Please read these Terms of Service (“Terms”) carefully as they contain important information about your legal rights, remedies and obligations. By accessing or using the Care4Giver services, you agree to comply with and be bound by these Terms. By checking the box below and using the services on this Website, you acknowledge that you have read and understand this electronic terms of use/Liability Disclaimer. This page states the Terms of Use (the “Terms of Use”) under which you may use Care4Giver.com (also referred to as the Website hereinafter on this page).

 

LAST UPDATE: April 10, 2023

 

Some definitions that may be used here and in other parts of the platform. Care4Giver may be referred to as the Website, Site or Platform, Provider and Caregiver refer to the person offering a service on the platform, User refers to the person looking to book a service or browser of the Website, Members refers to all Users and Providers on the Website. These terms may be used throughout any section of Care4Giver.

 

Care4Giver is not a referral service or an agency. Care4Giver is a digital marketplace on which individuals and families (referred to as care seekers) search and review independent caregiver profiles, book appointments and seek general information on potential candidates. It is also a venue for caregivers to post their service offer and credentials to be reviewed by the care seekers. Care4Giver DOES NOT SCREEN any of its members OR CONDUCT CRIMINAL CHECKS on the users of its website. It is each user’s (family and candidate) sole responsibility to perform or to see that the adequate background verification of the individuals they wish to do business is performed – be it for criminal or references checks – to the level they feel comfortable with.  By using Care4Giver platform YOU ASSUMES AND WILLINGLY UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT ALL RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS THAT YOU COME INTO CONTACT WITH THROUGH USE OF THIS WEBSITE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO PHYSICAL HARM, PECUNIARY LOSS, DAMAGE TO PROPERTY AND MORAL DAMAGES.

 

If you do not accept the Terms of Use stated here, do not use this Website and service. By using this Website, you are indicating your acceptance to be bound by the terms of these Terms of Use AND CERTIFY THAT YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTOOD THE RULES BEFORE SIGNING AS A USER AND SUBSCRIBER OF THE WEBSITE. The terms “You” and “User” as used herein to refer to all individuals and/or entities accessing this Website for any reason.

 

 

1. DESCRIPTION OF THE WEBSITE

 

The Care4Giver is an online and mobile platform on which caregiver-members register in order to provide their services to care seeker members and their families. Care seekers are able to search through caregiver profiles in order to select by themselves the individual(s) caregiver(s) whose services they wish to retain. The Website cannot and does not certify that any information posted by caregivers is true, accurate or current, however, a caregiver is obligated to accept an “Attestation of Truthful Information” as a legally bound contract that all information provided by the caregiver is accurate.

Care4Giver (C4G) provides the environment, information and services to help parties seeking and providing care services, connect with each other. C4G’s role is limited to providing this service, and its duties do not extend beyond activities associated with maintaining the Website, which is limited to the running of a website where care candidates or families may post information regarding the need for care. Care4Giver.com is not associated with, and does not employ, represent, or act as an agent for the users of this Website and shall not be construed as a referral service to the benefit of families, individuals or care candidates.

It is agreed by the user that Care4Giver has no employment or servant relationship in regards to the families and care candidates that advertise on the website. By using this Website, you do hereby expressly agree to hold Home and Well Inc. (including its employees, officers and administrators) unaccountable from any claim, damage, or injury that may arise from the use of this Website. ANY AGREEMENT BETWEEN A CAREGIVER CANDIDATE AND A FAMILY IS BETWEEN THOSE PARTIES ALONE. CARE4GIVER IS SIMPLY PROVIDING A VENUE SERVICE TO FAMILIES AND TO CANDIDATES AND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DISPUTE OF ANY NATURE THAT MIGHT ARISE BETWEEN THE PARTIES.

We recommend adhering to a non-obligatory screening process proposed by Care4Giver. We also strongly recommend that candidates perform and provide the results of criminal background checks on themselves. We also strongly advise both parties to conduct reference checks and thoroughly interview any individual with whom you associate with as a result of using the information and services provided on this Website, being a family or a care candidate. Because user authentication on the Internet is difficult to verify, the website cannot and does not confirm that each user is who they claim to be. However each background check should include an identity check.

The Care4Giver does not warrant or endorse any communication or arranged face-to-face interviews and meetings between members. The Website’s database may only be used for lawful purposes by families seeking caregivers and care candidates seeking families. It is up to families and care candidates to communicate with each order to establish all arrangements of employment.

The site owners and webmaster, hereinafter referred as Webmasters will have full authority to decide upon the content of the website, including but not limited, to change the content, format, usage, delete or merge threads and make any decision pertaining to the website including profiles; at its sole discretion and without prior notice. Profiles of candidates and families in breach of these Terms and Conditions can be automatically removed by the Webmaster without prior notice.

It is understood that the present site may contain advertisements that is beyond the control of Care4Giver and therefore not responsible for any damage or losses incurred by the use of a third party website.

 

2. USE OF WEBSITE CONTENT

 

The contents of this Website such as text, graphics, images, logos, button icons, software and other Web Site content (collectively, “Website Content”), are the sole property of Care4Giver and is protected under copyright, trademark and other laws. All Website Content is the property of Care4Giver or its content suppliers or clients (caregivers and families). The compilation (meaning the collection, arrangement and assembly) of all content on this Website is the exclusive property of Care4Giver and is protected by copyright laws.

Unauthorised use of the Website Content may violate copyright, trademark and other laws. You may not sell or modify the Website Content or reproduce, display, publicly perform, distribute or otherwise use the Website Content in any way for any public, personal or commercial purpose; save and except for modifications of your own profile information.

The use of the Website Content on any other website or in a networked computer environment for any purpose is prohibited. You shall not copy or adapt any code created by Care4Giver.com or its suppliers to generate any Website Content.

 

3. GENERAL RULES

 

Users may not use Care4giver in order to display, transmit, distribute, store or destroy material including, without limitation, Website Content, (a) in violation of any applicable law or regulation, (b) in a manner that will infringe the copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property rights of others or violate the privacy, publicity or other personal rights of others or (c) that is, or may be, defamatory, offensive, vulgar, obscene, harassing, threatening, abusive or hateful, racist, sexist, discriminatory, of a menacing character or cause annoyance, inconvenience, embarrassment or anxiety to any person.

Any sexual content is strictly prohibited, including, but not limited, to pictures, attachments, comments and posting.

The Webmaster and owners of the site may, at its own discretion, modify, annul, void any posting on the site which will not respect the terms of use defined herein, including the exclusion of a user who has violated in one occurrence the said terms of use after prior notice. No refund will be provided to an excluded user and each user hereby gives an irrevocable discharge to Care4Giver (including its employees, officers and administrators) in case of any exclusion or any decision thereof of the Webmaster and/or the owners of the site in regards to the use of the website.

Users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the Website, including, without limitation, (a) accessing data not intended for such user or logging into a server or account which the user is not authorised to access, (b) attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorisation, (c) attempting to interfere with service to any user, host or network including, without limitation, via means of submitting a virus to Care4Giver or any of its subsidiaries, overloading, “flooding,” “spamming”, “mail bombing” or “crashing”, or (d) forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or newsgroup posting. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. Care4Giver will investigate occurrences which may involve such violations and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting users who are involved in such violations.

 

4. SPECIFIC PROHIBITED USES

 

The Website specifically prohibits any of the following

 

• Posting any incomplete, false or inaccurate biographical information or information which is not your own, including pictures.
• Creating more than one profile either as a Caregiver or a CareSeeker.
• Any member wishing to be both a Caregiver and a Care Seeker must only create one single profile in the Care4Giver system.

Any occurence of multiple profiles will be deemed a violation of terms and may be suspended or banned. In such a case, the sanction is at Care4Giver’s sole discretion.

• Creating a Care Seeker or Caregiver profile for a company for any commercial purpose including but not limited to recruiting and selling, unless the company is owned by a single individual for self-employment purposes and for the specific purpose of promoting his or her own caregiving services on Care4giver according to the platform’s rules or unless the company was given direct written approval by a member of the Care4giver executive team.

If one fails to respect this covenant, Care4Giver may at its own discretion, ban immediately, without prior notice any unauthorized user from the website and undertake judicial proceedings against the party in default without further notice or delay, including, but not limited to, a provisional injunction in which the party in default recognizes that irreparable harm has or can be inflicted to Care4Giver.com by their breach of this covenant.

Using the database for any purpose other than for looking for a care candidate or for posting a care job. It is expressly forbidden to other posting companies, care providers and agencies, to utilize this service as a means of soliciting caregivers registered on the Website, for employment. If one party shall fail to respect this covenant, Care4Giver may, at its own discretion, ban immediately and without prior notice any unauthorized user from the website and undertake judicial proceedings against the party in default without further notice or delay, including, but not limited to, a provisional injunction in which the party in default recognize that irreparable harm will be done to Care4Giver.com and that the balance of convenience will their favour.

Deleting or revising any material posted by any other person or entity.

Using any device, software or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the website or any activity being conducted on this Website.

 Taking any action which imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on website infrastructure.

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained herein, using or attempting to use any engine, software, tools, agent or other device or mechanism including, without limitation, browsers, spiders, robots, avatars or intelligent agents to navigate or search the website other than a search engine and other than generally available third party web browsers such as Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, Safari and others.

Attempting to decipher, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any of the software comprising or in any way making up a part of the website.

Aggregating, copying, modifying or duplicating in any manner any of the Web Site Content or information available.

 

5. USERS PASSWORD AND USERNAME

 

The User is responsible for the password, username and any information provided by you to the website. Any and all uses of your registration information with the website are your sole responsibility.

 

Should there be any unlawful or unauthorized use of your password, username or registration information you agree to notify the Webmaster at webmaster@care4giver.com WITHIN 24 HOURS of such occurrence.

 

 

6. REGISTRATION

To have the ability to make contact with care candidates and for caregivers to post their services, each party must follow the registration procedure. It is the user’s sole discretion as to which caregiver they select.

Each party can “unsubscribe” at any time to be removed from the databank, by contacting Care4Giver. Updates will be done within a reasonable timeframe.

By registering, Caregivers agree to upload the official documents supporting their qualifications such as diplomas, certificates or any other proof of certification for the service they offer and certify that it is theirs, that all are valid and that all of the information they provide is true and they understand and recognize that if it is not the case, they forfeit any liability insurance coverage and expose themselves to legal action from affected parties.

Furthermore, Caregivers also agree to only provide the services they are certified to provide and understand that if they provide services for which they are not certified they will not be covered under the liability insurance provided by Care4Giver.

Caregivers understand that any misrepresentation is not only illegal but carries important health and safety risks on the individual they serve and consequently risk themselves immediate suspension or ban from the platform and expose themselves to legal action.

Payment of services must be done through the Care4Giver website and not directly to caregiver/service provider. Any cancellations must be done 48 hours prior to the date of the service being rendered or the User will be subject to cancellation fees (see Cancellation Policy)

It is understood that the care candidates are joining the service for free. Each caregiver can optionally enhance their profile by a paid featured profile option or any other promotional service as they become available to them.

 

 

7. BOOKING AGREEMENT

 

Care4Giver to provides tools and access to information on Caregivers to enable Care Seekers to find Caregivers and have as much control as we can offer when the service if rendered.  None of the Caregivers are employees of Care4Giver.

 

When booking, the Care Seeker who is buying understands and agrees that Care4Giver is a services marketplace and does not itself provide any caregiving service and that those are strictly offered by independent Caregivers.

The buyer also agrees that Care4Giver, its owners and all of its subsidiaries are not responsible for the services those independent Caregivers provide and therefore cannot be held responsible for what they do or how they perform.

By submitting a booking, the care seeker agrees to engage the selected caregiver on the date(s) and for the services selected in the booking and in doing so accepts to pay the caregiver’s fees as listed at the moment the booking is submitted.

The agreement is deemed confirmed upon the acceptance of the booking by the caregiver. The Booking is charged and kept as a deposit at the time it is submitted by the care seeker.

The caregiver agrees to accept or refuse the requested bookings within a period of 24 hours from the moment the booking is submitted, beyond which, the platform may automatically cancel it. The care seeker has the option of cancelling the booking request at any moment before it’s accepted and in doing so, receive a complete refund of the prepaid fees if any were put as deposit. If the care seeker submits a request less than 48 hours from the time the service is to happen, the caregiver is to accept or refuse it within 10 hours.

If the caregiver does not confirm his/her acceptance or refusal within this timeframe, the booking will be deemed refused. All bookings are subject to the rules detailed in the Cancellations section below.

The caregiver is paid once the work has been completed.

If the caregiver is a no-show, the booking fees will be made available in the care seeker’s account for use with future bookings or fully refunded within the following 5-7 business days if so requested.

Bookings for which the caregiver does not show up within 30 mins of the scheduled time, unless a valid reason is provided, risks penalty fees, temporary suspension or permanent ban from the platform.

Confirmation of the caregiver’s presence is given one of two ways:

The caregiver does so using the check-in and check-out feature of the C4G Caregiver app or the caregiver calls the C4G check-in and check-out number using the phone line at the address of the booking upon arrival and departure from the patient’s home (location of where the service is to be rendered).

8. NON-SOLICITATION AND NON-COMPETITION

 

Care seekers and caregivers understand that Care4giver’s investment and therefore value is to provide both parties the opportunity to find each other and do business. Consequently, by making or accepting a booking through any of the current and future care4giver channels, including but not limited to the Concierge and Signature services, caregivers and care seekers understand that they cannot engage in a direct client-supplier or employer-employee relationship outside of the Care4giver terms of use for a period of 6 months following the last booking that was made between them.

 

Caregivers furthermore agree that for a period of 12 months following the date of the last booking with any client through Care4giver, they cannot provide brokerage or agency services to those clients which would see them act as an intermediary of any kind to introduce other caregivers to them.

It is understood that Care4giver can and will initiate any legal proceedings it deems necessary against the defaulting parties without further notice or delay, including seeking any and all injunctions, amounts and penalties permitted by law.

9. CODE OF CONDUCT

 

By making or  accepting a booking through any of the current and future care4giver.com channels, the Caregivers and Care Seekers agree to respect and follow the code of conduct.

 

 

10. CANCELLATION POLICY

 

10.1 Care Seekers

 

All cancellations must be done using Care4Giver website calendar or mobile app.

Care seekers may cancel a booking any time before it is accepted by the Caregiver.

Care seekers who cancel an confirmed (i.e. accepted by the Caregiver) booking at least 48 hours before the confirmed time will receive a full refund.

Care seekers who cancel a confirmed booking between 48 hours and 1.5 hours before the booking time are only refunded 50% of the value of the booking or up to 4 hours of work if the booking was longer than 8 hours.  

Care seekers who cancel less than 1.5 hours before a confirmed booking are charged the full amount of the booking.

The retained amount will be processed the same way as if the equivalent booking was performed.

Care seekers who see their booking cancelled by the caregiver will be refunded the full amount of the booking within 5-10 business days of the cancellation (i.e. following the payment service’s policy such as Stripe or any other).

If a cancellation is due to special circumstances happening within 12 hours of an booking (such as hospitalization, a positive test to COVID-19 or another contagious disease, the passing of a loved one, etc.) care seekers can fill-out the special form on the Care4giver website detailing the circumstance as well as upload necessary documents as proof of those events, and pending Care4giver’s verification of those events, booking fees will be fully refunded.

 

10.2 Caregivers

All cancellations must be filed and submitted using the Care4Giver cancellation form. It is important for the caregiver to fill-out all of the sections of the form including the reasons for cancellation section.  It is advisable to provide alternative dates to the care seeker in the appropriate form section whenever possible.

If a caregiver is unable to show up for the accepted booking, the following rules apply. 

 

2.1  If the cancellation is submitted 48 hours prior to the time of the booking, no penalty is applied.

 

2.2  If the cancellation is filed less than 48 hours prior to the time of the booking without a valid reason, the following penalties will apply:

On the first offense, the caregiver’s profile will be removed from the listing for a period of 1 week and its ranking on the site will be placed in the lower tier in all care seeker searches.

On the second offense, the caregiver will be suspended for a period of 6 weeks during which her/his listing is removed from the site and will only be reinstated if the caregiver provides a valid written case for her/his reinstatement.

Cases must be filed through the Caregiver cancellation form and provide any and all reasons explaining the “no shows” as well as why such an occurrence is not expected to happen again. Care4Giver reserves the right to call and interview the caregiver after reception of the case.

Care4Giver may at its own discretion extend the suspension further.

On the third offense, the caregiver will be banned from offering its services on the site.

In the case of “no shows” without prior notice and without valid reason:

–  On the first offense, the caregiver’s listing will automatically be removed from the site for a minimum period of 10 weeks.

–  If a valid reason is produced, the suspension may be lifted upon review and acceptance of those reasons by Care4Giver.

–  On the second offense, the caregiver’s listing will be removed from the site indefinitely and he/she is banned from using the site.

–  In the event there is a valid reason for this occurrence, a case may be submitted using the Caregiver cancellation form and by  producing all of the necessary documents supporting the valid reasons listed in the case.

 

2.3  In the event the Caregiver doesn’t show up and doesn’t provide advance notice (no call, no show) to the Care Seeker, the sickness must be demonstrated to have caused an incapacity to reach out.  In such a case, Care4Giver reserves the right to contact the Caregiver’s signing physician and/or to obtain valid confirmation from its own medical specialists before reinstatement can occur.

 

2.4  Valid reasons include sickness (with a doctor’s note describing the illness and its effect on the Caregiver), death of a family member (requires valid death certificate) or other serious documentable issues that can be verified by Care4Giver.  

 

2.5  Not communicating with the Care Seeker prior to a booking is an important violation of the covenants of this agreement for which only exceptional causes may be deemed acceptable.  Sources other than validated doctor’s note or death certificates are not automatically considered valid by Care4Giver. They may be considered in the rare cases where truly exceptional events may have incapacitated the Caregiver from communicating and providing the service.    

 

2.6  Care4Giver reserves the right to adjust any sanction or modify these rules at any moment and without prior notice.

 

2.7 In the event a special event affects a client (such as last  minute hospitalization, a positive COVID-19 or other contagious disease, the passing of the client, etc.) within 12 hours of a booking – and is confirmed by a Care4giver validation process – forcing its cancellation, no penalty fees are to be charged to the client and no payment will be made to the Caregiver for that booking.

 

11. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

 

If you choose to use the Care4Giver platform, you do so voluntarily and at your sole risk. The Platform content is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied.

If we choose to conduct identity verification, criminal or background checks on any Member, to the extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim warranties of any kind, either express or implied, that such checks will identify prior misconduct by a Member or guarantee that a Member will not engage in misconduct in the future.

You agree that some services, may carry inherent risk, and by participating in such services, you choose to assume those risks voluntarily. For example, any accident or misfortune occuring may carry risk of illness, bodily injury, disability, or death, and you freely and willfully assume those risks by choosing to participate in those services. You assume full responsibility for the choices you make before, during and after your participation in a service on the Care4Givers platform.

Care4Giver does not guarantee the reliability or accuracy of content provided on the site, nor does it guarantee that the service will be without fault or error. Care4Giver does not guarantee that a User’s specific requirements will be met by the Caregiver.

 

12. JURISDICTION

 

These Terms & Conditions shall be construed in accordance with and governed by the laws of the province of Québec, Canada, and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of the province of Québec. Although the website can be accessed from other places in the world which may have different laws from those of Quebec, by using the Care4Giver website you are agreeing to the exclusive jurisdiction of the province of Quebec, to the exclusion of any other jurisdiction.

 

13.  GENERAL PROVISIONS

 

Any reference in this Agreement to gender shall include all genders, and words imparting the singular number only shall include the plural and vice versa.

The words such as “CONTRACT”, “LIABILITY DISCLAIMER”, “TERMS OF USE”, “HEREIN,” “HEREINAFTER,” “HEREOF,” and “HEREUNDER” refer to this Agreement as a whole and not merely to a subdivision in which such words appear unless the context otherwise requires.

Any provision of this Agreement which is prohibited or unenforceable shall be ineffective to the extent of such prohibition or unenforceability without invalidating the remaining provisions hereof.

The user request the present contract and all foregoing communications with the website be accessible in English.

The present user agreement encompasses all the obligations between the user and the website and no express or implied warranty is provided to the user.

 

I hereby certify that I am of legal age in my country of residence as well as in the country I will be providing the service.

 

I hereby certify that all the information I have or will be providing is in fact true and legally binding.

 

These Terms of Use are applicable to any device be it laptop, desktop, mobile or apps created by Care4Giver.