Terms of service

The service and the people involved

Hometown helps customers find local providers for home, garden, pet and non-clinical companionship services in Nailsea. We provide the platform, review provider applications and administer booking records. The named provider carries out the visit and receives the customer’s payment directly.

A visit request is not a confirmed booking until the provider accepts it. The provider and customer are responsible for agreeing the work, price, timing and practical arrangements. Hometown remains responsible for its own platform service and for any obligations the law places on it. These terms do not determine someone’s employment or tax status; that depends on the actual working arrangements and applicable law.

Accounts and eligibility

Customers and providers must be at least 18. Keep account and contact details accurate, protect your sign-in links and use only an account you are authorised to access. If you book on behalf of someone else, obtain their permission and make sure the provider has the information and authority needed to attend.

Do not use the platform for unlawful, misleading, abusive or discriminatory conduct. Do not publish another person’s private information or use booking contact details for unrelated marketing.

Provider profiles and review

Providers must describe their experience, services, prices and availability honestly and keep them up to date. Only offer work you can safely and competently perform. You are responsible for any insurance, licences, training, permissions and equipment required for the work you undertake.

Approval means Hometown has completed its application review. A specific qualification, insurance policy or background check applies only where it is expressly stated and can be evidenced. Approval is not a guarantee of a person’s conduct or of every task they may be asked to perform. Profile changes may require another review before the profile is published again.

Requesting and carrying out a visit

Select a provider, service and available visit times. Check the total, property address and instructions before submitting. Each visit has its own booking status. The provider may accept or decline a request; a change to the time or provider requires confirmation again.

Agree access, tasks, equipment, pets, relevant hazards and any practical limitations before the visit. Customers must provide a reasonably safe working environment. Providers must take reasonable care, respect the property, keep information confidential and promptly report a delay, incident or inability to complete the agreed work.

A displayed price covers the booked visit. Extra time, materials or additional work must be agreed with the customer before costs are incurred. Do not mark a visit completed before it has ended. Record problems and changes accurately.

Service limits

Companionship means friendly social visits and practical non-clinical help. It does not include personal care, administering medication, clinical assessment, medical treatment or emergency supervision. Home checks are agreed visits and do not provide continuous monitoring or an emergency security response.

Providers must decline tasks that are unsafe, outside their competence or require a licence or qualification they do not hold. Contact emergency services on 999 in an emergency; the platform is not an emergency service.

Customer payments

The customer pays the provider directly using the method they agree. The booked price is shown before a request is sent. Hometown does not collect the customer’s visit payment or hold it in escrow. Payment entries in the dashboard are records of payments reported or entered; they do not themselves transfer money.

Raise a missing payment, incorrect charge or refund request promptly with the other party and contact Hometown if you need help recording or resolving the issue. A provider must honour any refund or remedy required by law. No additional charge can be imposed simply by changing the dashboard record.

Provider commission

The current Hometown commission is 30% of the recorded price of each completed visit. Providers accept the commission shown when submitting their profile. The agreed percentage and amount are recorded on the booking; a later rate change does not retrospectively change existing bookings.

No commission is earned on a visit recorded as cancelled or declined. Completing a visit creates the provider’s commission liability, even if the customer has not yet paid. Providers pay Hometown separately using payment instructions supplied through the business contact channel. The finance dashboard records amounts due, payments and remaining balances.

Tell us promptly about a refunded, disputed or incorrectly recorded visit so the appropriate correction can be assessed. We do not collect commission automatically from customer payments.

Cancellations, changes and consumer rights

Cancel a future visit through your dashboard and notify the other party promptly. If the dashboard cannot make the change, email hello@hometown-nailsea.co.uk with the booking reference and a clear statement of what you want to cancel. A provider who cannot attend should cancel promptly so the customer can make other arrangements.

Hometown does not impose a customer cancellation fee. Any separate provider cancellation charge must be clearly agreed before the booking, lawful and fair; it cannot override statutory rights. A provider who cancels must return payments for work not supplied, subject to any lawful alternative agreed with the customer.

Where a customer contracts at a distance with a provider acting as a trader, the customer normally has a 14-day cancellation period from formation of the service contract. To cancel, send a clear statement to the provider or to hello@hometown-nailsea.co.uk, identifying the visit and your contact details. You can use: “I cancel the service booked on [date], booking reference [reference], for [name and address].”

Work during a statutory cancellation period requires the customer’s express request. If the customer then cancels, a proportionate charge for work already supplied is payable only where the legal requirements have been met. The right to cancel is lost after full performance only where the necessary prior request and acknowledgement have been given. Simply selecting a visit date does not waive statutory rights.

Services supplied by a trader must be provided with reasonable care and skill. Statutory remedies, including repeat performance or a price reduction where applicable, are unaffected by these terms.

Problems, safety concerns and complaints

If a visit does not go to plan, contact the provider promptly with the booking reference and a clear description. Contact Hometown at hello@hometown-nailsea.co.uk for account issues, safety concerns, disputed records or help with a complaint. We will review the available information and explain the next steps.

Keep relevant messages and payment evidence. Hometown may correct booking or financial records, restrict a profile, pause access or remove a public listing where reasonably necessary to address misuse, safety concerns, inaccurate information or unpaid fees. Where appropriate, we will explain the reason and allow the person to respond. Urgent safety issues may require action first.

Availability, responsibility and liability

We aim to keep the platform available but access may be interrupted for maintenance or faults. Tell us if a technical problem affects a visit; an unavailable website does not itself cancel an accepted booking.

Each party is responsible for its own acts and omissions. Nothing in these terms excludes liability for fraud, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any responsibility or consumer right that cannot lawfully be excluded. Hometown does not exclude responsibility for its own failure to meet obligations owed to you.

Privacy, changes and applicable law

Our privacy policy explains how account, profile, booking and payment information is used. Keep other people’s information confidential and share only what is needed for the agreed service.

We may update these terms for future use of the platform. The terms and agreed financial conditions applicable to an existing booking are not changed retrospectively without a lawful basis and any necessary agreement. The revision date appears above.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. This does not remove mandatory consumer protections or any right a consumer has to bring a claim in the courts available to them under applicable law.