Terms and Conditions

1. About these terms

These terms govern your use of openaddress.co.uk (the "Platform"), operated by OpenAddress Ltd, a company registered in Northern Ireland (company number NI741612), registered office Ground Floor, Gallery Building, 65-69 Dublin Road, Belfast, BT2 7HG ("OpenAddress", "we", "us", "our").

By using the Platform you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Platform.

You must be aged 18 or over to use the Platform. By using it you confirm that you are.

2. What OpenAddress is - and what it is not

OpenAddress is a peer-to-peer advertising and introduction service. It allows a prospective buyer to pay a flat fee to have a physical letter delivered to a residential property, expressing the buyer's interest in purchasing that property, and - if the homeowner chooses - allows the parties to communicate through the Platform.

OpenAddress is not an estate agent, and does not provide estate agency services. In particular, and for the avoidance of doubt:

• We do not value or appraise property.
• We do not market or advertise property for sale on behalf of any seller.
• We do not act for, or represent, any seller or any buyer.
• We do not negotiate, conduct, or facilitate the negotiation of any sale.
• We do not introduce a seller to a buyer for the purpose of the seller disposing of an interest in land in the course of an estate-agency business.
• We do not hold client money, deposits, or any funds relating to a property transaction.
• We do not give legal, financial, valuation, survey, or conveyancing advice.

Our fee is charged solely for delivering a buyer's message. It is a fixed fee for an advertising/messaging service and is not contingent on, or calculated by reference to, any sale, any agreed price, or any outcome whatsoever. We earn the same fee whether or not a homeowner ever responds and whether or not any property is ever sold.

Buyers and sellers deal directly with each other. Any discussion, negotiation, agreement or transaction that may follow from an introduction is entirely a matter between the buyer and the homeowner. Each party should instruct their own solicitor and take their own independent professional advice before entering into any agreement relating to property. OpenAddress is not a party to, and accepts no responsibility for, any such dealings.

3. Coverage

The Platform currently operates only in Northern Ireland, England and Wales. Properties in Scotland cannot be registered or contacted through the Platform.

4. Accounts and sign-in

We use a passwordless sign-in system: you verify your identity using a one-time code sent to your email address. You are responsible for keeping access to your email account secure. You are assigned a randomly generated display name so that you are not identified to other users by your real name.

5. Fees, credits and payments

Our fees are:

• Single offer letter - £19.99. This buys the delivery of one physical letter to one property.
• Five-offer pack - £49.99. This provides one letter sent immediately plus four further letter credits banked to your account.
• Chat unlock - £29.99. Paid by the buyer only, this unlocks the private chat channel with a homeowner who has responded. The homeowner is never charged.

Payments are processed by Stripe. By paying, you authorise us (through Stripe) to charge the applicable fee. Prices include VAT where applicable and may be changed in future; the price shown at the time of your purchase is the price that applies to that purchase.

A "credit" entitles you to send one offer letter. Credits have no cash value and are not exchangeable for cash.

6. Refunds

Because our service is the delivery of a message, fees are generally non-refundable once a letter has been dispatched.

However, if we are unable to dispatch your letter - for example, because the recipient address has opted out of receiving letters, or because dispatch fails for a technical reason - we will automatically refund the credit for that letter to your account. This is handled by the Platform without you needing to ask.

We do not refund a fee on the basis that a homeowner did not respond, or did not respond as you hoped. A response is never guaranteed (see section 9).

Nothing in this section affects any refund or cancellation rights you may have under applicable consumer law.

7. Sending offer letters and writing messages

When you send an offer, you may include a short personal message to the homeowner. You agree that:

• your message will be scanned automatically before sending, and certain personal contact details may be removed, or you may be asked to rewrite a message that breaches these terms (see section 10 and our Privacy Policy);
• your message must be your own genuine, personal expression of interest in the property - it must not contain advertising, solicitation, abusive or unlawful content, or attempts to conduct business outside the Platform before a chat is unlocked;
• if a chat is later unlocked, your original message will be shown to the homeowner in full (see section 8).

You are solely responsible for the content of the messages you send.

8. The chat feature

If a homeowner chooses to respond, a private chat channel is created. The channel is locked until the buyer pays the chat-unlock fee. Once unlocked:

• the buyer's original message (including any contact details the buyer chose to include in it) becomes visible to the homeowner;
• both parties can exchange messages directly through the Platform.

You use the chat feature on the understanding that you are communicating with another member of the public, not with OpenAddress, and that OpenAddress takes no part in, and accepts no responsibility for, the substance of those communications or any arrangement reached.

9. No guarantee of response or outcome

OpenAddress provides a delivery and introduction service only. We do not guarantee that:

• any homeowner will read, respond to, or engage with a letter;
• any conversation will lead to an agreement; or
• any property is, or will become, available for sale.

A homeowner is under no obligation to respond, and may decline or opt out at any time.

10. Acceptable use and moderation

You must not use the Platform to harass, threaten, defraud, abuse or deceive any other person, to send unlawful or offensive content, or to circumvent the protections built into the Platform.

To keep the Platform safe:

• messages may be scanned automatically for prohibited content and personal contact details;
• if a message is reported, we may use automated assessment to help decide what action to take, and a conversation may be suspended automatically pending review;
• we may suspend or terminate accounts, remove content, and suspend or end conversations where we reasonably believe these terms have been breached.

You may ask us to review any automated decision that significantly affects you, by contacting hello@openaddress.co.uk.

11. Homeowners: opting out

A homeowner who receives a letter can opt out at any time, without providing any personal details, using the opt-out link associated with the letter. Opting out is immediate and permanent: the address is suppressed so that no further letters can be sent to it through the Platform. We retain opt-out records indefinitely for this purpose (see our Privacy Policy).

12. Cooldown periods

To protect homeowners from being contacted repeatedly:

• a buyer who is declined cannot send a further offer to the same property for 30 days; and
• any individual unclaimed property can receive at most one letter through the Platform per 30-day period.

13. Our liability

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Subject to that, and to the fullest extent permitted by law:

• we provide the Platform "as is" and do not guarantee it will be uninterrupted or error-free;
• we are not liable for the conduct of any buyer or homeowner, or for anything that arises from dealings between them;
• we are not liable for any business losses, loss of profit, loss of opportunity, or any indirect or consequential loss; and
• our total liability to you arising out of or in connection with the Platform will not exceed the total fees you have paid to us in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

OpenAddress is not a party to any property transaction and accepts no responsibility for the outcome of any introduction. You should take your own independent legal and financial advice before entering into any property agreement.

14. Intellectual property

The Platform, its content and its branding are owned by or licensed to OpenAddress Ltd. You may not copy, reproduce or exploit them except as necessary to use the Platform as intended.

15. Privacy

Our use of your personal data is described in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The "last updated" date shows when they were last changed. Continued use of the Platform after a change means you accept the updated terms.

17. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of Northern Ireland, and you agree that the courts of Northern Ireland have jurisdiction over any dispute, except that if you are a consumer resident elsewhere in the UK you may also be entitled to bring proceedings in your own jurisdiction.

18. Contact

OpenAddress Ltd, Ground Floor, Gallery Building, 65-69 Dublin Road, Belfast, BT2 7HG.
Email: hello@openaddress.co.uk. Company number: NI741612. ICO registration: ZC179457.