Terms of use

1. What Renocular does

Renocular connects Quebec homeowners with contractors. We pass a request to a contractor; we perform no work, give no construction advice, and are not a party to the contract you then make with each other.

The renovation contract, its price, timeline, quality and warranty are between the homeowner and the contractor. Our obligations to you are limited to the service described here.

When a contractor bills a project stage through the platform, we carry that payment between the two of you and take a commission on it. That does not make us a party to the renovation contract: the work, its warranty and the amounts owed remain between the homeowner and the contractor.

2. Homeowners

• The service is free to you. You pay nothing to submit a request or to be introduced.
• You agree to give accurate information and to submit only real projects you have the authority to decide on.
• We verify your phone number before your request is listed.
• Your request goes to one contractor only. You are under no obligation to hire them.
• You can change or withdraw your request at any time from the link emailed to you.

3. Contractors: account and eligibility

• You must hold a valid Régie du bâtiment du Québec licence for the categories of work you accept, and keep it in force.
• We verify your licence against the public register of active licences. An account whose licence lapses may be suspended.
• You are responsible for every user you add to your account and for the purchases they make.
• You agree not to resell, redistribute or publish contact details obtained through us.

4. Buying a request

• The price of a request is shown before you buy. It varies by trade and budget band.
• A request is assigned to one contractor. Once they have taken it, it leaves the board.
• Exclusivity is on our platform. The homeowner remains free to approach other contractors on their own; where we know of it, that is stated on the card before you buy.
• A request nobody takes expires at the deadline shown.
• Buying gives you the homeowner's contact details. It does not guarantee a reply, a visit or a contract.

5. Balance and payments

• Purchases are paid from your account balance, which you top up by card. Payments are processed by Stripe; we never see or store your card numbers.
• The balance is credit for buying requests on Renocular. It is not refundable in cash and cannot be withdrawn.
• An upheld dispute is credited to your balance, not refunded to your card.
• Every transaction is recorded in your account ledger, which you can consult at any time.
• This balance buys requests and nothing else. Money a homeowner pays for the work itself never passes through it; that is the section below.

6. Paying for project stages

A contractor who has completed Stripe's verification can bill a project stage through the platform, and the homeowner pays it online by card. This is separate from the balance above, which only ever buys requests.

A stage is billed once the contractor declares that part of the work finished. Nothing is billed in advance of the work.

The homeowner has the period shown on the invoice, seven days by default, to pay it or report a problem. A stage that is neither paid nor contested in that time is collected automatically. Reporting a problem stops the collection and brings the file to our team.

We never hold this money at any point. The payment is made on the contractor's own Stripe account and reaches them directly, less our commission, which Stripe deducts at the same moment.

Because the charge is made on the contractor's own Stripe account, the contractor is the merchant of record for it. A refund or a card chargeback on a stage is settled between the contractor, their client and Stripe, and the amount comes out of the contractor's Stripe account rather than ours.

Billing this way also means accepting Stripe's own agreement for the connected account. Verification, identity documents and banking details are handled by Stripe: we are given only the business name, the account email and the last four digits of the account that receives the payouts.

Reporting a problem stops that stage being collected and brings it to our team. We can cancel the invoice, and we can put the two of you back in touch. We do not decide whether the work was properly done: that is between the homeowner and the contractor, and section 12 says so.

7. When a stage is contested

This section answers one question: the contractor says the stage is finished and the homeowner says it is not.

The homeowner reports the problem from their project page, before the payment date shown on the invoice. Collection stops immediately and the stage stays uncollected while the rest of this section runs. No money has moved at this point, and none will until the stage is settled one way or another.

If you settle it between you, the contractor cancels the stage or reissues it for the amount agreed, or the homeowner pays it as billed. The project carries on from there, and the stages after it are unaffected: a contested stage does not freeze the rest of the work.

If you do not settle it, we may propose mediation and put you in touch with a mediator. Mediation is voluntary and neither of you gives anything up by declining it.

Failing that, the disagreement is between the homeowner and the contractor, and it goes wherever the law allows. A homeowner is a consumer: they may always take the matter to court, including the Small Claims Division, and nothing in these terms requires them to arbitrate. Article 11.1 of the Consumer Protection Act would make such a requirement unenforceable in any event.

Between us and a business user, a disagreement that our own complaints process has not resolved within 60 days may be referred to arbitration under the Code of Civil Procedure, in the judicial district where Unlicensed Studio Ltd has its head office, in French unless we agree otherwise. This paragraph binds business users only and never a consumer.

8. Disputing a request

You have 48 hours after purchase to dispute a request. One dispute per request is accepted.

Every dispute is reviewed by our team. If upheld, the amount is credited to your balance. If rejected, we tell you why. The 48-hour window is firm: after it closes, the request is treated as accepted.

Separately from a dispute you raise, we may take a request back ourselves. Where no contact with the homeowner has been logged within the contact window, 48 hours or 24 hours on an urgent request, and the homeowner confirms nobody reached them, we may return the request to the board for another contractor. The first time this happens the full price is credited to your balance. After that the credit may be partial or nil, because the contact details were delivered to you whether or not they were used.

9. Prohibited uses

• Using contact details for anything other than quoting, carrying out and billing the project they relate to
• Contacting a homeowner to offer services unrelated to their request
• Automatically extracting, copying or reproducing the site's content
• Creating multiple accounts to get around a suspension or a pricing rule
• Submitting false requests or false business information
• Billing a project stage that was not carried out, or billing an amount the client never accepted
• Using the platform's invoicing for work other than the project the quote belongs to

10. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or close an account that breaches these terms, whose licence is no longer valid, or whose activity gives reasonable grounds to suspect fraud. You may close your account at any time by writing to us.

When an account closes, any unused balance remains subject to section 5.

Closing or suspending an account does not cancel a stage already invoiced: it stays payable to the contractor, and any problem reported on it is still dealt with. What stops is new billing. Separately, a Stripe account that Stripe has restricted cannot bill through the platform whatever its standing with us, because the payment is made on that account.

11. Availability

We work to keep the service available without guaranteeing it will be uninterrupted. We may change it, or suspend part of it for maintenance or security.

Invoicing and collection depend on Stripe as well as on us. If Stripe is unavailable, a stage may be billed or collected later than its date. Section 12 covers where responsibility sits.

12. Liability

We are not responsible for the performance, quality, delay or cost of work agreed between a homeowner and a contractor, nor for how either behaves toward the other.

We provide the means to quote, bill and pay. We never sell the renovation work and never own it. The contractor sells it, issues the invoice and is the merchant of record for the payment.

We do not judge whether work was carried out properly. Reporting a problem on a stage stops that stage from being collected automatically. It does not make us an arbitrator of the work and it does not settle who owes what: that stays between the homeowner and the contractor, with whatever remedies the law gives them.

A stage collected on its due date is collected because both sides accepted that schedule, not because we have checked that the work was done.

Invoicing, payment and payouts run through Stripe. Where Stripe delays, holds, reverses or refuses a payment, or restricts an account, what we can do is limited to our own side of the service.

Toward contractors and other business users, our total liability for any claim connected to the service is limited to the amounts that business paid us in the twelve months before the claim, and we are not liable for lost profit, lost contracts or other indirect damage.

None of this reduces the rights the law gives a consumer, including under the Consumer Protection Act. The limit in the paragraph above does not apply where the law forbids it.

13. Personal information

How we handle your personal information is set out in our privacy policy, which forms part of these terms.

14. Governing law and language

These terms are governed by the law applicable in Quebec. Any dispute falls to the courts of the judicial district where Unlicensed Studio Ltd has its head office, subject to mandatory rules protecting consumers.

The French version of these terms prevails over any translation.

15. Changes

Any change will be published on this page with the date it takes effect. Using the service after that date means accepting it. A change does not affect a request already bought, nor the commission rate of a project already opened.

16. Contact us

For any question about these terms, write to us through the contact form or at the address below.