Customer terms of service

1. Who you are dealing with

Your agreement to use the platform is with Hometowner Limited. We provide the website, accounts, booking administration and messaging, and review Helper applications. Customers do not pay Hometown a fee to use the platform. We remain responsible for our own platform service and legal obligations.

Your service agreement for each accepted visit is directly with the named Helper, who supplies the service and receives your payment. Hometown is not a party to that service agreement. Your booking identifies the Helper, service, date, duration, location and price. Bookings with different Helpers create separate service agreements.

Helpers are intended to operate as independent, self-employed businesses, rather than as our employees, workers, agents or partners. They choose their availability, which requests to accept and how to carry out the agreed work safely. Hometown does not provide on-site supervision or direct their day-to-day working methods. Legal employment or worker status, and any responsibilities arising from it, depend on the actual arrangements and the law; these terms do not decide or exclude them.

2. Your account and booking for someone else

You must be at least 18 to create a customer account and make a booking. Give accurate contact and property details, protect your sign-in links and password, and tell us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access.

If you arrange a visit for someone else, have their permission and authority to make the arrangement. Make sure they understand the visit and that you can provide the access and relevant information needed. Do not share sensitive information about another person without an appropriate basis.

3. Choosing services and confirming a visit

Choose a service, visit length in half-hour steps, Helper and available date and time. Sign in or create an account, check the details and price, and submit your booking request. Available times are shown in UK local time, including seasonal clock changes.

Submitting reserves the selected times as requests. It is not confirmation that the Helper will attend. Each visit becomes confirmed, and the direct service agreement is formed, when the Helper accepts it. Check the status in your account and the booking emails. A declined or cancelled request will not go ahead.

Use account Messages to agree practical details. A requested change to the work, duration, time or price needs agreement from both parties before it takes effect. We may help correct an error, but a dashboard change alone does not authorise extra charges.

4. Weekly and fortnightly visits

You may request a visit once, every week or every fortnight. Repeating schedules initially reserve four visits; further visits are added ahead subject to availability and require the Helper’s acceptance. A repeating schedule does not guarantee every future date.

Each visit has its own details, price and status. Use the stop-repeating option in your booking account, or contact us for help. Stopping a repeating schedule cancels its future requested or confirmed visits that have not started, as well as preventing further requests. Check the resulting visit statuses and contact us if a visit has already begun or anything is unclear. There is no minimum number of future visits you must buy.

5. Prices and paying for your visit

The total price for your selected service and duration is shown before you submit and recorded on the booking. Hometown currently publishes shared service rates; the Helper sees the visit price before deciding whether to accept. A 30-minute visit costs £17. Garden help, plant watering and company visits have a one-hour minimum. Longer visits use the published rate in half-hour steps. “From” prices are starting prices; check the total for your chosen duration.

You pay the Helper directly after the visit, using a method you agree with them. We do not take a deposit or online visit payment, hold customer funds or operate an escrow service. Dashboard payment entries record reported payments; they do not transfer money.

The agreed price for an existing booking is retained. Extra time, materials or changed work must be agreed, including the additional price, before the cost is incurred. No compulsory additional charge may be introduced after booking without your agreement. Ask the Helper for a receipt or invoice and keep payment evidence.

6. Getting ready and service limits

Describe the tasks accurately and agree access, equipment, pets and relevant hazards before the visit. Provide a reasonably safe working environment and suitable tools, equipment and materials. Tell the Helper about anything that could affect safe access or the work.

Companionship is social company and practical nonclinical help. It excludes personal care, administering medication, medical assessment or treatment, and emergency supervision. Home checks are agreed visits, not continuous monitoring or an emergency security response.

Gardening is light tidying, watering and mowing with suitable customer equipment; it excludes digging, hedge trimming, tree cutting and heavy work. Handyman tasks are limited to furniture assembly, shelves and small repairs, and exclude gas, electrical, plumbing, structural and complex work. Read the description for the service you choose.

Unsafe work and tasks outside the Helper’s competence, insurance or necessary authorisation are not offered through the platform. If a task cannot safely go ahead, discuss alternatives with the Helper or contact us for booking support. The platform is not an emergency service; call 999 in an emergency.

7. Profiles, checks and trust information

We review Helper applications before publishing profiles. Approval for a listing is not a guarantee of every qualification, task or future action. A claim about a check or insurance relates only to the evidence, date, services and cover expressly described for that Helper; a Helper’s own declaration is not independent verification.

Ask us for the scope and date of a particular check and, where insurance is described, the services covered and policy expiry date before relying on it. Insurance has limits and exclusions and can lapse or change. A previous review does not confirm renewed cover; renewal evidence needs to be checked. Tell us if information appears inaccurate or out of date.

A DBS review is not a guarantee of safety or future conduct. These explanations do not excuse inaccurate or misleading claims: Hometown remains responsible for its own checking, statements, acts and omissions and any other responsibility imposed on it by law.

8. Cancelling or changing your plans

Cancel a future visit in your account and notify the Helper promptly. If you cannot use the account, send a clear cancellation message to the Helper or email hello@hometown-nailsea.co.uk with your name, booking reference and the visit or repeating arrangement you want to cancel. You do not have to use a particular form.

The Helper’s booking offer includes free cancellation of future visits, including at short notice. You do not pay a cancellation fee, late-cancellation fee or no-show penalty for a platform booking. Hometown does not charge you a cancellation fee either. Cancelling future visits does not change the agreed price of separate visits already completed, subject to your consumer rights.

If the Helper cannot attend, they should tell you and cancel promptly. An alternative Helper or time requires your agreement. Payment for work not supplied is refundable unless you freely agree a lawful alternative. Contact us if the booking or payment record needs correcting.

9. Your 14-day cancellation rights

When your Helper supplies services as part of a trade, business, craft or profession, you normally have a statutory right to cancel an online service agreement without giving a reason during the 14 days after the day it is made. For a visit, the agreement is made when that Helper accepts it. Whether someone is a trader depends on the facts, not just their tax registration or a label. This statutory right may not apply to a genuinely private, non-business supplier; the free cancellation of future visits described in clause 8 still applies to platform bookings. If required information is missing and the law extends the period, that longer period applies.

Give a clear cancellation notice to the named Helper before the period ends. You may send it in account Messages or email hello@hometown-nailsea.co.uk for us to pass to that Helper. Hometown receives such a service cancellation for forwarding, not as the supplier or party to the service agreement. A notice sent through these channels is treated as notified when you send it, without waiting for us to forward it. No particular form is required.

Optional notice: “To [Helper’s name and contact address]: I/we give notice that I/we cancel my/our service agreement with you for [service and booking reference], accepted on [date]. Customer name: [name]. Customer address: [address]. Date: [date]. Signature: [only if sent on paper].” If using our forwarding email, identify the Helper in the subject or message. Ask us if you need the Helper’s contact details.

When you choose a visit date within the statutory cancellation period and submit that booking request, you expressly request that the Helper starts on that date. Your cancellation remains free: you are not asked to waive cancellation rights or pay a proportionate charge for a cancelled visit. Cancelling future repeats does not itself cancel separate visits already completed. Your statutory rights and remedies remain unchanged.

Where a refund is legally due from the Helper, it is payable without undue delay and within the applicable deadline, normally 14 days after notification, using the original payment method unless you agree otherwise and without a refund or cancellation fee.

10. If something goes wrong

Services supplied by a trader must match the agreed description and be carried out with reasonable care and skill. Your legal remedies may include repeat performance or a price reduction, including a refund where appropriate. These terms do not remove those rights.

Raise work, conduct, property damage and visit-payment complaints with the Helper who supplied the service. Give the booking reference and a clear explanation, and keep relevant messages, photographs and receipts. You may obtain independent advice or use any legal remedy available to you.

Hometown may pass a complaint to the Helper or support communication, but does not act as an adjudicator, provide a guaranteed dispute-resolution service or undertake to settle the Helper’s debts or pay their compensation. This does not remove any responsibility Hometown itself has under the law. Contact us directly about platform faults, our own statements or conduct, or safety concerns; we will address matters for which we are responsible. Our involvement does not prevent you pursuing the Helper or Hometown where you have a legal claim.

11. Messages, reviews and acceptable use

Use Messages to communicate about your bookings. Messages are available to the customer, the Helper’s authorised account users and authorised Hometown staff for administration, support and safety. Unread-message email alerts may be grouped or delayed; check your account for the latest conversation.

Be respectful. Do not use the platform for harassment, discrimination, fraud, unlawful content or unrelated marketing. Share only information needed for the service, and do not send passwords, full payment-card details or unnecessarily sensitive information.

Only the customer of a completed, non-demo booking may submit a review, and account and booking eligibility are checked. Reviews must reflect a genuine experience; fake reviews, paid or rewarded reviews and manipulation of ratings are prohibited. We do not offer payment or rewards for reviews. We may investigate reported or suspected abuse and remove fake, misleading or otherwise inappropriate reviews. Genuine positive and negative reviews are assessed by the same rules; criticism alone is not a reason for removal. Displayed ratings are calculated from the eligible reviews shown. A booking check verifies the link to a completed booking, not every statement in a review. You can edit or delete your review in your account, or report a concern or challenge removal by emailing hello@hometown-nailsea.co.uk with the Helper’s name, review date and supporting information.

12. Platform access and responsibility

The platform may be interrupted by maintenance or faults. A website interruption does not itself cancel an accepted visit. Contact us if a fault affects your booking.

We may restrict account access where reasonably necessary to address fraud, misuse, safety concerns or a serious breach of these terms. We will explain the reason and allow a response where appropriate; urgent risks may need action first. Tell us if you need access to existing booking details or records while an issue is reviewed.

The Helper is responsible for the service they supply, including the quality of their work, their conduct and loss of or damage to property caused by them. Claims about that service should be directed to the Helper. Hometown does not take responsibility for a Helper’s separate service simply by listing them, administering a booking or helping pass on a complaint. This does not exclude Hometown’s responsibility where its own breach, negligence, checking or statements caused or contributed to the loss, or where the law otherwise makes Hometown responsible.

If we break our platform agreement or fail to use reasonable care and skill, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of that failure. Loss is foreseeable if it is an obvious consequence or if, when the agreement was made, both you and we knew it might happen. We are not responsible for loss that was not reasonably foreseeable.

The customer platform is provided for personal and domestic use. We are not responsible for business losses such as lost business profits, revenue, opportunities or business interruption arising from business use, except where the law requires otherwise. Free access does not remove our legal duties, and our responsibility is not capped at zero or at the platform fee you paid.

Nothing in these terms excludes or restricts liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, death or personal injury caused by negligence, the duty to provide our own services with reasonable care and skill, or any statutory right, remedy or responsibility that cannot lawfully be excluded or restricted. This includes any responsibility the law places on us for another person’s acts.

13. Privacy, changes and applicable law

Our Privacy policy explains how we use personal information. You can ask to close your account, although records may be retained where needed to meet legal obligations or deal with unresolved bookings or disputes.

These terms were revised on 27 October 2026 and are version customer-2026-10-27. They apply to new bookings made under this version. Material future changes will be brought to your attention. We do not retrospectively change an existing booking’s terms, price or rights without a lawful basis and any necessary agreement. The revision date and version also appear at the top of this page.

The law of England and Wales applies. This does not remove mandatory consumer protections or any right to bring proceedings in the courts available to you under applicable law. Contact Hometowner Limited at hello@hometown-nailsea.co.uk or 01275 268021; our registered office is stated above.