Contractor Terms

1. About these terms

These terms are between you, the business using Compare Local Trades, and Compare Local Trades Ltd, trading as Compare Local Trades, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17566575), registered office 20 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU ("we", "us"). You accept them when you sign up, and they apply to everything you do on the service. If you have questions, email support@comparelocaltrades.co.uk.

2. Who can use the service

• You run a trade business in the UK, as a sole trader or a limited company, and you are 18 or over.
• One account per business, and one verified person per account. The person using the account must be allowed to act for the business.
• The details you give us are true and kept up to date, including your trades, the area you cover, your insurance and, if you do gas work, your Gas Safe registration; if you do electrical work, your electrical scheme registration; and if you clear waste, your waste carrier registration.

3. Our checks

• Before you can buy credit or unlock a job, you must pass our checks: your mobile number (text code), your identity (photo ID; a selfie only if you choose to add one), public liability insurance of at least £1,000,000, Companies House for limited companies, Gas Safe registration if you do gas work, registration with a government-approved electrical scheme if you do electrical work, and an upper tier waste carrier registration if you clear waste.
• If you tell us you don't do gas work, you won't receive gas or boiler jobs.
• We re-check some details automatically (for example insurance expiry every month, Companies House status and waste carrier registrations every month; electricians are re-confirmed every year). If a check lapses, for example your insurance expires, you keep your balance and the jobs you've already unlocked, but you can't buy credit or unlock jobs until it is renewed.
• If a registration we check lapses, is removed or no longer matches, your checks stop passing until it is put right. You keep your credit and the leads you have already unlocked.
• If a check fails, you can ask a person to review it by emailing support@comparelocaltrades.co.uk.
• Our checks are limited to what is listed here. We do not check the quality of your work, your qualifications (other than Gas Safe and electrical scheme registration) or criminal records, and you must not say or suggest that we recommend, vet, approve or guarantee you or your work.

4. How jobs work

• Homeowners post jobs. You see jobs that match your trades and the postcodes within the distance you choose from your base. You can change your area at any time; changes apply to new jobs.
• Every matching business is told about a job at the same time. Each job can be unlocked by at most 4 businesses; the first 4 to unlock get it.
• Before you unlock, you see the job details without the homeowner's name or contact details, and you see the price. When you unlock, the price is taken from your credit straight away and you get the homeowner's contact details. An unlock can't be undone; if something is wrong with the job, see section 10 (Disputes).
• There are no subscriptions, memberships, monthly fees or reserved areas. You pay only for the jobs you unlock. We don't take a share of the work you win.
• We can't promise how many jobs there will be, that a homeowner will reply, or that you will win the work.
• A job can be withdrawn before you unlock it (for example if the homeowner cancels), and it closes if it isn't fully unlocked within 14 days. Nothing is charged for jobs you didn't unlock.
• If a homeowner withdraws their request within 72 hours of your unlock, the price comes back to your account automatically, in the same way as an approved dispute (section 10).

5. Lead prices

• Prices depend on the size of the job and are shown on our prices page.
• Each job's price is fixed when the job is posted and shown before you unlock it.
• Lead prices can change with 7 days' notice, for new jobs only. We give notice on the prices page and by email. A price change never affects a job that was already posted.
• We are not VAT-registered, so no VAT is charged. We'll give notice if that changes.

6. Buying credit

• You buy credit in packs (£50, £100 or £200) by card. Payments are processed by Stripe; Stripe emails you a receipt. The credit you get equals the amount you pay.
• Credit can only be used to unlock jobs on Compare Local Trades. It can't be transferred to anyone else, and it isn't a bank deposit (it earns no interest).
• If your credit doesn't cover a job's price, the job isn't unlocked and nothing is taken. You can buy a pack and unlock the job in one go ("Top up & unlock"). If the job fills up while you are paying, it isn't unlocked and the credit stays in your account.

7. Paid credit and promotional credit

• Paid credit is credit you bought. It lasts 12 months from the date you bought it.
• Promotional credit is anything we give you for free (for example your free lead, or a dispute refund of a job paid with promotional credit). It lasts 90 days, is never refundable in cash and can't be transferred.
• When you unlock a job, promotional credit is used first, then paid credit.
• Credit that has passed its expiry date is removed from your balance. We may remind you before credit expires, but we don't promise to.

8. First lead free

• Your first lead is free, up to £30. You earn it when you buy your first credit pack, which you can only do once your checks are done. One per business; nothing is given just for signing up.
• You choose which job to use it on, by ticking "Use my free lead on this lead". If the job costs more than £30, the rest comes from your balance. If it costs less, the difference is not kept.
• Use it within 90 days of the first job in your trade and area being available to you. After that it expires.
• It is promotional credit: it can't be exchanged for cash.
• If the pack that earned it is refunded or charged back before you use your free lead, the free lead is withdrawn.
• If you get a cash refund of the pack that earned your free lead after you've used it, the value of the free lead is taken off the refund. This is taken off once, and never leaves you owing us money.

9. Cash refunds of paid credit

• You can ask for a cash refund of unused, unexpired paid credit at any time by emailing support@comparelocaltrades.co.uk. We pay it within 14 days, with no fee, to the card you paid with where possible, otherwise by bank transfer.
• If you have used part of a pack, we refund only the unused paid part.
• Promotional credit (including the free lead) is never refunded in cash.

10. Disputes

• If something is wrong with a job you unlocked, you can report it within 72 hours of unlocking, using "Report a problem". One report per job.
• Reasons: wrong or dead phone number; couldn't reach them after at least 3 tries over 48 hours; fake request or not a real job; duplicate of a job you already have; outside your area; not your trade; something else. For "wrong number" and "fake request", you must tell us what happened.
• Every dispute is decided by a person, never automatically. We decide within 5 working days. If we agree, the price comes back to your account as credit, of the same kind you paid with (paid credit as paid credit, promotional as promotional), never to your card. Returned credit starts a new expiry period (12 months paid, 90 days promotional). The place on the job is not resold.
• If we find a job was not genuine, we refund every business that unlocked it.
• If more than 1 in 4 of your last 20 unlocks are disputed, a person reviews your account. This only starts a review; nothing happens automatically. After the review we may suspend the account.

11. Working with homeowners

• Contact homeowners promptly, politely and honestly, and respect any contact preferences they give.
• Any agreement for work is between you and the homeowner. We are not part of it and are not responsible for the work, the price you agree or payment between you.
• You must follow the law when dealing with homeowners, including consumer protection law and, for gas work, the Gas Safety rules.

12. Homeowners' details

• Use a homeowner's details only to contact them about the job you unlocked.
• Never sell, share or pass them on, and never add them to marketing lists.
• Once you unlock a job, you are responsible for the homeowner's details under data protection law. Keep them secure and delete them when you no longer need them for that job or your business records.

13. Chargebacks

• If you dispute a credit card payment with your bank (a chargeback), we take back the credit it bought, up to your paid credit balance, and suspend your account until we have reviewed it.
• The fee Stripe charges us for the chargeback is also deducted from any paid credit you have left. It is never taken from promotional credit, and your balance never goes below zero.

14. Suspending or closing accounts

• We may suspend or close your account if a check fails or lapses, if you misuse homeowners' details, after a chargeback, for dispute abuse, if your details are false, if it is a second account, or if the account is used in a way that harms homeowners, other trades or us. We will tell you why unless the law or security stops us.
• You can close your account at any time by emailing support@comparelocaltrades.co.uk.
• When an account is closed, we refund your unused, unexpired paid credit. Promotional credit is lost.
• Fraud: we never keep your paid credit as a penalty. If we suspect fraud, we hold your paid credit while we investigate, deduct any losses we have suffered (for example chargebacks), and refund the rest.

15. Inviting other trades

• You may share your personal invite link with people you know, from your own phone or email.
• Don't send it as unsolicited bulk messages, post it where it isn't allowed, or pretend to be us.
• Rewards for invites are not offered yet; if we introduce them, the rules will be added and invites already recorded will count as those rules say.

16. Messages we send you

• We send service messages by email and text: new job alerts, receipts, check reminders and account notices.
• Marketing emails (offers on tools to grow your business) are sent only if you ticked the box, and you can switch them off at any time. They never affect which jobs you see or what they cost.

17. Our service and liability

• We aim to keep the service available but can't promise it will always be uninterrupted.
• Our total liability to you is limited to what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim.
• We are not liable for lost jobs, lost profits or any indirect loss.
• Nothing in these terms limits liability for fraud, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or anything else the law doesn't allow us to limit.

18. Changes to these terms

• For changes about money (other than lead prices, see section 5), we give 30 days' notice by email. For other changes, 14 days' notice. Where the law requires a change straight away, it applies immediately.
• If you don't agree with a change, you can close your account before it applies and we'll refund your unused paid credit.

19. Complaints

Email support@comparelocaltrades.co.uk. We aim to reply within 2 working days.

20. Law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and its courts decide disputes.