We are HouseLetter Ltd (“HouseLetter”, “We”, “Our”, “Us”), a company incorporated in England and Wales under registration number 10225490. Our registered office is at 96 Kemble Road, London SE23 2DJ.

This document (“Terms”) sets out the terms and conditions on which we provide our HouseLetter website (“Website”, “Site") and the services available through the Website (“Services”) to you as a user of the Website or the Services (“User”, “you”, “your”). By using the Website or our Services, you are confirming that you agree to these Terms, so please take the time to read and understand them.

If you use the Website or the Services to help you manage properties that you let out, references in these Terms to “Landlord” apply to you. If you use the Website or the Services to help you to rent a property as a tenant or lodger, references in these Terms to “Tenant” apply to you. Some provisions in these Terms are expressly stated to apply only to Landlords or Tenants. All other provisions in these Terms apply to all Users.

You should be aware that these Terms may change from time to time in accordance with paragraph 9.2.

IMPORTANT: You must ensure that the e-mail address and other contact details (such as postal address, postcode and telephone number) we hold for you are kept up-to-date. We may need to contact you for important messages. If you change your contact details you must inform us of the new details through your account settings.

  1. Interpretation

    1. In these Terms words importing the singular shall include the plural and vice versa and words importing the masculine gender shall include the feminine gender and vice versa.
    2. All and any business undertaken between you and us is subject to these Terms. In the event of any conflict between these Terms and any other terms and conditions, these Terms shall prevail unless expressly otherwise agreed between you and us in writing. No variation of these Terms shall be valid if made without our written consent.
    3. These Terms supersede all previous terms of business.
  2. Our Services

    1. The Website and our Services are provided to help individual Landlords and Tenants manage their tenancy agreements (“Tenancy Agreements”). Unless expressly stated, the Website and our Services are not provided to companies, agencies or other organisations (together, “Organisations”). Your registration confirms that you are not an Organisation and that you will not use the Website or our Services to seek or provide property-related services on behalf of any Organisation. We do, however, welcome enquiries from Organisations wishing to work with us and any such enquiries should be directed to us using our contact details as set out on the Website.
    2. Our Services include the following (for full details of each Service, please see the Website):
      1. Our Tenant Check service whereby Landlords may invite prospective Tenants to apply for credit and reference checks and then view the results of these checks.
      2. Our Rent Collection service whereby a Tenant may set up a Direct Debit via which rent may be automatically collected and paid to their Landlord.
        1. Direct Debits are processed by MANGOPAY S.A, a licensed e-money issuer. By using our Rent Collection service you agree to the Framework Contract for Payment Services using MANGOPAY Electronic Money. You also agree that we may provide certain information and documents that we collect from you to MangoPay in order to help them to fulfil their legal obligations and prevent money laundering.
      3. Our Tenancy Agreement service whereby Landlords may generate Tenancy Agreements which may be signed digitally by Landlords and Tenants.
    3. HouseLetter’s Services are only available to eligible Users letting or renting property in England and Wales.
  3. Provisions that specifically apply to Landlords

    If you are a Landlord, the following provisions in this section apply to you.

    1. You promise to us that you are at least eighteen years of age.
    2. We do not accept any ID documentation via post and shall not be held responsible in the event that you send these to us and they end up getting lost.
    3. You are responsible for verifying the identity of any Tenants with whom you enter into or propose to enter into a Tenancy Agreement.
    4. You and your Tenants are responsible for agreeing all matters relating to the terms of your Tenancy Agreement.
    5. We do not intervene with Landlord / Tenant disputes in relation to any aspects of a Tenancy Agreement.
    6. You acknowledge that your details may be provided to a Tenant when you invite them to enter into a Tenancy Agreement, but that Tenants are under no commitment to enter into any Tenancy Agreement simply by virtue of them having obtained your details from us.
    7. You shall at all times conduct yourself in a professional manner both in your dealings with us and your Tenants. Additionally, your agreeing to let a property via a Tenancy Agreement, shall be considered as your warranting to HouseLetter that said venue shall be clean, presentable, in compliance with applicable law including but not limited to health and safety legislation and shall be generally fit for purpose, and you agree to indemnify HouseLetter in this regard.
    8. You accept that HouseLetter shall have no responsibility or liability for your welfare at any time whilst you are engaged in a Tenancy Agreement, save as may not be excluded by law.
    9. In the event that you provide defamatory, untrue, inaccurate or malicious feedback about HouseLetter (including for example through a web based review site or on social media), we reserve the right to terminate our arrangement with you without notice and without liability. Where advance payment for Services has been made, we may make a pro-rata refund for the remainder of the Services not yet used or provided, but for clarity no refund shall be made for Services already provided.
    10. You shall have personal liability for and shall indemnify HouseLetter for any loss, liability, costs (including reasonable legal costs), damages or expenses arising from any breach by you of these Terms including any negligent or reckless act, omission or default in the provision of your services and accordingly you shall maintain in force during your engagement full and comprehensive insurance policies commensurate with your obligations under these Terms.
    11. By using this Website and these accompanying Terms generally, you warrant that you are offering services solely as an independent Landlord and not as a Company (as defined at the outset of these Terms). In the event that the manner in which you provide your services changes and you are no longer providing your services as an independent Landlord, you will notify us in writing as soon as that change occurs.
    12. You shall indemnify HouseLetter from and against any losses, liability, damages and expenses (including all legal fees) that HouseLetter incurs or are awarded against HouseLetter as a result of any claim against HouseLetter by a Tenant arising out of your breach of your Tenancy Agreement with the Tenant.
    13. You acknowledge that use of our Rent Collection Service does not constitute a guarantee that you will receive rental payments from your Tenants via our Service. For example, if a Tenant cancels their Direct Debit mandate, if a Direct Debit payment fails due to insufficient funds in the Tenant’s bank account or a banking error, or if a Tenant raises an indemnity claim for any Direct Debit payments made via our Rent Collection Service, HouseLetter will not held liable for any rental arrears owed to you.
    14. You acknowledge that if a Tenant raises an indemnity claim against any Direct Debit payments made to you via our Rent Collection Service, HouseLetter is entitled to reclaim this money back from you.
  4. Provisions that specifically apply to Tenants

    If you are a Tenant, the following provisions in this section apply to you.

    1. You promise to us that you are at least eighteen years of age.
    2. We do not accept any ID documentation via post and shall not be held responsible in the event that you send these to us and they end up getting lost.
    3. You are responsible for verifying the identity of any Landlords with whom you enter into or propose to enter into a Tenancy Agreement.
    4. You and your Landlord are responsible for agreeing all matters relating to the terms of your Tenancy Agreement.
    5. We do not intervene with Landlord / Tenant disputes in relation to any aspects of a Tenancy Agreement.
    6. We shall not be responsible for any failure of the Landlord to provide you with information relating to the Tenancy Agreement. You should always check carefully all relevant information and documents in relation to your Landlord and his or her Property before you choose to enter into a Tenancy Agreement with that Landlord.
    7. Before we provide our Services to you, you may be required to submit and confirm information in relation to yourself and the terms on which you would be prepared to enter into a Tenancy Agreement with a Landlord. You agree to supply such information and consent to it being shared with potential Landlords.
    8. You accept that HouseLetter shall have no responsibility or liability for your welfare at any time whilst you are engaging in a Tenancy Agreement, save as may not be excluded by law.
    9. Whilst we expect all Landlords to provide properties that are suitable for the provision of a Tenancy Agreement, we cannot be held liable if a property does not meet with your expectations.
    10. You shall indemnify HouseLetter from and against any losses, liability, damages and expenses (including all legal fees) that HouseLetter incurs or are awarded against HouseLetter as a result of any claim against HouseLetter by a Landlord arising out of your breach of your Tenancy Agreement with the Landlord.
  5. User Content

    1. When you communicate with other Users via the Website or otherwise use the functions of the Website, you may submit to us various material, such as the text of any comments and messages submitted by you via the Website and, for Landlords, the information about your properties (“User Content”).
    2. By submitting User Content, you:
      1. grant us, for the purpose of us providing the Website and our Services, a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual licence (with rights to sublicense on identical terms and in multiple tiers) to use, adapt, perform, display, reproduce, communicate to the public and distribute the User Content through any media now or in future known, which includes the right to display the User Content on and in connection with the Website;
      2. grant to us and our assignees and licensees all consents which are or may be required (including under Part II of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and any statutory modifications or re-enactment thereof) for the use of the User Content, throughout the universe, in perpetuity, by any and all means and in any and all media now or hereafter known or devised;
      3. waive in perpetuity in respect of the User Content the benefits of any provision of law known as moral rights or any similar law in any country (moral rights are certain rights that the owner of a copyright work has in relation to how that work is used);
      4. promise to us that you own the User Content and have the right to grant the licence set out at paragraph 5.2.1 and that the User Content does not infringe the rights of any third party; and
      5. promise that any User Content submitted by you does not cause you to breach these Terms including any of your promises as set out in these Terms, in particular the promise made by you at paragraph 6.1.
    3. You promise to us that you accept responsibility, and will compensate us, for any loss or damage caused by any failure by you to fulfil your promises as set out at paragraph 6.2.
    4. When we receive User Content from you, we may check whether it complies with these Terms. We may reject your User Content for any of the following reasons:
      1. if it causes you to breach these Terms including any of your promises as set out in these Terms;
      2. for any other reason in our reasonable discretion.
  6. Your use of the Website and our Services

    You promise that:

    1. your e-mail address and other contact information provided to us are accurate and that you will update us with any changes to your contact information
    2. you are fully entitled to use any bank account, credit, debit or charge card the details of which you submit to us and that such account or card has available funds sufficient to cover the charges which are to be deducted from it; and
    3. in using the Website and our Services (including submitting User Content), you will not:
      1. do anything that may lead to the encouragement, procurement or carrying out of any criminal activity
      2. do anything that may cause you or us to breach any applicable laws;
      3. e-mail, transmit or otherwise disseminate any material which is defamatory, obscene, vulgar or indecent or may have the effect of being harassing, threatening, abusive or hateful or that otherwise discriminates against, degrades or intimidates an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age or disability, or which breaches the rights of others (including copyright and other intellectual property rights);
      4. distribute unsolicited communications including 'spam' e-mail;
      5. transfer files that contain viruses, trojans or other harmful programs or use the Website in any way that may damage or disrupt another's computer;
      6. access or attempt to access the accounts of other Users, penetrate or attempt to penetrate the Website security measures or use the Website or our Services as a means to collect or store personal data about others;
      7. use the Website and / or our Services other than in good faith for your own purposes as an individual Landlord or Tenant. For the avoidance of doubt, use of the Website and / or the Services by organisations such as lettings agencies is not permitted.
    4. We reserve the right at any time to suspend, restrict or terminate your account or your access to the Website and / or our Services and / or to remove any User Content submitted by you or others without notice at our discretion if we have reasonable grounds to believe you or a relevant third party has broken the promise made by you at section 6.1 or otherwise at our discretion where we have reasonable grounds for doing so.
  7. Rights in the Website and its contents

    1. Your use of the Website and its contents grants no rights to you in relation to:
      1. intellectual property rights (including copyrights, trademarks, design rights or patents in relation to logos, graphics, photographs, images, sound recordings, compositions, animations, videos and text) (IP Rights) in the Website and its contents and in relation to our Services, whether owned by us or by third parties; or
      2. IP Rights in any User Content submitted to the Website by other Users.
    2. You may not copy, reproduce, republish, download, post, broadcast, record, transmit, commercially exploit, edit, communicate to the public or distribute in any way the services, web pages or materials on the Website or the computer codes of elements comprising the Website other than for your own personal use.
    3. Any use other than that permitted under this section may only be undertaken with our prior express authorisation and / or the prior express authorisation of the holder of the relevant IP Rights. If you copy, reproduce, republish, download, upload, post, broadcast, record, transmit, commercially exploit, edit, communicate to the public or distribute in any way any content belonging to others without their permission, you will breach these Terms and may be infringing the rights of others, which may be a breach of applicable laws.
  8. The Limit Of Our Legal Obligations

    1. As a consumer, you have certain statutory rights in relation to the services provided by us, including the right to receive a reasonable standard of service. Nothing in paragraph 8 shall restrict those statutory rights. For further information about your statutory rights please contact your local Trading Standards Department or Citizens' Advice Bureau.
    2. If we breach these Terms we shall only be liable for losses which are a reasonably foreseeable consequence of such a breach. Losses are foreseeable where they could be contemplated by you and us at the time of entering into an agreement on these Terms.
    3. You agree and acknowledge that we shall not be responsible or liable for:
      1. indirect losses which are a side effect of the main loss or damage and which are not reasonably foreseeable by you and us at the time of entering into the agreement on these Terms, including loss of profits and loss of opportunity; or
      2. failure to provide the Website or our Services or to meet any of our obligations under these Terms where such failure is due to any cause or event beyond our reasonable control.
    4. We do not accept any liability for damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from your use of the Website and we cannot guarantee that the Website or any files that you download are free from viruses, contamination or destructive features.
    5. We are responsible for the provision of the Website and our Services but each Tenancy Agreement is an agreement between the relevant Landlord and the relevant Tenant and we are not a party to that agreement and we are not responsible for the actions of Users or other third parties. For these reasons, you agree and acknowledge that:
      1. we have no responsibility or liability in relation to any aspect of any Tenancy Agreement;
      2. without prejudice to our obligation to carry out checks on Tenants and Landlords, we do not make any promise or representation to you as to the suitability of any Tenant or Landlord;
      3. even though all Users are prohibited from doing so, some Users may provide information or otherwise behave, via the Website, in a way that is unreliable, misleading or even illegal and some Users may not necessarily be who they say they are. Accordingly, to the extent that the law permits, you agree and acknowledge that your use of the Website and our Services is entirely at your own risk and you release us, our directors, contractors and employees from all liability (including in relation to disputes with other Users) where such liability relates to or arises out of the behaviour of (or the User Content or other material provided by) other Users and other third parties.
    6. Whilst we use all reasonable endeavours to correct any errors or omissions as soon as practicable once they have been brought to our attention, we do not promise that the information and other material on the Website itself will be free from errors or omissions.
    7. Although we reserve the right to monitor the use of the Website and the User Content if we choose, we may not always do so and we do not control, and are not responsible for, the User Content submitted by you or other Users of the Website and, as such, we do not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such User Content. Furthermore, we recommend that you run anti-virus programs on any information, content and / or User Content obtained via the Website. We will, however, seek to react quickly to any complaints regarding the Website, any User Content or other content on the Website or the conduct of other Users and we treat such complaints very seriously. If you wish to make a complaint please contact us.
    8. All content and services on the Website are provided on an 'as is' and 'as available' basis. We do not make any promise or representation in respect of the Website or its content, including any assessment of User Content, any advice given (on a personal or general basis) and any statements made by Users, advertisers or other third parties on or via the Website. Any decisions or actions taken by you on the basis of information provided on or via the Website are at your sole discretion and risk and you should obtain individual professional advice where necessary.
    9. You promise to compensate us for all (if any) claims, liabilities, costs and expenses (actual or consequential) that we may suffer, which arise out of or in connection with your use of the Website and / or the Services, in particular in relation to:
      1. your breach of any provision of these Terms;
      2. your involvement in any Tenancy Agreement (including your breach of any Tenancy Agreement); and
      3. your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.
    10. We may provide links from the Website to other websites from time to time (via advertising or otherwise). These links are provided for your ease of reference and convenience only. We do not control such third party websites and are not responsible for their contents. Our inclusion of links to such third party websites does not imply any endorsement of the material contained in such third party websites nor any association with their operators. You acknowledge that we will not be party to any transaction or contract with a third party that you may enter into. You agree that we shall not be liable to you in respect of, and that you will not invoice us in any dispute between you and a third party in relation to, any loss or damage which you may suffer by using third party websites.
  9. Miscellaneous

    1. You acknowledge that we may withdraw your access to the Website or any of our Services for any period and if necessary permanently, at our sole discretion without liability to you, provided that we shall still fulfil any obligations to provide you with any Services that you have paid for (or alternatively we shall refund you for such payments).
    2. We are constantly looking for new ways to improve the Website and our Services. We therefore reserve the right to amend these Terms at any time by giving you notice. We may also change these Terms for legal, regulatory or security reasons by giving you notice. Notice will be given by means of a notice on the Website and a link to the current version of these Terms will at all times be available on the Website. For particularly important changes to these Terms, we may in addition e-mail you to bring such changes to your attention. If we change these Terms and that change is to your detriment, you may terminate any agreement with us for us to provide Services to you by giving us notice, in which case we shall refund any sums paid by you in relation to those Services to be performed after the date of change of these Terms.
    3. We reserve the right to withdraw or modify aspects of the Website or our Services, or the entirety of them, where we have legal or commercial reasons to do so. There may also be times when the Website or the Services become inaccessible as a result of technical difficulties. We will, however, use reasonable skill and care to overcome these difficulties where they are within our reasonable control.
    4. Where we reserve a right in these Terms, it does not mean we will be obliged to exercise it.
    5. You acknowledge that we are entitled to alter the amount or the basis of the calculation of our fees from time to time, provided that such amount or basis is clearly stated at the time when you are making the relevant purchase, prior to any fees being taken.
    6. Together, these Terms and our privacy policy contain the whole of the agreement between us and you concerning the Website and our Services and replace all earlier agreements and understandings with you, provided that nothing in these Terms will limit liability for fraud. A person who is not a party to an agreement based on these Terms has no right to rely upon or enforce any provision of that agreement.
    7. In the event that any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remainder of these Terms shall remain valid and enforceable.
    8. These Terms and any claim or dispute (whether contractual or non-contractual) in relation to these Terms shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with relevant United Kingdom law. If you wish to take court proceedings against us you must do so within the United Kingdom.