Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your use of the Trettle website, apps and related services (together, the “Platform”), operated by Trettle (“Trettle”, “we”, “us”, “our”). By creating an account or using the Platform, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Platform.

In these Terms, a “customer” is anyone who uses the Platform to find or hire a professional, and a “professional” is an individual, studio or business that offers services through the Platform.

• You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a legally binding contract under the Indian Contract Act, 1872.
• If you use the Platform for a business, you confirm that you are authorised to act on its behalf.
• Professionals must hold every licence, registration and permission that the law requires for the services they offer — for example, registration with the Council of Architecture to practise under the title “architect”, and GST registration where applicable.
• You may not use the Platform if we have previously suspended or removed your account.

• Provide accurate, current and complete information, and keep it up to date.
• Keep your login details confidential. You are responsible for activity that happens under your account.
• Tell us immediately at support@trettle.com if you suspect unauthorised use of your account.
• Do not create an account for someone else without their permission, or hold more than one account to get around a restriction.

Trettle is an online marketplace that connects customers with independent professionals. We act as an intermediary within the meaning of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

• Professionals are independent and are not employees, agents or partners of Trettle. We do not perform the services listed on the Platform.
• Any agreement for services — including scope, price, timelines, payment terms, warranties and cancellations — is made directly between the customer and the professional. Trettle is not a party to that contract and is not responsible for its performance.
• Verification badges mean that a professional has completed the checks described on our Trust & Safety page at the time of review. They are not an endorsement or a guarantee of the quality, safety or legality of any work.
• Portfolio budgets, descriptions and reviews are provided by users. We do not guarantee that any information on the Platform is complete or accurate, although we act on reports of false or misleading content.

• Post genuine projects with an honest description of your requirements, budget range and timeline.
• Review proposals carefully and check a professional’s credentials, portfolio and reviews before hiring.
• Agree the scope, materials, price, milestones and timelines with your professional in writing.
• Pay professionals as agreed and provide safe, reasonable access to your site where the work requires it.
• Obtain any approvals you are responsible for, such as housing society or building permissions.
• Treat professionals with respect and communicate promptly and honestly.

• Keep your profile, qualifications, service areas and contact details accurate and up to date.
• Upload only work that you or your team actually delivered, with honest budgets, materials and descriptions.
• Send clear, honest proposals and do not quote prices or timelines you do not intend to honour.
• Deliver services with reasonable skill and care, as agreed with the customer.
• Comply with all applicable laws, including those on taxation, labour, workplace safety, building and consumer protection, and maintain any insurance your work requires.
• Use customers’ personal data only to communicate about and deliver their project.

You keep ownership of the photos, designs, drawings, text, reviews and other content you upload (“your content”).

By uploading content, you grant Trettle a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display, adapt (for example, resize or crop) and distribute your content in order to operate, improve and promote the Platform — including showing portfolio projects, with credit to you, in search results, category pages, newsletters and social media. You allow us to let our service providers do the same on our behalf.

This licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except for content already shared with other users (such as messages), reviews that remain in anonymised form, and copies kept in backups for a limited period or where the law requires us to retain them.

You confirm that:

• you own your content or have all rights and permissions needed to upload it and grant this licence;
• you have the consent of any client, photographer or other person whose home, event, image or work is identifiable in it; and
• your content does not infringe anyone’s intellectual property, privacy or other rights.

The Trettle name, logo, design, software and other materials we create belong to us or our licensors and may not be used without our written permission.

You must not use the Platform to:

• break any law or encourage anyone else to do so;
• create fake profiles, impersonate anyone or misrepresent your identity, qualifications or affiliations;
• upload work that is not yours, or misleading budgets, photos or claims;
• harass, threaten, abuse or discriminate against anyone;
• post content that is obscene, pornographic, defamatory, invasive of another’s privacy, harmful to children, hateful, or otherwise unlawful;
• infringe intellectual property or other rights of any person;
• post or arrange fake, paid-for or manipulated reviews;
• send spam, chain messages or unsolicited advertising;
• defraud other users, including requesting payments under false pretences;
• scrape, copy or harvest data from the Platform, or access it through automated means without our written permission;
• interfere with the Platform’s security or operation, or upload viruses or other harmful code; or
• share another person’s personal data without their permission.

We may remove content or restrict accounts that break these rules, and we will act on content removal requests as required under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Reviews help everyone hire with confidence, so they must be genuine:

• Only review a professional you have actually engaged or interacted with about a project.
• Describe your own honest experience. Do not review yourself, your relatives, your employer or competitors.
• Professionals must not offer money, discounts or other benefits in exchange for reviews, or pressure customers to change or remove a review.
• Do not include personal data, offensive language or unrelated content in a review.

We may moderate, decline or remove reviews that break these rules or our community standards. We do not remove a review simply because it is negative. Professionals may respond publicly to reviews in a respectful way.

Any fees for using the Platform, along with applicable taxes and terms, will be shown to you clearly before you pay. You will not be charged for a paid feature without your agreement.

Payment for services is agreed directly between the customer and the professional. We strongly recommend paying in milestones tied to completed work and never paying the full amount upfront.

The Platform is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. To the extent permitted by law, we make no warranties, express or implied, about the Platform or about the services, conduct, qualifications or work of any user.

We do not guarantee that the Platform will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure at all times, or that any project will receive proposals or any professional will receive work.

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

• Trettle is not liable for any loss or damage arising from services performed, or not performed, by a professional, or from any dispute between users;
• we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for loss of profits, revenue, data or goodwill; and
• our total liability to you for any claim relating to the Platform is limited to the fees (if any) you paid to Trettle in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law, including your rights as a consumer under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Trettle, its directors, employees and agents from any claims, losses, liabilities and reasonable expenses (including legal fees) arising out of your breach of these Terms, your content, your violation of any law or third-party right, or any services you provide or receive through the Platform.

You may stop using the Platform and delete your account at any time from your account settings or by emailing support@trettle.com.

We may suspend or terminate your account, or remove content, if you breach these Terms, if we are required to by law, or if we reasonably believe your use creates risk for other users or for Trettle. Where reasonable, we will tell you why and give you an opportunity to respond.

Sections that by their nature should continue — including content licences already granted for shared content, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity and governing law — survive termination.

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. If you have a concern, please contact us first so we can try to resolve it informally.

Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally will be subject to the jurisdiction of the competent courts in India.

In accordance with the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the rules made under it, you can raise complaints about content on the Platform, a breach of these Terms or our handling of your personal data with our Grievance Officer:

• Grievance Officer, Trettle
• Email: support@trettle.com (subject line “Grievance”)

We will acknowledge your complaint within 24 hours and aim to resolve it within 15 days of receiving it.

We may update these Terms from time to time. The “Last updated” date at the top shows when they last changed. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email or through a notice on the Platform before they take effect. Continuing to use the Platform after the changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

• These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Trettle.
• If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
• Our failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of that right.
• You may not transfer your rights under these Terms without our consent; we may transfer ours as part of a business transfer.

Questions about these Terms? Email hello@trettle.com or visit our contact page.