Pilot Terms of Use (Temporary)

1. What RentMate Is (Pilot Version)

RentMate is a digital tool that helps tenants and property managers communicate about repairs, maintenance and property issues.

This version of RentMate is a free pilot / beta. It is for testing, feedback and research purposes only.

The service may be incomplete, may change without notice, and may contain bugs or errors.

2. No Guarantees (Pilot Only)

During this pilot:

We do not guarantee that the service will be available at all times.
We do not guarantee that messages will always be delivered, stored or displayed correctly.
We do not guarantee any particular outcome in your tenancy, repairs or disputes.
You should not rely on this pilot as your only way of contacting your property manager or tenant, especially in emergencies.

3. Who Can Use This Pilot

You must:

Be at least 18 years old.
Be based in the UK.
Be a tenant or property manager (or authorised agent) of a rental property.

You must provide accurate information and keep your login details safe.

4. Your Responsibilities

You agree that you will NOT:

Harass, abuse or threaten anyone on the platform.
Post false, misleading or fraudulent information.
Upload illegal, offensive or inappropriate content.
Try to hack, damage or disrupt the service.
Share other people's personal information without their consent.

If you do, we may suspend or close your account immediately and, if necessary, contact the relevant authorities.

5. Our Right to Change or End the Pilot

Because this is a pilot:

We may change, pause or end the service at any time, without notice.
We may add or remove features at any time.
We may close your account at any time if we reasonably believe there is a risk, misuse or legal issue.

6. Not Legal Advice or a Tribunal

RentMate does not provide legal advice. Information about tenant rights is general guidance only and may not apply to your specific situation.

RentMate is not a court, tribunal, ombudsman or council service and cannot make binding decisions or force property managers or tenants to act.

Always seek independent legal advice (for example from a solicitor, Shelter or Citizens Advice) for important decisions.

7. Our Liability to You (Pilot Phase)

This pilot is provided "as is" and "as available". As far as the law allows, we are not responsible for:

Any loss of data, messages or content.
Any loss of income, opportunity, business or reputation.
Any delay, failure or mistake made by a property manager, tenant, contractor, council or any third party.

Liability Limit: For pilot users who are not paying us anything, our total liability to you for anything related to this pilot is limited to £0, except where the law does not allow us to limit liability.

8. Governing Law

These pilot terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes will be dealt with by the courts of England and Wales.

9. Changes to These Pilot Terms

We may update these terms during the pilot. If we make important changes, we will highlight them on the website or in the app. If you keep using RentMate after changes are posted, that means you accept the updated terms.

Pilot Privacy & Data Notice (Temporary)

1. Who We Are

RentMate is a UK-based platform. For this pilot, we are the "data controller" of your personal data under UK GDPR.

2. What Data We Collect in the Pilot

We may collect:

Account details: Name, Email address, Password (stored securely, not in plain text), Optional phone number.
Property details: Address, property manager/tenant relationship.
Repair and communication data: Issue reports (text you enter), Photos you upload, Messages between tenants and property managers, Timestamps and status of issues.
Technical data: IP address, Device type and browser, Basic usage information (which pages/features you use).

Note: We do NOT store payment details in this pilot.

3. Why We Use Your Data in the Pilot

We use your data to:

Let you create and access your account.
Allow you to send and receive repair reports and messages.
Show you the status of your issues.
Keep a record of communication between tenants and property managers.
Run and improve this pilot service.
Find bugs, understand how people use RentMate and decide what to build next.

We may also create anonymised or aggregated data (for example, "how many issues were reported this week"). This anonymised data does not identify you.

4. Legal Basis (Pilot)

For this pilot, we generally rely on:

"Contract" – to provide the service you sign up for (account, messaging, issue tracking).
"Legitimate interests" – to run and improve the pilot, keep the platform secure, and prevent abuse and misuse.
"Consent" – where necessary, for optional things like non-essential cookies or marketing emails (if we use them).

6. How Long We Keep Data in the Pilot

Because this is a pilot, we aim to keep personal data only for as long as needed to run and evaluate the pilot.

If we decide to close the pilot and not continue, we will securely delete or anonymise your data after a reasonable period, unless we need to keep it longer for legal reasons (for example, in case of a serious dispute or investigation).

7. Your Rights (UK GDPR)

You have rights over your data, including:

Access – you can ask what data we hold about you.
Correction – you can ask us to fix inaccurate information.
Deletion – you can ask us to delete your data, where possible.
Restriction – you can ask us to limit how we use your data.
Objection – you can object to certain types of processing.
Portability – you can ask for your data in a portable format.

Because this is a small pilot, the easiest way to use these rights is to email us at hello@rentmate.uk.

We may need to confirm your identity before acting on your request.

8. Security

We will take reasonable steps to keep your data secure, including using HTTPS (encryption in transit), storing passwords securely, limiting who on our team can access data, and monitoring for suspicious activity.

No system is 100% secure, but we will act quickly if we become aware of a problem.

9. Pilot, Testing and Research