Terms of Service

Welcome to FurFriend, a community app for people who love and care for their animals, operated by United Under God. By creating an account or using FurFriend (“the app”), you agree to these Terms of Service. If you don't agree, please don't use the app.

Most of FurFriend involves no money at all. One part of it does: the paid pet-sitting board. Sections 6, 7 and 8 explain exactly how that works, what we charge, and — just as importantly — what is not true about it today.

1. Who can use FurFriend

You must be 18 years of age or older to create an account. By signing up you confirm that you are at least 18. FurFriend is for individual members, not businesses, agencies, or staffing services. Paid pet-sitting is the one place money changes hands, and it happens between two members.

2. Your account

You're responsible for keeping your login details safe and for everything that happens under your account. Tell us right away if you believe someone else has accessed it. Please use accurate information and don't impersonate anyone else.

3. What FurFriend is (and isn't)

FurFriend helps neighbors make pet profiles, meet other owners, plan play dates, pass along pet gear, ask for or offer help, find or take paid pet-sitting work, and keep their own pet care notes. FurFriend is a place to connect — a venue. It is not a party to any arrangement you make with another member, and it does not guarantee anyone's conduct, identity, or the condition of any item shared.

That stays true when a sit is paid. FurFriend does not employ, hire, manage, train, supervise, or direct sitters, and nobody from FurFriend is present at a sit. And in this version of the app we do not verify anyone's identity and do not run background checks — not on sitters, not on owners. What a profile says about someone's experience, home, and what they will and won't do is self-attested: they typed it themselves. Reviews only come from people who actually finished a sit with that person, so a brand-new member honestly has none. Meet first, ask the questions you need answered, and decide for yourself who to trust.

4. Meeting safely

You are responsible for your own safety and the safety of your pets. Meet in named public places, use your judgment, and don't share your exact home address. FurFriend intentionally never publishes exact locations — on a sit, the address is only shared with your sitter once you have confirmed the booking. Pet-sitting and in-home help are arrangements between members. In an emergency, contact local authorities.

5. Give & swap and the free help board

The Give & swap board and the neighbourly Help board are free and always have been. FurFriend does not process payments and takes no part in any exchange of items, services, or money on them. Listings and offers are provided by members “as is,” and any money, swap, or favour is arranged and settled directly between the people involved, at their own risk. If you agree to pay a neighbour for a favour there, that is entirely between the two of you and we are not involved.

6. Paid pet-sitting: how the money works

The Sitting board is different from the free help board: it is paid work. An owner and a sitter agree one total for the whole sit inside the app, and before either of you says yes you both see the same three numbers — the agreed total, our service fee, and what the sitter receives.

FurFriend's service fee is 15% of the agreed total. It comes out of the sitter's payout, not on top of the owner's bill: the owner pays the agreed total and nothing more, we keep 15% of it, and the sitter receives the other 85%. Fractions of a cent round in the sitter's favour. That fee applies to sits paid through FurFriend — see the next paragraph for what happens today. If we ever change the percentage, we'll change it here and in the app, and it will only apply to sits agreed afterwards.

Add-ons count towards the agreed total. Some sits are more work than others — livestock and barn chores, extra animals, medication, a whole homestead — and a sitter can charge a surcharge for that work. Those add-ons are part of the one total the two of you agree, so our 15% is worked out on the whole amount, the rate and the add-ons together, and still comes out of the sitter's side rather than being added to the owner's bill. An add-on is fixed at the moment the sit is agreed: a later change to the sitter's price list never re-prices a sit already agreed, and for the same reason an agreed add-on can't be edited or removed afterwards.

When in-app payment is switched on, bookings that use it work like this: the owner pays through FurFriend using Stripe, our payment processor. The card is authorised when the sit is confirmed, and the payment is completed once the sit has been marked complete and the owner releases it — at which point the sitter's 85% goes to the sitter and our 15% stays with us. Card and bank details are handled by Stripe; FurFriend never sees or stores them. Each booking shows plainly which mode it is in, so please read it rather than assume.

To be paid through the app, a sitter must set up a payout account with Stripe and meet Stripe's own identity and payout requirements. That is Stripe's process under Stripe's terms, and we can't overrule a decision Stripe makes about an account. Sitters are self-employed people using FurFriend to find work — not our employees, contractors, or agents — and are responsible for their own taxes and for any local licences or rules that apply to paid pet care where they live.

7. Staying in someone's home

A paid sit usually means someone you have not met before staying in your home, alone, with your animals and your keys. Both sides should treat it as seriously as that deserves.

If you're the owner, you're responsible for:

• Describing your home and your animals accurately — including the awkward parts: bite or escape history, medications, illness, anxiety, anything a reasonable person would want to know before agreeing.
• Giving access instructions, house rules, the feeding and care routine, your vet, and the nearest emergency vet, in writing, before the sit starts.
• Agreeing in advance who pays for emergency vet care, food, and supplies, and how that gets paid back. FurFriend does not pay vet bills or expenses.
• Making sure you're actually allowed to have someone stay — your lease, building, HOA, insurer, and anyone else who lives there.

If you're the sitter, you're responsible for:

• Giving the care you agreed, on the days you agreed — and saying so as early as you possibly can if something means you can't.
• Treating the home and the animals with care. No extra guests, no parties, and never sharing the address, keys, codes, or photos of the inside of the home with anyone.
• Keeping the owner informed, and getting an animal to a vet or calling emergency services when it needs it — then telling the owner right away.
• Leaving when the sit ends. A booking is a short stay to care for animals; it is not a tenancy and does not make you a tenant or lodger.
• Only taking on animals and jobs you can genuinely handle.

FurFriend does not supervise sits, is not on call during them, and provides no insurance, no damage cover, no bonding, and no guarantee of any kind — not for your home, your animals, your belongings, or your pay. If you want cover, please arrange your own.

8. Cancelling, refunds, and when something goes wrong

Either side can cancel a sit from the booking screen at any point before it's finished, and the app records who cancelled and when. FurFriend has no cancellation-fee system and no automatic refund button today — we'd rather say that than describe a policy that doesn't exist. Here is what actually happens:

• While in-app payment is off: any money is entirely between the two of you. If a sit is called off, or ends early, or someone doesn't pay, you sort it out with each other. We have nothing to refund because we never took anything.
• When in-app payment is on: if a sit is cancelled before the payment is released, the payment is not completed and the authorisation on the owner's card falls away — the owner isn't charged. If something has genuinely been charged and needs returning, email us (section 15) and a person will handle it by hand.
• Disagreements are yours first. Talk to each other in the booking's messages — most things are a misunderstanding about times, keys, or scope.
• You can report and block, always. We read reports and may remove content or suspend accounts. But we are not a court: we don't decide who's right, we don't award compensation, and we can't promise you an outcome.
• Card disputes are between the cardholder and their bank or card issuer.
• If someone or an animal is in danger, or a crime has happened, contact local authorities first — then tell us.

9. Care records are not veterinary advice

Pet care records and reminders are a convenience for organizing your own information. They are not veterinary advice. Always consult a licensed veterinarian for your animal's health.

10. Community conduct

You agree not to:

• Harass, threaten, abuse, or endanger other people or animals
• Use FurFriend for anything unlawful, or promote animal cruelty or illegal sales
• Post false, misleading, or scam content, or impersonate others
• Share someone else's private information without permission
• Spam, solicit, or scrape the community
• Take a booking or payment you don't intend to honour, or push a member off the app to dodge our fee after agreeing a sit here

You can report a person or post and block anyone at any time. Blocking prevents you and that person from seeing or contacting each other. We may review reports and remove content or suspend accounts that violate these terms.

11. Your content

You keep ownership of the profiles, photos, and text you post. You grant FurFriend permission to store and display that content so the app can work. Don't post content you don't have the right to share. You can edit or delete your content, and you can delete your account. Reviews and booking records are kept as an honest history of what happened, so other members aren't misled.

12. Ending your use

You may stop using FurFriend and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or remove accounts that break these terms or put the community at risk. Finishing or cancelling any sit you've already agreed to — and settling the money for it — is still between you and the other person.

13. No warranties & limitation of liability

FurFriend is provided “as is,” without warranties of any kind. To the fullest extent allowed by law, United Under God is not liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the app, or from any interaction, sit, payment, or other arrangement between members. Nothing here limits any liability that cannot be limited by law.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time — including when in-app payment is switched on. If we make a significant change we'll update the date above; continued use after a change means you accept the updated terms.

15. Contact

Questions about these terms, about a payment, or anything at all? Email support@emails.unitedundergod.org — a real person reads it, and care@unitedundergod.org reaches us too. To flag a person or a post, the fastest route is the in-app Report button, which goes straight to our moderation queue. In an emergency, contact local authorities.