Updated: 11.11.2021
1.1 CatInAFlat operates a platform which connects cat owners with cat lovers who wish to offer cat sitting related services using our website at CatInAFlat.com (the "Service")
1.2 The Service is operated by Cat in a Flat UK Ltd ("CatInAFlat", "we", "our", or "us").
2.1 Cat Sitter means a person that has registered with our Service to offer Cat Sitter Services to Cat Owners;
2.2 Cat Owner means a person that has registered with our Service and who seeks cat Sitter Services; and
2.3 Cat Sitter Services means any services offered through our Service by Cat Sitters including but not limited to, pet-sitting, house sitting and related services to the Cat’s needs only.
2.4 Cat means domestic cat or small domestic pet mammal (rabbit, hamsters, mice) owned by the Cat Owner
2.5 Cat Sitter Profile means the public web page where Cat Sitter’s state their prices and information about the services they offer.
2.6 Meet and Greet means the Cat Owner and Cat Sitter have met in person prior to the booking start date. And they have gone through all necessary instructions to help the Cat Sitter perform their duties to the best of their ability.
3.1 This document and any documents referred to within it (collectively, the "Terms and Conditions") set out the terms of your relationship with us. It is important that you read and understand the Terms and Conditions before using the Service. If there is anything within them that you do not understand, then please contact us to discuss what this means for you.
3.2 By setting up an account with us or using and accessing the Service you agree to these Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree to these Terms and Conditions, please do not browse or otherwise access or use the Service.
3.3 CatInAFlat is not party to any agreement you, as a Cat Sitter or Cat Owner, may enter into with another Cat Sitter or Cat Owner. The Service merely facilitates the introduction and matching of Cat Owners to Cat Sitters (and vice versa).
3.4 We reserve the right to modify the Services and these Terms and Conditions at any time, effective upon posting an updated version of these Terms and Conditions on this website. You are responsible for regularly reviewing these Terms and Conditions.
4.1 The Service allows for Cat Owners and Cat Sitters to arrange for the provision of Cat Sitter Services. CatInAFlat is a neutral venue and does not provide Cat Sitter Services. All transactions conducted via the CatInAFlat Service are between Cat Owners and Cat Sitters, CatInAFlat’s role is to facilitate the transaction. Except for limited refunds and our Cat in a Flat Guarantee, CatInAFlat has no liability for damages associated with Cat Sitter Services or resulting from any other transactions between users of the Service.
4.2 Cat Sitters create a Cat Sitter Profile to list information about their Cat Sitter Services including, but not limited to, type and availability of services offered, pet care experience, pricing and financial terms. These profiles are publicly available via the Service. As CatInAFlat does not produce the user Content provided for Cat Sitter Profiles we are not responsible for its accuracy and cannot verify any claims made by Cat Sitters. Similarly, CatInAFlat does not endorse reviews of Cat Sitters by other Cat Owners that may be available via the Service, and CatInAFlat makes no commitments that such reviews are accurate or legitimate.
4.3 Cat Owners can interact with and book Cat Sitters via Cat Sitter Profiles. All booking requests are subject to acceptance by the Cat Sitter, who is not obligated to accept any request and may decline for any reason. However, once a Booking has been completed both the Cat Sitter and Cat Owner agree to honour the price and other terms of that Booking. Only Bookings made via the Service are valid and benefit from the protection the Service offers. CatInAFlat charges fees for some aspects of the Service, as outlined in the FEES AND PAYMENTS section of these Terms.
4.4 Cat Owners are solely responsible for evaluating the suitability of Cat Sitters. CatInAFlat makes no representations or warranties about the quality of Cat Sitter Services, or about interactions and dealings with users of the Service. Cat Sitters listed on CatInAFlat are not under the direction or control of CatInAFlat, and Cat Sitters determine at their own discretion how to provide Cat Sitter Services. Though CatInAFlat provides general guidance to Cat Sitters about safety and pet care and to Cat Owners about selecting and engaging Cat Sitters, CatInAFlat does not employ or endorse Cat Sitters or Cat Owners. While CatInAFlat conducts an initial review of Cat Sitter Profiles CatInAFlat does not otherwise screen Cat Sitters and will not be responsible or liable for the performance or conduct of Cat Sitters or Cat Owners, whether online or offline.
5.1 Cat in a Flat Ltd is incorporated and registered in the United Kingdom under company number 09002109. Our registered office is at Bluebell Road, Norfolk, NR4, United Kingdom.
6.1 Your privacy is important to us. You should read our Privacy Policy to understand how we collect, use and share information about you.
7.1 In order to access our Service and use certain features and areas of the Service, you must register with us and set up an account with an ID (associated with your email address) and password (your "Account"). We encourage you to use strong passwords with your Account.
7.2 You must be 18 years or older and capable in your country of residence of entering into a legally binding agreement to use our Service.
7.3 You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login details and any activities that occur under your Account. If you have any concerns that your Account may have been misused, you should contact us straight away to let us know.
8.1 You confirm that any images, text or information that you make available or create ("User Content") whilst using the Service will meet the Rules of Acceptable Use.
8.2 We do not claim ownership of your User Content. Instead, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, copy, reproduce and make available the User Content anywhere and in any form for the purposes of providing our Service (including allowing our users to view and use your User Content).
8.3 We will also occasionally publish media, including but not limited to images and video, contained in your User Content in the context of sharing media updates of cats on our website and across third party social media applications. If you object to our use of the media contained in your User Content in this way, please contact us and we will remove them.
8.4 Our right to use your User Content does not in any way affect your privacy rights and we will only use information that identifies you as set out in our Privacy Policy.
8.5 We do not check or moderate any User Content before it is added to the Service by users. We may later check, moderate, reject, refuse or delete any User Content if anybody objects to it, or we think that it breaks any of the Rules of Acceptable Use.
9.1 CatInAFlat is not an employment service and does not serve as an employer of any user signing up to the Service. Cat Sitters are solely responsible for disclosing any income made through Bookings via the Service and for complying with national, federal and state tax laws and regulations that apply to their activity on the Service. CatInAFlat will not be liable for any tax or withholding, including but not limited to unemployment insurance, employers liability, social security, in connection with your use of the Service. If CatInAFlat is found to be liable for any tax in connection with Cat Sitters use of the Service, all Cat Sitters agree they will immediately reimburse and pay to CatInAFlat an equivalent amount including any penalties and interest incurred.
10.1 CatInAFlat provides access via the Website to a secure third party online payment service, called Stripe, which offers payment via all major credit and debit cards including Visa, American Express and Master Cards. In Europe you can also pay by IBAN, Giro, SOFORT, iDeal and eps.
10.2 In order to arrange a cat sitting booking through the Website, Cat Sitters must be connected with Stripe and, by doing so, agree to Stripe's terms of service and privacy policy. All payments made are governed solely by Stripe's terms of service and privacy policy. In certain countries Stripe is required to collect, verify, and maintain identity information on the individuals ( Cat Sitters ) associated with a Stripe account. CatInAFlat is not liable for these verification practices nor do they control them.
10.3 CatInAFlat will not have access to, nor can it obtain any information of the Stripe service and is not responsible for its actions. A Member who wishes to change their bank details will need to log into the Stripe service directly. CatInAFlat accepts no liability for any failure in the Stripe service.
10.4 CatInAFlat only has access to payment transfers between Cat Sitters and Cat Owners in order to be able to refund or allow payment corrections. CatInAFlat has no transparency or access to any other payments of the Cat owners and Cat Sitters accounts.
10.5 Cat Sitters may set the price of their Cat Sitter Services ("Booking Fee"¨) within the parameters permitted by the Service. A fixed fee of £1.50/€1.90 (“Owner Booking Fee”) will be paid by the Cat Owner on top of every booking on the Service. A fee equal to 19% of the Booking Fee ( the “Sitter Service Fee”) will be subtracted from every booking from the Cat Sitter. CatInAFlat will facilitate the payment of the Booking Fee (less any Owner Service Fee or Sitter Service Fee) from the Cat Owner to the Cat Sitter.
10.6 If booked using a credit/debit card or bank transfer, the Booking Fee will be taken from the Cat Owners account the day before the booking starts, it will then automatically be transferred to the Cat Sitters account within 5 - 7 working days.
10.7 If booked using Giro, SOFORT, iDeal or EPS, the Cat Owner will be reminded to complete the payment two days before the booking starts. Payments will be automatically transferred to the Cat Sitters account 5 - 10 working days from when the payment was made.
10.8 In the event of a failed payment for a particular booking, for reasons such as insufficient funds, suspicion of fraud or violation of our terms, CatInAFlat will use all commercially reasonable endeavours to clarify the situation as part of their Customer Service. Should any effort, however fail to get the payment , CatInAFlat will not be liable for compensation to the Cat Sitter (referred to in section 10.5)
10.9 Where a Cat Owner has obtained a refund in relation to their booking in accordance with section 15.1, Cat Sitters agree that CatInAFlat will not refund the 19% fee (the “Sitter Service Fee”), and the full refund will be made by the Cat Sitter.
10.10 Cat Sitters and Cat Owners agree that all bookings (including, for the avoidance of doubt, new and repeat bookings) with a Cat Owner / Cat Sitter where the Cat Owner / Cat Sitter first contacted the Cat Owner / Cat Sitter via the Service ("Initial Contact"), must be made via the Service. Where an Initial Contact has been made, if a Cat Sitter confirms or proceeds with a booking with a Cat Owner outside of the Service, the Cat Sitter or Cat Owner may have to pay an introduction fee of £500 per user to CatInAFlat.
11.1 The materials and content comprising the Service (excluding User Content) belongs to us or our third party licensors and we give you permission to use these materials and content for the sole purpose of using the Service in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.
11.2 Your right to use the Service is personal to you and you are not allowed to give this right to another person or to sell, gift or transfer your Account to another person. Your right to use the Service does not stop us from giving other people the right to use the Service.
11.3 Other than as allowed in these Terms and Conditions you are not given a right to use the "CatInAFlat" name, or any of the "CatInAFlat" trademarks, logos, domain names and other distinctive brand features.
11.4 Unless allowed by these Terms and Conditions and as permitted by the functionality of the Service, you agree:
You agree that you have no rights in or to any portion of the Service other than the right to use them in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.
12.1 In addition to the other requirements within these Terms and Conditions, this section describes specific rules that apply to your use of the Service (the "Rules of Acceptable Use").
12.2 When using the Service you must not:
12.3 Failure to comply with the Rules of Acceptable Use constitutes a serious breach of these Terms and Conditions, and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions (with or without notice):
12.4 The responses described in this clause 12.3 are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.
13.1 Any person may contact us by sending us an "Infringement Notice" if any content available through our Service infringes their rights or fails to comply with our Rules of Acceptable Use. The Infringement Notice should be sent by email to hello@catinaflat.com. Please provide the information described below in the Infringement Notice:
13.2 We will take the action that we believe is appropriate depending on the nature of the Infringement Notice and will aim respond to you within a reasonable period of time on the action we propose to take.
14.1 If you are a Cat Owner, you agree to the following:
14.2 If you are a Cat Sitter, you agree to the following in respect of any Cat Sitter Services you supply:
15.1 If, in relation to a Cat Owner's first booking of Cat Sitter Services, the Cat Owner has any genuine concerns about the quality or suitability of the Cat Sitter or the Cat Sitter Services, they may request a refund from CatInAFlat ("Refund Request"), regardless of the cancellation policy. Any Refund Request must be made in accordance with the following:
15.2 If, at any point following confirmation of a booking or the Cat Sitter Services are in progress but not yet completed, the Cat Sitter cancels the booking, CatInAFlat shall:
16.1 Cat Owners and Cat Sitters can cancel a booking at any point before the Cat Sitter Services start. Depending on how much notice is given, Cat Owners may be charged a fee ( “Cancellation Fee” )
16.2 Cat Owners and Cat Sitters can cancel a Pre-Booking at any time with no cancellation charges.
16.3 Cat Owners can cancel a confirmed booking at any time before the Cat Sitter Services start. The cancellation fee will depend on the time of notice given by the Cat Owner.
16.4 Cat Sitters can cancel bookings at any stage with reasonable notice. If a Cat Sitter needs to cancel within 5 days or less of the booking starting, the Cat Sitter must contact CatInAFlat via our contact form for further help.
16.5 All Cancellations and Refunds should be processed through Cat in a Flat via our contact form. If Cat Sitters process the refund themselves in Stripe, Cat in a Flat is not obliged to refund it’s fees to the Cat Sitter.
17.1 The Cat Sitter is required to make reasonable efforts to inform the Cat Owner (or, where the Cat Owner is not available, the alternative contact provided by the Cat Owner) and CatInAFlat as soon as possible where a situation has arisen where Cat requires emergency veterinary care. Where CatInAFlat has been informed by the Cat Sitter that such a situation has arisen, CatInAFlat shall also make reasonable efforts to contact the Cat Owner to notify them of the situation where the Cat Sitter has been unable to contact them.
17.2 If the Cat Owner cannot be reached following reasonable efforts, the Cat Owner authorises the Cat Sitter to seek care on their behalf to promptly treat the Cat Owner's Cat. The Cat Owner agrees that they will bear the full cost of any such emergency medical treatment and will reimburse the Cat Sitter where the Cat Sitter has paid for such emergency medical treatment accordingly. The Cat Owner may be able to have the cost of such emergency medical treatment reimbursed as described at clause 18 below.
18.1 All bookings made via the Service automatically include certain reimbursement of veterinary fees ("Veterinary Reimbursement") and loss of keys ("Loss of Keys") (collectively, "Cat in a Flat Guarantee"). Cat Owners acknowledge that the Cat in a Flat Guarantee should not be considered as a replacement or stand-in for Cat Owners existing Home and Pet Insurance. Cat Sitters acknowledge they are not third party beneficiaries of any Third Party Liability.
18.2 The Cat in a Flat Guarantee will only be considered if the claim was made due to the Cat Sitters negligence during the Cat Sitter Service. Where you have your own insurance, Veterinary Reimbursement and Loss of Keys will only be applicable where you have sought reimbursement under your own insurance and reimbursement was denied or to the extent that the reimbursement does not cover all of your costs. We may request any documentation regarding insurance claims made by you to your own insurance provider.
18.3 The Cat in a Flat Guarantee will only be considered for bookings that have a minimum spend of £10 per day.
18.4 Nothing in this clause 18 limits any liability the Cat Sitter owes to the Cat Owner or CatInAFlat in connection with the Cat Sitter Services.
19.1 Where you have complied with these Terms and Conditions and wish to make a claim reimbursement through the Cat in a Flat Guarantee, CatInAFlat must be notified within 24 hours of the incident occurring. Your claim will be processed only after all necessary information has been submitted. You have up to 5 days from the incident to submit all additional information regarding the claim. This includes but is not limited to your booking reference, detailed photos of the injuries or damage, copies of veterinary bills, receipts and other relevant information regarding the incident.
19.2 The duration of the processing will depend on the severity of the case, the quality of the documentation and the cooperation of all parties involved, but we aim to resolve most cases within one month of their submission.
19.3 Veterinary Reimbursement is limited to £700 per occurrence/incident with an excess of £150. Loss of Keys reimbursement is limited to £250 with an excess of £50. The excess should be split evenly between the Cat Sitter and Cat Owner unless it is clear the Cat Sitter is at fault, the Cat Sitter will then be responsible for the total excess.
19.4 Please contact us for further information on the Cat in a Flat Guarantee Terms, these guarantee terms apply in addition to the CatInAFlat Terms and Conditions.
20.1 We and our selected business partners may provide advertising to you through the Service or by other methods such as email. This advertising may be based on your User Content or other information available through the Service. When delivering advertising we will only use information that identifies you as set out in our Privacy Policy.
21.1 If at any time you do not feel that you can agree to these Terms and Conditions or any changes made to the Terms and Conditions or the Service, you must immediately stop using the Service.
21.2 If you wish to end your use of the Service, you may deactivate your account using the "Delete Account" section of your account settings. Alternatively, you can contact us and we will deactivate your account. If you deactivate your account, you will not be able to access the account or data previously stored in the account. For information on our retention of this data, please refer to our Privacy Policy.
21.3 We may immediately end your use of the Service if you break the Rules of Acceptable Use, any other important rule(s), or terms and conditions we set for accessing and using the Service including these Terms and Conditions.
We may also withdraw the Service as long as we give you reasonable notice that we plan to do this.
21.4 If you or we end your use of the Service or we withdraw the Service as described in this section, we may delete or modify your User Content, account or any other information we hold about you. You will also lose any rights you have to use the Service or access our content or your User Content. We will not offer you compensation for any losses.
21.5 The termination of your use of the Service and the cancellation of your Account shall not affect any of your outstanding obligations to us (including obligation to pay any sums to us), or to any Cat Owner or Cat Sitter pursuant to any agreement with that Cat Owner or Cat Sitter.
22.1 To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will CatInAFlat, its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, agents, as well as its third party providers, be liable for any damages whatsoever, whether direct, indirect, general, special, compensatory, and/or consequential, arising out of or relating to the conduct of you or anyone else in connection with the CatInAFlat Service, including without limitation (a) any injuries, harm or death suffered by you or any third party except where it results from our negligence; (b) emotional distress; (c) any destruction of information; (d) failure of the Cat Sitter to provide services to the Cat Owner; (e) any disputes between a Cat Sitter and/or Cat Owner; (f) any injuries or harm suffered by any Cats; (g) any damage or harm to personal property or belongings; any other conduct, act or omission of any other party, and/or any other damages resulting from reliance on information or Content posted on or transmitted through the CatInAFlat Service, or for any interactions with other users of the CatInAFlat Service, whether online or offline. This includes any claims, losses or damages arising from the conduct of users who attempt to defraud or harm you. In no event will CatInAFlat be liable for direct or indirect consequences of a Cat Owner or Cat Sitter failing to comply with applicable laws and regulations.
22.2 In no event will CatInAFlat be liable to you for any indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages, or for any business losses, or loss of profit, revenue, contracts, data, goodwill or other similar losses or expenses that arise out of or relate to the use of or inability to use the CatInAFlat Service, including without limitation damages related to any information received from the CatInAFlat Service, removal of your profile information or review (or other Content) from the CatInAFlat Service, any suspension or termination of your access to the CatInAFlat Service, or any failure, error, omission, interruption, defect, delay in operation or transmission of the CatInAFlat Service, even if we are aware of the possibility of any such damages, losses or expenses.
22.3 Except for the limited reimbursements approved by CatInAFlat under the Cat in a Flat Guarantee and the refund amounts payable by CatInAFlat that are set forth in these Terms and Conditions, in no event will CatInAFlat’s aggregate liability to you or any third party in any matter arising from or relating to the CatInAFlat service or these terms exceed the amounts paid by you to CatInAFlat (specifically excluding amounts paid to Cat Sitters) during the twelve (12) months preceding the event that gave rise to liability or, if you have not paid CatInAFlat for the use of any services, the amount of £100.00 (or equivalent in local currency).
22.4 You are solely responsible for any relationship, agreement or arrangement between you and another user, and enter any transaction or dealings with another user at your own risk. You accept liability for any decision made or action taken in reliance on any information contained or omitted from the Service. If you have a dispute with a Cat Sitter or Cat Owner you agree you release CatInAFlat, its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, agents from any and all claims, demands and damages of every kind and nature, known or unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes.
22.5 Our Service makes available third party content such as User Content. CatInAFlat does not produce such third party content, CatInAFlat cannot be responsible for it in any way. In particular, CatInAFlat cannot verify any claims made by a Cat Owner or Cat Sitter.
22.6 In every case, CatInAFlat will never be responsible for any loss or damage that is not reasonably foreseeable.
23.1 You shall defend indemnify, and hold harmless CatInAFlat and its affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, and third party providers (collectively, the "Indemnified Parties") against any and all claims, demands, causes of action, losses, expenses, damages and/or liabilities, including reasonable legal fees and court costs, or other liability, for any claim of infringement arising from (a) your use of the Service services; (b) your transactions and interactions, online or offline, with other users of the Service; (c) your breach of these Terms; (d) your disputes with other users of the Service; (e) your misstatements, misrepresentations, or violation of applicable law; (f) property damage or personal injury to third parties caused by your pet or pets in your care; (g) Your Content. The Indemnified Parties reserve the right, at their own expense, to assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter otherwise subject to your indemnification. You will not, in any event, settle any claim or matter without the written consent of the relevant Indemnified Parties.
23.2 CatInAFlat and its affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, and Third Party Providers shall have no indemnification obligation or other liability for any claim of infringement arising from (a) use of the Site and/or the Content associated with the Site other than in accordance with these Terms; (b) the combination of the Site and/or Content associated with the Website with any other products, services, or materials; or (c) any third party products, services, or materials.
24.1 If you have a dispute with us relating to the Service, in the first instance please contact us at claims@catinaflat.com and attempt to resolve the dispute with us informally. In the unlikely event that we are not able to resolve a dispute informally, we will discuss and agree with you the most effective way of resolving the dispute.
24.2 If you have a dispute with another person who has registered with our Service in connection with the Service, we will provide reasonable assistance to resolve such disputes informally. For the avoidance of doubt, we are under no obligation to resolve such a dispute to the satisfaction of both parties.
25.1 We are constantly updating and improving the Service to try and find ways to provide you with new and innovative features and services. Improvements and updates are also made to reflect changing technologies, tastes, behaviours and the way people use the Internet and our Service.
25.2 In order to do this, we may need to update, reset, stop offering and/or supporting a particular part of the Service, or feature relating to the Service ("changes to the Service"). These changes to the Service may affect your past activities on the Service, features that you use, your Profile and your User Content ("Service elements"). Any changes to the Service could involve your Service elements being deleted or reset.
25.3 You agree that a key characteristic of our Service is that changes to the Service will take place over time and this is an important basis on which we grant you access to the Service. Once we have made changes to the Service, your continued use of the Service will show that you have accepted any changes to the Service. You are always free to stop using the Service or deactivate your Account in the settings feature of the Service.
25.4 We will try, where possible and reasonable, to contact you to let you know about any significant changes to the Service.
26.1 We may revise these Terms and Conditions from time to time and the most current version will always be at /en/terms.
26.2 Changes will usually occur because of new features being added to the Service, changes in the law or where we need to clarify our position on something.
26.3 We will try, where possible and reasonable, to contact you to let you know about any significant changes to any of the documents referred to in these Terms and Conditions. We may contact you through the Service (for example by asking you to accept the changes before you continue to use the Service) or via a separate email.
26.4 Normally, we will try to give you some warning before the new terms become effective. However, sometimes changes will need to be made immediately and if this happens we will not give you any notice.
27.1 The current version of the Terms and Conditions contains the only terms and conditions that apply to our relationship with you. Older versions of the Terms and Conditions will no longer apply to our relationship and will be completely replaced by the current version.
27.2 We intend to rely on these Terms and Conditions as setting out the written terms of our agreement with you for the provision of the Service. If part of the Terms and Conditions cannot be enforced then the remainder of the Terms and Conditions will still apply to our relationship.
27.3 If you do not comply with these Terms and Conditions and we do not take action immediately, this does not mean we have given up any right we have and we may still take action in the future.
28.1 If any provision of these Terms and Conditions is judged to be illegal or unenforceable, this will not affect the continuation in full force and effect of the remainder of the provisions.
29.1 English law will apply to all disputes and the interpretation of these Terms and Conditions. The Courts of England & Wales will have non-exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from or related to your use of the Service. If you are resident in the EU, nothing in this clause shall affect your rights under the law of the country in which you live, including your right to have a dispute in relation to your use of the Service heard in the courts of that country.
29.2 If you are a consumer in the European Economic Area, the European Online Dispute Resolution platform http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr provides information about alternative dispute resolution, which you may use if there is a dispute that cannot be resolved between you and the relevant party.
30.1 If you need to contact us in relation to these Terms and Conditions or any other document mentioned in them, please contact us
30.2 We value hearing from our users, and are always interested in learning about ways we can improve the Service. By providing your feedback you agree that you are giving up any rights you have in your feedback so that we may use and allow others to use it without any restriction and without any payment to you.
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