Customer Terms — Homeowners

C-1. These terms

C-1.1 These Customer Terms apply when you, as an individual, ask for, choose, or pay for Trade Work through the Platform for your home or for personal, family or household purposes. They add to the Master Platform Terms, the US Schedule, and any state addendum for the job site (for Florida job sites, the Florida Addendum). Capitalized words are defined in the Master Platform Terms.

C-1.2 Organizations use different terms. If you act for a condominium, cooperative or homeowners' association, a property-management company, or another business, the Customer Terms for Associations and Businesses apply instead of these terms. If you own a unit in a condominium and hire a Contractor for your own unit, these terms apply to you. If you are an individual who owns rental property and buys in your own name, these Customer Terms for Homeowners apply to you. If you buy through a company, including a single-member LLC, the Customer Terms for Associations and Businesses apply. We never move an individual to the Customer Terms for Associations and Businesses on self-declaration alone.

C-1.3 Your rights under the law come first. Nothing in these terms takes away a right that consumer law gives you and that cannot be given up by contract, including the right to dispute a card charge with your bank, any legal limit on deposits, and any right to cancel a sale made at your home.

C-1.4 How you accept. You accept these terms and the Master Platform Terms by tapping Agree and continue on a screen that names the Terms, the arbitration agreement and the class action waiver, in your Preferred Language, when you accept a Quote or pay, and before a Contractor receives your address. You can open that screen from a secure link without an Account (Master Platform Terms, section M-4.1, M-4.7). First contact by text needs only your yes on the link page (C-2.2), not these terms. We record what you accepted (Master Platform Terms, section M-4.8).

C-1.5 If HammerConnect's business changes hands. HammerConnect may transfer these terms, and its rights and obligations under them, to a successor to all or part of its business or assets, as set out in Master Platform Terms, section M-22.2. Your rights under these terms and the Privacy Policy, as they read when you accepted them, continue after a transfer. A new owner may change how it uses your personal information only as the Privacy Policy (PP-5.4 and PP-16A) allows.

C-2. Requests and Introductions

C-2.1 Making a Request. You, or someone who referred you, or software you have authorized (a Customer Agent), may describe the work you need and its general area. Describe the work honestly and completely, including access rules for your building. You may make a Request directly (a Direct Request); you do not need a referral.

C-2.2 Referred Requests. If a Contractor referred you, our team reviews the Request, using automated checks and people, before any other Contractor is contacted. A person handles anything flagged and every decline. The Referrer shares a link with you from their own phone. HammerConnect does not send you a first text. The link opens a page with one button that says "Yes" with the Contractor's name and "can text me". Only after you tap it do HammerConnect and that Contractor text you, through HammerConnect (C-4.2). You do not need an account or a code for that tap, and you can reply STOP at any time.

C-2.3 Who sees your Request. Contractors who are eligible for the trade and area may see a summary of your Request with your general area only. If the Referrer nominated a Contractor, that Contractor is asked first. After that, the HammerConnect team may reach out to other Contractors and invite them to respond; our team chooses whom to invite, using the trade and area, license and insurance status, availability, responsiveness and past performance on the Platform. We do not sell placement. Later we may add filters, search, rating-based sorting and AI recommendations, and we will tell you first (Master Platform Terms, section M-6.6(b)). A Direct Request goes through the same rules: eligible Contractors may see a summary with your general area only, and you choose.

C-2.3A How many Contractors contact you. We start with one Contractor. If that Contractor does not respond in time, or we have little track record for them on the Platform, we may offer to add a second. We may add a third only if needed to keep your Job. We add a Contractor only if you say yes to that Contractor, in your conversation with us, and during the pilot a person on our team approves each one. If you say no or do not answer, no one else contacts you. No more than three Contractors ever contact you about one Request. Contractors are told the response standard in advance. If more than one Contractor contacts you, the Referrer's Referral Share (C-7) applies to whichever one you hire.

C-2.4 Choosing. You may compare Quotes and choose one, or none. You are never required to choose a Contractor.

C-2.5 "Nominated by". "Nominated by" means someone who knows the Contractor suggested them. It is not a HammerConnect endorsement, and every Contractor shown passed the same checks.

C-2.6 Insurance-claim work. Tell us if the work will be paid in whole or in part from a property insurance claim. During the pilot the Platform does not accept those Requests (Master Platform Terms, section M-6.7). HammerConnect does not adjust claims or advise on your policy.

C-2.7 Proposals. A Proposal is an offer from the Contractor, in the Contractor's name, with its license number, price and scope. A Quote is a Proposal. A Contractor may use software to help write it, and an assistant may help you compare Proposals. A tool may be wrong. The Contractor, not HammerConnect, is responsible for what the Proposal says. HammerConnect does not set or approve the price. Read the Proposal before you accept. If a Proposal was written with AI, the Contractor must mark it and we show the mark.

C-2.8 Using an agent. You may let a Customer Agent submit Requests and ask questions. A Customer Agent may accept a Proposal for you only if you set up that authority and, for your first use of a Customer Agent, for Proposals above the amount we show you in the app, and for work needing a legal notice, you confirm. You are bound by acceptances you authorized. See Master Platform Terms, section M-21.3.

C-2.9 Software and AI. We may use software, including AI services from vendors acting for us, to translate or summarize messages, write text and help us find problems. We tell you where you see the result of an automated tool. We ask your permission before sending the content of your messages or photos to an AI service. Tools can be wrong. See Master Platform Terms, section M-6.8 and the Privacy Policy.

C-3. The Contractor is responsible for the work

C-3.1 Your contract is with the Contractor. When you accept a Quote, you make a contract for the Trade Work with the Contractor, not with HammerConnect.

C-3.2 The Contractor is responsible for: the quality and safety of the work; meeting building codes; getting permits and inspections; holding the licenses the work requires; carrying insurance; following your building's rules; its workers and subcontractors; and its warranty to you.

C-3.3 Warranty. Each Contractor agrees with us to give you a written workmanship warranty of at least one year from completion for Jobs paid through the Platform. The warranty comes from the Contractor, not from HammerConnect. Product and equipment warranties come from the manufacturer.

C-3.4 Check before work starts. Our badges mean only what Master Platform Terms, section M-6.4 says. Each Contractor must give us a license number, a certificate of insurance, proof of general liability insurance, and proof of workers' compensation insurance or an exemption (Contractor Terms, section P-3.3). Before work starts, you may ask the Contractor for these documents and check the license on the state agency's website.

C-3.5 Required notices from the Contractor. For some residential work (in Florida, contracts over $2,500), the law requires the Contractor to give you written notices, such as a construction lien notice (for dwellings of up to four units), a statement about the state recovery fund, and a sentence about the Chapter 558 construction-defect procedure. These are the Contractor's duty, in the statutory words. The Platform adds them to the Quote you accept, in capital letters where the law requires, and you will be asked to confirm that you saw them. The Florida Addendum explains them.

C-4. Address and contact: through HammerConnect only

C-4.1 No direct contact details. Nobody gets your direct phone number or email address, and you never get a Contractor's. Your exact address is hidden from every Contractor until you book one.

C-4.2 How you stay in touch. All texts, calls and email between you and a Contractor go through HammerConnect, using a HammerConnect relay number and relay email address for your Job. Caller ID shows the relay number. The pairing stays open for the Job and its warranty period, then closes. When you book a Contractor, we release your address (street and unit) to that Contractor for that Job, because the work is done there. We do not release it before you book.

C-4.3 Changing your mind. You can cancel a booking as Section C-9 explains. A Contractor who has already seen your address may still know it; the Contractor Terms require them to use it only for your Job.

C-4.4 Email. HammerConnect does not share your email address with a Contractor. Email to and from a Contractor goes through a HammerConnect relay address.

C-4.4A Messages with contact details. If a message contains a phone number, an email address or a "text me at" request, we hold it and ask the sender to keep the conversation in HammerConnect. We do not change your message. Contractors may not ask for or give direct contact details (Contractor Terms, section P-12).

C-4.5 Booking a visit. Booking a site visit with a Contractor releases the address to that Contractor for that visit.

C-4.6 What Contractors may do with your details. A Contractor may use your address only to quote, schedule and do your Job. A Contractor may not sell or share it, add it to a marketing list, or use it to offer other work outside HammerConnect. When your Job ends or is cancelled, the Contractor must stop using it and delete any copy it does not need for its own legal records. HammerConnect logs each time your address is revealed.

C-5. Messaging

C-5.1 Messages in HammerConnect are stored with your Job. Operators may read them to resolve a problem you report or to investigate safety or fraud. We also keep call details (time and length), not call audio, for the Job record and the Dispute Window.

C-5.2 We do not record calls, including calls through your relay number. Keep texts, calls and email in HammerConnect (C-4.2), and agree changes to price or scope in Messages, so there is a record if a problem comes up.

C-5.3 Texts from HammerConnect (job updates, payment links, reminders) are sent only if you opted in. Texts from a Contractor reach you through HammerConnect, and only after your yes (C-2.2). The SMS Terms apply. Reply STOP to stop, HELP for help; the Spanish keywords in the SMS Terms also work.

C-5.4 Your language. HammerConnect sends you every message, receipt and notice in your Preferred Language (Master Platform Terms, section M-10.7). You choose it when you first open your secure link and can change it at any time. At launch the choices are English and Spanish; other languages are added later and shown to you when they are available.

C-6. Payments through the Platform

C-6.1 Pay through HammerConnect. You pay for Jobs through HammerConnect on a secure Stripe page. Do not pay a Contractor in cash, by check, or by another app for a Job introduced through HammerConnect; the problem-reporting process in C-8 applies only to payments made through the Platform.

C-6.2 What you pay. You pay the amount in the Quote you accepted (plus any change order you approve in the Platform, and any sales tax the Contractor states). You do not pay a fee to HammerConnect. Contractors set their prices and may include their business costs, including the marketplace service fee, in them. A Contractor may not add a surcharge or convenience fee because of how you pay (credit card, debit card, bank debit or any other method) through the Platform. This is HammerConnect's own rule; Florida law separately bans credit-card surcharges (s. 501.0117).

C-6.3 The marketplace service fee is paid by the Contractor. HammerConnect charges the Contractor a marketplace service fee (the "Platform Fee" in the Master Platform Terms) of 10% of the amount you pay for the Job (excluding taxes and tips), worked out when each payment is collected (the "Fee Base" in the Master Platform Terms). It is deducted from the Contractor's proceeds and is not added to your price. A refund to you does not depend on the fee: the fee is between HammerConnect and the Contractor, and Contractor Terms, section P-6.8 says when it is returned. Contractors set their own prices. The Contractor also pays the card-processing cost.

C-6.4 Who you are paying. You are paying the Contractor. The Contractor is the seller and the merchant of record. HammerConnect collects the payment through Stripe as the Contractor's limited agent and shows you the Contractor's name on the payment page and receipt. Your money goes into the Contractor's own Stripe balance; HammerConnect does not receive it and receives only its fee. Once Stripe processes your payment, you have paid the Contractor that amount, even if the Contractor has not yet received it, and you bear no risk if HammerConnect fails to pass the money on.

C-6.5 When you pay: at completion by default. Unless the Quote says otherwise under C-6.6 or C-6.7, you pay when the Contractor marks the Job complete. The payment request shows the amount and the date the 7-day Dispute Window ends. The Contractor is paid out only after the Job is complete and that window closes (C-6.9(c)). No payout is held longer than 90 days after you pay unless a dispute, a Stripe restriction or a documented fraud concern is open (Contractor Terms, section P-7.2(c)).

C-6.6 Optional deposit, limited. A Quote may ask for a deposit before work starts. During the pilot HammerConnect limits a deposit to the lower of 10% of the Quote price and any limit set by the law of the job site. This is HammerConnect's own limit. In Florida, if a Contractor takes more than 10% of the price as an initial payment for residential work, the law requires the Contractor to apply for any needed permit within 30 days and to start work within 90 days after permits issue, unless there is just cause or you agree in writing to longer periods (s. 489.126). The Quote shows the deposit amount, what it is for (for example, materials ordered for your Job), and when the Contractor will apply for permits and start work. You never have to accept a Quote with a deposit.

C-6.7 Milestones for large Jobs. For a Job above $15,000 (the single-payment limit in C-6.8), or any other Job where you and the Contractor agree, the Quote may split the price into milestones. Each milestone states the work it covers and its amount. You pay a milestone when the Contractor marks that milestone complete, and you can report a problem with that milestone within 7 days. A milestone is not paid before the work it covers is done, except an allowed deposit under C-6.6.

C-6.8 Payment limits during the pilot. During the invite-only pilot, no single payment through the Platform may be more than $15,000, and the Platform handles at most $90,000 in payments a week across all Jobs. If a Quote is above $15,000, the Contractor may split it into milestones of no more than $15,000 each, or the Job may not be paid through the Platform during the pilot. The limits are shown in the app before you accept a Quote.

C-6.9 What we ask you to read before you pay (informed consent, not a waiver). Before each payment, the payment screen tells you in plain words: (a) whom you are paying (the Contractor); (b) the amount, and whether it is a deposit, a milestone or the final payment; (c) that the Contractor's payout is held until the Job (or milestone) is complete and the 7-day Dispute Window ends; (d) how to report a problem; (e) that a Referrer may receive part of HammerConnect's marketplace service fee (C-7); and (f) that your rights under the law, including card-dispute and cancellation rights, are not affected. We ask you to tick a box confirming you read it. That confirmation records that you were informed. It does not give up any right. Ticking the box does not give up any right, including your right to dispute a card charge with your bank.

C-6.10 Payment methods. Card, Apple Pay and Google Pay through Stripe. Bank debit (ACH) is not offered to individual Customers at launch. HammerConnect does not see your full card or bank number; Stripe processes it under its own privacy policy.

C-6.11 Receipts. You receive a receipt from Stripe or HammerConnect by email for each payment.

C-7. Referral disclosure

C-7.1 If a Contractor referred your Request, that Contractor (the Referrer) may receive a referral payment (the Referral Share) of 5% of the amount you pay for the Job. HammerConnect pays it out of its own marketplace service fee, which the performing Contractor pays. It is not added to the quote as a separate charge. Contractors set their own prices and may include their business costs in them. It is paid after the 7-day Dispute Window closes, and only if the Job is not refunded or charged back. If you are refunded in whole or in part, the Referral Share is reduced or cancelled to match. This does not change any refund, dispute or cancellation right you have. No Referral Share is paid on a Job paid from an insurance claim. If no one referred you, HammerConnect keeps the whole marketplace service fee, and that includes a Direct Request.

C-7.2 A Referrer who nominates a specific Contractor may know that Contractor personally and may receive a Referral Share if you choose them. You are free to choose any Contractor, or none.

C-7.3 Referrers are Contractors using the Platform, not HammerConnect staff. Their opinions are their own.

C-7.4 No Referral Share, credit, gift or other benefit is given to your property manager, community association manager or management firm, or to any officer or director of your association, in connection with a vendor of the association (Florida ss. 468.4335, 718.111(1)(a)). If HammerConnect later offers a marketplace service fee credit to a condominium or homeowners' association itself (the organization, not a person) on a Job at that association's own property, instead of a cash payout, the Quote will tell you before you accept.

C-7.5 Notice you see before you open a referred Request, on the Quote and on the receipt. The Platform shows you, in your Preferred Language, a notice that does not depend on what the Referrer typed:

• English, before you open the Request: "[Referrer name] shared this request. They may receive a referral payment from HammerConnect if you hire through HammerConnect. The payment comes out of HammerConnect's marketplace service fee, which the contractor pays. Contractors set their own prices. Your contract is with [Contractor]. You choose who to hire."
• English, on the Quote: "HammerConnect charges [Contractor] a marketplace service fee of 10% of what you pay through the app. [Referrer] may receive half of that fee for referring you. This is not added to the quote as a separate charge."
• Spanish: "[Referrer] compartió esta solicitud y puede recibir un pago por referido de HammerConnect si usted contrata a través de HammerConnect. Ese pago sale de la tarifa de servicio del marketplace de HammerConnect, que paga el contratista. Los contratistas fijan sus propios precios. Su contrato es con [Contratista]. Usted decide a quién contratar."
• Spanish, on the Quote: "HammerConnect le cobra a [Contratista] una tarifa de servicio del marketplace del 10 % de lo que usted paga a través de la aplicación. [Referrer] puede recibir la mitad de esa tarifa por referirlo. Esto no se agrega al presupuesto como un cargo aparte."

The Spanish text appears whenever the rest of the page is in Spanish. The Platform keeps a record of the version shown. HammerConnect also earns the marketplace service fee on the Job, and that connection is stated once, plainly, here.

C-8. Problems, disputes and refunds

C-8.1 Confirming completion. When the Contractor marks the Job (or a milestone) complete, we ask you to confirm or report a problem.

C-8.2 Dispute Window. You can report a problem within 7 days after the Job or milestone was marked complete. You may confirm completion in the app before the 7 days end. If you do, we may release the Contractor's payout before day 7, when we choose (during the pilot a person at HammerConnect releases it by hand); we are not required to. Confirming does not give up any right you have under the law, and it does not limit your right to dispute the payment with your card issuer or bank.

C-8.3 What happens. (a) You report the problem and the amount in question. (b) Only that amount stays held pending the review; the rest is paid to the Contractor as normal. (c) The Contractor sees what you wrote and may respond within 3 business days. (d) An Operator reviews the Job record, messages, photos and responses, and decides within 5 business days after the response window closes: release to the Contractor, refund part, or refund all of the held amount. (e) Money moves only after the decision.

C-8.4 Limits of the process. The Operator's decision only decides what happens to the held amount. It is not a court ruling. It decides what happens to the held amount under HammerConnect's contract with the Contractor. It does not decide your legal rights, does not limit your rights against the Contractor under the Contractor's warranty or the law, and does not limit your right to dispute a payment with your card issuer or bank. It does not replace or pause the Chapter 558 notice-and-repair procedure for construction defects in Florida.

C-8.5 After the Dispute Window. After the window closes and funds are released, problems with the work are between you and the Contractor under the Contractor's warranty. We may help you contact the Contractor but cannot reverse a payout.

C-8.6 Card chargebacks. You keep every right you have with your card issuer. You may use the process in C-8.3, a chargeback, or both. If you file a chargeback, we may pause the C-8.3 review for the same amount so that the same money is not decided twice.

C-8.7 Refunds. Approved refunds go back to the original payment method through Stripe. Banks usually post them in 5 to 10 business days.

C-8.8 Statutory rights. Nothing here limits a right to cancel or refund that the law gives you, including home-solicitation cancellation rights (see the US Schedule and the Florida Addendum).

C-9. Cancellation

C-9.1 Before you accept a Quote. You may withdraw a Request at any time at no cost.

C-9.2 After you accept a Quote, before work starts. If you cancel before work starts, any deposit you paid is refunded, except the cost of materials the Quote listed as special-ordered for your Job and that you approved in writing in the Platform. Any other cancellation charge must be shown in the Quote before you accept.

C-9.3 Legal cancellation rights. If a Contractor meets you at your home, or anywhere other than the Contractor's business address, before you accept a Quote (including a visit you asked for), and the sale is $25 or more, the federal Cooling-Off Rule (16 CFR Part 429) requires the Contractor to give you a written Notice of Cancellation (two copies) in the language used in the sales discussion, and to tell you of your right to cancel until midnight of the third business day. Florida's home-solicitation law (ss. 501.021 to 501.055) may not apply to a sale that results from your own request for specific services; the federal notice applies in any case. You may use any cancellation right in the way the law describes, and the notice the Contractor gives you controls. A lawful cancellation is refunded in full through the Platform within the time the law requires (Florida Addendum, section FL-3.5). In a real and immediate emergency, the law lets you give up the waiting period only by a separate statement in your own handwriting, dated and signed, that the Contractor keeps. HammerConnect does not ask you to give it and does not collect it, and you never have to.

C-9.4 If the Contractor cancels. If the Contractor cancels, any amount you paid for work not done is refunded.

C-10. Ratings and reviews

C-10.1 You may rate the Contractor after the Job. Reviews must reflect your real experience. Contractors may not offer you anything for a review. Only a Customer who paid for a completed Job can leave a review, and we do not hide a review because it is negative (Master Platform Terms, section M-6.5). Nothing in these terms stops you from posting an honest review anywhere, and we do not charge you for it or take ownership of it.

C-11. Your responsibilities

C-11.1 Give the Contractor safe access at the agreed time, follow building rules, and tell the Contractor about known hazards.

C-11.2 Do not ask the Contractor to do work that needs a permit without one.

C-11.3 If your Job is in a condominium, get any approval your association requires for work in your unit. Work on common areas is ordered by the association under the Customer Terms for Associations and Businesses, not by you.

C-12. Disputes with HammerConnect

C-12.1 The dispute resolution clause in the US Schedule (US-6) applies to disputes between you and HammerConnect: arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, a class action waiver, a 30-day opt-out, the option for either side to use small-claims court in the county where you live, and a rule that sexual assault and sexual harassment claims can go to court if you choose. HammerConnect pays the arbitration fees beyond a court filing fee. We show these terms and the opt-out in your Preferred Language. It does not apply to your claims against a Contractor, which are between you and the Contractor.

C-13. Florida job sites

C-13.1 If the job site is in Florida, the Florida Addendum applies. It covers contractor licensing, home-solicitation cancellation, construction lien notices, the recovery fund notice, deposits, telephone solicitation, and recording of calls.

C-14. Other programs

C-14.1 These Customer Terms do not include any customer program beyond the services described above. If HammerConnect offers an optional program later, it will be under separate terms you accept (Master Platform Terms, section M-18.3).

C-15. What HammerConnect does not promise

C-15.1 HammerConnect does not guarantee the Contractor's work, does not insure your Job, and does not keep a reserve fund to pay for problems with the work. The Contractor's warranty and insurance, the dispute process in C-8, and your rights under the law are the protections that apply.

C-15.2 Our payout hold and problem review are a process. They are not insurance and not a guarantee. We do not promise to cover any loss.

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