Terms of Service

By using Porch Approved you agree to these terms. They're written in plain English. Please read them.

1. Acceptance

By accessing or using Porch Approved (porchapproved.net and www.porchapproved.net) you agree to these Terms of Service. If you don't agree, don't use the service.

2. What Porch Approved is

Porch Approved is a private, invite-only directory of home-service providers (plumbers, HVAC, electricians, etc.) recommended by neighbors within a defined community such as an HOA. Communities are independent. The service includes ratings, comments, group-rate signaling, and a community message board.

Recommendations are neighbor opinions, not endorsements by Porch Approved. We do not vet, license, or insure providers. You use any provider at your own risk.

3. Eligibility

You must be 18 or older to use Porch Approved. By signing up you confirm you are.

4. Accounts and roles

• Member. Anyone with the shared community password. Can browse, rate, comment, chat, mark group-rate interest.
• Admin. Per-community. Can add/edit/remove providers, manage other admins, delete chat messages. Either the original creator (primary admin) or someone they invite.
• Provider. A service provider who has registered at /p/register. Can see ratings on their listings, reply publicly to ratings, see group-rate interest, and view AI-summarized review sentiment. All provider features are currently free.
• Site operator. 6th Wave Consulting, LLC (operating Porch Approved), which has technical access to all communities for maintenance and support.

5. Your content

Anything you post — ratings, comments, chat messages, replies — is your content.

• You retain ownership.
• You grant Porch Approved a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to display, store, and distribute your content within the relevant community for as long as your account is active. This license ends when you delete the content (or your account).
• You're responsible for what you post. Don't post anything you don't have the right to share.
• We may remove content that violates these terms or applicable law, with or without notice.

6. Acceptable use

You agree NOT to:

• Impersonate another person or business.
• Post defamatory, harassing, threatening, or hateful content.
• Post spam, unsolicited promotion, or affiliate links.
• Submit fake ratings (yours, your competitor's, or your friend's).
• Scrape the site, attempt to bypass authentication, or abuse rate limits.
• Use the service to violate any law.

We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules.

7. Provider access

• No charges, no payment processor. Porch Approved currently does not take payments from anyone. The site has no Stripe integration, no card forms, and no billing — neighbors, communities, and service providers all use it free of charge today.
• Provider intro access. When a service provider registers an account at /p/register, all features (replies to ratings, group-rate alerts, AI sentiment summary, trend chart) are enabled for at least 6 months from registration, free of charge. No card, no auto-renewal, no upsell.
• Future pricing. We reserve the right to introduce paid tiers, donations, or community-level pricing in the future. If we do, we'll give all affected providers and communities at least 30 days advance notice by email, and any new pricing will only apply to access beyond what's already been granted.
• Suspension. Provider access may be suspended for Acceptable Use violations (section 6) — including impersonation, claiming listings that aren't yours, retaliatory replies, or harassment.

8. Intellectual property

The Porch Approved name, branding, code, design, and underlying compilation of providers and ratings are owned by 6th Wave Consulting, LLC. You may not copy, reverse-engineer, or republish them without permission.

If you believe content on Porch Approved infringes your copyright, see the DMCA & Copyright Policy for our designated agent and the takedown-notice procedure. We operate under the DMCA safe harbor (17 U.S.C. § 512) and respond to properly-formatted notices within 1 business day.

9. Disclaimer of warranties

The service is provided "as is" and "as available" with no warranty of any kind, express or implied, including without limitation merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

We make no warranty about the quality, safety, licensing, insurance, pricing, or availability of any service provider listed. You hire any provider at your own risk. Verify credentials, insurance, and references independently before contracting work.

10. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Porch Approved (and its operator 6th Wave Consulting, LLC, including its members and affiliates) is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly.

Our total liability for any claim arising out of or relating to the service is limited to the greater of (a) $100, or (b) the fees you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim.

11. Indemnification

You agree to defend and hold harmless Porch Approved and its operator from any claim arising out of your content, your use of the service, or your violation of these terms.

12. Termination, suspension, and community removal

• You can delete your account anytime via the support form.
• The Site Administrator (6th Wave Consulting, LLC) reserves the right to suspend, archive, or permanently delete any community, account, or content that, in our reasonable judgment:
  • Violates these Terms of Service or the Acceptable Use rules in section 6 (impersonation, defamation, harassment, hate speech, spam, fake ratings, scraping, abuse, illegal use).
  • Was created as a test, demo, or duplicate community that is no longer needed.
  • Has been inactive for an extended period and is occupying a name/slug that another community wants to use.
  • Receives a credible complaint from a service provider, neighbor, or third party that we cannot resolve through ordinary moderation.
  • Is required to be removed by a court order, regulatory request, or platform partner (Stripe, Twilio, Resend, Cloudflare).
• Notice. Where practical, we'll notify the community's primary admin by email before archiving or deleting, and offer a window to export ratings/comments. In cases of clear abuse, fraud, illegal activity, or a court order, we may act without prior notice.
• Archive vs. delete. Archived communities are removed from the public directory and from neighbor sign-in, but the underlying data may be retained internally for up to 90 days in case of dispute or restoration request. Permanent deletion removes the underlying data subject to our standard backup retention (see Privacy Policy).
• Sections 5 (your content license to us, for content you've already posted), 8–11, and 13 survive termination.

13. Governing law & disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute will first be attempted to be resolved through the support form. If unresolved, the dispute will be settled by binding arbitration in Dallas County, Texas, under the rules of the American Arbitration Association. You waive the right to participate in a class action.

14. Changes to terms

We may update these terms. The "Last updated" date will change. For material changes we'll send a notification (where we have your email) and require re-acceptance for paid features. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated terms.

15. Contact

Questions or notices: contact form.