Terms of service

1. What FindPlumbers is

FindPlumbers is a platform. It connects customers who need plumbing work with independent, licensed plumbers who choose to accept that work. That is the entire service we provide.

FindPlumbers is not a plumbing contractor, does not perform plumbing work, and does not employ the plumbers on the platform. Plumbers are independent contractors who set their own availability, decide which jobs to accept, and control how they do the work. Nothing in these terms creates an employment, agency, partnership or joint venture relationship between FindPlumbers and any plumber.

The contract for the plumbing work itself is between the customer and the plumber. FindPlumbers facilitates the introduction and processes the payment.

We require every plumber to submit a plumbing licence at sign-up and we review it before they can accept a job. We do not, and cannot, guarantee the quality, timing, safety, or legality of any work performed, or that any licence remains current after we have seen it. Customers should satisfy themselves that the plumber is right for the job.

2. Your account

• You must be 18 or older and able to enter a binding contract.
• You sign in with a phone number that we verify by SMS code. Keep control of that number; it is how we identify you.
• The information you give us — your name, address, and, for plumbers, licence details — must be accurate and kept up to date.
• One account per person. Do not let anyone else use yours.
• You accept these terms and the privacy policy when you create an account.
• You can delete your account at any time, in the app or at findplumbers.world/delete-account.

3. Pricing, holds and the approved ceiling

Pricing has two parts, both disclosed to the customer before a plumber is requested: a call-out fee for attending, and an hourly rate for the work. On the same screen you also see the maximum — the ceiling — that will be held against your card.

• When you request a plumber we place an authorisation hold for the ceiling. A hold is not a charge; it reserves the amount with your bank.
• When the job is complete, the plumber itemises the work and you are charged for what was actually done. The rest of the hold is released.
• You are never charged more than the amount you approved. This is enforced in our systems, not just as a policy.
• If the work turns out to need more than the ceiling, the job stops at that point and you get an approval request showing the old total, the new total and the reason. The plumber cannot continue past the ceiling until you explicitly approve it. If you decline, the plumber may finish at or below the ceiling, or end the job — in which case only the call-out fee is charged.
• Payments are processed by Stripe. Card details go to Stripe, never to us. Your agreement with Stripe governs how they handle them.

4. Cancellation

This is the policy, in full:

Cancel any time before a plumber accepts, and while they’re on the way — free. Once your plumber has arrived, the call-out fee applies. Once work has started, only your plumber can end the job early, and only the call-out fee is charged. You are never charged more than the amount you approved.

If the plumber cancels before starting work — including because they could not get access — the customer is charged nothing, whatever stage the job had reached.

If nobody accepts your request, it expires and the hold is released. You are charged nothing.

5. Additional terms for plumbers

• You are an independent contractor. You decide when you are available and which jobs you accept. Declining work carries no penalty.
• You must hold and maintain a valid plumbing licence and any insurance required where you work, and you must tell us if your licence lapses or is revoked.
• You are responsible for your own taxes, tools, transport and business costs. FindPlumbers withholds nothing on your behalf.
• Payouts are made through Stripe Connect to the account you set up during onboarding, after the customer’s payment is captured. FindPlumbers retains a platform service fee — currently 20% of the job total — and the remaining 80% is paid out to you. The fee in force is shown in the app.
• Itemise honestly. Charging for work you did not do is fraud, ends your account, and may be reported.
• Marking yourself arrived when you are not at the address, or complete for work you did not finish, is grounds for immediate suspension.

6. Conduct, content and moderation

Customers and plumbers meet in person. The rules are short and we enforce them.

What is not allowed

• Harassment, threats, intimidation, or violence of any kind.
• Discrimination on the basis of race, colour, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or any other protected characteristic.
• Sexually explicit, hateful, or otherwise objectionable content in job descriptions, access notes, ratings, display names or profile text.
• Fraud: fake jobs, fake licences, invented charges, chargeback abuse, or attempts to take payment off the platform to avoid the fee.
• Impersonating another person, or accessing another user’s account.
• Scraping, reverse-engineering, or interfering with the service.

Report and block

Everywhere a person can write text — job descriptions and access notes, rating comments, display names and plumber bios — you can report it, and you can block the person who wrote it. Blocking is mutual and permanent until you undo it: a blocked person is never offered your jobs and you are never offered theirs. They are not told. Written content is also screened automatically on submission and objectionable content is rejected before it is ever shown.

What happens to a report

Every report goes to a moderation queue that a human works. We may remove content, warn an account, suspend it pending review, or terminate it. Three upheld reports suspend an account automatically while we look at it. We aim to review reports promptly, and anything involving a threat to someone’s safety is treated as urgent.

Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate an account for breaching these terms, for a pattern of upheld reports, for fraud, or where we reasonably believe someone’s safety is at risk. Where it is reasonable to do so we will tell you why and give you a way to respond. You may stop using FindPlumbers and delete your account at any time. Money already owed — a captured payment, a pending payout — is settled either way.

7. Disclaimers and liability

The platform is provided “as is”. We do not warrant that a plumber will be available in your area at any given moment, that a request will be accepted, or that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free.

FindPlumbers is not responsible for the plumbing work itself, for damage caused by a plumber, or for the conduct of any user, whether on or off the platform. Claims about the work are between the customer and the plumber — though we will help where we can, and we will act on reports.

[Placeholder — limitation of liability and indemnity clauses to be drafted by counsel, scaled to the jurisdictions FindPlumbers operates in. Consumer-protection law in some jurisdictions limits how far these clauses can go, and nothing here is intended to exclude rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.]

8. Disputes

Start with us. Email support@findplumbers.world with the booking, what happened, and what you would like done. We read every one, we can see the job’s full history, and most things are resolved this way — including refunds where they are warranted.

If a payment dispute is raised with your bank, we will provide the booking record, the itemisation and the timeline to the card network.

These terms are governed by the laws of [Jurisdiction], without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, and the courts of [Jurisdiction] have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute that is not resolved directly. [Placeholder — decide with counsel whether arbitration and a class-action waiver are appropriate and enforceable here.]

9. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change is material we will notify you in the app before it takes effect, and the effective date at the top of this page changes. Continuing to use FindPlumbers after that means you accept the updated terms. If you do not, delete your account.

10. Contact

support@findplumbers.world