Terms of use

MaidMatcher is the trading name of the business that runs this website. In these documents we, us and MaidMatcher mean that business.

These terms of use apply to everyone. If you are a customer looking for a cleaner, the customer terms also apply to you. If you are a cleaner, the cleaner terms also apply to you. The guidelines and reviews policy, the privacy notice and the cookie policy form part of these terms. If a customer or cleaner document says something different from this one, the more specific document applies to that point.

By using the site, creating an account, posting a job, sending an enquiry or applying to a job, you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, please do not use the service.

MaidMatcher is an online introduction service and directory. We provide a website on which cleaners publish a page about their business, customers describe cleaning they need, and the two can find each other and exchange messages. That is the whole of what we do.

We are not a cleaning company, an agency, an employer or a contractor. We do not provide cleaning services, employ cleaners, supervise their work, set their prices, check their work or guarantee it. Every cleaner on the site is an independent, self-employed business acting on their own account.

Any agreement for cleaning is made directly between the customer and the cleaner. We are not a party to it. Its price, scope, timing, cancellation terms, access arrangements, what happens if something is damaged, and everything else about the work are for the customer and the cleaner to agree between themselves. Payment for the work passes directly from the customer to the cleaner. We do not handle it, hold it, or take any part of it.

We do not vet cleaners or customers unless a page says in terms that we have checked a specific thing. We do not run identity, criminal record, right to work, reference or insurance checks. What a cleaner’s page says is what the cleaner told us, plus reviews left by customers who hired them through the site. What a job post says is what the customer told us. You are responsible for satisfying yourself about the other person before you agree anything, and section 10 says what that means for us.

• You must be at least 18 years old.
• You must use the service in the United Kingdom, for cleaning at properties in the United Kingdom.
• You must give accurate information and keep it accurate.
• If you have been suspended or removed, you may not open another account.
• A business may use the service through a person authorised to bind it; that person confirms they have that authority.

• An account is either a customer account or a cleaner account, not both.
• You are responsible for everything done from your account. Keep your password private and tell us at once if you think someone else has used it.
• You must give us a working email address. It is how we reach you, and how a message from the other side reaches you.
• You can close your account at any time from your dashboard or by emailing support@maidmatcher.co.uk. Closing it ends these terms for you, except the parts that are meant to continue (sections 6, 10, 11, 12 and 15).

We grant you a personal, non-transferable, revocable permission to use the service in line with these terms. We aim to keep the site available and working, but it is provided as it is. We do not promise that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that any particular result will follow from using it: that a job will attract applications, that a cleaner will be available, that an enquiry will be answered, or that anyone will be hired.

We may change, add to or withdraw features at any time. Where a change materially reduces what an account holder gets, we tell account holders by email first (see section 14).

You must not:

• copy, scrape, harvest, frame or mirror the site or any part of it, or use automated tools on it, without our written consent;
• interfere with the site’s security or operation, probe it for weaknesses, or try to get round a limit, a rate limit or a moderation decision;
• upload anything containing malicious code;
• use the service for anything unlawful, or for any purpose other than finding or offering domestic and light commercial cleaning;
• resell the service or use it to build a competing service.

Yours. What you write, the photographs and logo you upload, and the job posts and messages you send stay yours. You give us a worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, display, reproduce and adapt them for the purpose of running the service: showing a cleaner’s page to visitors and to search engines, showing a job to cleaners who cover the area, carrying messages, and producing thumbnails and previews. The licence lasts as long as your account exists, and afterwards for as long as we are required to keep a record. You confirm that you own your content or have the right to grant this licence, that it is accurate, and that it does not infringe anyone else’s rights.

Ours. The site, its design, code, text, the MaidMatcher name and logo, and the photograph library we offer to cleaners are ours or licensed to us. Library photographs may be used only on a cleaner’s page on this site. Nothing in these terms gives you any other right to our material.

Feedback. If you send us suggestions, we may use them without owing you anything.

The full rules are in the guidelines. In short: be honest, be civil, keep to the job you are discussing, and do not use the service to harass, discriminate against or take advantage of anyone. In particular you must not:

• pretend to be someone you are not, or misrepresent your business, experience, prices or availability;
• post or send anything unlawful, defamatory, obscene, threatening or discriminatory;
• use another person’s contact details obtained through the site for anything other than the cleaning you are discussing with them, including marketing;
• ask for or offer payment to leave, remove or change a review;
• post a job that is not genuine, or apply to a job you have no intention of doing.

Customers may contact any cleaner through the site. A cleaner may only contact a customer who has messaged them, invited them to a job, or posted a job the cleaner has applied to. The site enforces this and it is a condition of using the service: a cleaner must not use details obtained on the site to approach a customer outside it for any other purpose.

Messages are private between the two people in a conversation. We do not read them as a matter of course. We may look at a conversation when one party reports it, when our automated checks flag it, when the law requires, or to investigate a suspected breach of these terms.

Once a customer and a cleaner are in conversation, they may share phone numbers and arrange the work however suits them. What is agreed off the site is still between them.

A review can only be left by a customer for a job they hired through the site and marked as finished. Reviews are the customer’s honest opinion and are not edited by us or by the cleaner, and a cleaner cannot remove one. We may remove a review that breaks the reviews policy. Fake reviews, paid reviews and reviews left in exchange for a benefit are prohibited and are unlawful in the United Kingdom.

Because the cleaning agreement is between the customer and the cleaner, and because we do not vet either, we are not responsible for, and you agree you will not hold us liable for:

• the quality, safety, legality, timeliness or completion of any cleaning, or whether it happens at all;
• loss of, damage to or theft of property, or injury to any person, in connection with a clean or a visit to a property;
• the conduct, honesty, identity, qualifications, insurance status, right to work or reliability of any user;
• anything a user says on their page, in a job post or in a message;
• payment for the work, including non-payment, overpayment, or a dispute about price or refund;
• cancellations, no-shows, lateness or changes of plan by either party;
• keys, alarm codes and access arrangements, which are for the customer and the cleaner to agree and secure;
• any agreement, arrangement or dealing between users, whether made on the site or off it.

If a customer and a cleaner fall out, we may offer practical help, such as reminding both sides of what the messages show, but we are not an arbitrator and we are not obliged to intervene. Nothing we do to help changes who is responsible.

What we do not exclude. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that the law does not allow us to limit or exclude. If you are a consumer, nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights, including your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 in relation to a service we provide to you.

What we exclude. Subject to that, we are not liable for any loss that was not a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms, for any loss arising from the matters in section 10, for loss of income, profit, business, contracts or goodwill, or for indirect or consequential loss. If you are a business user, we are also not liable for loss of data or for any loss arising from a failure or interruption of the site.

The cap. Subject to the paragraph above on what we do not exclude, our total liability to you arising out of or in connection with the service in any twelve month period is limited to the greater of the amount you have paid us in that period and £100.

Free services. Where you use the service without paying us, we provide it with reasonable care and skill, but you accept that a free service comes with the limits above and that the appropriate remedy for a problem with it is for us to fix it or for you to stop using it.

If you are a business user, including every cleaner, you agree to compensate us for any loss, claim, cost or expense (including reasonable legal costs) that we suffer because you broke these terms, because of content you published, or because of a claim by a third party arising from cleaning you carried out or arranged through the site. If you are a consumer, you are responsible to us for loss we suffer because you broke these terms, to the extent the law allows.

We may hide content, restrict what an account can do, suspend it, or close it if:

• you break these terms, the customer or cleaner terms, or the guidelines;
• we reasonably believe the account is being used fraudulently, to harm someone, or unlawfully;
• we receive a credible complaint that needs investigating, in which case the restriction lasts while we look;
• a legal or regulatory obligation requires it;
• the account has been unused for more than two years, after we have emailed you.

Where we suspend or close an account, we tell you the reason by email, unless the law prevents it or telling you would put someone at risk. You can reply to that email to ask us to look again, and a person will. For cleaners, the cleaner terms say more about notice and reasons.

You may close your account at any time. Conversations you had remain visible to the other person, and a review you left or received remains, because it belongs to the record of a job that happened.

We may change these terms. When we do, the date at the top changes. A change that affects your rights or obligations in a material way is announced by email to account holders at least 15 days before it takes effect, or sooner where the law requires it. If you do not accept a change you may close your account before it takes effect; continuing to use the service after that date means you accept it.

• Whole agreement. These terms, with the documents they refer to, are the whole agreement between you and us about the service.
• Severability. If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a term at once, we can still enforce it later.
• Transfer. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation, and will tell you if we do. You may not transfer yours without our consent.
• Third parties. Nobody other than you and us has any right under these terms.
• Notices. We contact you at the email address on your account. You contact us at support@maidmatcher.co.uk.
• Law and courts. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. Disputes are dealt with by the courts of England and Wales; if you are a consumer living in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also bring proceedings in your local courts.

If you have a complaint about us or the service, email support@maidmatcher.co.uk and a person will reply within five working days. The guidelines describe how complaints about another user are handled.