Effective: August 9, 2026

Terms of Service

Please read these terms carefully. By using ToolBud, you agree to be bound by them.

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Contents

  1. 1. ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS
  2. 2. ELIGIBILITY
  3. 3. ACCOUNT RESPONSIBILITIES
  4. 4. PLATFORM ROLE
  5. 5. BORROWING AND LENDING
  6. 6. TOOL CONDITION
  7. 7. AVAILABILITY
  8. 8. PROHIBITED CONDUCT
  9. 9. TRUST AND COMMUNITY MEMBERSHIP
  10. 10. SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION
  11. 11. DISCLAIMERS
  12. 12. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
  13. 13. DISPUTES BETWEEN USERS
  14. 14. DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND TOOLBUD
  15. 15. GOVERNING LAW
  16. 16. CONTACT INFORMATION
  17. 17. INDEMNIFICATION
  18. 18. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND LICENSE GRANT
  19. 19. FEEDBACK
  20. 20. FORCE MAJEURE
  21. 21. SEVERABILITY
  22. 22. ENTIRE AGREEMENT
  23. 23. SMS MESSAGING TERMS

TOOLBUD TERMS OF SERVICE

1. ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS

By creating a ToolBud account or using the ToolBud application, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree, do not use ToolBud.

ToolBud may update these Terms. When a change is material, ToolBud will present the updated Terms in the application and ask you to accept them before you continue using your account. Continued use after a non-material change is posted constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

These Terms are a working draft. Legal counsel has not yet reviewed them, and several sections carry a notice saying so. ToolBud is pre-launch, and these Terms are written to describe how the app actually works today; where a rule is stated policy rather than something the app enforces automatically, the text says so rather than implying a guarantee.

2. ELIGIBILITY

You must be at least 18 years old to create a ToolBud account or use ToolBud.

ToolBud is a platform on which adults lend physical tools — including power tools and other equipment capable of causing serious injury — to other adults, and agree directly with one another about the care and return of valuable property. ToolBud is not offered to minors, and ToolBud does not provide a parental-consent path for account creation.

If you provide your birth year, ToolBud checks it against the 18-and-over requirement and will not let you continue if it shows you are under 18. Birth year is optional and ToolBud does not verify your age by any other means, so the requirement remains a condition of using ToolBud that you agree to here. ToolBud removes underage accounts when it becomes aware of them.

You must provide accurate information during account creation and when joining a community. You must not create an account on behalf of another person.

3. ACCOUNT RESPONSIBILITIES

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials.

You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.

You agree to provide accurate, current information during registration and when joining a community, and to update your information if it changes.

You may not share your account with others or allow others to access your account.

ToolBud supports sign-in with an email address and password, with Apple, and with Google. ToolBud verifies your phone number by text message during account setup. If you enable biometric unlock, that check is performed by your device and protects access to the app on that device; it is not a separate ToolBud credential.

4. PLATFORM ROLE

ToolBud is a platform that connects neighbors for the purpose of lending and borrowing physical tools. ToolBud is not a party to any lending or borrowing arrangement between users.

ToolBud does not charge fees for tool lending or borrowing. There are no rental fees, service fees, or transaction fees between users for tool sharing.

ToolBud does not own, inspect, certify, or guarantee the condition, safety, or fitness of any tool listed on the platform.

ToolBud does not guarantee the availability of any tool, the reliability of any user, or the outcome of any borrow session.

ToolBud does not take custody of any tool, does not hold funds or deposits between users, does not insure tools, and does not compensate users for damaged, lost, or unreturned tools.

5. BORROWING AND LENDING

All tool lending and borrowing is conducted at the sole risk of the participating users.

Lenders are responsible for the condition and safety of tools they make available.

Borrowers are responsible for using borrowed tools safely, returning them in the condition received (normal wear excepted), and honoring agreed-upon return timelines.

ToolBud provides session tracking, messaging, checkout and return photo records, and automated return reminders. ToolBud does not adjudicate, mediate, or guarantee outcomes between users. Any obligation to repair, replace, or pay for a tool is an obligation between the borrower and the lender, and ToolBud is not a party to it.

6. TOOL CONDITION

ToolBud makes no warranty or representation regarding the condition, safety, functionality, or fitness for any particular purpose of any tool listed on the platform.

Lenders are encouraged to provide accurate descriptions and photos. Borrowers are encouraged to inspect tools at pickup and document condition through the checkout process.

Working draft — pending attorney review. This section reflects ToolBud's current practice and applies today, but has not yet been reviewed by legal counsel and may change.

Tools are lent directly between users. As between you and ToolBud, you assume all risk arising from your possession or use of a tool obtained through ToolBud, and from lending a tool you own to another user. Responsibility for injury or property damage arising from a tool rests with the users involved and, where applicable, the manufacturer of the tool. ToolBud does not inspect tools and has no opportunity to do so.

Nothing in this section limits any liability that cannot be limited under applicable law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by ToolBud's own negligence.

7. AVAILABILITY

ToolBud does not guarantee that any tool will be available, that any user will respond to requests, or that any borrow session will be completed.

Tool availability is determined solely by tool owners. ToolBud has no control over individual lending decisions.

8. PROHIBITED CONDUCT

You agree not to:

Working draft — pending attorney review. This section reflects ToolBud's current practice and applies today, but has not yet been reviewed by legal counsel and may change.

You may not list, and may not use ToolBud to transfer:

9. TRUST AND COMMUNITY MEMBERSHIP

ToolBud's access model has two levels:

Treat anything you add to your inventory as visible to your friends and to your community. The availability setting controls what ToolBud puts in front of other members; it is a presentation control, not a security boundary, so do not rely on it to keep a tool private.

Access to tools and borrowing capabilities may be limited based on your friend connections and community membership.

ToolBud verifies your phone number during account setup and may require additional verification of your identity at any time.

Communities are identified by name and general location. In a very small community, the community name together with your display name may make you identifiable to other members. Join or create a community only if you are comfortable being identifiable to its members.

10. SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION

ToolBud may suspend or terminate your account at any time, with or without notice, for conduct that violates these Terms, the Community Guidelines, or applicable law.

You may delete your account at any time through the application, in Profile > Delete Account.

Because a borrow session creates obligations to another member, ToolBud will decline to delete your account while you have a borrow or lend session in progress — that is, a session that has been picked up, is active, or is awaiting return acceptance. Close those sessions first, then delete.

Deletion is immediate and cannot be undone. There is no grace period and no restore. What is deleted, what is retained in anonymized form, and what is kept for safety and legal reasons are described in the Privacy Policy.

If ToolBud terminates your account while you hold a tool belonging to another member, your obligation to return that tool to its owner survives the termination.

11. DISCLAIMERS

TOOLBUD IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.

Working draft — pending attorney review. This section reflects ToolBud's current practice and applies today, but has not yet been reviewed by legal counsel and may change.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, TOOLBUD DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

ToolBud does not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, that defects will be corrected, or that the platform is free of harmful components.

ToolBud makes no warranty regarding any tool, any user, or any statement made by a user. ToolBud does not screen, background-check, or vet its users beyond the verification described in these Terms.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties. Where that is the case, the exclusions above apply to you only to the extent permitted, and you may have additional rights.

12. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

Working draft — pending attorney review. This section reflects ToolBud's current practice and applies today, but has not yet been reviewed by legal counsel and may change.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, ToolBud and its officers, directors, employees, and agents shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, data, goodwill, or property, arising from or relating to your use of the platform — whether based in contract, tort, strict liability, or any other theory, and whether or not ToolBud has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, ToolBud's total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of ToolBud shall not exceed one hundred United States dollars (US$100).

These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law, including liability for fraud, for willful misconduct, or for death or personal injury caused by ToolBud's negligence.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. Where that is the case, the limitations above apply to you only to the extent permitted.

13. DISPUTES BETWEEN USERS

ToolBud provides a dispute reporting mechanism inside each borrow session. From the session screen, either participant may report an issue and select a category — item damaged, item not returned, wrong item, safety concern, or other — and add details.

You may report an issue at any time while a session is awaiting return acceptance, and for 48 hours after a session closes.

Opening a dispute notifies the other participant and records the report on the session, alongside the checkout and return photos and the message history. Either participant may close the dispute from the session screen.

ToolBud does not investigate, mediate, arbitrate, or decide disputes between users, and does not award compensation. The dispute record exists so that both participants have a shared, timestamped account of what happened. Resolution is between the users involved.

ToolBud may use dispute records to enforce these Terms and the Community Guidelines, including by restricting or terminating an account.

Nothing in this section prevents you from pursuing any remedy against another user directly, including in small-claims court, or from contacting law enforcement where you believe a tool has been stolen.

For questions about a dispute record, contact support@toolbudapp.com.

14. DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND TOOLBUD

Working draft — pending attorney review. This section reflects ToolBud's current practice and applies today, but has not yet been reviewed by legal counsel and may change.

This section applies to disputes between you and ToolBud. It does not apply to disputes between you and another user, which are addressed in section 13.

14.1 Informal resolution first. Before starting a formal proceeding, you agree to contact support@toolbudapp.com and describe the dispute, and to allow 30 days for ToolBud to attempt to resolve it informally. ToolBud agrees to do the same before bringing a claim against you.

14.2 Agreement to arbitrate. If informal resolution fails, you and ToolBud agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of ToolBud will be resolved by binding individual arbitration, administered by a recognized arbitration provider under its consumer arbitration rules, rather than in court.

14.3 Exceptions. Either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies, and either party may seek injunctive relief in court to protect intellectual property or to stop unauthorized access to the platform.

14.4 Class-action waiver. You and ToolBud agree that each may bring claims against the other only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. An arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims or preside over any form of representative proceeding. If this waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim — and only that claim — will proceed in court, and the remainder of this section will continue to apply.

14.5 Your right to opt out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement and class-action waiver by emailing support@toolbudapp.com with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out" within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. Include your name and the email address on your account. Opting out affects nothing else in these Terms, and ToolBud will not close or restrict your account because you opted out.

14.6 Survival. This section survives termination of these Terms and deletion of your account.

15. GOVERNING LAW

Working draft — pending attorney review. This section reflects ToolBud's current practice and applies today, but has not yet been reviewed by legal counsel and may change.

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or to your use of ToolBud are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

Where a dispute is not subject to arbitration under section 14, you and ToolBud agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in New York, New York, and each party consents to personal jurisdiction there.

If you are a consumer residing in a jurisdiction whose law gives you the right to bring proceedings in your local courts, or whose mandatory consumer-protection law cannot be overridden by this section, nothing here deprives you of that right or that protection.

16. CONTACT INFORMATION

For all support, account, privacy, safety, and dispute-record questions:

support@toolbudapp.com

You can also reach support from inside the app, in Profile > Help & Support, using Contact Support or Report a Problem. Those options open a message addressed to support@toolbudapp.com with your account details filled in, which helps ToolBud answer faster.

ToolBud
Houston, TX

17. INDEMNIFICATION

Working draft — pending attorney review. This section reflects ToolBud's current practice and applies today, but has not yet been reviewed by legal counsel and may change.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless ToolBud and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any third-party claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or connected with:

This obligation does not apply to the extent a claim arises from ToolBud's own negligence or willful misconduct.

18. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND LICENSE GRANT

ToolBud and its associated trademarks, logos, and content are the property of ToolBud or its licensors.

Subject to your compliance with these Terms, ToolBud grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the ToolBud application for personal, non-commercial purposes.

You retain ownership of content you upload (tool photos, messages, profile information). By uploading content to ToolBud, you grant ToolBud a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, and display that content solely for the purpose of operating, securing, and improving the platform. This license ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies retained as described in the Privacy Policy.

ToolBud uses automated systems, including third-party artificial-intelligence services, to help identify tools from photos you upload and to power in-app assistance. The Privacy Policy describes which providers receive that content.

You may not copy, modify, distribute, reverse-engineer, or create derivative works of the ToolBud application or its underlying technology.

Working draft — pending attorney review. This section reflects ToolBud's current practice and applies today, but has not yet been reviewed by legal counsel and may change.

If you believe content on ToolBud infringes your copyright, send a notice to support@toolbudapp.com identifying the work, the content at issue, and your contact information, with a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is unauthorized. ToolBud will investigate and may remove the content and restrict the account responsible.

19. FEEDBACK

If you send ToolBud feedback, bug reports, or suggestions, you grant ToolBud permission to use that feedback to improve the product without restriction or compensation to you. You are not required to send feedback.

20. FORCE MAJEURE

ToolBud shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performance resulting from causes beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to natural disasters, acts of government, internet or infrastructure outages, pandemics, or other events of force majeure.

21. SEVERABILITY

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

22. ENTIRE AGREEMENT

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and the Community Guidelines, constitute the entire agreement between you and ToolBud regarding your use of the platform.

These Terms supersede any prior agreements or understandings, whether written or oral, regarding the subject matter herein, including any earlier pilot or pre-release participant agreement.

23. SMS MESSAGING TERMS

By enabling SMS notifications, you agree to receive account and service-related text messages from ToolBud. These messages may include verification, account, security, borrowing/lending, request, reminder, and support notifications.

Message frequency varies based on your account activity. Message and data rates may apply. You may opt out at any time by replying STOP. You may receive help by replying HELP. After you opt out, ToolBud may send one final message confirming your opt-out. You can also manage SMS notification preferences in your ToolBud account settings.

SMS notifications are off by default and are not required to create an account or use ToolBud. ToolBud does not sell, rent, or share your mobile number or SMS consent with third parties for their marketing.

ToolBud verifies your phone number by text message during account setup. That verification message is required to create an account and is separate from the optional SMS notifications described above.