Terms of Service

⚠️ DRAFT FOR LEGAL REVIEW — NOT YET IN FORCE. This is a starting draft prepared to be handed to a Canadian lawyer (ideally one with media/publisher experience). It is not legal advice and must not be published until reviewed and finalized by counsel. Bracketed […] items are decisions for you and your lawyer. The territorial-scope, forum-selection, and limitation-of-liability clauses are the load-bearing ones — flag them explicitly for counsel.

Last updated: [DATE] · Effective: [DATE]

FirstCheck ("FirstCheck," "we," "us") operates the website at [firstcheck.ca] and its related content and tools (the "Service"). These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Service. By using the Service you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. Who this Service is for (territorial scope)

The Service is directed solely at residents of Canada. All content is prepared with reference to Canadian conditions, including the Canadian Electrical Code, the National Building Code of Canada and its provincial adaptations, CSA standards, Canadian product availability, and Canadian climate. Provincial and territorial law — including which repairs a homeowner may lawfully perform — varies across Canada, and the Service attempts to reflect this but cannot guarantee accuracy for every locality.

We make no representation that the Service, or any content in it, is appropriate or available for use outside Canada. We do not direct the Service to, and do not offer it to, residents of any other country, including the United States and the countries of the European Union and the European Economic Area. Codes, standards, licensing rules, product ratings, voltages, and safety practices differ materially outside Canada, and content that is correct in Canada may be wrong, unsafe, or unlawful to follow elsewhere. If you access the Service from outside Canada, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local law; the Service is not intended for you and you should not rely on it.

2. The Service is general information, not personalized advice

The Service is an educational reference. It presents common causes of household problems, ranked by general prevalence, and describes checks and possible fixes. It does not inspect your home, diagnose your specific situation, or tell you what is wrong with your particular equipment. Ranking tools that reorder content based on options you select are a way of organizing general information; they are not an individualized diagnosis and do not create a professional relationship of any kind.

Nothing on the Service is professional advice. We are not your electrician, plumber, HVAC technician, gas fitter, contractor, engineer, or lawyer, and using the Service does not create any such relationship.

3. Safety, and your responsibility

Home systems can cause serious injury, death, fire, flooding, electrocution, carbon-monoxide exposure, and property damage. You are solely responsible for deciding whether to attempt anything you read about here, and for doing it safely and lawfully.

• Where the Service marks a step or repair as requiring a licensed professional, or flags a safety-critical step, take that seriously.
• Many repairs are reserved by law to licensed trades in some provinces. It is your responsibility to confirm what is permitted where you live and to obtain any required permits and inspections.
• When in doubt, stop and hire a licensed professional. The Service is designed to help you make that call, not to replace it.

4. No warranty

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, including any implied warranties or conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. We do not warrant that content is accurate, complete, current, or suitable for your situation, or that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so some of the above may not apply to you; in that case such warranties are limited to the minimum extent permitted by law.

5. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, FirstCheck and its owners, operators, contractors, and contributors will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising out of or relating to your use of, or inability to use, the Service — including direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages; personal injury or death; property damage; or economic loss — even if advised of the possibility of such damages, and regardless of the legal theory.

Without limiting the foregoing, our total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service will not exceed [the greater of CAD $100 or the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, which for a free Service is $0].

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable Canadian law (for example, certain liability for gross negligence, wilful misconduct, or as otherwise mandated by consumer-protection legislation).

6. Third-party links, products, and professionals

The Service links to third-party retailers (for parts) and may connect you to third-party professionals or lead-referral services. We do not sell parts, perform work, or employ any professional. We are not responsible for third-party products, services, workmanship, pricing, or conduct. Any transaction or relationship you form with a retailer or professional is solely between you and them. Some links are affiliate links; see Section 7.

7. Affiliate and referral disclosure

We may earn a commission when you buy a product through a link on the Service, and we may receive a fee when you request a professional through the Service, at no additional cost to you. This never changes the ranking of causes or the substance of our guidance: the order in which we present likely causes is determined by general prevalence, safety, and cost of checking — never by what we might earn. See our [Trust page] for how this works.

8. Intellectual property

The Service, including its text, rankings, illustrations, structure, and underlying data, is owned by FirstCheck and protected by intellectual-property law. You may view and use it for your own personal, non-commercial home-maintenance purposes. You may not scrape, republish, or build a competing dataset from the Service without our written permission. [Decide with counsel whether/how to license the machine-readable feed and llms.txt for AI use.]

9. Changes

We may update the Service and these Terms at any time. Material changes to these Terms will be posted with a new "Last updated" date. Continued use after changes means you accept them.

10. Governing law and forum

These Terms and any dispute relating to the Service are governed by the laws of the Province of Prince Edward Island and the federal laws of Canada applicable there, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules.

You agree that any dispute will be brought exclusively in the courts of the Province of Prince Edward Island, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts. Because the Service is directed only at Canada, you agree not to bring any claim relating to the Service in any court outside Canada.

[Counsel: confirm PEI as the right home forum given the operating entity's incorporation and residence, and confirm enforceability of the exclusive-forum and class-action-waiver approach under PEI and federal consumer-protection law.]

11. Contact

Questions about these Terms: [legal@firstcheck.ca] · [mailing address]