Terms of Service

Avouch is a software tool for two people who have already agreed on a sublease or a lease takeover. It generates a standardized agreement, collects e-signatures, documents the unit with timestamped move-in photos, and, in the 24 states where we can offer it, moves the monthly payment automatically between the two of you.

Avouch is operated by Avouch, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“we,” “us”). References to Avouch in these terms mean that company.

Avouch is not a party to your sublease, not your landlord, tenant, or roommate, not a real-estate broker or agent, not a property manager, not a law firm, not an insurer, and not a bank. We are the software and record-keeper for a deal the two of you arranged yourselves, and, where automatic payments run, the receiving party's limited agent for collecting those payments, as the Money and payments section sets out.

You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a binding contract. You agree to use Avouch only for a lawful sublease that you are genuinely a party to, and to give accurate information about yourself, the unit, and the terms.

This part matters. Avouch is a documentation and agreement tool for a sublease you arranged on your own. We do not independently verify that a person actually lives at, leases, or controls a unit, that they are allowed to sublet it, or that the unit exists or is as described.

Where automatic monthly payments run, the party who receives the money goes through an identity check at Stripe, because anyone receiving payments has to be identified, and Stripe must clear that check before money can be paid out to them. We do not run that check on the party who pays. It is an identity check and nothing more: it says nothing about the unit, about the right to sublet it, or about whether anyone will keep their side of the deal.

You are responsible for your own due diligence before you sign or commit money: confirm the person and the unit are real (see it in person or on a live video walkthrough, check that their name is on the lease or mailbox, and confirm with the building or landlord that the sublease is permitted). Documenting the unit with timestamped move-in photos helps protect you, but that is not a substitute for checking that the deal is genuine in the first place.

You agree that you will not:

• list, offer, or sign for a place you do not have the right to sublet;
• impersonate anyone, or sign on someone else's behalf without their authority;
• use Avouch to collect money for a place that does not exist or that you do not control;
• upload content that is illegal, infringing, or not yours to share;
• attempt to break, overload, or gain unauthorized access to the service or anyone else's account.

We can suspend or remove an account that does any of this, and we will cooperate with law enforcement where required.

If something on Avouch should not be there, email support@avouchsublease.com. That includes a photo showing you, your belongings, or your home without your permission, a document someone uploaded without the right to upload it, and anything that infringes your rights, including your copyright. Tell us where it is and what is wrong with it. We read every report and aim to reply within five business days. We remove or restrict content that does not belong. Where the material is part of the evidence record for a signed agreement, we will tell you what we can and cannot remove, and why.

Avouch is new and still changing. Features can change or be withdrawn, and we may pause the service for maintenance. We will not delete your signed agreements without telling you, and you can download your own records at any time.

Nothing is charged until a deal is actually signed, and never before: you can enter terms, read the full agreement, send the invite, and have the other side accept, all without paying anything.

The one-time agreement fee. Every deal carries a one-time fee of $5 for the agreement itself, wherever your place is and whether or not automatic payments run there. It is charged to the person leaving, after both people have signed and before move-in is confirmed, and rent cannot start collecting until it is paid. We waive it on your first deal as the person leaving if you have already used Avouch as the person moving in.

Automatic monthly payments. Where these run, Avouch charges each party a flat $2.50per monthly payment, and only on months a payment actually runs: the paying party's $2.50is added to their debit, and the receiving party's $2.50 is deducted from the transfer they receive. This is in addition to the one-time fee above. Avouch never takes a percentage of rent.

What Stripe charges. Stripe's own charges on that payment are also deducted from the transfer, passed through at cost with no markup: the fee for moving the money, the fee for paying it out to the receiving party's bank, and Stripe's monthly account fee, which is only ever charged in a month a payment actually runs. The exact amount the receiving party will get is shown to them before payments are set up, and Avouch receives no part of those Stripe charges.

Paying by card. A payer who elects to pay by credit card also pays a card-processing fee of up to 3% of the charge, disclosed before that choice is made, and the card option is not offered on deals in Connecticut or Massachusetts. Paying by bank account carries no card fee, only the $2.50 above.

Refunds. Nothing is charged until someone has actually taken the place and signed, so there is nothing to refund on a deal that never completes. Once it has completed, the one-time fee is not refundable. One fee covers one sublease, including re-sending the invite or replacing a subletter who backs out on the same sublease. If you think you were charged in error, email support@avouchsublease.com within 30 days and we will look at it, and refund you if we got it wrong.

When a deal includes automatic monthly payments, the money moves directly from the paying party's account to the receiving party's account through Stripe Payments Company, a licensed money transmitter and the payment processor of record. Avouch instructs those payments on the schedule both parties signed, and the receiving party appoints Avouch, acting through Stripe, as their limited agent to collect the payment. The money never sits in an Avouch account, Avouch is not a bank, and Avouch takes no portion of the rent beyond the flat fees stated above. A payment received by that agent counts as received by the receiving party, and the paying party's obligation for that payment is discharged on receipt by the agent, even if the funds are later lost or delayed. A payment that is returned, reversed, or charged back is treated as never having been received, and the paragraph on money that comes back applies instead. Avouch accepts that appointment; these Terms, together with the payment section of the signed agreement, are the written agreement between the receiving party and Avouch for that limited purpose.

Where the details go. The paying party enters their bank or card on a page hosted by Stripe. The receiving party enters their legal name, date of birth, last four digits of their Social Security number, home address, phone, and bank details in a form on our site, because anyone receiving money has to be identified. Stripe's own script encrypts those values in your browser and sends them straight to Stripe. Our servers receive only the reference ids Stripe hands back, so no Avouch server ever sees a Social Security number or a full account number. We do store the bank name and the last four digits, so you can see which account is linked. Avouch does not hold security deposits.

When the receiving party gets it. We set the receiving party's own Stripe payment account to hold each payment for at least seven business days from the day the debit starts, and we check that setting with Stripe before each payment. Stripe then sends the payment on to the receiving party's bank, so that bank sees each payment after the due date, not on it. If Stripe does not confirm the hold before a payment, that payment still goes ahead and may reach the receiving party's bank sooner, on Stripe's standard timing. A sublease set up on an earlier version of our payment system keeps the timing it started with, and its payments page says which applies. The money stays in the receiving party's own account while it is held; Avouch never holds it.

When a payment fails. Avouch does not guarantee that any payment will succeed. A bank debit that bounces for insufficient funds is retried at most twice more and then stops. A debit returned for any other reason, such as a closed account or a cancelled authorization, is never retried on that account: we pause automatic payments on the sublease, tell both parties, and resume when the paying party links a different account, starting with the payment that was missed. A payment already presented three times is not collected again automatically; we contact both parties about it instead. Where the paying party or their bank cancelled the authorization, we confirm with them before anything resumes. We also pause automatic payments on a sublease while a payment on it is being disputed.

Money that comes back. When a payment is reversed or disputed after it was collected, including a bank return or a credit-card chargeback, whatever of it is still in the receiving party's Stripe payment account comes back out of that account. Whatever was already sent on to the receiving party's bank comes back out of Avouch's own balance instead, and that amount is owed back to us. We may recover it by deducting it from later payments we collect for you, and if there are no later payments, you agree to repay us on request. Either way, the amount is still owed by the paying party under your agreement, and none of this makes us a party to that agreement.

If your deal uses automatic payments, the paying party authorizes a recurring debit from their linked bank account, or from their card if they chose one. The amount is the monthly payment plus Avouch's $2.50 fee, plus the card fee if a card was chosen. The exact amount, the day of the month it is for, and how many payments there will be are all in the agreement you signed and in the confirmation email we send when the deal is set up. Keep that email. It is your copy of the authorization.

We start each debit about six business days before the due date so the payment is received on time, which means a debit is already moving before the date it is due.

To stop automatic payments, email support@avouchsublease.com. Tell us at least two weeks before the due date, because of that six-business-day head start. We will stop that payment and every one after it. If you tell us later than that, the payment already in motion may still go through, and we will stop the ones after it. You can also tell your own bank to stop the payment; your bank has its own rules and may charge a fee. Stopping automatic payments does not cancel what you owe under your agreement. It only stops us from collecting it for you.

If money leaves your account that you did not authorize, or in the wrong amount, contact your bank right away. Federal law gives you your strongest protection through your bank and the deadlines are short. Tell us at the same time and we will stop the schedule and give you our records.

By using Avouch you agree to receive electronically every record connected to your deal: the agreement, your signing certificate, your automatic payment authorization, receipts, and any notice a law would otherwise require us to give you on paper.

To read and keep those records you need a device with a current web browser, an internet connection, an email address you can receive mail at, and a way to save or print a page. If those requirements change so that you could no longer reach your records, we will tell you first.

Your typed signature is your legal signature under the U.S. ESIGN Act and your state's version of UETA. We record the name you type, your consent, the time, the IP address, the device and browser you signed from, and a fingerprint of the exact terms signed, so the agreement can later be shown to be authentic and unaltered. Once both people have signed, we email each of you a copy of the executed agreement, and you can download it from your deal page at any time.

Email support@avouchsublease.com for another copy of any record at no charge, or to withdraw your agreement to electronic records. Withdrawal applies going forward only and does not undo a signature or a payment authorization you already gave. Because Avouch runs entirely online, withdrawing generally means you cannot start a new deal here.

The sublease agreement Avouch generates is provided as a convenience to record what you both agreed. It is not legal advice and is not guaranteed to be valid, complete, or enforceable in your jurisdiction. You are responsible for confirming your sublease is permitted by your master lease and landlord, and for your own legal and tax obligations. If in doubt, consult a lawyer.

Your sublease is between you and your counterparty. Avouch is not responsible for, and does not guarantee, the other person's conduct, the condition of the unit, or the outcome of your arrangement. The photo-documentation tools are a good-faith convenience to help you resolve things with evidence; they are not a court, and using them does not make Avouch a party to or arbiter of your deal.

Keep your password and any invite links confidential: an invite link is a private key to a specific sublease, and anyone holding it can see the full agreement and the move-in photos. Tell us promptly at support@avouchsublease.com if you suspect unauthorized access. You are responsible for activity under your account.

Avouch, its software, brand, design, and the wording of the agreements it generates are owned by us and our licensors. Nothing here transfers any of that to you.

The information and documents you create stay yours. You grant us the limited license needed to host, process, and display them so we can run the service for you, and nothing more.

What you may not do: copy, resell, or white-label the service; scrape or bulk-download it by automated means; reverse engineer or decompile it, except where that right cannot lawfully be restricted; or use our name, logo, or the look of the product to suggest an affiliation or endorsement that does not exist. You may of course use the agreement you signed, for your own sublease, however you like. It is yours.

Avouch is provided “as is,” without warranties of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Avouch and its operators are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, for lost money or opportunity, or for the acts, omissions, or fraud of the other party to your sublease. Where liability cannot be excluded, our total liability for any claim relating to Avouch is limited to USD 100. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this may not apply to you.

You agree to cover Avouch and its operators for claims and losses arising from your misuse of the service, your breach of these terms, or your sublease and your dealings with the other party, to the extent permitted by law. You also agree to repay us if a payment we collected is later reversed, disputed, or charged back and the money comes out of our balance: the paying party owes us the reversed amount where the reversal came from their side, and the receiving party owes it to the extent they were already paid money that was later taken back.

If you have a problem with Avouch itself, tell us first: email support@avouchsublease.com and give us 30 days to work it out with you. Most things get fixed this way.

If we can't resolve it informally, you and Avouch, Inc., a Delaware corporation agree that any dispute arising out of these terms or the service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, or, at either party's choice, in small-claims court. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section. Both of us waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action; claims may be brought only on an individual basis. You can opt out of this arbitration section entirely by emailing support@avouchsublease.com within 30 days of first accepting these terms, and nothing in it stops either of us from seeking relief a court of competent jurisdiction may grant where arbitration of a claim is not permitted by law. This section does not apply to disputes between you and the other party to your sublease or takeover.

We may update these terms; material changes will be posted here with a new date, and where appropriate we will let you know by email. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated terms.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Avouch is operated by Avouch, Inc., a Delaware corporation. Questions, notices, or to reach a human: email support@avouchsublease.com.