Terms of Service

1. About these Terms

By accessing or using our Services you agree that:

these Terms of Service (Terms) apply between you (the person using our Services and any entity you're authorised to represent that is approved by us) and Lawned Ltd (Lawned/us/we);
we collect and use your information in line with our Privacy Policy;
additional terms may apply if you use certain of our Services and these should be read together with these Terms in such a case (these Terms and any such additional terms that apply from time to time being “Terms”), including but not limited to terms for contractor payouts, promotional features, or any additional or new Services we may provide;
any special terms that apply if you participate in a promotion or use special features.

Please read the Terms carefully and contact us if anything is unclear.

Third parties may also impose additional rules that we or you need to comply with. You agree to comply with these additional rules, which we will communicate to you through the Services. Additional terms and conditions may also apply to products or services offered by third parties on our Platform. You will need to agree to those third party terms and conditions (where applicable), in order to use those particular products or services.

The meaning of capitalised words used in the Terms is set out in the Dictionary at the end of these Terms.

We work with others — our Support Crew — to deliver our Services to you. We may change the parties that make up our Support Crew without notice to you.

2. Service Availability

Other than as expressly set out in the Terms, we do not make any specific promises about the Services. We work hard to provide great Services and undertake to carry out our Services with reasonable care and skill in accordance with our obligations under law, but cannot guarantee that our Services will be 100% secure, uninterrupted, error-free, or free from bugs. We provide our Services on an ‘as is’ basis — there may be times when the Services are limited or unavailable, and we cannot guarantee that the Services will always suit your needs, or that they'll work on time.

We may temporarily suspend your access to, or use of, all or part of our Services if we think it's reasonably necessary, including:

for technical, legal, or regulatory issues;
during emergencies or periods of exceptional platform activity;
if we deem it sensible in order to protect our customers or Lawned;
to ensure other services are available to you or our other customers;
if our, our Support Crew's, or other third party providers', systems are unavailable or not working properly;
to maintain or upgrade our systems.

From time to time, we may ask you to install updates and upgrades to keep using our Services.

We are not responsible for losses that arise only because the Services were temporarily unavailable, except to the extent Applicable Law (including the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, where it applies) requires otherwise.

3. Information we make available

We don't provide professional advice or recommendations

None of the information we provide is legal, financial, horticultural, or other professional advice or recommendations, and we aren't liable for your use of the information in that way. Any information we provide, including Platform Information (defined below), should not be relied upon when making decisions about property work, pricing, or contractor selection.

You should consider seeking independent legal, financial, or other professional advice if you are unsure about a job, tax consequences, or when considering whether a service or contractor is appropriate for your property or needs.

Any third-party links on our Services are not controlled by Lawned. We are not responsible and make no representations, warranties, or guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of information contained in any of the linked sites. The links are provided for your convenience only and do not imply endorsement, affiliation, or verification by Lawned.

Platform Information

We may display, curate, and create general marketplace information or tools through our Services or Website (or both), including service definitions, pricing guidance, suggested rates, job status information, and other property or contractor information. We call this information, and any other information we make available to you through our Services (including from our Support Crew) Platform Information.

We own (or license) the Platform Information, or it is publicly available. Platform Information is only for your personal use. Do not share it, copy it, or reproduce it. Some Platform Information may have extra terms you must agree to before you can access it. Any pricing guidance or information displayed may be estimates, and calculated based on information available at the time.

We don't promise ongoing or continuous access to Platform Information — we may change or stop providing some or all Platform Information without notice.

We don't guarantee Platform Information will always be accurate, complete, reliable, or timely. We're not responsible for loss caused only by relying on Platform Information as professional advice, except to the extent Applicable Law requires otherwise.

4. Our role: an online marketplace

Lawned is a facilitator, not the service provider

Lawned operates an online marketplace that connects clients who want lawn and property care with independent contractors who provide those services. When a client accepts a contractor's offer, a contract for the lawn care services is formed directly between the client and the contractor. Lawned is not a party to that contract, does not supply the lawn care services, and does not employ contractors.

Contractors are independent businesses. They set their own prices when quoting, decide which jobs to offer on, use their own equipment, and are solely responsible for the quality and performance of their work, for holding any licences or insurance their work requires, and for meeting their own legal obligations — including registering for, charging, and returning GST and other taxes where the law requires them to.

Payments through the Platform

Lawned (through our payment processor, Stripe) collects payment from the client as the contractor's limited payment collection agent. Payment made by a client through the Platform discharges the client's payment obligation to the contractor for that job, even if the contractor later has an issue receiving their payout — that issue is between the contractor and us. Contractors appoint us as their limited payment collection agent for this purpose when they accept a job through the Platform.

What we are (and aren't) responsible for

We supply the Platform: tools for describing and mapping properties (including zones, overlays, and off-limits boundaries), posting jobs, quoting, messaging, payments, completion evidence, and dispute support through the Resolution Centre. We don't supervise, direct, or control contractors' work, and we don't guarantee the quality, safety, legality, or timeliness of services contractors provide. Nothing in this section limits any rights you have under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or other Applicable Law that cannot be excluded.

Taxes

Prices quoted by contractors on the Platform are the full price payable for the job — nothing is added to the job price at checkout except the booking fee described in section 5. Each contractor is responsible for their own tax position: if a contractor is GST-registered, their quoted price is treated as inclusive of any GST they must account for, and they are responsible for providing taxable supply information to clients where the law requires it. Lawned is responsible only for tax on Lawned's own fees.

5. Fees, payments, and refunds

What clients pay

When a client accepts an offer, the total payable is the accepted job price plus a booking fee that covers card processing (currently 2.9% of the job price plus NZD 0.30, GST-inclusive). The full total, including the booking fee, is shown before the client confirms payment. All amounts on the Platform are in New Zealand dollars.

Card holds and when money moves

Accepting an offer places a hold (an authorisation) on the client's card for the total amount. No money is taken while the work is being done. Payment is captured when the client approves the completed work, or automatically after the client review window shown in the product (currently 48 hours after completion evidence is submitted) if the client neither approves nor raises a dispute in that time.

Card holds have a limited life set by card networks. If a hold expires or fails before a job is completed, we may ask the client to reconfirm payment, and the job may be paused until they do.

What contractors receive

Contractors are paid the accepted job price less Lawned's platform fee (currently 10% of the job price) and GST on that platform fee. Payouts are made to the contractor's connected Stripe account. Contractors must complete Stripe Connect onboarding, including any identity verification Stripe requires, before they can quote on paid jobs, accept work, or receive payouts. Creating an account is not the same as being cleared to transact.

Cancellations, mismatches, and site condition issues

If a contractor arrives and the property’s condition materially doesn’t match the job description, either party should use the Platform’s Resolution Centre. Depending on what is agreed or determined through that process, outcomes may include releasing or adjusting the payment hold, a partial or full refund, arranging a return visit, or ending the job without capturing the full job price. Lawned does not apply a fixed automatic call-out fee for mismatches.

Disputes and refunds

If a client isn't satisfied with completed work, they should raise it through the Platform's resolution tools within the review window. Depending on the outcome, we may release the payment, refund part or all of it, or facilitate an agreed partial refund between the parties. Refunds are returned to the original payment method. Because the service contract is between the client and the contractor, resolution outcomes reflect what is agreed or determined between those parties, with Lawned facilitating.

Receipts and our fees

Clients receive a payment receipt by email (issued through Stripe) when payment is captured, and can view an in-app Lawned receipt. Our current fees are described on our pricing page; we may change them in accordance with section 10 (Changes). Lawned charges GST on its own fees (the platform fee deducted from contractors, and the booking fee charged to clients). Fee amounts displayed on the Platform are GST-inclusive where GST applies to Lawned's fees. In-app receipts are not taxable supply information for the lawn care service — that remains the contractor's responsibility if they are GST-registered. Lawned's fee sections on the receipt are Lawned's own fee records.

You must not make or accept payment for Platform jobs outside the Platform. Off-platform payment removes the protections described in this section for both sides and is a breach of these Terms.

6. Your Responsibilities

When you use our Services, you agree to comply with Applicable Law (or any other relevant laws and regulations in any other country), the Terms, and our reasonable instructions.

You must not use our Services for illegal activity or to support illegal activities.

You must not try to introduce any kind of virus, malware, or other harmful code into the Services, or into any third-party systems that you can access through the Services.

You are responsible for all activity on your Account and your access to and use of the Services.

You must take all reasonable steps to keep your Account secure and to prevent fraudulent use, including:

updating your password regularly, and not recording it or sharing it (or any of your other login credentials) with others;
ensuring no one sees you enter any of your login credentials;
not leaving your device unattended and signed in;
keeping your electronic devices secure.

You must provide us with a valid email address, keep your contact details up to date in your Account, and notify us immediately of any changes.

You must notify us straight away if you become aware, or suspect that:

your login credentials are known to someone else;
there has been unauthorised access to or use of your Account.

Only you can use your Account, not any other person (unless otherwise agreed in writing with us).

Accounts, identity, and verification

You must be the person named on the Account, or a person authorised to act for the business named on the Account. You must not impersonate another person or business, use someone else's identity or business number, or create an Account for a business you do not own or control.

Lawned is a marketplace. We do not collect passports, driver licences, or similar identity documents ourselves, and we do not independently verify every claim at signup. Creating an Account lets you set up a profile. Before you can quote on paid jobs, accept work, or receive payouts, you must complete the checks we require:

every contractor must complete Stripe Connect onboarding, including any identity, tax, and bank-account checks Stripe requires;
if you operate as a company or partnership, you must also verify the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) that belongs to that legal entity;
if you are a franchisee or similar independent operator, you must use the NZBN of your own legal entity — not a parent company, franchisor, or brand NZBN — even if you trade under a franchise or brand name;
sole traders are verified for payouts through Stripe; they are not required to verify an NZBN unless we later ask them to.

Phone numbers and other contact details you provide are for Account contact only. We do not treat them as independently verified identity. A trading name may appear on your public profile, but it does not replace the legal identity on your Account, Stripe payouts, or NZBN (where required).

We may suspend or close your Account, withhold or reverse payouts where the law and our payment processor allow, and refuse future Accounts if we reasonably believe you have impersonated someone, used a false or borrowed identity or NZBN, failed Stripe or NZBN checks, or otherwise misrepresented who you are. Passing Stripe or NZBN checks does not mean we endorse you, guarantee your work, or confirm every detail on your profile.

You agree that we can rely on instructions through your Account as being a valid instruction from you.

If you notice errors in your Account or any of your instructions, you need to let us know immediately and take all reasonable steps to reduce the chance of you or anyone else suffering any loss. You agree to pay us for any Loss we incur (for example a cancellation fee, levy, or other cost that we may need to pay) because of an error in your instruction or an error otherwise caused by you.

Additional responsibilities for clients and contractors

If you are a client, you must describe property scope honestly — including mapped zones, extras, hazards, and any off-limits areas you mark as safety boundaries — confirm that, as far as you know, the grounds are reasonably safe for a contractor to work on, provide workable access where required, and review completed work within the review window shown in the product.

If you are a contractor, you must quote accurately, perform agreed work professionally, complete required identity and business checks before transacting, and comply with applicable licensing, insurance, and local requirements for the services you offer.

Both clients and contractors must communicate respectfully, avoid misuse of the platform, and use Lawned dispute and support channels when issues arise instead of circumventing agreed payment flows.

7. Liability

Your rights under consumer law

If you're a ‘consumer’ under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, nothing in our terms will limit any rights or remedies that you may have under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.

Your responsibilities when using our Services and what we're responsible for

You agree that:

if you owe us money under these Terms, you're responsible to pay that money to us;
you will indemnify us, our directors, officers, employees, and agents for direct Loss we suffer from a claim by a third party that arises from your breach of these Terms or Applicable Law, except to the extent that Loss is caused by our negligence, fraud, wilful default, or breach of our obligations to you. An indemnity means a promise to pay someone to make up for a loss they have suffered.

You accept that (subject always to the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and any other Applicable Law that cannot be limited):

we're responsible to you for your personal direct Loss to the extent that Loss is caused by our breach of Applicable Law, negligence, fraud, wilful default, or breach of our obligations to you under the Terms;
we're not responsible for Loss outside our reasonable control;
we're not responsible for loss of profits, revenue, business opportunity, goodwill, or anticipated savings, or for indirect or consequential loss, except where Applicable Law does not allow that exclusion;
if we are responsible to you for platform fees you paid us, our total responsibility for any event or series of related events is capped at the total of fees you paid us for your Account in the last 12 months, except where Applicable Law requires a higher amount or does not allow a cap;
these limits also apply to our directors, agents, and employees for acts done in providing the Services.

You agree to take reasonable steps to avoid or minimise any Loss you could sustain or incur as a result of any breach or default by us.

Lawned provides marketplace infrastructure and payment tooling. Contractors perform the physical work, and clients remain responsible for property access and accurate job details unless otherwise required by law.

8. Intellectual Property Rights

You agree not to misuse our Services, or infringe our Intellectual Property Rights.

We own (or license) the Intellectual Property Rights in our Services, brand, technology, and all related materials. Except to allow for your personal enjoyment and use of or access to our Services in accordance with the Terms, you have no interest in these Intellectual Property Rights.

If you give feedback on our Services, we may use it without restriction or charge.

You must not reverse engineer, copy, modify, or create derivative works of our Services, or any part of it or them. You must not use a robot, scraper, or other unauthorised automated or manual means to access our Services or our information.

9. Confidentiality

We may both share or become aware of confidential information about each other when you use our Services. We both agree to take reasonable steps to protect each other's confidential information and keep it from being accessed by unauthorised individuals. Either of us may share each other's confidential information with legal or regulatory authorities to the extent legally required to do so.

10. Changes

You can see the most current version of the Terms on our Website. The date these Terms were last updated is noted at the top of these Terms.

We may change the Terms, our Services, or increase our fees from time to time, by giving you reasonable notice (generally 14 days' notice) of material changes. If you don't want to accept any change, you must stop using the relevant Services and close your Account before the changes come into effect. If you continue to access or use the relevant Services after the effective date of any change (including any increase to the fees), you will be considered as having accepted the change.

We can also make some changes immediately, without notice to you:

where we determine that the change is unlikely to have a material negative impact on you or how you use the Services (for example, adding a new service or feature, fixing a bug or error, or reducing fees);
if we are required to make a change in response to a threat (or perceived threat) to our security or systems, or for legal, regulatory, or compliance reasons (for example, cyber security changes, valid requests from an authorised agency, or acting in response to your breach of the Terms, Applicable Law, or any other relevant laws and regulations in any other country).

11. Communication and contacting us

How we'll contact you

You accept that the Services we provide are paperless services and that we'll communicate with you electronically (such as via email, text message, direct message in our Platform, by showing a general message in our Platform or noting on our Website, or by any other reasonable means we may choose). We may send you factual information and updates about jobs, offers, payments, or other products relevant to your Account. We may also send you information that requires a signature and use an electronic signature, and you consent to us using electronic signatures for this purpose.

How you can contact us

You can contact us via the following:

Email: support@lawned.co.nzPlatform: Contact us through the Platform or our contact page

12. How to make a complaint

If you want to make a complaint, please let us know straight away. We will review your complaint carefully and respond as soon as practicable.

Escalating your complaint

If we don't resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you may also contact relevant dispute resolution or regulatory bodies where applicable. For privacy-related complaints, more information is available from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at www.privacy.org.nz.

For job-related disputes between clients and contractors, please use the in-product resolution tools on the Platform in the first instance.

13. Transferring rights and obligations under the Terms

We can appoint any person or business to help perform our functions under the Terms. We may transfer our rights and obligations under the Terms to another party that can reasonably perform them, and we will give you reasonable notice if that transfer is material to you.

You can't transfer your rights or obligations under the Terms (such as access to your Account or our Services) without our prior written consent, which we will not unreasonably withhold.

14. Goodbye: Closing accounts

You can close your Account at any time

You can ask to close your Account at any time by giving us notice through our Service. Please note if you have active jobs, outstanding payments, or unresolved disputes, you may not be able to close your Account until those matters are resolved — please contact us to discuss.

When an Account is closed, we delete the login, personal profile, properties, and ordinary media. We may retain de-identified transaction records for financial and tax record-keeping. Evidence from a resolved Resolution Center case is normally deleted 90 days after resolution, even if the Account closes sooner. We may preserve only the evidence reasonably required for longer if we receive a chargeback, legal claim, court or regulator notice, or relevant insurer request, and will remove it when the hold is no longer reasonably necessary. Payment and identity-verification providers such as Stripe may retain records under their own legal obligations.

We can close your Account on 14 days' notice

We can close your Account by giving 14 days’ prior written notice where we have a reasonable business reason to do so (for example, discontinuing a service, material platform changes, or ongoing risk to Lawned or other users).

We can close or suspend your Account immediately in some circumstances

Without affecting our other rights or remedies, we can close or suspend your Account with immediate effect by giving you written notice, if:

you fail to pay amounts due 7 days after being notified in writing to make payment;
you breach any of our Terms that can't be remedied, or if such a breach can be remedied, you do not remedy that breach within 7 days of being notified in writing to do so;
you're declared bankrupt or become subject to any liquidation or similar process, or are otherwise unable to pay your debts as they fall due;
you breach our community standards, lie to or deceive us, impersonate another person or business, or use a false, borrowed, or parent-company identity or NZBN;
we have reasonable grounds for believing you have breached or may breach Applicable Law or any other relevant laws and regulations in any other country;
we have reasonable grounds for believing your Account security has been compromised or that there was or is likely to be unauthorised, fraudulent, or illegal use of your Account;
we believe we are required to by Law;
a regulator requests that we do;
you don't give us information we reasonably request to operate your Account, or you do not meet our eligibility criteria to have an Account.

If we close or suspend your Account because of the payment, breach, fraud, or identity reasons above, you remain responsible for amounts you already owe. We may also refuse future Accounts where that is reasonably necessary to protect Lawned or other users.

What happens when your Account is closed?

Whether you close your Account or we close your Account, the following applies:

you agree to pay us any money you owe us, including after your Account is closed;
we won't refund any valid fees or other charges incurred;
see our Privacy Policy for information on what happens to your personal information after your Account is closed;
additional terms that apply to certain of our Services may specify steps that must be taken when your Account is closed, that are most relevant to that Service.

15. Details and Dictionary

General details about the Terms

If we have special terms that apply to a particular customer, account, product, or service, and they are inconsistent with the Terms, then the special terms will take precedence.

If any of the Terms is inconsistent with any Applicable Law, then the Applicable Law will apply. Other terms may be implied by Applicable Law.

If any part of the Terms is not valid, then that part will be removed or edited as little as possible, and the rest will continue to apply.

You have obligations to us under the Terms, even if we don't insist that you perform those obligations. Similarly, if we don't enforce our rights under the Terms, or we delay in doing so or waive them, it doesn't mean we've given up those rights. Waiving criteria or rights as a one-off, does not commit us to continue to do so.

We still have rights and you still have obligations to us under the Terms when your Account is suspended or closed, to the extent you haven't met all your obligations under the Terms.

Our Terms are governed by New Zealand law, and the New Zealand Courts have exclusive jurisdiction if there's a dispute.

Whenever the words “for example”, “includes”, or “including” are used in the Terms, they are deemed to be followed by the words “without limitation”.

Some capitalised words in the Terms have a special meaning:

Account: your account with us that permits you to use our Services, and includes any client or contractor profile and related records associated with your use of the Platform
Applicable Law: any relevant and applicable laws and regulations in New Zealand
Booking Fee: the card-processing fee added to the accepted job price at checkout, as described in section 5 and on our pricing page
Intellectual Property Rights: patents, rights to inventions, copyright and related rights, moral rights, trade marks, business names and domain names, rights in get-up and trade dress, goodwill and the right to sue for passing off or unfair competition, rights in designs, database rights, rights to use, and protect the confidentiality of, confidential information (including know-how and trade secrets) and all other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered and including all applications and rights to apply for and be granted, renewals or extensions of, and rights to claim priority from, such rights and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection which subsist or will subsist now or in the future in any part of the world
Loss: any claims, demands, actions, losses, liabilities, damages, fines, charges, taxes, expenses, fees or costs (including reasonable lawyers' fees), however they are described
NZBN: a New Zealand Business Number issued on the New Zealand Business Number Register. For companies and partnerships on the Platform, this must be the NZBN of the legal entity named on the Account, not a parent, franchisor, or unrelated brand
Platform: Lawned's online lawn care marketplace platform, including the Lawned web application and any other software or web application operated and maintained by us to provide the Services
Platform Fee: the fee Lawned deducts from the contractor's payout for each completed job (currently 10% of the accepted job price, plus GST on that fee), as described in section 5
Platform Information: general marketplace information or tools made available through our Services or Website, including service definitions, pricing guidance, job status information, and related information from us or our Support Crew
Services: any product or service we offer or provide, including our Platform, Websites, and correspondence with customers
Support Crew: another party that helps us provide our Services to you, or whose data or services are included or relied on to support our Services, including payment processors, mapping providers, and infrastructure partners
Website: the Lawned website available at lawned.co.nz or any other website operated and maintained by us to provide the Services

For information about how we handle personal information, see our Privacy Policy.