Terms of Service

1. DEFINITIONS

Parties:"You" and "your" refer to you, as a User of the Service. A "User" is someone who accesses or uses the Service, including tenants, property owners, and property managers. "We," "us," and "our" refer to The Flag Check.

Content:"Your Content" means Content that you submit to the Service, such as building ratings, maintenance complaints, photos of violations, and property owner or property manager responses. "User Content" means Content submitted by any User. "Public Content" refers to data aggregated from government records, such as building code violations or court filings.

Accounts:"Consumer Account" refers to accounts for tenants or researchers. "Property Professional Account" refers to accounts for property owners or property managers.

2. USING THE SERVICE

Eligibility: You must be at least 18 years old. You may not use the Service if you have been previously banned or if you are a direct competitor of The Flag Check.

Permission to Use: We grant you permission to use the Service at your own risk. You may be exposed to Content that is offensive, inaccurate, or objectionable (e.g., a harsh review of a building).

Account Responsibility: You are responsible for all activity under your Account. You must provide accurate information to bolster the credibility of your reports. You may not impersonate other tenants, property owners, or property managers.

Early access (beta): We may label the Service as a beta or early access release. During that period the Service may change frequently, may not perform at the level of a full production release, and may be modified or discontinued in whole or in part. You use the Service during early access at your own risk, subject to the disclaimers and limitations in these Terms.

3. CONTENT

Responsibility for Your Content: You alone are responsible for Your Content. Once posted, it cannot always be withdrawn. You assume all risks regarding its accuracy. You may expose yourself to liability if your content is defamatory, violates privacy, or contains false claims.

Our Right to Use Your Content: By posting, you grant The Flag Check a perpetual, world-wide, royalty-free license to use, display, and distribute Your Content. We may use it to create aggregate building scores or transparency reports.

Ownership: You own Your Content. We own the The Flag Check Content, including our proprietary building scores, software, and the compilation of public data and user reports.

4. PROPERTY PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTS & PREMIUM FEATURES

Neutrality Policy: Property owners and property managers may pay for premium features (e.g., advanced analytics or response tools). However, payment does not entitle a property owner or property manager to the removal, hiding, or alteration of User Content.

Verified Status:We may offer a "Verified" badge. This indicates identity verification only and is not an endorsement of the property owner's or property manager's management practices.

5. REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES

You represent and warrant that you will not:

• Post fake or retaliatory reviews or trade reviews with other users.
• Doxx individuals: You may not post the private home address or personal cell phone number of a property owner, property manager, or building superintendent.
• Violate any law, including the Fair Housing Act.
• Scrape or index our database of building records for commercial use without permission.
• Use AI tools to generate bulk fraudulent complaints or responses.

6. INDEMNITY

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless The Flag Check from any third-party claims (including from property owners, property managers, or tenants) arising out of Your Content, your violation of these Terms, or your use of the Service.

7. DISCLAIMERS AND LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

"As-Is" Data: The Service aggregates public records (violations, complaints). We do not guarantee the real-time accuracy of government data.

No Monitoring: We do not vet every user complaint. Your reliance on any review or building report is at your own risk.

Maximum Liability: Our total liability to you for any claim shall not exceed the greater of (i) the amount you paid us in the last 12 months, or (ii) $100.

8. DISPUTE RESOLUTION (ARBITRATION & CLASS ACTION WAIVER)

Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall be settled by binding, individual arbitration. You waive your right to participate in a class-action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration.

9. DISPUTE RESOLUTION (THE "FINE PRINT")

A. Arbitration Requirements

Any arbitration demand must include:

• Proof of Identity: Evidence that you are the account holder or the legal representative of the building or entity in question.
• Factual Basis: Specific details of the dispute (e.g., which specific building report is being contested).
• Sanctions: The arbitrator may impose sanctions for frivolous claims, such as a property owner or property manager filing a dispute purely to harass a tenant who posted a truthful violation report.

B. Batch Arbitration (Protection against "Mass Filings")

To ensure our platform can remain operational, if 25 or more similar arbitration demands are filed against The Flag Checkby the same law firm or group (e.g., a coordinated effort by a real estate association), the claims will be handled in batches of 10. This prevents "legal DDOSing" where a company is forced into hundreds of simultaneous individual arbitrations to drain its resources.

C. Jury Trial & Class Action Waiver

YOU AND THE FLAG CHECK EXPRESSLY WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY OR TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION. All disputes must be resolved on an individual basis.

10. ADDITIONAL TERMS FOR PROPERTY OWNER & PROPERTY MANAGER ACCOUNTS

These terms apply specifically to building owners, property managers, and authorized representatives (collectively, "Property Professionals").

A. Representations and Warranties

By using a Property Professional Account, you represent and warrant that:

• Authority: You have the legal authority to represent the building(s) associated with your account.
• Professionalism: You will not use the platform to harass, threaten, or blacklist tenants who post reports.
• No "Gag" Clauses:You will not include provisions in your leases that penalize tenants for posting reviews on this platform. In accordance with the Consumer Review Fairness Act (CRFA), any attempt to enforce a "non-disparagement" clause to remove a review is a violation of these Terms.
• No Incentives: You will not offer rent credits, security deposit refunds, or other incentives to tenants in exchange for removing a negative report or posting a fake positive one.

B. The "Integrity" Disclosure

You acknowledge that The Flag Check uses automated software to highlight reliable reports. You agree that purchasing a premium account does not influence our algorithms or grant you the right to delete, reorder, or suppress building reports.

C. Liability for Public Records

We aggregate data from public sources (HPD, DOB, etc.). Property owners and property managers acknowledge that we are not the authors of these records and are protected under 47 U.S. Code § 230 for hosting this data, even if the government record itself contains an error.

11. TERMINATION

By You: You can close your account at any time. However, any content you posted (responses or reports) may remain on the platform as part of the public building record.

By Us: We may suspend or ban a property owner, property manager, or tenant account for no-show responses, fraudulent activity, or harassment without prior notice.

12. DATA AND COMMERCIAL USE

A. Aggregated Data

We may use anonymized, aggregated data derived from platform activity for research, analytics, and commercial purposes, including licensing to third parties. This data does not identify individual users.

B. Optional Matching Services

With your explicit consent, we may connect you with relevant third-party service providers, including legal professionals, based on your reported experiences. You will always be asked before your information is shared for this purpose. You may opt out at any time by contacting us at support@theflagcheck.com.