Terms of Service
These terms govern your use of www.covecollect.com and the Cove service, operated by Cove Collect, Inc. ("Cove"). By using the site or the service, you agree to them. If you are entering these terms on behalf of an institution, you represent that you have authority to bind it.
The service
Cove is a managed collection service: we build and maintain a documented, valued record of what you collect, prepare appraisals for specific purposes, and provide the software through which you and the people you authorize use that record. Individual engagements — such as a cataloging project or an appraisal — may be governed by an engagement letter; where an engagement letter conflicts with these terms, the engagement letter controls for that engagement.
Your account and grants
You are responsible for the credentials to your account and for the access grants you create. Grants you give to advisors, family, guests, and other parties are set and revocable by you; what those parties do with information you have shared with them is between you and them.
Your content stays yours
You own your collection records: the works, images, documents, stories, and recordings that make up your record. You grant Cove a non-exclusive license to host, process, and display that content to provide the service to you and to the people you authorize. Your record is exportable at any time, and on termination we will make it available to you as described below.
De-identified data
Cove also derives de-identified information from collection records: market observations, condition data, and comparable sales information, in a form that does not identify you, your household, your collection, or any individual work. You grant Cove a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free right to retain and use de-identified information to operate, evaluate, improve, and train the Cove platform and its models, and to create and use aggregated market intelligence. Cove commits to maintain this information in de-identified form, not to attempt to re-identify it, and to impose the same obligations on any recipient. Cove does not use information that identifies you or your works to train models deployed for other clients. This section survives termination.
Appraisal records
Where Cove or an appraiser engaged by Cove performs appraisal work for you, you authorize Cove to retain the assignment records and to use them in de-identified form as described above. This authorization is given for purposes of the USPAP Ethics Rule as well as this agreement.
Estimates and appraisals are different things
The service distinguishes two kinds of values, and these terms do too:
- Estimates are current estimated value ranges maintained in the living record, labeled as estimates, with supporting evidence attached. They are informational, are not appraisals, and should not be relied on as certified valuations for insurance, tax, legal, or lending purposes.
- Appraisals are formal engagements prepared by a professional appraiser to USPAP standards for a stated purpose and value basis. An appraisal is prepared for the intended users and the intended use identified in the report itself, and speaks as of its effective date. No one other than a named intended user may rely on it, for any purpose. Cove has no obligation to update a report after its effective date. Intended users are identified by the appraiser at the time of the assignment and cannot be added to a report after it has been issued; extending reliance requires a new assignment.
What Cove is not
Cove is not, and does not act as, an investment adviser, broker-dealer, insurer, financial guarantor, fiduciary, trustee, custodian, or appraiser of record for any purpose other than as expressly set out in an executed engagement letter. Nothing in these terms, and no use of the service, creates a fiduciary, advisory, agency, or trust relationship between Cove and you or between Cove and anyone you authorize. Where you act in a fiduciary, trustee, or advisory capacity with respect to another person, that status is yours alone, does not extend to Cove, and Cove assumes no duty you owe to that person. Cove's valuation opinions are point-in-time professional opinions prepared in conformity with USPAP for the intended users and intended use stated in the report. They are not investment advice, not a recommendation to buy, sell, hold, lend against, or insure any asset, not a guarantee of realizable price, and not an assurance of future value.
Cove does not provide legal, tax, accounting, insurance, or investment advice. Decisions of that kind belong with you and your own advisors.
What we do not opine on
Cove catalogues, documents, and values what you tell us you own. Cove does not authenticate works, does not opine on authorship or attribution, does not opine on title or ownership, and does not independently verify provenance documents, invoices, or certificates you provide. You represent that you have the right to provide the content you upload and the authority to instruct us with respect to the works in your record, and you will indemnify Cove against third-party claims arising from content you provide, from grants you make to others, and from use of a report outside its stated intended use or by anyone other than a named intended user.
AI-assisted functionality
Cove uses artificial intelligence to assist with research, market synthesis, comparable identification, drafting support, and monitoring. AI output is informational research and drafting support. It is not a certified appraisal, is not an opinion of value, and is not prepared in conformity with USPAP unless and until it has been reviewed, adopted, and signed by a credentialed appraiser and issued as a report under an executed engagement letter. AI output may contain inaccuracies. Do not rely on it as a certified opinion of value or as a basis for lending, insurance, tax, accounting, or fiduciary decisions.
Acceptable use
You agree not to misuse the service: no unauthorized access, no interference with its operation, no use of another person's record without their grant, and no use of the service for unlawful purposes, including in connection with stolen or misattributed property. We may suspend access to protect the service or its clients, and we will tell you if we do.
Fees
Service fees and appraisal fees are stated in your engagement or subscription terms. Quoted fees are exclusive of applicable taxes.
Confidentiality
We treat your collection records, and the fact of your client relationship, as confidential, and we disclose them only as described in the Privacy Policy: at your direction, to service providers under confidentiality obligations, as professional appraisal standards require, or as the law compels.
Intellectual property
The service, the site, and their content (other than your records) are Cove's, protected by intellectual-property laws. These terms grant you use of the service, not ownership of any part of it.
Disclaimers
The service is provided "as is." Markets move, and values are opinions grounded in evidence, not guarantees: neither estimates nor appraisals are promises that a work will achieve any particular price. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Cove disclaims implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Cove's aggregate liability arising out of the service or these terms is limited to the amounts you paid Cove for the service in the twelve months preceding the claim, and Cove is not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages.
Termination
You may end the relationship at any time. On termination, your record, every work, document, value with its evidence, and recording, is made available to you in a commonly used, structured format, organized as it is kept. After a reasonable export window, we delete your records, subject to what professional appraisal standards and the law require us to retain.
Disputes and governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.
Changes to these terms
If we change these terms, we will post the new version here and update the date above. Material changes affecting active clients will be communicated directly and will not apply retroactively to an engagement already underway.
Contact
Questions about these terms: hello@covecollect.com, or Cove Collect, Inc., c/o A Registered Agent, Inc., 8 The Green, Suite A, Dover, Delaware 19901.