beforehand, and of any general methods, scripts, tools or know-how I develop. You get a perpetual, non-exclusive licence to use these to the extent they are embedded in your deliverable.
10.3 You keep ownership of your source material throughout.
10.4 I may describe the work in general terms in a portfolio or case study. I will not name you, quote you, or show your data without your written permission.
11.1 Some of my work uses automated tools, including machine-learning systems, to read, classify or extract information from source material. Where this is the case, the quote will say so.
11.2 I apply verification and quality checks and I report what I checked and what I found. I do not warrant that automated output is free of error.
11.3 Deliverables are a tool to support your decisions, not a substitute for your own judgement. Where a decision carries legal, financial or reputational consequence, you should verify the underlying records before acting on it.
11.4 Where source material is incomplete, ambiguous or contradictory, the deliverable will reflect that. I am not responsible for errors that originate in your own records.
12.1 I will carry out the work with reasonable skill and care.
12.2 I give no other warranty, express or implied, except those that cannot lawfully be excluded.
12.3 My total liability arising out of or in connection with a piece of work, whether in contract, delict or otherwise, is limited to the total fees you have paid me for that work.
12.4 I am not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of business, loss of data on your own systems, or loss of anticipated savings.
12.5 Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for fraud, for gross negligence, for death or personal injury, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.
13.1 You may cancel a project at any time in writing. You will be invoiced for work completed up to the cancellation date, plus any third-party costs already committed. Deposits are applied against that amount; any excess is refunded.
13.2 I may cancel if you do not supply the source material or access I need, if an account is more than 30 days overdue, or if I am asked to do something unlawful or that I reasonably believe breaches POPIA. In that case you are invoiced for work completed to that point.
13.3 If a project is put on hold at your request for more than 60 days, I may treat it as cancelled under clause 13.1.
14.1 I may use subcontractors or third-party services to help deliver the work. I remain responsible to you for the result, and any subcontractor is bound by confidentiality and data-protection terms at least as strict as these.
15.1 Neither of us is liable for failure to perform caused by something outside the reasonable control of the party affected, including load shedding beyond ordinary scheduled levels, network or infrastructure failure, illness, natural disaster, or failure of a third-party service on which the work depends.
15.2 I will tell you promptly if this happens and agree revised dates with you.
16.1 These terms, together with the accepted quote, are the whole agreement between us. Where the quote and these terms conflict, the quote wins for that project.
16.2 Any variation must be in writing.
16.3 If a clause is found to be unenforceable, the rest of these terms continue to apply.
16.4 Failing to enforce a term on one occasion does not waive it.
16.5 These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa, and the courts of South Africa have jurisdiction.
karnecka.dev Maia Karnecka, trading as karnecka.dev — sole proprietor maia@karnecka.dev +27 67 989 6428 Cape Town, South Africa
Please read these terms alongside the quote for your project. If anything is unclear, ask before accepting — it is easier to agree the scope up front than to sort it out afterwards.
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