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Terms and Conditions

Last updated · 13 November 2026 · version 2026-11-13

These Terms apply to the SettleBuddy website and the SettleBuddy app. Please read them before you use either.

1. Who we are

1.1 SettleBuddy is operated by SettleBuddy Technologies, House No. 3871, Mauli Jagran Complex, Chandigarh 160102, India. You can reach us at hello@settlebuddy.io.

1.2 In these Terms, “SettleBuddy”, “we”, “us” and “our” mean SettleBuddy Technologies. “You” means the person using the service and, where section 2.3 applies, the business that person acts for.

2. These Terms

2.1 Acceptance. These Terms are the agreement between you and us for using the service. You accept them when you create an account, and they apply to everything you do with that account: browsing, filtering and saving homes, setting saved searches and alerts, posting or editing a listing, verifying your identity or a property, buying a paid visibility option, contacting a landlord, sending an application or a message, booking or offering a viewing, storing or sharing a document, running a scam check, using the lease and letter explainer, creating a move-in report, giving a rating, sending a report, taking part in the community, reading the guides, using Language Lab Pro through SettleBuddy, using the support chat or expert support, using Visa AI or Buddy AI once they are available, and buying the SettleBuddy Membership. If you look at the website without an account, these Terms apply to that visit as well. The same Terms apply on the website and in the app. If you do not agree with them, please do not use the service.

2.2 Age. You must be at least 18 years old to use the service. This applies to every part of it: the housing board, the tools for tenants and landlords, the community, the guides, Language Lab Pro provided through SettleBuddy, the support chat and expert support, Visa AI and Buddy AI when they launch, and the Membership. You also need to be legally able to enter into contracts in the country where you live. We ask for this because the service involves housing decisions and contracts that only an adult can make. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we close it.

2.3 Business use. You may use the service on behalf of a business, such as a property company, a relocation agency or an employer supporting its staff. In that case these Terms apply to the business as well as to you, so please make sure that you are authorised to accept them for the business. The person who creates the account remains responsible for its use, and the business is jointly responsible once it uses or benefits from the account. Stating that you act for a business does not reduce your own responsibility. A business must not present itself as a private individual, and tenant data, the community and the AI tools may not be used for marketing, resale or data collection.

2.4 Definitions. In these Terms:

2.5 What makes up the agreement. The agreement between you and us consists of these Terms, the rules shown inside a feature when you use it, such as the community rules, and, if you buy the Membership or a paid visibility option, the order summary shown at checkout and the confirmation we email to you. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal data. Descriptions on the website, in the app and in our marketing explain the service, and the binding description of what you buy is in these Terms and in your order summary. If these documents ever conflict, the order summary comes first for the price and content of your purchase, and these Terms come first for everything else.

3. What SettleBuddy is

3.1 A relocation platform. SettleBuddy is a relocation platform for people moving to another country. It brings the main parts of a move together under one account and one profile, on the website and in the app: the housing board with its tools for tenants and landlords, the community, the SettleBuddy guides, Language Lab, support and the SettleBuddy Membership. Two further products, Visa AI and Buddy AI, are in development and are described in section 13. Sections 5 to 14 describe each part in full.

3.2 The parts of the service. These are:

3.3 Visa AI and Buddy AI. Visa AI and Buddy AI are in development. Section 13 describes what they will do and makes clear that they are not part of anything you pay for today.

3.4 What SettleBuddy is not. We are not an estate agent, broker, landlord or property manager, and we are never a party to a lease. We are not a law firm, an immigration adviser, a tax adviser, a bank, an insurer or an insurance broker. Our tools give you information and help you act for yourself, and where a decision needs a licensed professional, the tools and our team say so. We set this out plainly so that you always know who is responsible for what.

3.5 Free account and Membership. A free account gives you the housing board: every home, filters, saved searches with alerts, saved homes, contact with a landlord after the 30-day waiting period, ratings, reports and the support chat. The Membership adds the tools a tenant uses to actually secure a home, together with the community, the guides, Language Lab Pro and expert support. Landlords use the service free of charge, apart from the optional paid visibility options.

4. Accounts

4.1 Creating an account. To create an account you give us an email address and confirm it with the code we send you. You need a confirmed email address before you can post a listing or contact a landlord. Please give accurate information and keep it up to date, because other users and the tools rely on it.

4.2 One account for the website and the app. Your account works on the website and in the app, and everything in it follows you from one to the other. The one exception is the document vault, whose files stay on the device where you stored them unless you use the backup described in section 6.13.

4.3 What the free account includes. A free account includes eight things:

4.4 One person, one account. Each person may hold one account, and an account may be used only by the person who created it. Please do not share your login, create an account under a false identity or open a new account after we have closed one. We ask for this because ratings, applications and the Membership are all tied to a real person, and the service only works if each account stands for one.

4.5 Keeping your account safe. You are responsible for what is done through your account. Please keep your login details private and tell us at once at hello@settlebuddy.io if you think someone else has access.

4.6 Your profile. The details in your profile, such as your move-in date, household size, occupation and the values you declare for the requirements match, are your own statements. The tools use them exactly as you enter them, so please keep them true and current.

4.7 Verification badge. Verification is optional and takes place only with your express consent. Any user can verify their identity by photographing an identity document and taking a live photo with the in-app camera. Our own system compares the two, and the images are deleted as soon as the check is complete. A verified identity is shown as a badge on your profile. An account without a badge can use every feature. A badge shows that a document check was passed, and it is not a guarantee of a person’s identity or conduct.

4.8 Alerts and notifications. Alerts for saved searches, messages from landlords and tenants, viewing reminders and service notices are sent as notifications in the app and by email. You can switch off optional notifications in your settings. We still send the messages that are needed to run your account, such as confirmations, renewal reminders and notices about these Terms.

4.9 Deleting your account. You can delete your account at any time in the settings or by writing to hello@settlebuddy.io. Deleting your account ends your access to every part of the service, cancels a Membership and ends the rest of a period you have paid for. Section 17 explains when a refund is due.

5. The housing board

5.1 What it is. The housing board is an online notice board for homes, rooms and sublets. Landlords publish listings. Tenants search the board and contact landlords through the in-app chat.

5.2 Our role. Everything that follows the first contact is between the landlord and the tenant: the questions and answers, the viewing, the choice of tenant, the lease, the deposit, the rent and the handover. We do not act for landlords or for tenants. We do not arrange or attend viewings, forward or pre-select applications, negotiate, or recommend a home or an applicant. The tools on the board are operated by the landlord or by the tenant, each for themselves.

5.3 No commission, no deposits, no rent. Posting a listing is free. We charge no commission and no success fee to anyone when a tenancy is agreed. We never collect, hold or pass on deposits or rent. Every listing carries this notice: “SettleBuddy never collects deposits or rent. Never pay a landlord anything before you have viewed the property and signed a lease.”

5.4 What we check and what we do not. We confirm an email address for every account, and we run an automated check on every new listing before it is shown. A listing that the check flags is held until a member of our team has reviewed it. Beyond that, verification is optional and shown as a badge. Any user can verify their identity under section 4.7. A landlord who has verified their identity can verify a listing under section 7.8 by submitting a page of the lease, a utility bill or an ownership document for that property. A profile or listing without a badge is just as welcome on the board, and it simply has not been checked. We do not inspect homes, and a badge is not a guarantee that a listing is accurate or that a person is who they say they are, because documents can be forged. Please make your own checks before you sign or pay anything.

5.5 Our staff and your conversations. Our staff do not take part in conversations between landlords and tenants and cannot read them. The only exception is content that a user has reported or that our automated checks have flagged, which our team may read in order to review it.

5.6 How listings are shown. Listings are shown newest first unless you choose another order, and you can sort and filter them yourself. A landlord may pay to make a listing more visible for seven days. “Highlight” gives the listing a coloured background in the results. “Top” places it among the first two listings on each page of results. A featured listing is marked as featured, so that you always know when a position has been paid for. It goes through the same checks as every other listing and is not vetted or recommended by us. Featuring a listing changes only where it is shown. It does not change the badges a listing carries, the order of applicants or how any tenant’s application is handled. Section 7.19 describes the options in full.

5.7 How long a listing stays. A listing stays on the board for 60 days or until the landlord marks it as let, whichever comes first.

5.8 Who writes the listings and what that means. Every listing is written and published by the landlord. The listing assistant may help with the draft, but the landlord reviews it, confirms that each detail is correct and asks us to publish it as entered. The listing is therefore the landlord’s statement, not ours. We show it as it was entered, we do not check it against the property, and we cannot promise that a listing is accurate, lawful, complete or still available on the day you read it. If a listing turns out to be wrong, your claim is against the landlord who wrote it. If you believe a listing is false or misleading, please report it so that we can review it and, where needed, take it down.

6. Housing for tenants

This section describes every tool a tenant has. Sections 6.1 to 6.4, 6.17 and 6.18 are part of the free account. Sections 6.5 to 6.16 are part of the Membership. Section 6.19 applies to every tenant.

6.1 Browsing and filters. You can see every home on the board and narrow it with the filters we offer, such as area, rent, size, type of home, move-in date, rental period, furnished or unfurnished, and whether address registration is possible. Each listing shows the details required by section 7.4, the landlord’s optional requirements, the energy information where the landlord has it, any verification badges and the landlord’s ratings.

6.2 Saved searches and alerts. You can save a search and receive an alert when a new listing matches it. Alerts depend on your device settings and your connection, so we cannot promise that every alert arrives at once.

6.3 Saved homes. You can save any listing to your own list. A saved home is removed from the list when the listing closes.

6.4 Contact and the 30-day waiting period. On a free account, pressing Contact on a listing for the first time starts a 30-day waiting period for that listing, and the app shows the time remaining. When the period ends you can contact the landlord through the in-app chat, provided the listing is still on the board. A listing may be let or may expire before then. The waiting period is the difference between the free account and the Membership, and it applies listing by listing.

6.5 Instant Contact. As a Member you have no waiting period on any listing. You press Contact and your message reaches the landlord at once.

6.6 Your intro and answers, written once. As a Member you write your introduction and your standard answers once. For each home you apply to, the assistant keeps your own text and adjusts the parts that relate to that listing. You see every draft and can edit it. Nothing is sent until you tap Send, and what you send is your own message.

6.7 Requirements match before you apply. As a Member you see, before you apply, how you fit the requirements the landlord has set, for example “4 of 5 met”, together with what is missing. The match is worked out from what you declare in your profile and which document slots in your vault are filled. It is your own statement and we do not verify it. Where something is missing, the app explains how people usually obtain it and which alternatives a landlord may accept. Whether an alternative is accepted is always the landlord’s decision.

6.8 Instant answers. As a Member, standard questions you ask about a listing are answered immediately by the landlord’s listing assistant from the details in the listing, at any hour. Examples are the deposit, whether the home is furnished, whether address registration is possible and whether pets are allowed. A question that the listing does not answer is passed to the landlord.

6.9 Applications. As a Member you apply for a home with the tools in this section, and you can send one application per listing from your account. Applications are sent in stages, so that a landlord sees only what is needed at each step. The first stage contains your name, your contact details, your introduction and which of the landlord’s requirements you say you meet. Further details about your household and income follow once the landlord shows interest. Supporting documents are shared only when you choose to share them. Identity documents, passports and visas cannot be shared with landlords through the service, although a landlord may ask to see your identity document in person. The same limits apply to messages sent from a free account.

6.10 Application status board. As a Member you see every application in one place with its status: sent, seen, viewing, offer, let or closed. When a landlord marks a listing as let, or the listing expires, the status changes to closed.

6.11 Viewing slots. Landlords set their own viewing times in the app. As a Member, if you meet all of a landlord’s requirements, a free slot is booked for you when you ask for it. If you meet only some of them, the landlord decides. If all slots are taken, you join the waitlist and are offered a slot if one becomes free. A viewing may be in person or, where the landlord offers it, by video. We do not arrange, confirm or attend viewings. If you book a viewing, please attend on time or cancel in the app as early as you can, out of respect for the landlord and the other applicants.

6.12 Viewing reminders and the prep card. As a Member you receive a reminder on your phone before each viewing, together with a prep card showing the address, the time, what to bring and the questions the listing has left open.

6.13 Document vault. As a Member you can keep your documents in the vault. Files are encrypted and stored on your device, not on our servers, and we cannot open them. You may switch on a backup that is locked with a passphrase only you know. We cannot recover that passphrase, so please keep it safe. Without a backup, files are lost if you lose your device or remove the app. You share a file read-only with one landlord at a time and only when you choose to. A shared copy can be viewed by that landlord until the listing closes and is then deleted. Your files remain yours. When your Membership ends you can still open, export and delete the files already in your vault, but you can no longer add or share files.

6.14 Scam check. As a Member you can share a chat, screenshots or the link to an advert, from SettleBuddy or from anywhere else, and the scam check shows which documented warning signs of rental fraud appear in it. The result is an indication based on known patterns. It is not proof that an offer is fraudulent, and a clean result is not a guarantee that it is safe.

6.15 Lease and letter explainer. As a Member you can photograph a lease, a letter or a bill written in the local language and receive its meaning, its deadlines and the usual next steps in English. The explainer helps you understand a document quickly. It is general information, not legal advice, and it does not replace reading the original. For a decision that matters, such as signing a lease or answering an official letter with a deadline, please also have the document checked by a qualified adviser.

6.16 Move-in report. As a Member you can record the condition of a home room by room with photos that carry a server timestamp. The report is your own record, which you can export and use as evidence, for example in a discussion about the deposit. We cannot guarantee that a landlord, an insurer or a court will accept it. A move-in report you have created stays available for you to view and export after your Membership ends.

6.17 Ratings. After a viewing recorded in the app has taken place, you can rate the landlord on the accuracy of the listing, punctuality and respectful conduct, and the landlord can rate you on attendance, punctuality and conduct. Section 18.3 sets out the rules for ratings.

6.18 Reports. Every listing, message and profile can be reported. Section 19 explains what happens to a report.

6.19 Your part as a tenant. Please declare your details truthfully and upload only genuine documents, because landlords rely on them. Please make your own checks on a home and a landlord before you commit to anything, and never pay a deposit, rent, a viewing fee or a reservation fee to a landlord before you have viewed the property and signed a lease. As a tenant, the only payment you ever make to SettleBuddy is the Membership, and it is never a condition of any landlord’s decision. The decision to rent a home, and the lease you sign, are yours.

7. Housing for landlords

This section describes every tool a landlord has. Posting a listing and every tool in this section are free of charge. The only paid items are the optional visibility options in section 7.19.

7.1 Who can post. You may post a listing if you own the property, are authorised by the owner to let it, or are a tenant subletting your own home or a room in it with your landlord’s permission.

7.2 Free of charge. Posting a listing and using every landlord tool is free. We take no commission and no fee from you when you find a tenant. The only paid option is featuring a listing under section 7.19, which is entirely your choice.

7.3 Creating a listing with the listing assistant. You upload photos and describe the home in a sentence or two. The listing assistant drafts the listing and asks you for any required detail that is still missing. You review the draft, change whatever you wish and confirm it. The published listing is your statement, not ours.

7.4 Required details. Every listing must show:

We require these because they are the details tenants need to compare homes fairly and to avoid surprises later. Further details, such as the size, pets, smoking, the floor, a lift, a balcony, parking and internet, help tenants and reduce the questions you receive.

7.5 Energy certificate. When you create a listing you tell us whether you hold an energy certificate for the property. If you do, you enter the values from it and they are shown in the listing. If you do not yet have one, the listing is published without them. Whether and when you must hold or show an energy certificate is a matter of the law that applies to your property, and you are responsible for following it.

7.6 Your confirmations. Before a listing is published you confirm that you own the property or are authorised to let it, and that, if you are subletting, you have your own landlord’s permission. You confirm that every detail is correct and complete, including the rent, the side costs and the deposit, that the photos show the actual property, and that the property is really available. You also confirm that you ask us to publish the listing as you entered it. We record these confirmations with the date, the time and the email address of your account.

7.7 Checks before a listing goes live. Your email address must be confirmed, and every new listing passes an automated check before it is shown. If the check flags a listing, it is held until a member of our team has reviewed it. We may ask you for more information before releasing it.

7.8 Verification badges. Verification is optional and takes place only with your express consent. You can verify your identity under section 4.7. Once your identity is verified, you can verify a property by submitting a page of the lease, a utility bill or an ownership document for it. Our own system reads the document, matches it against your verified name and the listing address, and then deletes it. A verified identity is shown on your profile and a verified property on the listing. Landlords without a badge can use every feature. Verification is a check of documents, not an inspection, and it does not make us responsible for the listing.

7.9 How long a listing stays, and relisting. A listing stays on the board for 60 days or until you mark it as let, whichever comes first. When the home becomes available again you can relist it with one tap. The earlier listing is loaded, and you confirm or update every detail before it is published again.

7.10 Standard questions and pausing the assistant. The listing assistant answers standard questions from Members using the details in your listing. Questions from tenants on a free account, and any question the listing does not answer, are passed to you with the question quoted. You see every conversation in full, you can reply yourself at any time, and you can pause the assistant for a listing whenever you wish. Messages sent by the assistant are labelled as such and count as your messages.

7.11 Optional requirements and match status. You may set optional requirements for a listing from the list we provide, for example a credit report, an income range, proof of employment, pets, smoking or the number of occupants. Tenants can apply even if they do not meet all of them. Each applicant is shown with a match status, such as “2 of 3 met”, which is based on the tenant’s own statements and is not verified by us. Requirements based on ethnic origin, nationality, religion, gender, disability, age, sexual identity or family plans cannot be set.

7.12 Applicant list. You see everyone who has applied for a listing and can sort the list by match status, by time of application or by rating. You can filter only by the requirements you have set.

7.13 Viewing calendar. You set the times at which you are available for viewings in the calendar inside the app, and you can mark a listing as open to video viewings. When an applicant who meets all your requirements asks for a viewing, a free slot is booked for them. When an applicant meets only some of them, you are asked and you decide. You can also offer a slot to any applicant yourself. Confirmations and reminders are sent automatically, and a slot that is cancelled is offered to the next person on the waitlist. These steps follow the settings you have chosen, and you can change them at any time.

7.14 Document requests. You can ask an applicant for documents with one tap. The applicant decides which files to share from their document vault. You see them read-only in a folder for that applicant, and the folder closes when the listing closes. Identity documents, passports and visas cannot be requested or shared through the service.

7.15 Dashboard. If you have more than one listing, the dashboard shows each one with the number of applications, the number of full matches, the next viewing, the days the listing has been online and whether the assistant is on or paused.

7.16 Offers and closing a listing. You can make an offer to an applicant, decline an applicant and mark the listing as let. When you mark it as let, the other applicants are told that the home is no longer available, the conversations for that listing are closed, and the application data is deleted 30 days later. Please mark a listing as let as soon as it is let, so that tenants are not left waiting.

7.17 Ratings. After a viewing recorded in the app has taken place, you can rate the tenant on attendance, punctuality and conduct, and the tenant can rate you on the accuracy of the listing, punctuality and respectful conduct. Your ratings are shown on your listings.

7.18 Your duties as a landlord. You are responsible for following the laws that apply to your property and to letting it, including rules on rent levels, on energy information in listings and on equal treatment of applicants. To protect applicants from the most common rental scams and from unfair treatment, you agree:

7.19 Paid visibility options. You may pay to make a listing more visible for seven days. There are two options, and they can be combined. “Highlight”, at EUR 4.90, gives your listing a coloured background in the results so that it stands out while tenants scroll. “Top”, at EUR 9.90, places your listing among the first two listings on each page of results for the area and filters a tenant has chosen. Where more listings have bought Top than there are places, they take turns. Prices include all taxes and are shown before you pay. Payment is taken on the website by our payment partner under section 15, and the seven days start as soon as the payment is confirmed. The seven days run alongside the 60 days of the listing and do not extend them. The fee pays for advertising space on the board and for nothing else. It is not a fee for finding a tenant, it does not change the checks a listing goes through or the badges it carries, it gives no guarantee of applications or of a tenancy, and it does not change how applicants are shown to you. A featured listing is marked as featured. If you mark the listing as let, or we remove it because it breaks these Terms, the option ends and the fee is not refunded. If we remove it for a reason that is not your fault, or the option could not be delivered, we refund the fee for the days not used.

7.20 Your decision. You decide whom you rent to and on what terms. We have no part in that decision and no part in the lease.

8. The assistant and the AI tools

8.1 What they are. Several parts of the service use automated tools. For landlords this is the listing assistant. For tenants these are the intro and answer drafts, the requirements match, instant answers, the scam check and the lease and letter explainer. The support chat is answered by a support assistant, and the optional verification in sections 4.7 and 7.8 is carried out by an automated system. Visa AI and Buddy AI will be AI tools when they launch.

8.2 Who controls them. Each tool acts for the user who operates it and only on that user’s instruction or settings. The listing assistant acts for the landlord, and the drafting tools act for the tenant. Nothing is sent to a landlord without the tenant’s tap on Send, and nothing is sent to a tenant by the listing assistant outside the landlord’s settings. Messages written by a tool are labelled, so that you always know when you are reading automated text.

8.3 Accuracy. Automated tools can be wrong, incomplete or out of date, even when the answer sounds confident. Please read drafts before you send them and treat results as help, not as the final word. If a tool gives you an answer that looks wrong, please tell us through the support chat so that we can improve it.

8.4 Not professional advice. The AI tools give general information. They are not legal, tax, immigration, financial or insurance advice, and they do not replace a qualified adviser who knows your situation.

8.5 AI actions and the fair-use limit. Use of the AI tools for tenants is counted in AI actions, and each tool shows how many actions it uses before you run it. At the date of these Terms a scam check uses 5 actions, a lease or letter explanation uses 5 and an intro draft uses 2. Members can use up to 300 AI actions a day, which is roughly 60 scam checks, 60 explanations or 150 intro drafts every day. This fair-use limit exists only to protect the service from automated abuse, and ordinary use does not reach it. Unused actions do not carry over to the next day. The landlord tools are free of charge, and we may apply a comparable limit to them for the same reason.

8.6 What you submit. When you give a tool a chat, a screenshot, a photo or a document, it is processed by us and by technical providers working for us in order to produce the result, as described in the Privacy Policy. Please submit only material you are entitled to use.

8.7 Proper use. Please do not use the AI tools to produce false documents, misleading listings, discriminatory content or messages that pretend to come from someone else.

9. Community

9.1 What it is. The community is a place inside SettleBuddy where users talk to each other about their move. People post where they are coming from and where they are going, ask questions, share what they have learned, and get to know others who are making the same move or who made it some time ago. It is conversation between users, person to person.

9.2 Who can use it. The community is part of the Membership.

9.3 Our role. Our team may post announcements and may remove content that breaks these Terms. Our team does not recommend a specific home to a specific person, and the community is not a channel for arranging tenancies. Homes may be offered only through the housing board, so that every listing passes the same checks.

9.4 Other users. We do not verify what users say about themselves in the community, and we are not responsible for advice that one user gives another. Please use the same care you would use with anyone you meet online, particularly before you share personal details, send money or meet in person.

9.5 Community rules. Please be respectful. Advertising, spam, requests for money, discriminatory or abusive posts, and posts that share another person’s private information are not allowed. Section 18 applies to the community in full.

10. The SettleBuddy guides

10.1 What they are. The SettleBuddy guides are PDF guides for the move, written by us. They are part of the Membership. They are delivered in full at the moment of your first purchase, are available in the app and are kept on your phone.

10.2 Your licence. The guides are yours to keep and to use for your own move, including after your Membership ends. They are protected by copyright, so please do not copy, share, publish or sell them.

10.3 General information. The guides describe how things usually work and are kept up to date with reasonable care. Rules and procedures change and differ from one place to another, so the guides are general information and not legal, tax or immigration advice.

11. Language Lab

11.1 What it is. Language Lab is our language-learning app, published as “Language Lab by SettleBuddy”. It offers lessons, exercises and an AI tutor across many languages and levels. It is a separate product with its own account and its own terms, which apply to your use of it.

11.2 Language Lab Pro with the Membership. The Membership includes Language Lab Pro for each period you pay for. It is switched on when your payment is confirmed, for the Language Lab account registered with the email address of your SettleBuddy account. If you do not have a Language Lab account yet, it is switched on as soon as you create one with that email address. It stays on for the full period you have paid for. If you already pay for Language Lab separately, please contact us so that you are not charged twice.

11.3 Buying Language Lab separately. Language Lab plans bought directly from Language Lab are a separate purchase under Language Lab’s own terms and are not affected by these Terms.

12. Support chat and expert support

12.1 Support chat. Every account can use the support chat for questions about the service. The support chat is answered by our support assistant, which is an automated tool, and you can also write to us at hello@settlebuddy.io.

12.2 Expert support. The Membership includes, in each period you pay for, 14 days in which a person on our team, and not the assistant, answers your support chat. The 14 days start on the day the period starts and run continuously, so they end on day 14 of that period. For the rest of the period the support chat is answered by the support assistant again, and you can still write to us by email at any time.

12.3 What expert support covers. During those 14 days you can ask as many questions as you like, in English, about settling in. Examples are address registration, opening a bank account, insurance, utilities, mobile and internet contracts and everyday paperwork. Our team replies during its working hours.

12.4 What expert support is not. Expert support is general guidance from people who know the process. It is not legal, tax or immigration advice. Our team does not contact landlords or authorities for you, does not fill in or submit applications in your name, and does not recommend listings.

13. Visa AI and Buddy AI

13.1 Status. Visa AI and Buddy AI are in development. They are not available today, and we do not promise a launch date.

13.2 What Visa AI will do. Visa AI will take a person’s real situation, such as nationality, education, skills, salary, family and funds, and set out the legal routes by which that person can enter and stay in a country. For each route it will give the requirements, the order of the steps, the documents and where to file, in the user’s own language. Visa AI will work from official data only. It will state something only when it has an official source for it, it will show that source, and it will say so plainly when it has none. It will not fill gaps with assumptions.

13.3 What Visa AI will not be. Visa AI will not be a lawyer or a licensed immigration adviser and will not act for you before any authority. Where a matter needs regulated legal work, it will say so and point you to a licensed professional. Decisions on visas and residence are made by the authorities alone.

13.4 What Buddy AI will do. Moving to another country is many small tasks, not one large one. Buddy AI will handle that side of the move: a bank account, insurance, a SIM card, address registration, utilities and the other practical steps that come with settling in. For each task it will explain which options fit your situation, which do not and why, and what to do next.

13.5 What Buddy AI will not be. Buddy AI will give information and guidance. It will not be a bank, an insurer, an insurance broker or a financial adviser, and it will not conclude contracts in your name. The choice of a provider and the contract with that provider will be yours.

13.6 Not part of what you pay for. Visa AI and Buddy AI are not included in the Membership or in any other purchase, and no part of any price is for them. If Visa AI or Buddy AI launches while your Membership is active, you will be able to use it at no extra cost for the rest of the period you have paid for. That access is a free addition and not something you have paid for, so a delay or a change of plan gives no right to a refund or to a reduction of the price. When either product launches, we will publish the terms and prices that apply to it.

14. The SettleBuddy Membership

14.1 Price. The Membership costs EUR 199 for each period of 30 days, all taxes included. It is a subscription. After the first period it continues until you cancel, and you are charged EUR 199 for each further period of 30 days. A discount code may reduce the price of the first period.

14.2 How the price is made up. The price of EUR 199 for your first period is made up of the following parts, each with its own price. They are shown to you at checkout before you pay:

Instant Contact is item 1 of the list in section 14.4, the guides are item 14 and Language Lab Pro is item 15. The other items on that list are the membership services at EUR 80.

Instant Contact works for every home you contact within a period, with no count, and the EUR 50 per contact is never charged on top of the EUR 199. It matters in one situation only. If you withdraw within 14 days under section 16, each contact you used counts as EUR 50 of the price already received, up to the price you paid and never more. Someone who contacts four landlords and then withdraws receives nothing back, because they have used what they paid for. Someone who contacts no one receives the price back minus the guides, Language Lab Pro and the days used.

In periods after the first, the guides are already yours and are not delivered again. The price then covers Language Lab Pro, Instant Contact and the other membership services listed in section 14.4.

14.3 How it runs. Each period is 30 days and starts when the payment for it is confirmed. After the first period the Membership continues for an indefinite time and is charged every 30 days at the price shown when you bought it, until you cancel. We email you a reminder at least 3 days before each charge, with the amount, the date and a link to cancel. Your payment method stays on file with our payment partner for this purpose. You can cancel at any time with the “Cancel contracts here” button on the website or by email. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for. You keep every feature until then, and nothing further is charged. The guides stay yours after cancellation, conversations you have already opened with a landlord stay open, and sections 6.13 and 6.16 explain what happens to your vault and your move-in reports.

14.4 What the Membership adds. The Membership adds these 19 things to your account:

  1. Instant Contact on every home. There is no 30-day waiting period on any listing: you press Contact and your message reaches the landlord at once (section 6.5).
  2. Your intro and answers, written once. The assistant adjusts them to every home you apply to, and nothing is sent until you tap Send (section 6.6).
  3. Requirements match before you apply. You see how you fit a landlord’s requirements, for example “4 of 5 met”, before you apply (section 6.7).
  4. Instant answers from the listing assistant. Standard questions such as deposit, furnished, address registration and pets are answered immediately, at any hour (section 6.8).
  5. Application status board. Sent, seen, viewing, offer, let: every application is in one place (section 6.10).
  6. Viewing slots that book themselves. If you meet the requirements a slot is yours, on a partial match the landlord decides, and if slots are full you join the waitlist (section 6.11).
  7. Viewing reminders and a prep card. You get a reminder on your phone, with what to bring and what to ask (section 6.12).
  8. Document vault on your phone. Files are encrypted on the device and shared read-only with one landlord at a time, only when you say so, with an optional passphrase backup (section 6.13).
  9. Scam check. You share a chat, screenshots or an advert link and see which documented warning signs of rental fraud appear in it (section 6.14).
  10. Lease and letter explainer. You photograph a lease, a letter or a bill and receive the meaning, the deadlines and what to do, in English (section 6.15).
  11. Move-in report. Room-by-room photos with server timestamps form your record of the home’s condition (section 6.16).
  12. Community. Questions, tips and people making the same move (section 9).
  13. 300 AI actions a day. That is about 60 scam checks, 60 explanations or 150 intro drafts every day, within the fair-use limit (section 8.5).
  14. The SettleBuddy guides. PDF guides for the move, in the app and kept on your phone (section 10).
  15. Language Lab Pro for every paid period. It is switched on for your Language Lab account when your payment is confirmed (section 11).
  16. A person in support for 14 days of every paid period. A person on our team, and not the assistant, answers your support chat (section 12).
  17. Visa AI and Buddy AI. They are in development. They are a free addition if they launch while your Membership is active and are not part of what you pay for (section 13).
  18. Everything in the free account. All eight things in section 4.3 stay, on the same account, on your phone and on the website.
  19. One price, cancel any time. EUR 199 per period, with a reminder before every charge and the cancel button described in section 14.3.

14.5 Personal to you. The Membership is priced per person. It belongs to your account and cannot be shared, transferred or resold.

14.6 What the Membership is. The Membership gives you every tool on SettleBuddy that helps you move faster than the people around you. You reach landlords the moment a home appears, you apply with a complete, well-written application in one tap, you see where you stand before you apply, and you keep every viewing, document and answer in one place. What happens next is between you and the landlord, as it is on every housing platform. Landlords choose freely among all applicants, and the Membership gives you the best possible start, not a guaranteed outcome.

14.7 What the Membership does not include. The Membership pays for the tools and services listed in section 14.4 and for nothing else. It does not include a home, a tenancy, a viewing or any step in a landlord’s decision. The housing board itself is free for everyone, landlords use it free of charge, and no part of the price is a fee for finding, arranging or brokering a home. Instant Contact removes a waiting period on the platform. It is not a fee for a home or for a landlord’s details, and every listing can be contacted on a free account once the waiting period has ended. Expert support, as described in section 12, is general guidance from our team delivered through the support chat. It is not consulting, coaching, legal, tax, immigration, financial or insurance advice, and it is not a professional service performed for you. No part of the price is a fee for advice or for any work done on your behalf. Visa AI and Buddy AI are described in section 13 and are not part of what you pay for.

15. Payment

15.1 Where you buy. The Membership and the paid visibility options for landlords are sold on the SettleBuddy website. They cannot be bought inside the app. The app shows whether your account has an active Membership or a featured listing.

15.2 Who takes the payment. Orders are processed by our payment partner, which acts as reseller and merchant of record. Its name is shown at checkout and on your receipt. It takes the payment, handles the taxes and issues the invoice, and any refund is paid back through it. We do not receive or store your card details.

15.3 When a purchase starts. Your Membership or your paid visibility option starts when your payment is confirmed, and we email you a confirmation with the order summary and these Terms.

15.4 Renewals. For the Membership, our payment partner charges each further period on the date shown in your reminder email, using the payment method on file. If a charge fails, we tell you by email and try again over the following days. If it still fails, the Membership ends at the end of the period you have paid for and your account returns to the free account. Nothing is owed for a period that was not charged.

15.5 Discount codes. A discount code can be used once, on one purchase, by the person it was issued to, unless the code itself says otherwise. A code applied to the Membership reduces the first period only, unless it says otherwise. Codes have no cash value.

15.6 Payment disputes. If something is wrong with a payment, please write to us first so that we can put it right quickly. While a dispute with your bank or card provider is open, we may suspend the Membership, and if a payment is reversed without good reason we may end it and decline future purchases.

16. Your right to withdraw

16.1 Who has it. If you buy the Membership as a consumer and live in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you can withdraw from the purchase within 14 days without giving a reason. The 14 days start on the day of your first purchase. A further period is the continuation of the same contract, so it does not start a new withdrawal period, but you can cancel at any time under section 14.3.

16.2 How to withdraw. Use the “Withdraw from contract” function in your account on the website, or send us a clear statement by email to hello@settlebuddy.io. You may use the form at the end of these Terms, but you do not have to. Your withdrawal is in time if you send it before the 14 days end. We confirm receipt by email without delay.

16.3 Your refund. We refund your payment without undue delay and at the latest within 14 days of the day we receive your withdrawal, using the payment method you paid with. We charge you nothing for the refund.

16.4 What is deducted if you withdraw. Your Membership starts when your payment is confirmed, because at checkout you ask us to begin immediately and confirm that you understand what this means for a withdrawal. If you then withdraw within 14 days, you pay for what you have already received, and we deduct it from the refund:

The deductions can never exceed the price you paid. Example one: you withdraw on day 5 having contacted two landlords. We deduct 49, 20, 100 and 13.35, which is EUR 182.35, and refund EUR 16.65. Example two: you withdraw on day 5 having contacted no one. We deduct 49, 20 and 13.35, which is EUR 82.35, and refund EUR 116.65. If you paid a reduced price with a discount code, each part is reduced in the same proportion.

16.5 After a withdrawal. Your account returns to the free account when we receive your withdrawal. The guides remain yours.

16.6 Other countries. If you live outside the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, the purchase is final once the Membership has started, unless the law of your country gives you a right to cancel, in which case that law applies.

16.7 Paid visibility options. A paid visibility option is a service that begins as soon as you buy it, because at checkout you ask us to start it immediately. Landlords who buy as consumers and live in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom have the same 14-day right. If you withdraw before the seven days have run, we deduct one seventh of the price for each day the option was live. Once the seven days have run, the service has been fully provided and the right to withdraw has ended.

17. Refunds outside the right to withdraw

17.1 Refunds after the withdrawal period. The Membership pays for tools and services, not for a result, and the price is for the full period. Once the 14-day withdrawal period in section 16 has passed, or where it does not apply, the following rules govern refunds. Payments for a period that has started are not refundable, and cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period as described in section 14.3. No refund is due because you did not find a home, because a home was let to someone else, because a landlord did not reply or declined you, or because you used the tools less than you expected or not at all. No refund is due because you received the renewal reminder and did not cancel, because you cancelled or deleted your account before the period ended, because a feature you did not use was changed, or because you did not use Language Lab Pro or expert support within the period. A charge made after you have cancelled by the method in section 14.3 is refunded in full. A charge made without the reminder email described in section 14.3 is refunded in full if you ask within 14 days of the charge. Where the law of the country where you live gives you a refund right that goes beyond these rules, that right applies.

17.2 Where we refund. If we close the service, or end your Membership when you have not broken these Terms, we refund the share of the current period’s price for the days not yet received.

17.3 Faults. If a paid part of the service does not work as described, please tell us at hello@settlebuddy.io and we will put it right within a reasonable time. If we cannot, you may be entitled to a price reduction or a refund for the affected period under the law that applies to you. Your legal rights in the case of a faulty service are not affected by these Terms.

17.4 Paid visibility options. The fee for a paid visibility option is refunded only as described in sections 7.19 and 16.7.

18. Rules of use

18.1 Why these rules exist. The service is used by people making one of the biggest moves of their lives. These rules keep it safe and fair for them.

18.2 What is not allowed. On the housing board, in the community, in messages, in ratings, in the support chat and in the AI tools, please do not:

18.3 Ratings. Ratings must be honest, based on your own experience and about conduct only. Ratings that are discriminatory, abusive, given in exchange for a benefit or given about a viewing that did not take place are removed.

19. Reports, review and account measures

19.1 Reporting. Every listing, message, profile, rating and community post can be reported in the app, and you can also write to hello@settlebuddy.io. Please tell us what the content is and why you think it breaks these Terms or the law. We review reports promptly, and a person makes the decision.

19.2 What we may do. If we have good reason to believe that these Terms or the law have been broken, or that other users need protection from fraud, we may remove or hide content, hold or remove a listing, remove a verification badge, limit features, suspend an account or close it. We choose the mildest measure that deals with the problem. In serious cases, such as fraud, fake listings, forged documents, threats or discrimination, we may close an account at once and permanently.

19.3 Telling you why. We tell you by email what we have done and why, unless the law or an ongoing investigation prevents it. If you think the decision is wrong, reply to that email within 30 days and a different person on our team will look at it again.

19.4 Membership after a serious breach. If we close an account because of a serious breach under section 19.2, the Membership ends and the days not yet used are not refunded, because the breach is the reason the service can no longer be provided.

19.5 Authorities. We may keep records of a breach and may share information with the police or other authorities where the law requires or allows it, or where we reasonably suspect a crime.

20. Your content and our rights

20.1 Your content. You keep all rights in what you post or submit: listings, photos, messages, applications, ratings, community posts, move-in reports and documents. You give us a non-exclusive, free, worldwide licence to store, display and transmit that content to the extent needed to run the service, for example to show a listing to tenants and in alerts, to deliver a message, or to produce a result from an AI tool. The licence ends when the content is deleted, apart from backup copies, which are removed on our normal cycle.

20.2 Your assurance. You confirm that you are entitled to post or submit your content and that it does not infringe anyone else’s rights.

20.3 Our rights. The service, its software, its design, the guides, the name SettleBuddy and the name Language Lab belong to us. We give you a personal, non-transferable right to use the service and the guides for your own move or your own lettings, as these Terms describe.

20.4 Feedback. If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them to improve the service without any obligation to you.

21. Personal data

21.1 Our Privacy Policy. Our Privacy Policy explains which personal data we handle, why, for how long, and which rights you have.

21.2 Data between landlords and tenants. When a tenant applies, the landlord receives the tenant’s data in order to decide about the letting. The landlord is responsible in their own right for handling that data lawfully. Application data in the service is deleted 30 days after a listing closes.

21.3 Documents. Files in the document vault are stored on your device and we cannot read them. A shared copy is held only for the landlord you chose and only until the listing closes.

21.4 Verification. If you choose to verify your identity or a property, the images you submit are used only for that check and are deleted as soon as it is complete. We keep only the result, your name and your date of birth as shown on the document, and the date of the check.

22. Tax reporting

Where tax law requires platforms to collect and report information about people who let property through them, landlords agree to give us the required details when we ask. We may pause listings until we have them, because we are not allowed to leave that information out.

23. The app, the website and availability

23.1 App stores. The app is offered through app stores. The store’s own terms apply to the download, and the store operator is not a party to these Terms and is not responsible for the service or for support.

23.2 Your device. You need a compatible device running a supported version of its operating system, and an internet connection. Data charges from your mobile or internet provider are yours to bear. Some features need permissions on your device, for example the camera for verification and the move-in report, notifications for alerts and reminders, and storage for the document vault. You can refuse a permission, and the feature that needs it will then not work. The document vault relies on the secure storage of your device, so a device without it, or a device that has been altered to bypass its security, may not be able to use the vault. Please keep the app up to date, because features depend on the current version. We announce the end of support for a version in the app and by email at least 30 days in advance. If you use a version we no longer support, or a device that does not meet these requirements, features may not work. That is not a fault in the service, and no refund is due for a period in which the service could not be used for that reason.

23.3 Availability. We work to keep the service available and secure, but we cannot promise that it will run without interruption or error. We may carry out maintenance and will keep interruptions as short as we reasonably can. A short interruption does not give a right to a refund. If a paid feature is unavailable for a substantial part of a period because of a fault on our side, section 17.3 applies.

23.4 Changes to features. We may improve, change or remove features. A change will not reduce what a period you have already paid for includes. If we cannot avoid that, we refund a fair share of the price for that period.

23.5 Links and other services. The service contains links to websites and services run by others, for example a landlord’s own website, a map, our payment partner’s checkout page, Language Lab, an app store, or an official site that a tool or a guide refers to. These are run by their operators under their own terms and privacy policies, which apply when you use them. We include a link because it is useful, not because we have checked or endorse what is behind it, and we are not responsible for its content, its availability or anything you buy or agree to there. The payment partner’s checkout and Language Lab are the two linked services we work with directly, and sections 15 and 11 describe our relationship with them.

24. Liability

24.1 Where our liability is not limited. We are fully liable for damage we cause deliberately or through gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, and wherever the law does not allow liability to be limited.

24.2 Slight negligence. Where we are only slightly negligent, we are liable only if we breach a duty that is essential to the agreement, meaning a duty you can ordinarily rely on us to fulfil, and then only for the damage that is typical and foreseeable for an agreement of this kind.

24.3 What we are not liable for. Beyond sections 24.1 and 24.2 we are not liable. In particular, we are not liable for the content of listings, for what landlords, tenants or community users say or do, for whether a tenancy is agreed or how it goes, or for money or documents you give to another user. We are also not liable for decisions you take on the basis of a result from an AI tool, a guide or expert support without having it checked where these Terms recommend that. The same applies to the loss of vault files that were not backed up, to a missed deadline where you did not read the original document, and to a verification badge that another user obtained with a forged document.

24.4 Your liability. You are liable for damage you cause through your own fault by breaking these Terms, including reasonable costs we incur when someone else brings a claim against us because of content you posted.

25. Changes to these Terms

25.1 When we may change them. We may change these Terms for a good reason, for example a change in the law, a new feature or product, a change in price for future periods, or a security need. We email you at least 30 days before a change takes effect and explain what changes and why.

25.2 Your choice. If you do not agree with a change, you can cancel your Membership or delete your account before it takes effect. If you continue to use the service after that date, the new Terms apply to you. Our email reminds you of this.

25.3 Protection of a period you have paid for. A change never reduces what a period you have already paid for includes and never adds a charge to it, unless you expressly agree. A price change applies only to periods that start after the change takes effect, and only if we told you at least 30 days before, so that you can cancel first.

26. Ending the agreement

26.1 By you. You can stop using the service and delete your account at any time. You can cancel a Membership at any time with the “Cancel contracts here” button on the website, with effect at the end of the period you have paid for. Refunds are given only where sections 16 and 17 say so.

26.2 By us. We may close a free account with 30 days’ notice by email. We may end a Membership with 30 days’ notice to the end of a paid period. Section 19 applies where an account is closed because of a breach.

26.3 What continues. Sections 16, 17, 20, 24 and 27 continue to apply after the agreement ends, as far as they are still relevant.

27. Law and disputes

27.1 Governing law. These Terms are governed by the laws of India.

27.2 Consumers. If you are a consumer, this choice of law does not take away the protection given to you by the mandatory consumer laws of the country where you live, and you may bring a claim in the courts of that country.

27.3 Businesses. If you use the service in the course of a business, the courts of Chandigarh, India have exclusive jurisdiction.

27.4 Talking to us first. Most problems can be solved quickly by email. Please write to hello@settlebuddy.io and give us the chance to put things right before you take further steps.

28. General

28.1 If part of these Terms is invalid. If a part of these Terms turns out to be invalid, the rest stays in force.

28.2 No waiver. If we do not act on a breach at once, we do not give up the right to act on it later.

28.3 Transfer. We may transfer this agreement to another company that takes over the service. We tell you beforehand, and you can delete your account if you do not agree. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms to anyone else.

28.4 Language. These Terms are written in English. If we provide a translation and the two differ, the English version decides.

28.5 Contact. For anything about these Terms, write to hello@settlebuddy.io.

Withdrawal form

Fill in and send this form only if you want to withdraw from your purchase.

To: SettleBuddy Technologies, House No. 3871, Mauli Jagran Complex, Chandigarh 160102, India, hello@settlebuddy.io

I withdraw from my purchase of the SettleBuddy Membership.

Ordered on:

Name:

Email address of the account:

Date: