'Flatmate finder’ – Terms and Conditions
PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE ONLINE MARKET PLACE AND THIS SITE
- What's in these terms and conditions?
These terms and conditions tell you (the user of the platform):- 1 the rules for using the 'Flatmate Finder Listings Directory' and website https://studentsunionucl.org/flatmate-finder ('our site', 'this site' or 'the site');
- 2 your rights and responsibilities in relation to the site;
- 3 our rights and responsibilities in relation to the site; and
- 4 specific limitations to our liability in respect of a user’s use of the site and / or any agreements facilitated in any way by the site.
- Who we are and how to contact us
2.1 This site is operated by UCL UNION trading as Students’ Union UCL ("we", “us” and “our”). We are registered in England and Wales under company number 07635628 and have our registered office at 25 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AY. Our main trading address is 25 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AY.
2.2 We are a registered charity and we are regulated by the Charity Commission. Our charity number is 1142404.
2.3 To contact us, please email [email protected]. - By using this site you accept these terms
3.1 By using the site, and any related websites or services, you (“you” or “user”) agree that you are 18 years of age or older, and that you will comply with the following terms and conditions (“these terms”), including those available by hyperlink and referenced in these terms, as though they were set out in full here. These terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you and Students’ Union UCL and are effective once you start using the site.
3.2 If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use our site.
3.3 We recommend that you print a copy of these terms for future reference. - There are other terms that may apply to you
4.1 These terms refer to the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of our site:
(a) Our Privacy Policy. See further under How we may use your personal information.
(b) Our Cookie Policy, which sets out information about the cookies on our site. - What is the Flatmate Finder?
5.1 The 'Flatmate Finder' is a platform for UCL students to advertise places to live or connect with other UCL students looking for somewhere to live for the purpose of forming a household. The directory is not for landlords, or for those looking to sublet their accommodation.
5.2 Listings on the site must not be in a prohibited category (as set out in paragraph 8). All listings will go through a moderation process before being published to ensure compliance with these terms and conditions.
5.3 You must be a current or prospective student to use the 'Flatmate Finder'. - Listings
6.1 The 'Flatmate Finder' includes information and materials uploaded by other users of the site, including rental listings. All listings will be moderated by us prior to being published to ensure compliance with these terms. However, we will not check that listings are accurate.
6.2 All listings must be accompanied by a clear description written in English.
6.3 Owing to the moderation process, there may be a delay of up to 24-48 hours between submitting a listing and it being posted, subject to the listing being approved. Listings will remain online for 28 days from the date of posting, after which they will be automatically removed.
6.4 We reserve the right to reject listings that do not comply with these terms. Such listings will not be posted. You will be informed by email if your listing has been rejected and you will have no right of appeal. We reserve the right to remove any listing at any time and at our sole discretion. The views expressed by other users on our site do not represent the views or values of Students’ Union UCL. - Uploading content to the site
7.1 Whenever you upload any content to our site, including listings or postings, or make contact with other users while using our site, you must comply with the standards set out in these terms.
7.2 You confirm that any such contribution does comply with these standards and the terms as a whole, and that you will be liable to us and reimburse us for any losses we suffer as a result of claims made against Students’ Union UCL directly as a result of content uploaded to the site by you, including harmful, inaccurate, misleading and / or malicious content which could not reasonably have been discovered during the moderation process, including the legal fees associated with defending such claims
7.3 Any content you upload to our site will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary.
7.4 We also have the right to disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that any content posted or uploaded by you to our site constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy.
7.5 We have the right to remove any content, including listings you add or postings you make on our site if, in our sole opinion, your content does not comply with the content standards set out in these terms.
7.6 You are solely responsible for securing and backing up your content, and we will not be responsible for the loss or deletion of any content uploaded to the site. - Listing items on the site
8.1 You must not use the 'Flatmate Finder' to list any items which fall within one or more of these prohibited categories, and listings must not contain or be suggestive of anything in these prohibited categories:
(a) alcohol;
(b) food and drink, homemade or purchased, even if sealed and in date;
(c) body parts and fluids;
(d) items which are discriminatory or which use discriminatory language;
(e) drugs or drug paraphernalia;
(f) tobacco or tobacco paraphernalia;
(g) currency;
(h) counterfeit goods or documents (including currency);
(i) dissertation or essay writing services;
(j) housing, rooms or rental of the same (except housing, rooms or rentals listed by current students of UCL for the purposes listed in 5.1 of these terms);
(k) jobs;
(l) hazardous goods or materials;
(m) human exploitation or sexual services;
(n) adult products;
(o) ingestible food supplements;
(p) animals or animal products;
(q) medical or healthcare products (including prescription-only items);
(r) knives and sharp instruments; or
(s) ballistic weapons and ammunition of any description, even if replica or made safe. - Content Standards
9.1 These content standards apply to all listings you upload to the 'Flatmate Finder'.
9.2 These content standards must be complied with in spirit as well as to the letter. The standards apply to each part of any listing as well as to its whole.
9.3 Students’ Union UCL will determine, in its sole discretion, whether a listing breaches these standards.
9.4 Listings must be accurate.
9.5 A Listing must not include any content which:
(a) is defamatory of any person;
(b) is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory;
(c) bullies, insults, intimidates or humiliates anyone;
(d) promotes sexually explicit material;
(e) includes child sexual abuse material;
(f) promotes violence;
(g) promotes discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
(h) infringes any third-party right, including, but not limited to, any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person;
(i) is likely to deceive any person;
(j) breaches any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence;
(k) promotes any illegal content or activity;
(l) is in contempt of court;
(m) is threatening, abusive or invades another's privacy, or causes annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;
(n) is likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person;
(o) impersonates any person or misrepresents your identity or affiliation with any person;
(p) gives the impression that it emanates from Students’ Union UCL, if this is not the case;
(q) advocates, promotes, incites any party to commit, or assists any unlawful or criminal act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse;
(r) contains a statement which you know or believe, or have reasonable grounds for believing, that members of the public to whom the statement is, or is to be, published are likely to understand as a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism;
(s) distributes spam, chain letters or promotes pyramid schemes, or multilevel or network marketing opportunities; and/or
(t) promotes any services or web links to other sites.
9.6 For the avoidance of doubt, for any content in the form of a video:
(a) you must tell us immediately, if you upload a video containing any of the following: criminal material (relating to terrorism, sexual exploitation of children, child pornography, racism and xenophobia), unclassified or unclassifiable videos, videos rated R18 or suitable for R18 rating and other material that might impair the physical, mental or moral development of persons under the age of 18 (restricted material).
(b) you must not upload a video containing harmful material.
(c) you must not upload a video containing advertising for any of the following:
i. cigarettes and other tobacco products, electronic cigarettes or electronic cigarette refill containers, and prescription-only medicine; or
ii. for alcoholic drinks. - Prohibited uses of our site
10.1 You may not use the site:
(a) in any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation;
(b) in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect;
(c) for the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way;
(d) to knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware;
(e) to upload terrorist content;
(f) to harvest or otherwise collect information about users, including email addresses, without their consent; and/or
(g) in any way that breaches the content standards or prohibited categories contained in these terms.
10.2 You also agree:
(a) not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our site in contravention of the provisions of these terms; and
(b) not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:
i. any part of our site;
ii. any equipment or network on which our site is stored
iii. any software used in the provision of our site; or
iv. any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party. - Staying safe when using the site
11.1 Our number one priority has and always will be our users’ safety and satisfaction. We will seek to ensure this through a moderation process which checks that listings meet the content standards and do not fall into the prohibited categories outlined in these terms. However the responsibility for all listings, including the content and accuracy of any listing is the sole responsibility of the lister, and any agreement facilitated through the site is the sole responsibility of the lister and the user enquiring about the listing.
11.2 Listers are responsible for ensuring listings advertised are fully compliant with these terms and contain accurate descriptions of the listing. Users should exercise caution. If the listing fails to meet your expectation, you should politely decline any further communication and walk away.
11.3 Whilst we are aware that users may wish to communicate with each other via WhatsApp or SMS, you should exercise caution if you receive a message purporting to be from Students’ Union UCL/our site via SMS or WhatsApp. We will not contact you using SMS or WhatsApp, and any messages may be fraudulent. We will only contact you using your UCL or local account email in the event of a listing failing to meet these terms. We will not send you messages regarding transactions or delivery.
11.4 When meeting someone you have connected with through this platform, we recommend that users:
(a) meet in a busy public space for example, on campus, a café, supermarket, or a leisure centre;
(b) meet during daylight hours;
(c) take a friend with you if you can;
(d) let someone else know your plans;
(e) have a mobile phone with you in case you need to call for help;
(h) never transfer money into someone’s bank account. There is no security when transferring money and if something goes wrong it is probably unrecoverable;
(i) never give out personal or financial information; and
(j) only agree a housing contract with a registered lettings agency. If in doubt, our Advice Service can check your housing contract with you.
11.5 Though we advise users to follow these recommendations, compliance with them is not a guarantee that listings will meet expectations and that users will be kept safe when engaging with other users. - How to complain about content uploaded by other users
12.1 If you wish to complain about content uploaded by other users or the conduct of another user, please contact us.
12.2 If you notice suspected illegal activity on our site or when you meet another user, you should contact us and the police. - Breach of these terms
13.1 When we consider that a breach of these terms has occurred, we may take all or any of the following actions:
(a) immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use the site;
(b) immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any listing uploaded by you to the site, and in our sole discretion, replacing of the listing with a warning notice in relation to that listing;
(c) issue of a warning to you;
(d) take legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach;
(e) take further legal action against you; and/or
(f) disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary or as required by law.
13.2 The actions we may take are not limited to those described above, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.
13.3 Please note that if a user of the site is charged by the police for illegal activity on or in relation to our site, the user may also face action from UCL. - We may make changes to these terms
14.1 We amend these terms from time to time. Every time you wish to use our site, please check these terms to ensure you understand the terms that apply at that time. These terms were most recently updated on 20 August 2023. - We may make changes to our site
15.1 We may update and change the site and/or our site from time to time to reflect changes to our users' needs. - We may suspend or withdraw the site
16.1 The site is made available free of charge.
16.2 We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of our site for business and operational reasons. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.
16.3 You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them. - We may transfer this agreement to someone else
17.1 We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under the contract. - You must keep your account details safe
18.1 If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential. You must not disclose it to any third party.
18.2 We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms.
18.3 If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your user identification code or password, you must promptly notify us at [email protected] - How you may use material on our site
19.1 We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in the site, and in the material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.
19.2 You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal use and you may draw the attention of others within Students’ Union UCL to content posted on our site.
19.3 You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.
19.4 Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our site must always be acknowledged (except where the content is user-generated).
19.5 You must not use any part of the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.
19.6 If you print off, copy, download, share or repost any part of the site in breach of these terms, your right to use the site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made. - No text or data mining, or web scraping
20.1 You shall not conduct, facilitate, authorise or permit any text or data mining or web scraping in relation to our site or any services provided via, or in relation to, our site. This includes using (or permitting, authorising or attempting the use of):
(a) Any "robot", "bot", "spider", "scraper" or other automated device, program, tool, algorithm, code, process or methodology to access, obtain, copy, monitor or republish any portion of the site or any data, content, information or services accessed via the same.
(b) Any automated analytical technique aimed at analysing text and data in digital form to generate information which includes but is not limited to patterns, trends and correlations.
20.2 The provisions in this clause should be treated as an express reservation of our rights in this regard, including for the purposes of Article 4(3) of Digital Copyright Directive ((EU) 2019/790).
20.3 This clause shall not apply insofar as (but only to the extent that) we are unable to exclude or limit text or data mining or web scraping activity by contract under the laws which are applicable to us.
20.4 This site, its content and any services provided in relation to the same are only targeted to, and intended for use by, individuals located in the UK (the Permitted Territory). By continuing to access, view or make use of this site and any related content and services, you hereby warrant and represent to us that you are located in the Permitted Territory. If you are not located in the Permitted Territory, you must immediately discontinue use of this Website and any related content and services. - Do not rely on information on this site
21.1 The content on our site is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely.
21.2 Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our site, we do not guarantee that the content on our site is accurate, complete or up to date. - We are not responsible for websites we link to
22.1 The site may contain links to access services and websites that we do not own or operate. Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. Such links should not be interpreted as approval by us of those linked websites or information you may obtain from them.
22.2 We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources.
22.3 We are not responsible for examining, moderating, or evaluating the content or accuracy of the services or websites available by those links. Before using them, make sure you have read and agreed to the terms on which they are being offered to you including the way in which they use your personal information. - Our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you
23.1 We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors and for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.
23.2 We are not liable to you for any loss or damage that was not foreseeable and any loss or damage not caused by our breach or negligence.
23.3 We are not involved in the actual interactions between users of the site and will not be liable for any issues which arise from these interactions. We shall not be liable to you for:
(a) failure of a listing on the site to meet your expectations. The accuracy of a listing is the responsibility of the lister, and it is your responsibility to ensure that any agreement entered into from a listing posted by a user of the site is satisfactory prior to the transaction;
(b) failure of other users of the site to meet these terms;
(c) any costs, expenses or losses arising out of your failure to meet these terms;
(d) any costs, expenses or losses arising out of or related to any listings posted via the site; and/or
(e) any dispute between you and another user of the site. Any disputes must be resolved privately by you and the other user;.
23.3 To the extent legally permitted, we do not make any contractual commitments other than those set out in these terms.
23.4 Please note that we only provide our site for domestic and personal use. You agree not to use our site for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity. - How we may use your personal information
24.1 We will only use your personal information as set out in our Privacy Policy. If we have reason to suspect that any applicable laws have been broken, we reserve the right to share the personal information of the perpetrator with the police and any other relevant authorities. - Rights you are giving us to use material you upload
25.1 When you upload or post content to our site, you grant us the following rights to use that content:
(a) a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable licence to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform that user-generated content in connection with the site and across different media including to promote our site, to expire when the listing is automatically removed from the site 28 days after posting.
(b) a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable licence for other users, partners or advertisers to use the content in accordance with the functionality of the site and our site, to expire when the listing is automatically removed from the site 28 days after posting. - We are not responsible for viruses and you must not introduce them
26.1 We do not guarantee that our site will be secure or free from bugs or viruses.
26.2 You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform to access our site. You should use your own virus protection software.
26.3 You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately. - Rules about linking to our site
27.1 You may link to our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it.
27.2 You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.
27.3 You must not establish a link to our site in any website that is not owned by you.
27.4 Our site must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our site other than the home page.
27.5 We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.
27.6 The website in which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in these terms.
27.7 If you wish to link to or make any use of content on our site other than that set out above, please contact [email protected] - Disputes
28.1 We will try to resolve any disputes with you quickly and efficiently. If you are unhappy with the ‘Flatmate Finder’ service or any other related matter, please contact us as soon as possible using the contact details set out at term 2, at the top of this page. - Which country's laws apply to any disputes?
29.1 Please note that these terms of use, their subject matter and their formation, are governed by the laws of England and Wales, although if you are resident in Northern Ireland or Scotland you will retain the benefit of any mandatory protections given to you by the laws of that country. You and we both agree that the courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction except that if you are a resident of Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland, and if you are a resident of Scotland, you may also bring proceedings in Scotland.