Effective date: August 3, 2026. This page is a launch-ready draft and should be reviewed by a qualified attorney before BarnBuddy relies on it as final legal language.
1. Agreement to These Terms
These Terms of Service govern your access to and use of BarnBuddy, including the website, profiles, booking requests, messages, notifications, reviews, payments, and related services. By creating an account, submitting an inquiry, sending a message, booking a provider, accepting a job, or otherwise using BarnBuddy, you agree to these Terms.
If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use BarnBuddy.
2. What BarnBuddy Does
BarnBuddy is a platform that helps rural property owners, barn owners, farm owners, ranch owners, and service providers connect for services such as horse and barn care, livestock care, property and yard help, and farm and ranch help.
BarnBuddy provides tools for profiles, matching, messaging, booking requests, notifications, payments, reviews, and marketplace support. BarnBuddy does not itself provide animal care, barn sitting, riding, chores, farm labor, ranch labor, or property services unless BarnBuddy separately agrees in writing.
3. Platform Relationship
Service providers are independent users of the platform. They are not employees, agents, partners, or representatives of BarnBuddy. Owners are responsible for deciding whether a provider is a good fit for their property, animals, needs, schedule, and safety expectations.
BarnBuddy may help organize bookings, collect payments, send notifications, or display verification status, but BarnBuddy does not control how a provider performs services and does not guarantee the outcome of any service.
4. Eligibility
You must be at least 18 years old to create an account, book services, accept jobs, or use BarnBuddy as a service provider. By using BarnBuddy, you confirm that the information you provide is accurate and that you have authority to request or perform services through the platform.
5. Owner Responsibilities
Owners are responsible for providing complete, accurate, and current information about the property, animals, chores, care routines, risks, access instructions, emergency contacts, veterinary contacts, feed, medications, equipment, gates, water sources, hazards, and any special requirements.
Owners are responsible for confirming that a provider is qualified and comfortable with the requested work before services begin. Owners remain responsible for the care, safety, health, and management of their animals and property.
6. Provider Responsibilities
Providers are responsible for accurately describing their experience, services, availability, service area, animal preferences, comfort level, references, photos, and qualifications. Providers must only accept jobs they are qualified and comfortable performing.
Providers must follow owner instructions, communicate promptly, use reasonable care, report concerns, and avoid work that is unsafe, unlawful, outside their ability, or outside the agreed booking details.
7. Animal and Property Safety
Working with horses, livestock, farm equipment, ranch property, and rural environments carries inherent risk. Animals may behave unpredictably, property conditions may change, and outdoor work may involve weather, terrain, equipment, gates, vehicles, fencing, pests, and other hazards.
Users agree to use good judgment, communicate safety concerns, and take reasonable precautions. BarnBuddy is not an emergency service. In an emergency, users should contact the owner, emergency contact, veterinarian, farrier, local authorities, or emergency services as appropriate.
8. Verification, Background Checks, and Trust Signals
BarnBuddy may allow providers to submit references, safety answers, experience details, background check consent, identity information, or other trust information. BarnBuddy may also manually mark providers as reviewed or verified while additional verification tools are being developed.
A verification badge, review status, reference, profile detail, or background check indicator does not guarantee that a provider is suitable for every job, does not guarantee future conduct, and does not remove an owner's responsibility to evaluate the provider before booking.
9. Bookings and Acceptance
An owner may send a booking request to a provider. A booking is not final until the provider accepts the request and any required payment steps are completed. Providers may accept, decline, or request more information before agreeing to perform services.
Owners and providers are responsible for confirming the scope of work, dates, times, visit length, frequency, rate, access instructions, and any special expectations before services begin.
10. Payments, Fees, and Taxes
BarnBuddy may collect payment from owners and may include a BarnBuddy service fee and payment processing fee. Fees may be shown during checkout or booking and may change over time. Payment processing may be handled by a third-party payment provider such as Stripe.
Providers are responsible for any taxes, reporting, licenses, permits, insurance, or business obligations related to the services they provide. BarnBuddy does not provide tax, legal, insurance, or accounting advice.
11. Cancellations, Refunds, and Disputes
Cancellation and refund treatment may depend on the timing of the cancellation, provider acceptance, work already performed, payment processor rules, and any policy shown during checkout. BarnBuddy may help review disputes but does not guarantee a particular outcome.
Owners and providers should first try to resolve issues through clear communication. BarnBuddy may review messages, booking details, payment status, and account history when assisting with a dispute.
12. Messaging and Notifications
BarnBuddy may provide messaging, email notifications, push notifications, and other communication tools. Users agree to use these tools respectfully and only for legitimate BarnBuddy-related communication.
Notifications may not always be delivered immediately or at all due to device settings, email filtering, third-party services, internet service, or user settings. Users remain responsible for checking their BarnBuddy account, email, phone, and booking details.
13. Reviews and User Content
Users may submit profile information, photos, messages, reviews, ratings, service descriptions, and other content. You are responsible for the content you submit and must not submit false, misleading, unlawful, harmful, private, defamatory, threatening, abusive, or infringing content.
By submitting content to BarnBuddy, you give BarnBuddy permission to use, display, store, reproduce, and share that content as needed to operate, improve, promote, and protect the platform.
14. Prohibited Conduct
Users may not misuse BarnBuddy, attempt to bypass platform fees, harass other users, submit false information, impersonate others, scrape the site, interfere with the platform, upload harmful code, use BarnBuddy for unlawful activity, or pressure users into unsafe or inappropriate work.
BarnBuddy may suspend, restrict, or remove accounts, profiles, listings, messages, reviews, or bookings that violate these Terms or create risk for users, animals, property, or the platform.
15. Insurance
Owners and providers are responsible for understanding and maintaining any insurance they need, including property insurance, animal-related coverage, business insurance, liability coverage, workers' compensation, vehicle coverage, or other applicable coverage.
BarnBuddy does not guarantee that any user has insurance unless specifically stated in writing by BarnBuddy.
16. No Professional Advice
BarnBuddy does not provide veterinary, legal, tax, insurance, employment, training, riding, medical, or safety advice. Any information on the website is for general platform use and should not replace advice from a qualified professional.
17. Third-Party Services
BarnBuddy may rely on third-party services for payments, email, text messaging, push notifications, hosting, maps, analytics, verification, or other platform features. Those services may have their own terms and privacy practices.
BarnBuddy is not responsible for third-party service outages, errors, delays, fees, policies, or decisions.
18. Account Security
Users are responsible for keeping login credentials secure and for activity that occurs under their account. Notify BarnBuddy promptly if you believe your account has been accessed without permission.
19. Availability and Changes
BarnBuddy may update, pause, remove, or change platform features at any time. BarnBuddy may also update these Terms from time to time. Continued use of BarnBuddy after updated Terms are posted means you accept the updated Terms.
20. Disclaimers
BarnBuddy is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, BarnBuddy disclaims warranties of any kind, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, availability, accuracy, safety, or reliability.
BarnBuddy does not guarantee that providers will be available, qualified for every task, suitable for every animal, accepted by every owner, or free from risk.
21. Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, BarnBuddy will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost business, lost data, personal injury, animal injury, property damage, service quality, user conduct, or disputes between users, except where liability cannot legally be limited.
22. Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless BarnBuddy from claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising from your use of BarnBuddy, your services, your property, your animals, your content, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of another person's rights.
23. Governing Law
These Terms are intended to be governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to conflict of law principles, unless another law is required to apply.
24. Contact
Questions about these Terms can be sent through the BarnBuddy support page or by email at hello@yourbarnbuddy.com.