Terms of Use

1. Acceptance and eligibility

By accessing the public website, you agree to these Terms of Use. By submitting content, you also agree to the Privacy Policy, Submission Guidelines, and Correction and Response Policy.

You must be at least 18 years old to submit a homeowner experience, supporting document, correction request, or business response.

Reading is open without registration. Posting or commenting requires an account with a required first name, an email verified by a one-time code, and a password; a gender choice (including “Prefer not to say”) is required; a last name and an age range are optional. These remain private. Verification confirms access to the email inbox, not legal identity, qualifications or the truth of a report. Protect your password and codes, use your own account, and contact the operator if you suspect misuse. Registration and password-reset emails are service messages, not marketing subscriptions.

2. Purpose and limits of the site

HomeKiwi is an independent, anonymous-first community information project, not a provider directory or recommendation service. Version one withholds provider and homeowner identities. It is not affiliated with service providers and does not provide legal, financial, engineering, building-code, safety, or professional trade advice.

Individual records describe particular experiences and are not findings of fraud, illegality, negligence, professional misconduct, or typical market price. Prices can vary because of timing, urgency, location, scope, materials, access, licensing, warranty, and other circumstances.

Do not rely on the site for emergencies. For urgent plumbing, electrical, gas, fire, structural, or safety conditions, contact an appropriately qualified service or emergency authority.

3. What contributors promise

When you submit material, you represent that:

• You are describing your own direct experience, or are authorized to act for the person who received or paid for the service.
• Your factual statements are accurate to the best of your knowledge and not knowingly false, misleading, or materially incomplete.
• You clearly distinguish documented facts, personal recollections, and opinions.
• Documents and images are authentic and have not been materially altered, except for privacy redaction or clearly disclosed annotation.
• You have the rights and permissions needed to submit the material and grant the licence below.
• You have disclosed any employment, ownership, family, referral, payment, discount, competitor, or other material connection relevant to the review.
• You have removed unnecessary personal, financial, address, signature, and account information.

4. Prohibited content and conduct

You must not submit or attempt to publish:

• Experiences you did not personally have, fabricated reviews, impersonation, or manipulated evidence.
• Knowingly false statements or unsupported allegations of crime, fraud, theft, dishonesty, danger, or professional misconduct.
• Threats, harassment, hate, intimidation, obscene material, or instructions to target an individual.
• Home addresses, signatures, payment information, government identifiers, account credentials, or unnecessary private contact information.
• Provider names, logos, branded memberships, identifiable employee images/names and identity clues in public content, including comments. Details may appear on a private source invoice; any permitted public copy must be redacted.
• Material that infringes copyright, privacy, confidentiality, trademark, or other rights.
• Advertising, referral links, undisclosed sponsored content, review manipulation, malware, scraping abuse, or interference with the site.

5. Licence to review and publish submitted content

You retain rights you hold in your content. You grant a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store/review it privately and publish your alias, reviewed account, comment (possibly immediately) and selected work photo for this project. Separately choosing invoice publication grants permission to prepare and display a redacted image copy after review; it never authorizes public display of the uploaded original. Permission does not create rights you do not hold. You can request withdrawal of invoice display through the correction contact; third-party saved copies may remain.

Edits may be made for privacy, length, grammar, organization, legal safety, and clarity, but should not materially change the meaning. A contributor may request withdrawal of permission for future public display. Removal is subject to reasonable processing time, existing lawful third-party copies, backups, and retention needed for an active dispute or legal obligation.

6. Review and moderation

Submission does not guarantee publication. The project may request evidence, edit, anonymize, decline, postpone, annotate, temporarily hide, correct, or remove content. The same editorial standards apply to positive, mixed, and negative experiences.

No payment will guarantee publication, favourable placement, higher ranking, suppression of criticism, or removal of an accurate record. Suspected conflicts of interest, coordinated review activity, or authenticity concerns may be investigated.

7. Corrections and business responses

Contributors, businesses, and affected individuals may identify a specific factual error, provide relevant evidence, or request a factual response. Requests are handled under the Correction and Response Policy.

A request will not be granted solely because a record is critical, inconvenient, or disputed. Material factual errors will be corrected promptly when reasonably verified. A response may be edited or declined under the same standards as a homeowner submission.

8. Disclaimers and responsibility

The site and its content are provided on an “as available” basis. Although reasonable review practices are intended, the project does not guarantee that every statement, price, document, response, link, or service-provider detail is complete, current, or error-free.

You remain responsible for decisions you make using the site and for material you submit. To the extent permitted by law, the project is not responsible for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or economic losses arising from reliance on the site, service-provider decisions, third-party conduct, or interruptions to availability.

Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limits rights that cannot lawfully be waived.

9. Changes, severability, and governing law

These terms may be updated as the project develops. Material changes will be identified by a revised date. Continued use after a change means the updated terms apply from that point forward; a new consent will be requested where required.

If any provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to apply. These terms are governed by the laws of British Columbia and the applicable laws of Canada. Disputes will be brought in the courts of British Columbia unless applicable law requires otherwise.

10. Contact

Related policies: Privacy Policy, Submission Guidelines, and Correction and Response Policy.