Terms of Service

1. About these terms

1.1 These terms apply when you use Social Housing Compliance (the "Service"), including our website and web app. By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, don't use the Service.

1.2 "We", "us" and "our" mean Dutywise Ltd, trading as Social Housing Compliance. "You" means the organisation using the Service, such as a housing association, almshouse charity, housing co-operative or other registered provider of social housing, or an adviser acting for one. The person who accepts these terms confirms they have authority to do so for that organisation.

1.3 Our Privacy policy explains how we handle personal information. The data processing terms in Schedule 1 form part of these terms.

2. Who we are

We are Dutywise Ltd, a private limited company registered in England and Wales with company number 17498786, trading as Social Housing Compliance. Registered office: 8 Cornfield Close, Chandler's Ford, Eastleigh, SO53 4HD. Email: help@socialhousingcompliance.uk, or use our contact form. If we need to contact you, we'll use the email address on your account.

3. What the Service does and does not do

3.1 The Service helps registered providers of social housing in England prepare documents and keep records for the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code, the Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs), the Regulator of Social Housing's Competence and Conduct Standard and Awaab's Law. It fills standard wording with the details you enter and works out dates from the information you give it.

3.2 The Service does not:

1. send anything to the Housing Ombudsman, the Regulator of Social Housing or anyone else for you;
2. inspect homes, or decide whether a hazard is in scope of Awaab's Law, or is an emergency or significant hazard;
3. handle complaints, information requests or repairs for you, or contact your residents for you;
4. give legal, technical, financial or other professional advice; or
5. make you compliant with any law or standard. You remain responsible for meeting your legal duties.

3.3 The Service is designed for registered providers in England only.

3.4 We keep the standard wording under review against the published law and guidance, but they can change. We don't promise that the wording suits every organisation or meets every requirement that applies to you.

4. Who can use the Service

4.1 The Service is for business use only, by organisations that provide social housing and the people acting for them. It is not for consumers.

4.2 You must be at least 18 and able to enter into a binding contract.

5. Your account and your team

5.1 You need an account to use most of the Service. Give us accurate information and keep it up to date.

5.2 Keep your log-in details secure and don't share them. You can invite colleagues and members of your governing body to your organisation. You're responsible for everything done through your organisation's accounts, and for removing people who should no longer have access.

5.3 We may refuse to open an account, or close one, if we reasonably believe the information given is false or the account is being misused.

6. Prices and payment

6.1 You can set up your organisation and preview its documents free. Downloading clean documents and letters needs a paid subscription for that organisation.

6.2 Each subscription covers one organisation for one year. The price depends on the number of homes you own, as you tell us, and is shown before you pay. If the number changes so that a different price band applies, the new price applies from your next renewal, and we show you the new price first.

6.3 Prices are in pounds sterling. We are not VAT registered, so no VAT is added.

6.4 Payments are taken by our payment provider, Stripe. We don't see or store your full card details.

6.5 Subscriptions renew automatically each year until you cancel. We'll charge the payment method on your account at the start of each year.

6.6 You can cancel at any time from your billing settings or by emailing us. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the year you have paid for, and you keep access until then. We don't give refunds for part-used years, unless the law requires it or these terms say otherwise.

6.7 We may change our prices. We'll give you at least 30 days' notice by email before a new price applies to your subscription. If you don't want to pay the new price, you can cancel before it takes effect.

6.8 If a payment fails, we'll tell you and try again. If we still can't take payment after 14 days, we may suspend paid features for that organisation until you pay.

7. Your responsibilities

You are responsible for:

1. making sure the details you enter are accurate, complete and kept up to date;
2. reading every document and letter before you use it, checking it is right for your organisation, and having it adopted by your governing body where needed;
3. publishing what you need to publish, and sending your annual submission to the Housing Ombudsman;
4. handling complaints, information requests and hazards within the legal timescales, including deciding whether a hazard is in scope and how serious it is;
5. keeping records of residents' health, disabilities, vulnerabilities and reasonable adjustments in your own housing system, outside the Service;
6. getting professional advice where you need it;
7. keeping your own copies of the documents and records you need; and
8. meeting all your other legal duties.

Due dates, the set-up checklist and status labels (such as "Due soon" or "Overdue") are there to help you. They depend on the information you enter, and you must not rely on them as your only way of keeping track.

8. Acceptable use

You must not:

1. use the Service in a way that breaks any law, or to mislead anyone;
2. enter information you don't have the right to use;
3. enter special category personal data, such as information about anyone's health or disability, or information about criminal offences. This includes details of residents' vulnerabilities and safeguarding concerns. Use references, not residents' names, in your logs;
4. try to get unauthorised access to the Service, other accounts or our systems, or interfere with how the Service works, including with viruses or automated scraping;
5. resell the Service or make it available to anyone outside your organisation, except that you may share and publish the documents it produces, for example with your residents, your governing body, your advisers, the Housing Ombudsman and the Regulator of Social Housing; or
6. copy or reverse engineer the Service, or use it to build a competing product.

9. Your content

9.1 "Your content" means the information you enter into the Service and the details it adds to your documents. You own your content. The standard wording remains ours (see section 11).

9.2 You give us permission to store, copy and process your content only as needed to provide, secure and improve the Service, and to meet our legal obligations.

9.3 You can download your organisation's documents, letters and reports while you have a paid subscription for that organisation.

9.4 You confirm you have the right to enter your content, including any personal information about other people, and that doing so won't break any law.

10. Personal information

10.1 Our Privacy policy explains how we use personal information about you as our customer.

10.2 When you enter personal information about other people, such as complaint, hazard and request references and summaries, staff roles and initials, and the contact details of your organisation and its contacts, you decide why and how that information is used. You are the controller of that information and we process it for you as your processor. Schedule 1 sets out the terms that apply.

11. Our intellectual property

11.1 We, or our licensors, own the Service, its software, design and standard wording, and all intellectual property rights in them.

11.2 While you have an account, we give you a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Service for your organisation, and to copy, print, publish and share the documents it produces (including the standard wording) for the organisations in your account.

11.3 If you send us suggestions or feedback, we may use them freely without paying you.

12. Availability, changes and support

12.1 We aim to keep the Service available and working, but we don't promise it will be uninterrupted or free of errors. We may need to suspend it for maintenance, updates or reasons beyond our control. We'll try to give notice of planned downtime.

12.2 We may change the Service, including adding, changing or removing features. If a change significantly reduces what your paid subscription offers, we'll tell you in advance, and you can cancel and get a refund for any unused period you've paid for.

12.3 Support is by email at help@socialhousingcompliance.uk or through our contact form. We aim to reply within one working day.

13. Our liability to you

13.1 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 cannot be limited or excluded by law.

13.2 Subject to 13.1, we are not liable for:

1. any loss of profit, revenue, business, contracts, goodwill or anticipated savings;
2. any indirect or consequential loss;
3. any loss caused by inaccurate or incomplete information you entered, or by your not checking a document or letter before using it;
4. any fine, penalty, compensation, order or enforcement action against you, including by the Housing Ombudsman, the Regulator of Social Housing or a court, except to the extent it is directly caused by our breach of these terms;
5. any loss or corruption of data that you could have avoided by downloading or keeping copies; or
6. any loss caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

13.3 Subject to 13.1, our total liability to you under or in connection with these terms, whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, is limited to the greater of: (a) the total fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim; and (b) £100.

13.4 Except as set out in these terms, all warranties, conditions and other terms implied by law are excluded to the extent the law allows.

14. Your liability to us

You are responsible for, and will cover us against, any losses, costs (including reasonable legal costs) and claims we suffer because you break these terms, use the Service unlawfully, or enter information you had no right to enter.

15. Suspension and closing your account

15.1 You can stop using the Service and close your account at any time from your account settings or by emailing us.

15.2 We may suspend or close your account straight away if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms, if you don't pay what you owe, or if the law requires us to. We may also close your account or stop providing the Service for any other reason by giving you at least 30 days' notice by email. If we do, we'll refund any fees you've paid for the period after closure.

15.3 When your account closes: (a) your right to use the Service ends; (b) you should download anything you want to keep before closure; and (c) we'll delete your content within 90 days, except where the law requires us to keep some information (for example, billing records). Copies in our backups are deleted in the normal backup cycle.

15.4 Sections 9.4, 11, 13, 14, 17 and 18 continue to apply after your account closes.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example to reflect changes in the law or in the Service. We'll give you at least 30 days' notice by email of any change that materially affects you. If you keep using the Service after the change takes effect, the new terms apply. If you don't agree, you can close your account before the change takes effect and we'll refund any unused prepaid fees.

17. General

17.1 These terms, our Privacy policy and the prices shown when you subscribe are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service.

17.2 We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation, for example if we sell our business. We'll tell you if this happens. You may not transfer your rights without our written consent.

17.3 No one else has any rights under these terms, and the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 does not apply.

17.4 If a court decides that part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies.

17.5 If we don't enforce our rights straight away, we can still enforce them later.

17.6 We'll send notices to the email address on your account. You can send notices to us at help@socialhousingcompliance.uk.

18. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you have a complaint, please contact us first and we'll try to sort it out. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute.

Schedule 1: Data processing terms

1. Scope. This schedule applies when we process personal data for you as your processor ("customer personal data"), such as the contact details of your organisation and its contacts, the email addresses of your team, staff roles and initials, and the references, summaries, dates and outcomes in your complaints, hazard and information request logs. "Data protection law" means the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. "Controller", "processor", "personal data breach" and similar terms have the meanings given in data protection law.

2. Details of the processing. (a) Subject matter and purpose: providing the Service, including storing organisation details, keeping complaints, hazard, information request, task, qualifications and activity records, and producing documents, letters and reports. (b) Duration: while your account is open, and until deletion under section 15. (c) Types of personal data: names (where you enter them, for example who adopted a document), roles, initials or staff references, phone numbers, email and postal addresses, the references, summaries, dates and outcomes in your logs, and records of who did what in the Service. Residents' names and addresses typed when creating a letter are used only in that letter and are not saved. (d) People the data is about: your staff, volunteers, governing body members, team members, contractors and other contacts, and your residents. (e) Special category data: none. You must not enter it (see section 8(c)).

3. Your obligations. You are responsible for having a lawful basis to process customer personal data, for only entering what you need, and for telling the people concerned about it, for example in your own privacy notice.

4. Our obligations. We will: (a) process customer personal data only on your documented instructions, which are these terms and your use of the Service, unless the law requires otherwise (in which case we'll tell you first, unless the law prevents it); (b) make sure anyone we authorise to process it is bound by confidentiality; (c) take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it, including encryption in transit, access controls and limiting access to those who need it; (d) only use the sub-processors allowed under paragraph 5; (e) help you respond to requests from people exercising their data protection rights, including by letting you view, correct, download and delete data in the Service; (f) help you meet your obligations on security, personal data breaches, data protection impact assessments and consulting the Information Commissioner, taking into account the information available to us; (g) tell you without undue delay, and in any case within 48 hours of becoming aware, of a personal data breach affecting customer personal data, and give you the information you reasonably need; (h) delete customer personal data when your account closes, as set out in section 15, unless the law requires us to keep it; and (i) make available the information reasonably needed to show we meet this schedule, and allow reasonable audits no more than once a year, at your cost and with at least 30 days' notice. We may meet an audit request by providing written answers and documents.

5. Sub-processors. 5.1 You give us general permission to use sub-processors. Our current sub-processors for customer personal data are Lovable (app hosting, database and account emails; its platform is built on Supabase) and Zoho (our email, for messages you send us). 5.2 We'll tell you by email at least 14 days before we add or replace a sub-processor. If you object on reasonable data protection grounds, you may close your account and we'll refund any unused prepaid fees. 5.3 We make sure each sub-processor is bound by written terms that protect personal data to at least the standard in this schedule.

6. International transfers. We won't transfer customer personal data outside the UK unless it is protected by appropriate safeguards under data protection law, such as UK adequacy regulations or the Information Commissioner's International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum.