Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen

General Terms and Conditions (GTC) for using the short-term housing platform on housinganywhere.com

(Last updated version: 10 June 2015)

Article 1: Scope, amendment of General Terms and Conditions

1. The General Terms and Conditions (GTC) below apply to the use of the platform www.housinganywhere.com (also: “platform”). This is a service of Housing Anywhere BV (“Housing Anywhere” or “we”).
2. “Users” within the sense of these General Terms and Conditions are natural and legal persons who have either posted an advertisement of an accommodation on the platform or responded to an advertisement of an accommodation.
3. Customers of Housing Anywhere are educational institutions. They subscribe to a membership on the platform in order to offer this platform as a housing option to their students.
4. Housing Anywhere offers the usage of its platform, in particular the use of the database, solely on the basis of these General Terms and Conditions.
5. By using our services, users consent to the validity of these General Terms and Conditions.
6. By using our services, users confirm that they oblige the national laws and obligations of their country with respect to renting and subletting.
7. Housing Anywhere reserves the right to amend its General Terms and Conditions effective for the future. The amendments will not become part of the agreement until the user consents to such amendments. It is sufficient for this purpose that Housing Anywhere sends the new version of the General Terms and Conditions to the e-mail address that the user provided for information purposes. If the user does not contradict the amendments to the General Terms and Conditions within one week, consent will be considered to have been granted.
8. Conflicting terms and conditions of the user have no effect (point 2.5 notwithstanding), even if Housing Anywhere does not contradict them.

Article 2: Performance by Housing Anywhere, performance by providers

1. The platform is an online market place on which users can offer and rent rooms or other types of accommodation (“accommodation”).
2. On www.Housing Anywhere, Housing Anywhere provides a platform on which users can find ways to communicate with each other and conclude agreements. Housing Anywhere itself does not offer any accommodation; it merely acts as an intermediary for the conclusion of agreements between users.
3. Housing Anywhere emphasizes that the use of a lease contract between provider and tenant is highly recommended. Based on the importance that Housing Anywhere puts on the use of a lease, she offers provider and tenant a predrafted lease contract. By offering an accommodation on Housing Anywhere provider agrees with the application of Housing Anywhere’s predrafted lease contract, unless provider explicitly declares that a different lease contract is applicable and tenant agrees with this different lease contract. Housing Anywhere only offers the predrafted lease contract by means of a favor to users. The applicability of the lease contract remains an own choice of tenant and provider. Housing Anywhere can therefore never be held responsible for any shortcomings in the predrafted lease contract, or any damages following from the use of the predrafted lease contract.
4. Leases are concluded exclusively between the user providing the accommodation (“provider”) and the user renting the accommodation (“tenant”). Housing Anywhere itself is not a party to the leases concluded between the website’s users. However, Housing Anywhere is entitled to act as a representative for the provider with the authority to conclude agreements and to conclude agreements on his/her behalf. However, the provider and the tenants are themselves responsible for satisfying their own contractual obligations. In the event of default, this must be negotiated between the users. Housing Anywhere saves and will transmit the contact data of both parties for this purpose.
5. Housing Anywhere does not examine the legality, accuracy or completeness of offers published on the platform or user content, and these do not represent the views of Housing Anywhere. Housing Anywhere is not responsible for third-party offerings or content.
6. Providers can apply their own terms and conditions to the accommodation they are renting that do not affect the General Terms and Conditions of Housing Anywhere.
7. Providers and tenants are responsible for their adherence to the provisions governed by public law, including municipal codes regarding property rental.
8. Providers are responsible for the permission of their landlord in the case of sublease.
9. Providers are responsible for the arrangement of all required documents to rent out the apartment. These documents include, but are not limited to, licenses to (sub)rent from the landlord or municipality, (sub)rental contracts.
10. By agreeing to these General Terms and Conditions (GTC), provider states that he/she has permission by the landlord (private, agent or housing cooperation) to rent out the room/property, as depicted under 8; has arranged all required documents, as depicted under 9; and has, if applicable, informed his/her roommates.

Article 3: Registration, realisation of the user agreement, contractual declarations

1. The registration of users is required in order to make use of Housing Anywhere. Providers register when putting their room online. Tenants register when replying to a room. Registration is free of charge and requires that users accept Housing Anywhere’s General Terms and Conditions. The user agreement between Housing Anywhere and the user arises on acceptance of the terms and conditions.
2. Registration is available only to natural persons, legal persons and partnerships that are fully legally competent. The registration of a legal person or partnership may be performed only by a natural person with power of representation who must be named. When registering, only individual persons may be given as the owner of the user account (i.e. no married couples or families).
3. Registration as a provider is available only to people with an activated student email-account, people in possession of a coupon/code provided by Housing Anywhere or an activated landlord account.
4. When registering, the user undertakes to provide accurate, up-to-date and complete information as required by the registration form, in particular first and last name, current address (not a PO box), a valid e-mail address and, where appropriate, the name of the company and an authorised representative. The data must be up-to-date and correct at all times. Multiple registrations under different member names are prohibited. When registering, the user chooses a password to accompany his/her email address.
5. The user can receive contractual declarations at his/her stated e-mail address.

Article 4: User obligations, user account, system integrity

1. The user is solely responsible for all content that he places on the platform. In his/her relationship to HousingAnywhere.com, he commits not to place illegal content on the platform and to refrain from actions that violate laws.
2. The provider is responsible for ensuring that the accommodation he offers is described correctly and completely. He must provide the information in HousingAnywhere.com’s required fields at a minimum so that the accommodation and the offer are described with sufficient accuracy.
3. The user agrees that all the photos added must be authentic and show a realistic sight of the rooms. Pictures replications from other websites will be, without prior notice, deleted and the user will be removed or disabled from the platform.
4. In addition, the provider is free to stipulate further conditions such as the amount of any deposit, the cost of final cleaning, etc. The user undertakes to keep the information in his/her user account up-to-date and accurate at all times, i.e. to correct it immediately in the event of a change or delete the room from the platform in case tenant and provider have agreed on rental. A user account is personal and can therefore not be transferred to any other person.
5. The user undertakes to use his/her user account himself only and to keep his/her password secret.
6. The user is liable to HousingAnywhere.com for all actions performed using his/her user account, unless the user is not responsible for the misuse of his/her user account.
7. Once the user is aware that third parties have access to his/her user data or have otherwise gained access to his/her user account, he must notify HousingAnywhere.com of this immediately. HousingAnywhere.com is entitled to block the user account until the situation has been clarified.
8. HousingAnywhere.com, without prior notice, will charge the price of the booking fee and remove or disable access of the User who posts, sends, publishes, or transmits any kind of personal contact that would lead the other party outside the platform. (E.g. Personal bank account, phone number, email, etc).
9. Each user must independently verify the identity of his/her respective contract partner (the tenant in case of the provider or the provider in case of the tenant). HousingAnywhere.com accepts no liability for the accuracy of the user contact information entered on the platform.
10. The user undertakes to set up his/her systems and programs in connection with the use of HousingAnywhere.com offering in a way that ensures that the security, integrity and availability of systems set up by HousingAnywhere.com to provide its services are not affected. Users must not block, rewrite, or modify content generated by HousingAnywhere.com or interfere in any other way that contravenes the purpose of the user agreement. HousingAnywhere.com is entitled to set up the required measures in accordance with item 15 as are necessary to ensure the system integrity of all the parties.
11. Users must not use addresses, contact data, or e-mail addresses that they obtain by using the website for any purpose other than for contractual communication. In particular, these data must not be forwarded to unauthorised persons or used to send advertising, unless the user in question has expressly granted his/her consent in advance.
12. The user must not send mass messages with the same content via the platform. Any spamming or similarly harassing action towards other users or third parties is prohibited.
13. Each user is himself responsible for archiving any information that can be viewed on the website and saved by HousingAnywhere.com that is required for the purposes of preservation of evidence, accounting, etc. on a storage medium independent of HousingAnywhere.com.
14. HousingAnywhere.com does not give away any contact details of its users to any third party, except to our partner institutions, or if the law requires to do so. The partner institutions (mostly universities or other educational institutions) can ask HousingAnywhere.com for an overview of rooms rented out in the city of their settlement. The purpose of this information sharing is so that the partner institutions can forecast the room demand in their city in a better way and check possible student misuses.
15. In the event of a violation of these General Terms and Conditions by a user, HousingAnywhere.com is entitled to exercise its virtual householder rights. HousingAnywhere.com can exclude the user in question from using its services, delete the content he uses, or take other measures within the meaning of item 13. HousingAnywhere.com will take legal action to exercise its legitimate rights to forbearance and compensation.

Article 5: Handling of content and rights

1. Within the framework of the platform’s functionality, providers can present to potential tenants using a variety of media. Certain rules must be complied with to ensure that the various media are utilised legally so that neither the user nor Housing Anywhere can be made liable. These rules derive, for example, from laws protecting copyrights and brands in addition to these General Terms and Conditions.
2. Housing Anywhere saves for the user the multimedia content uploaded by him (images, text, etc.) or merely arranges the necessary memory space and access to it. Users themselves are solely responsible for the content they upload to Housing Anywhere and indemnify Housing Anywhere against all third-party claims resulting from this. In particular, this indemnification also includes the costs of appropriate prosecution and legal defence.
3. Users will ensure that the uploaded content does not violate applicable law or legal provisions, common decency, or in particular third-party rights (naming rights, personality rights, copyright, data protection rights, etc.). In particular, users undertake not to upload content that violates the terms of any applicable laws or treaties. The user also undertakes not to utilise content that is pornographic, glorifies violence, or is race baiting. This also applies to the sending of e-mails and other electronic communication media of the platform.
4. By uploading multimedia content, users transfer to Housing Anywhere a free, revocable, unlimited, non-local right of use that can be sub-licensed to the multimedia content uploaded to Housing Anywhere by the user. In particular, the right of use comprises the right to process the multimedia content for the purposes of the platform and to make it available to the public offline, in printed or electronic form, by wired or wireless connection, in such a way that it is accessible to members of the public at places and times of their choosing, including playback on their chosen receiver terminal that allows online access, in particular stationary and portable computer and mobile handheld devices such as smartphones, tablets and similar equipment. The usage rights also include the right to integrate multimedia content, including advertising media, on websites from Housing Anywhere’s contractual partners.
5. Housing Anywhere is free to use any comments, information, pictures or ideas contained in any communication user may send to Housing Anywhere without compensation, acknowledgement or payment to user for any purpose whatsoever, including, but not limited to, developing, manufacturing and marketing products and services and creating, modifying or improving the services or website or other products or services. For the avoidance of doubt, all such information will be deemed by Housing Anywhere to be non-confidential and non-proprietary, and user agrees that such information may be used by Housing Anywhere without any limitation whatsoever.
6. User explicitly agrees that Housing Anywhere is free to read any messages sent between users. Housing Anywhere may read these messages to improve user experience, solve conflicts between users or for other reasons Housing Anywhere deems appropriate.
7. User agrees that Housing Anywhere is free to republish and make use of any information published by you on the website without acknowledging user as the source of such information and/or creator of such content. In general however, Housing Anywhere will make an attempt to provide a link back to user's page when posting content on other third party sites, such as Facebook or any of our contractual partners. User hereby irrevocably waives all moral rights to any content placed on the website.
8. User explicitly allows Housing Anywhere to use and show user's (Facebook)profile picture on its website www.housinganywhere.com.
9. The content offered via Housing Anywhere is protected by copyright. The platform is generally accessed and utilised individually by a natural person using a web browser. The use of technologies such as web spiders, crawlers, or similar programmes, the purpose of which is not just the indexing of content but also the mass accessing and saving of the platform’s content is prohibited. This also applies in particular to technologies that enable so-called screen scraping and other third-party services.
10. In the event of a violation of these prohibitions and the guidelines of these General Terms and Conditions, Housing Anywhere is entitled to refuse acceptance of content, to delete and block content immediately and to delete the pages and links to them immediately. In such cases the user has no right to the restoration of his/her multimedia content on the internet platform or the release of his/her deleted user profile.

Article 6: Availability and amendment of the website

1. The user has no legal claim to permanent use of the platform. In particular, Housing Anywhere is not required to ensure that the platform is available or can be reached at all times. However, Housing Anywhere endeavours to maintain operation of the platform with as few disruptions as possible and to continue to develop it in line with user requirements.
2. Housing Anywhere can temporarily restrict use if this is necessary in terms of security, integrity, capacity limits, or the performance of technical measures (maintenance work). In particular, Housing Anywhere will take users’ legitimate interests into account by notifying them in advance.

Article 7: Liability for third-party sites

1. The platform’s pages also include links to websites on the Internet maintained by third parties, the content of which is not known to Housing Anywhere. Housing Anywhere merely provides access to the websites and accepts no responsibility for the content. The links to third-party Internet sites merely serve to facilitate navigation. Housing Anywhere does not espouse the views expressed on the sites to which it links, and rather hereby expressly distances itself from all content on all websites that it links to on its platform.
2. The owners of the Internet sites to which the Housing Anywhere platform hyperlinks are solely responsible for both their content and the goods or services offered for sale there.

Article 8: Secure booking service, payment, invoice and commission

1. By listing an accommodation on the HousingAnywhere.com website, the provider is issuing an invitation to submit offers. Another user can submit an offer to conclude a lease for this accommodation. The agreement arises if the provider accepts this offer, unless the tenant withdraws this offer before the provider accepts it.
2. A lease is the period for which the tenant leases the accommodation from the provider. The length of a lease can differ with no maximum nor minimum. The average length of a lease will be around 5 months.
3. After conclusion of the agreement, HousingAnywhere.com provides tenants with a booking method via the website of HousingAnywhere.com, where HousingAnywhere.com keeps possession of the money until 48 hours after the start of the lease. After this period HousingAnywhere.com will transfer the payment of the lease to the provider. HousingAnywhere.com acts as a third party custodian in order to eliminate scams.
4. The use of the secure booking service, offered by HousingAnywhere.com, is mandatory for all website users. The provider of the accommodation is responsible for the execution of the payment of the first month rent via HousingAnywhere.com.
5. In the case an agreement has been made and parties continue with the payment procedure the tenant will receive a payment link from HousingAnywhere.com, through which the payment is transferred to HousingAnywhere.com. The payment will be transferred to a secure, third party bank account. After the tenant has moved into the accommodation and has given HousingAnywhere.com the assurance that the accommodation meets the requirements set in the listing, HousingAnywhere.com will order the rent to be transferred to the provider and the processing fee to HousingAnywhere.com.
6. Cancellation policy:
   1. HousingAnywhere.com does not provide any cancellation options after a booking has been confirmed. Once there has been an agreement, the tenant is obligated to pay the amount due. In the case that the tenant decides not to make use of the accommodation after an agreement has been made there will be no refund, unless stated otherwise in these Terms and Conditions.
   2. If the tenant does not show up or does not take the accommodation, then HousingAnywhere.com will transfer the first month rent to the advertiser, to compensate the advertiser for the loss of an empty room. The secure booking fee will not be transferred, HousingAnywhere.com takes this as compensation for their services.
   3. HousingAnywhere.com transfers the rent to the advertiser, 48 hours after the start of the rental contract. HousingAnywhere.com is no longer involved in executing the agreement made between the tenant and the advertiser when the 48 hours have passed.
   4. If the tenant decides not take the accommodation after the booking occurred, the tenant always has the possibility of asking the advertiser if s/he is willing to refund the first month rent. This is up to the advertiser to agree on or not. If the advertiser agrees on refunding the first month rent, the advertiser should inform HousingAnywhere.com. If HousingAnywhere.com has already transferred the money to the advertiser then the advertiser must refund the money directly to the tenant. HousingAnywhere.com is not involved in the transfer of funds between the landlord and the tenant.
7. Refund policy:
   1. Housing Anywhere will provide tenant with a refund of the first month rent and secure booking fee if:
      • A tenant discovers that he has been involved in the unlikely case of a scam (the room does not exist at all, the room is different than stated in the contract
      • Is not available for the tenant’s use for the agreed lease (for example, there is already someone else in the room)
      • Natural disasters (avalanches, snowstorms, cyclones, hurricanes, earthquakes, flooding, lightning strikes, landslides) or other unforeseeable events (war, terrorist attack, nuclear disaster)
   2. A refund will not be given in other circumstances which include, but are not limited to: accommodation that is not according to taste; accommodation that is not in line with religious ideology (including living with people from another sex); accommodation that turns out to be in a less safe neighborhood; accommodation that has noise complaints; accommodation is not suitable to the tenant because of medical reasons; accommodation has a minor malfunction that could not have been known in advance; the tenant is hindered in coming to the accommodation because of a change of plans, travel delays, illness or having made a double booking.
   3. The tenant has the obligation to inform HousingAnywhere.com and the provider within 48 hours after the start of the lease period. The tenant must substantiate his claim and provide proof. If HousingAnywhere.com finds the tenant’s claim to be convincing, it will refund the rent and the booking fee charged by HousingAnywhere.com to the tenant. If the tenant does not inform HousingAnywhere.com about any problems within 48 hours from the start of the lease onwards, the tenant is expected to have agreed with the room as it is. HousingAnywhere.com will then transfer the payment of the rent to the provider.
   4. In the case of a dispute between tenant and provider HousingAnywhere.com advises parties to solve it themselves. If this turns out to be impossible, parties can provide HousingAnywhere.com with the information and possible proof of the dispute. After taking all the provided information into consideration, HousingAnywhere.com decides about the dispute which will be binding for both parties.
   5. The room must be delivered to the tenant in a clean state. If the tenant arrives and the room is not in a suitably hygienic state to live in, the advertiser risks the payment being put on hold and potentially cancelled until the advertiser resolves the problem. The tenant must provide evidence of these unsuitable conditions (i.e. photo). HousingAnywhere.com will decide if this is significant enough to delay and/or cancel the payment.
8. The provider must ensure that:
   1. A correct IBAN/BIC bank account is provided. HousingAnywhere.com will transfer the rent to the bank account provided and is not liable if this bank account is not correct. HousingAnywhere.com’s obligations towards provider will cease to exist once HousingAnywhere.com has transferred the rent to the bank account provided by provider. Whether this bank account is correct or not is to remain the risk of the provider and does not stand in the way of releasing HousingAnywhere.com from its liabilities.
   2. the description of the accommodation and the images used do not violate the law or third-party rights and that they relate only to the accommodation on offer;
   3. successfully booked accommodation is indicated accordingly or removed from the platform;
   4. information uploaded does not constitute references to third-party content;
   5. he complies with public law regulations, particularly those for payment, factoring and tax law obligations, which may also include any obligations under sales tax law or indirect tax obligations. The provider will be solely responsible of the obligations and duties of the offer content. HousingAnywhere.com is entitled to verify the offer of the users and ask for the corresponding proofs;
   6. once a tenant has requested renting the accommodation, provider is not allowed to request a higher price than requested in the original advertisement.
9. With respect to offers provided by user:
   1. Anyone who is interested in renting an accommodation posted on the platform can react via the platform.
   2. The purpose of reacting to an accommodation can only be related to the wish of coming to an agreement concerning the leasing of an accommodation posted on www.housinganywhere.com. All other purposes that are not in accordance with this goal, such as, but not limited to, contacting the provider for any advertising purposes, asking users to post their room offers on different housing websites, generating flow to any other websites, use any automatic or manual process to search or harvest information from the website, or to interfere in any way with the proper functioning of the website are prohibited.
   3. Users are prohibited from circumventing the above booking and payment processes, in particular the processing fees.
   4. If reactions are made with a different reason than solely coming to an agreement on renting a property listed on www.housinganywhere.com and with that in breach of the previous paragraph, the replier is liable to a fine of €1000 (say: one thousand euros) per reaction sent.
10. The payment process shall take place under the following provisions:
    1. The agreement arises by way of a total price shown at the end of the booking. This consists of the rent and the processing fee (certain percentage over the first month’s rent which is indicated next to the room price), which comprises an administration component and a property-based component determined by the rent. After a booking has been made, HousingAnywhere.com notifies users of its content and the total price.
    2. HousingAnywhere.com remains the right to offer its services to tenant for consecutive months. HousingAnywhere.com’s service is not just limited to the first month rent.
    3. HousingAnywhere.com is entitled to change the amount of processing fees at any time. This does not apply to leases already concluded. The provider will be notified of the amount of the processing fee by email in a timely manner, together with the booking inquiry.
    4. HousingAnywhere.com is entitled to change its business model in such a way that it will also collect a processing fee from the provider. This will show in a reduction on the rent transferred by HousingAnywhere.com to the provider.
    5. The tenant must pay the total price shown in the booking, by way of the channel chosen in the booking process. HousingAnywhere.com only receives the processing fee, the rent is transferred to the provider at a specified date of which details can be read under 8.3. If debt collection is unsuccessful, the tenant must reimburse any additional costs incurred. This does not apply if the tenant is not responsible for the failure of debt collection.
    6. HousingAnywhere.com charges the provider a Commission. The commission calculation can be found under Article 8.19.
    7. Landlords with only one listing on the website, will not be charged commissions.
    8. Users can offset HousingAnywhere.com processing fees against receivables only if these are due and have been legally established or are undisputed. Receivables cannot be transferred to third parties.
    9. HousingAnywhere.com makes use of a payment service provider. In the case of different currencies this payment service provider determines the exchange rate based on the market rate. HousingAnywhere.com has no role whatsoever in the determination of the exchange rate. In the case of a refund, the daily exchange rate will be used - regardless if the exchange rate was different when the payment was made. Moreover, in refund cases, the tenant is liable for his/her own bank's transaction costs, as well as any currency conversion service that his/her bank may provide.
11. On request, the provider must issue the tenant with an invoice for the total price. On request, HousingAnywhere.com will issue the provider with an invoice for the processing fee, though this will be shown without sales tax or similar indirect taxes in accordance with tax law provisions, unless expressly stated otherwise in these regulations.
12. Unless HousingAnywhere.com is notified otherwise, it is refutably assumed that the provider operates in a business capacity and is aware of his/her resulting (sales) tax obligations and satisfies these accordingly. HousingAnywhere.com is entitled to demand corresponding evidence of the provider’s business capacity.
13. The provider reserves the right to additionally charge other on-site costs based on consumption and use (in particular: electricity, water, heating). The provider must advise the tenant that he has a basic right to charge these costs before concluding the agreement. Such costs are not considered in the calculation of the booking fee.
14. HousingAnywhere.com advises users that have agreed on renting an accommodation to sign a contract between the two of them.
15. As mentioned on Article 8.10, a commission is charged for every booking. The commission is previously agreed between the Provider and HousingAnywhere.com represented by one of the Account Manager.
16. The commission will be withheld from the payout of the first month rent.
17. The commission is calculated based on the total contract value, which is determined by the whole quantity of days of the booking. (e.g. from the 01/08/2017 to 31/12/2017 - that makes 153 days)
18. VAT (Value Added Tax) is NOT included in the rent price and is, therefore, calculated on top.
19. As an exemplification:
    
    

    Contract value of a full year	=	Monthly rent	x	12 months
    Contract value of a day	=	Contract value of a full year	/	365
    Contract value of the booking	=	Contract value of a day	x	Length of Stay/Booking
    Comission fee	=	Contract balue of booking	x	Commission %
    Total due amount on the invoice	=	Commission Fee	+	VAT

Article 9: Security deposit

1. The provider is entitled to charge a security deposit in his/her offer. If a provider demands a security deposit from the tenant on the day of arrival, corresponding information on the amount of the security deposit and the payment method must have already been mentioned in the offer. The amount of the security deposit must be stipulated prior to the booking. It must also be clarified in advance when the amount must be paid (e.g. upon moving in).
2. If the provider did not mention the security deposit when advertising his/her accommodation, but demands a security deposit at a later time and the tenant does not agree, this constitutes a refusal to render performance by the provider under the agreed contract. In such cases, the tenant reserves the right to cancel the booking after which the provider is obligated to refund the tenant.
3. Housing Anywhere is not responsible for the administration of security deposits, or for any claims asserted by the provider.
4. The provider will be responsible for refunding the security deposit to the tenant at the end of the lease.

Article 10: Duration, termination

1. The user agreement is concluded for an indefinite period.
2. The user can terminate the agreement at any time without notice. User’s leases with other users that have already been proven or arranged remain unaffected by the termination of the user agreement. This applies accordingly to claims for the payment of processing fees already due.
3. Housing Anywhere can terminate the user agreement at any time with two weeks’ notice. An email will be sufficient for the purpose.
4. This does not affect the right to block, the right to terminate for just cause or individually agreed rights of termination of the user. In particular, Housing Anywhere has just cause if:
   • The user does not comply with a not merely insignificant payment obligation in full or in part, despite having been sent a reminder with an appropriate deadline;
   • The user violates his/her obligations under these General Terms and Conditions and does not take remedial action despite having been sent a reminder with a timely deadline. A reminder is not needed if this is not expected to be successful or if the breach is sufficiently severe that it would be unreasonable for Housing Anywhere to maintain the agreement.
   • Requirements of law, a court, or an official authority mean that the use of the platform can no longer be offered in this form;
   • Housing Anywhere discontinues its platform or business activities;
   • Insolvency proceedings are initiated for the user’s assets owing to a lack of funds.

Article 11: Measures in the event of illegal conduct and/or conduct in breach of agreement by the user

1. If there are specific indications that a user is culpably violating legal provisions, third-party rights, or the General Terms and Conditions or if Housing Anywhere otherwise has a legitimate interest, particularly with regard to protecting its users against fraudulent activities, Housing Anywhere can take one or more of the following actions subject to termination without notice:
   • Issue the user with a warning;
   • Delete the user’s offers or other content;
   • Restrict the user’s use of the website;
   • Temporarily or permanently exclude (block) the user from the website;
   • Contest and cancel existing leases in the name of the provider without taking into account any otherwise applicable cancellation policies, and reject the user’s offers for the conclusion of a lease in the name of the provider.
2. Housing Anywhere also takes the legitimate interests of the user in question into consideration when choosing these measures.
3. Leases that have already been concluded between the user and other users are not affected by deletion of an offer. This applies accordingly to claims for the payment of processing fees already due. An effective lease does not arise if Housing Anywhere deletes an offer before it is accepted.
4. Housing Anywhere has the right to permanently block a user in each of the following cases. As far as reasonable, the user will receive prior warning by Housing Anywhere so that it has the opportunity to dispel suspicion or take remedial action. If a previous warning is not reasonable, e.g. because blocking is necessary to prevent any damage to Housing Anywhere or another user, the user will be subsequently informed by Housing Anywhere of the blocking immediately, and then be given the opportunity to comment and take remedial action. The right to block a user exists if:
   • the user has provided incorrect contact information in his/her user account, in particular an incorrect or invalid email address;
   • a user account is transferred to another party;
   • the user significantly harms other users, in particular if their accommodations and/or furnishings are damaged, destroyed, stolen, etc.;
   • there is just cause due to similar risk and responsibility of the user.
5. After a user has been permanently blocked by Housing Anywhere, he is not entitled to have the blocked user account restored. The user will also no longer be permitted to use the website with other user accounts or to re-register.
6. User is liable to any damages incurred by Housing Anywhere that follow from a violation of these terms&conditions. Housing Anywhere can recover its damages caused within the context of these terms&conditions against user. Futhermore, user safeguards Housing Anywhere from any third party claims in connection with user's infringement of the terms&conditions.

Article 12: Conversations via Housing Anywhere

1. The conversations that the tenant and provider have via the inbox window on the Housing Anywhere website are saved by Housing Anywhere in a secure place. These conversations will not be analyzed nor read by Housing Anywhere in normal circumstances, for privacy reasons. Only in the case of expected fraud Housing Anywhere reserves the right to analyse the conversations and inform or act in accordance with the criminal code.
2. Any other information Housing Anywhere collects, uses and retains through the website will be used and stored in compliance with appropriate laws and regulations.
3. In the case of a dispute between tenant and provider Housing Anywhere can provide both parties with the chat history upon request.

Article 13: Housing Anywhere’s liability

1. Housing Anywhere is fully liable for damages caused with intent or through gross negligence by Housing Anywhere, its employees or agents, for fraudulent concealment of defects and if a guarantee was expressly assumed.
2. Housing Anywhere is liable for other damages only if they arise from violation of a duty whose fulfillment makes the proper implementation of the agreement possible and compliance with which it is regularly trusted by the parties to the agreement. Its duty to pay compensation is limited to such damages that are considered typical for the agreement and foreseeable.
3. As Housing Anywhere does not participate in the contractual relationship between the tenant and the provider, Housing Anywhere accepts no liability for contracts for accommodation.
4. Housing Anywhere offers the option of contacting Housing Anywhere with a complaint if there are any problems with regards to the website, accommodation or provider. The complaint must be provided in written form (e-mail). In this complaint the guest must specifically indicate the grounds for the complaint. In such a case Housing Anywhere will attempt to bring about a solution.

Article 14: Cancellation of a booking - penalty

1. For tenants and advertisers who want to cancel the booking within the following 24 hours of which the original booking was implemented:
   • there will be no penalty for advertisers
   • tenants are guaranteed their money back for the first month’s rent
2. The refund guarantee for tenants under 1 is exclusive of the booking fee, unless the room:
   • was double booked
   • is not available
3. Tenants refund guarantee - under the restriction mentioned under 2 - will be refunded as soon as possible, but no later than 30 days after repealing the booking.
4. Cancellation should take place exclusively by letter or email.
5. Cancellation of a the booking after the day of booking, entails that a penalty will be charged.
6. If an advertiser cancels a booking after the day of booking due to mistaken room availability or personal preference of a tenant, they will be subject to a multi-stage penalty:
   • stage 1: After 1st cancellation, advertiser’s listing will be moved to the end of the list on the search page of the relevant city for a period of 2 weeks;
   • stage 2: With repeated cancellations, stage 1 penalty will be executed again and 10%% of the month’s rent for the next booking will be held back by HousingAnywhere as a penalty fee.
7. If a tenant cancels a booking after the day of the booking due to added price, the multi-stage penalty will also apply
8. If a tenant cancels a booking after the day of booking due to reasons in the absence of force majeure, Housing Anywhere will withhold the booking fee as compensation for their services.
9. The advertiser of tenant will be informed in writing or by email, when a penalty will be charged.

Article 15: Advise for users

1. Housing Anywhere advises users to enter into a contractual agreement with each other. As stated before HousingAnyshere.com is not part in the agreement between provider and tenant and therefore advises both parties to enter into a contractual agreement with each other. Housing Anywhere offers a draft agreement on its website but does not guarantee the completeness of this contract.
2. Housing Anywhere furthermore advises the tenant to obtain liability insurance to cover for costs in case damages to the accommodation arise.

Article 16: Closing provisions

1. Housing Anywhere is authorised to transfer its rights and obligations under this agreement in full or in part to third parties.
2. Housing Anywhere is authorised to send mailings to its users about sidejobs, jobs and internships at Housing Anywhere to its users through a newsletter. Users will have the possibility to unsubscribe from this newsletter.
3. This agreement is subject solely to the substantive laws of the Kingdom of The Netherlands with the exception of the UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods and Dutch international private law.
4. If the user is a consumer within the meaning of Book 7 of the Burgerlijk Wetboek (BW – Dutch Civil Code), this does not affect the mandatory consumer protection regulations in which the consumer is ordinarily resident.
5. If individual provisions of these General Terms and Conditions are or become wholly or partially invalid, the other General Terms and Conditions are still valid. In the event of such a provision being invalid, it shall be replaced by a legal provision.
6. All declarations to be sent in connection with the user agreement to be concluded with Housing Anywhere must be issued by email. The postal address and email address of a user are those that are stated as the current contact data in the user’s user account.
7. These terms and conditions will be interpreted in accordance with the Dutch law. You and Housing Anywhere agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the court located in Rotterdam, The Netherlands for any actions of which parties seek injunctive or other equitable relief in a court of competent jurisdiction.