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Welcome, by using HomeStars you agree to all the terms below.
Any failure on your part to comply with these Terms of use may lead to HomeStars: (i) prohibiting you from using this Site and any related privileges; or (ii) instituting any other remedies HomeStars or its affiliates, at their sole discretion, deem appropriate. To prevent any breach of the Terms hereof and to enforce any remedy available at law, we shall take any technical, legal or managerial measures that we deem, in our sole discretion, necessary and appropriate, without prior notice to you or any other user.
HomeStars Privacy Policy is incorporated herein by reference and forms an integral part of these Terms. If you are a paid Service Professional, then your use of the Site will also be governed by the HomeStars Service Professional Terms of User.
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You have read the terms and understood them. HomeStars can take steps necessary to ensure compliance with the terms.
1. DEFINITIONS
“Behaviour Violations” means a company that has engaged in unfair business practices that include the following but not limited to tampering with reviews, engaging in bullying behaviour with a reviewer, Consumer Protection Agency convictions, has taken deposits and not completed work, financial compensation for positive reviews, or false advertising.“Claimer/Claiming Company” means a company that claims a Company Profile created on the HomeStars Site for that same company by a User or third party.
"Company" means a business or individual contractor whose information and contact details are posted on the Site.
“Company Profile” means an assemblage of accounts, data files, settings, photographs, audio-visual recordings, reviews, ratings, and descriptions that contain certain information about a Company provided to HomeStars by Service Providers, Users, and/or third parties;
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Content means anything posted on our website.
“User/Users” means an individual or corporate entity that visits/uses/interacts with the Site to obtain a benefit or contribute content, and who may or may not be a Service Provider, or a Claimer.
2. USE OF SITE
Account - In order to use part or all of our Services, you may need to create a profile and register on our Site.Permission to use the Site - You are permitted to use the Site subject to the restrictions stated herein. You use the Site at your own risk, including the risk that you might be exposed to Content you may find offensive, indecent, inaccurate, or objectionable. HomeStars undertakes the protection of the rights of minors and underage persons, and thereby encourages parents, legal guardians and responsible adults to be actively involved in the safe use of the Internet by their minors. You hereby represent and warrant that you are at least eighteen (18) years of age, or older, as of the date of first access to our Site and, if you are under such age, are using the Site under the direct supervision of your parent, legal guardian or responsible adult.
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You can use HomeStars unless you are under 18.
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You understand that HomeStars owns the content on its site and you cannot distribute our content without our consent.
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It is your responsibility to be aware of and to comply with your legal obligations.
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You are responsible for your username and password and will let us know immediately if there is unauthorized use of your account.
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When you sign up for HomeStars, you will receive email notifications. You can opt from non-essential emails at any time.
When you click on a link for another website, you are leaving Homestars, and we are not responsible.
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When you click on a link for another website, you are leaving Homestars, and we are not responsible.
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Sometimes, we need to update the Terms. You accept the new Terms by continuing to use HomeStars.
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You are also bound to our Privacy Policy.
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You are responsible for your devices used to access the site.
Service Providers Specific Terms
Service Provider Accounts - You must create an account and profile and will be asked to provide certain information about your business in order to use some features of the Site. You are responsible for the confidentiality of your HomeStars account password and also for any activities that occur in connection with this account. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account. In creating your HomeStars profile, we ask that you provide accurate information about your business to bring credibility to your contributions on the site. You may not impersonate any other person or business.More Simply Put:
You are responsible for your username and password and will let us know immediately if there is unauthorized use of your account.
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If you have a listing on our site, Users can leave you a review.
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You are responsible for the interactions you have with Users of our site.
Service Provider Content
Responsibility for Your Content - If you provide written, verbal, telecommunication, audio, video recordings, comments, or testimonials about our service(s) or products, you agree that we shall have sole ownership of any and all intellectual property rights in such comments or testimonials, and that we may post and publish your comments or portions thereof at our sole discretion on our Site or in marketing materials, including your name and company or agency, and that you shall not be entitled to any payments associated with our use of the foregoing.Our Right to Use Service Provider Content - You hereby authorize us to use your name, company name, and franchise name, as applicable, and any of the trademarks, service marks, trade names and logos, content including photographs or audio video recordings, in the form or format that you supply to us or that you upload to our Site, for use and posting on our Site and for use in marketing materials to be promoted to Users through online postings, via emails or otherwise, to help promote you or your services, and that you shall not be entitled to any payments associated with our use of the foregoing.
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You understand that HomeStars owns the content posted on its site and you cannot distribute our content without our consent.
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The reviews and opinions of our users are not ours. We may remove your content.
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You have the right to display your content, and we own the HomeStars content. You do not have any license or rights over the HomeStars content.
3. CONTENT
Guidelines - you represent and warrant that you have read our Consumer Review Guidelines.Responsibility for your Content - You are responsible for your Content, and once published, you must contact HomeStars directly to have it removed. You assume any risk associated with your Content, including another user’s reliance on its accuracy or reliability, or any information in your Content that may make you identifiable. You represent that you own, or have the necessary permissions to use and authorize the use of your Content as described herein. You may expose yourself to liability if, for example, your Content contains material that is false, intentionally misleading, or defamatory; violates any third-party right, including any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral right, privacy right, right of publicity, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right; contains material that is unlawful, including illegal hate speech or pornography; exploits or otherwise harms minors; or violates or advocates the violation of any law or regulation. We reserve the right to remove, screen, edit, or reinstate any Content from time to time at our sole discretion for any reason or no reason, and without notice to you.
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Do not post plagiarized content, or content that is inappropriate, illegal, pornographic or may harm someone.
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When you give us content, you authorize us to use it.
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You own your Content, and we own the HomeStars Content. You do not have any license or rights over the HomeStars content.
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Please subscribe to our fabulous emails. You can easily unsubscribe at anytime.
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The reviews and opinions of our users are not ours. We may remove your content.
4. RESTRICTIONS
You may not use the site to bully other users, upload illegal material, modify site content, send spam or hack into user information.In connection with your use of the Site, you agree that you shall not:
- Help, motivate, or enable others to infringe these Terms;
- Impersonate any person or entity, including without limitation, a HomeStars officer or agent;
- Plagiarize or infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party; including any breach of confidence, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral right, privacy right, right of publicity, personality rights or any other intellectual property or proprietary right;
- Use any automated process to obtain, copy, process, access or use our services or any process, whether automated or manual, to capture data or content from any of our users, Content or Services for any reason;
- Collect, receive, transfer or disseminate any personally identifiable information of any user of the Site without the express authorization of the holder;
- Engage in keyword spamming of reviews or profile text, or otherwise attempt to manipulate any Site's search results, write fake or defamatory Content or trade reviews with other businesses;
- Upload, post or otherwise disseminate any content that: (i)infringes or violates the intellectual property rights of any third party, including any trademark, copyright, trade secret, moral rights, ancillary rights or other rights therefrom, or causes or results in the violation of any applicable law or regulation, (ii) in any way exploits the Site other than as specifically sanctioned by us; (iii) encourages any conduct that could promote or cause discrimination, racism, hatred, harm or violence against any individual or group of persons; (iv) threatens minors in any manner; (v) promotes or encourages illegal, fraudulent or inappropriate activities; and/or (vi) promotes or disseminates any content that is or may be considered obscene, pornographic, inappropriate or otherwise objectionable;
- Modify, adapt, appropriate, reproduce, distribute, translate, create derivative works or adaptations of, publicly display, sell, trade, or in any way exploit the Site Content (other than your reviews), except as expressly authorized by HomeStars;
- Remove or modify any watermark, copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notice that appears on any image, banner, frame, content or portion of the Site or to retrieve or index any portion of the Site;
- Delivers or attempts to deliver, any unsolicited advertising, electronic email, promotion, spam or chain letters;
- Use the Site to give other users any type of computer viruses, worms, defects, Trojan horses or other items of a destructive nature;
- Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Site, or to convert into human readable form any of the contents of this Site not intended to be so read, including, but not limited to, using or directly viewing the underlying code for the Site except as interpreted and displayed in the browser;
- Take any action that will or may cause an unreasonably large load on HomeStars’ technology infrastructure or otherwise make excessive traffic demands of the Site;
- Bully, intimidate, harass, put undue pressure, initiate a legal action, threaten a legal action against any user of the Site; or
- Use the Site for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms and conditions.
Service Providers Specific Restrictions
Service Providers in connection with your use of the Site, you agree that you shall not:- Engage in any Behaviour Violations;
- Engage in any illegal acts or acts of wrongdoing, dishonesty or unethical business practices with HomeStars, any User, or other third party, including, but not limited to, disclosing any User personal information to any third party.
- Violate any applicable Federal, Provincial, local and other laws and regulations.
HomeStars reserves the right to decide what data, content, or information is published to, or removed from, the Site that is deemed to violate any of the above restrictions.
5. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Limited License and Copyright - Subject to these Terms, you grant HomeStars a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited right to access, use and display this Site and the visible text, graphics or images thereon (the “Materials”) and to view and download the Materials, only in connection with your personal and non-commercial use of the Site. This authorization is not a transfer of title in the Materials is subject to the restrictions in the Terms.More Simply Put:
You grant us a limited right to use and display content and reviews on Homestars.
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You won’t copy or use our trade-marks or any other trade-mark on our Site.
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Do not post reviews on HomeStars posted on another site.
6. LIMITATIONS ON LIABILITY AND DISCLAIMERS
In no event shall HomeStars or its affiliates, agents, licensors, suppliers or their respective directors, officers or employees be liable to you for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, punitive, or consequential damages whatsoever, whether based on warranty, contract, tort, or any other legal theory, and whether or not you are advised of the possibility of such damages. The foregoing limitation of liability shall apply to the fullest extent permitted by law in the applicable jurisdiction. HomeStars’ maximum cumulative liability to you for any losses or damages arising out of or in connection with your access of the site and any services therein shall be limited to: (i) the amount paid, if any, by you to us in connection with the site and any services therein during the 12 months prior to the action giving rise to such liability (if any); or (ii) CDN$50 (fifty cdn dollars), whichever amount results inferior. The use of this site is at your own risk and HomeStars assumes no liability or responsibility pertaining to the content, your use of the site or the receipt, storage, transmission or other use of your personal information.More Simply Put:
We are not the ones responsible if things go wrong while using our Site.
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You understand that reviews are opinions of other people and not HomeStars and we are not liable for what they say.
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We're not liable for various things. If you think we are, let's try to work it out like adults.
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We are building the best service we can for you but we can't promise it will be perfect.
7. PROMOTIONS
From time to time, HomeStars may offer, either on or through the Site, promotions or games (“Promotions”). You agree to release HomeStars and its agents, advertisers, sponsors and / or promotional partners, from all liability arising from participation in any Promotion located on, or accessed through the Site. You agree to be bound by the rules of any Promotion. If you violate any such rules or guidelines for behaviour posted on the Site, you will be subject to immediate disqualification and will become ineligible to be awarded any prizes. HomeStars reserves the right to cancel, terminate or alter any Promotion or the rules thereof at any time without prior notification.More Simply Put:
If you enter into Promotions through the Site, you are subject to the rules or guidelines of the Promotion and HomeStars is not liable.
8. CANCELLATION
HomeStars may, at its sole discretion, cancel or suspend any of your privileges related to the use of the Site in whole or in part for any reason, including without limitation, the non-compliance with these Terms of Use, the Consumer Review Guidelines, and Code of Conduct.More Simply Put:
HomeStars can cancel your privileges to use the Site at any time.
9. LEGAL DISPUTES
HomeStars is committed to resolving disputes quickly in a cost effective and neutral way. Accordingly, you and HomeStars agree to resolve any dispute that arises out of this Agreement or our services (a "Claim") in accordance with one of the subsections below or as HomeStars and you otherwise agree in writing. Before resorting to these alternatives, we strongly encourage you to first contact us directly Toll-free: 1-877-488-0312.Get in touch: It is our belief that many disputes can be resolved amicably. We encourage you to contact us by phone or email us before resorting to alternatives.
Improperly Filed Claims - Claims you bring against HomeStars must be resolved in accordance with this Legal Disputes Section. A claim filed or brought contrary to the Legal Disputes Section shall be considered improperly filed. A claim filed contrary to the Legal Disputes Section may allow HomeStars to recover legal fees provided that HomeStars has notified you in writing of the improperly filed claim, and you have failed to promptly have the claim withdrawn.
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You agree to not start a class action or a class arbitration.
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We prefer that you try to work things out with us first. If you want to sue us, you have to do that in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
10. GENERAL
These Terms constitute the entire agreement and understanding between you and HomeStars and governs your use of the Site and services provided therein, superseding any prior agreements between you and HomeStars. The failure of HomeStars to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of these Terms is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severed herefrom and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. HomeStars may assign any or all of its rights hereunder to any party without your consent. You are not permitted to assign any of your rights or obligations under these Terms of use without the prior written consent of HomeStars, and any such attempted assignment will be void and unenforceable. No waiver by HomeStars of any breach or default hereunder shall be deemed a waiver of any preceding or subsequent breach or default. The section and paragraph headings in these Terms are for convenience only and will not affect their interpretation.Force Majeure - HomeStars will not be liable for any failure to perform our obligations hereunder, where such failure results from any cause beyond our reasonable control, including, without limitation, mechanical, electronic, or communications failure or degradation.
Severability - If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, then such provision will be modified to reflect the parties' intention. All remaining provisions of these Terms will remain in full force and effect. The failure of either party to exercise in any respect any right provided for herein will not be deemed a waiver of any further rights hereunder.
Relationship - You and HomeStars are independent contractors, and no agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer, or franchiser-franchisee relationship is intended or created by these Terms.
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These passages are part of just about every online terms agreement.
11. CONTACT US
If you have any questions regarding these Conditions of use, you can reach us at the following address:HomeStars Inc.
49 Spadina Ave 501, Toronto, Ontario
M5V 2J1
Tel: 1-877-488-0312
Contact Us