Terms of Service

HaT (“HaT”, “we”, “us”) is a marketplace operated by its founder as a sole trader (ABN 93 500 781 614). HaT is not a registered company. You can reach us any time through our Support page, where a person reads every message.

HaT is the platform that connects homeowners (“customers”) with independent trade businesses (“tradies”). HaT is not a party to the work itself and does not employ tradies, subcontract to them, or supervise how they do their job. Each tradie is an independent contractor running their own business.

When a customer accepts a tradie’s offer, a contract for the work is formed directly between that customer and that tradie. The structured bid the tradie submitted — its scope, its price, and every conditional (possible extra) disclosed on it — is the terms of that contract. HaT provides the platform, holds the payment, and helps resolve disputes, but the work is between you and the other party.

You must give accurate details, keep your login secure, and be responsible for activity under your account. You must be at least 18. Tradies must complete verification (identity, ABN, and any licence their trade requires) before they can offer on jobs; insurance is optional and, where verified, shown as a separate Insured badge. Passing verification is not an endorsement or a guarantee of any tradie’s work.

Payments are processed by Stripe. HaT never sees or stores your card number. We currently accept Australian-issued cards only.

When you book a job, the full job price is charged and held (in escrow) — it is not paid to the tradie yet. The held money is released to the tradie when the job is finished: either the tradie marks the job done and you confirm it, or, if you do not respond, automatically 48 hours after the tradie marks it done. Money is not released while an extra is still unresolved.

A service processing fee of 1.8% of the job price is added to what you pay. It is always included in the headline “Agree and Continue” total you see before you commit, and shown as a separate line item. It is sized at roughly what card processing actually costs us and applies the same way regardless of how you pay. This fee covers processing that is spent as soon as the payment is taken, so it is not refundable.

Tradies are paid the job price less HaT’s commission, which is deducted from their payout when funds are released. Commission is a matter between HaT and the tradie and is not an extra charge to the customer.

If you cancel a booking, how much is refunded depends on how much notice you give before the agreed start time. These bands apply to bookings made after this policy took effect; earlier bookings keep the terms agreed at the time. The service processing fee is never refunded in any band, because processing is already spent. On a cancellation within 72 hours a platform minimum applies to protect against the cost of a cancellation: $5 on jobs under $100, and $9.99 on jobs of $100 or more. No minimum applies to a cancellation with more than 72 hours’ notice.

• More than 72 hours’ notice: a full refund of the job price. HaT keeps only the non-refundable service processing fee — nothing more, and no minimum applies. The tradie receives nothing.
• 24 to 72 hours’ notice: the tradie is paid 15% of the job price for the lost slot; HaT keeps the greater of 5% or the platform minimum; you are refunded the remainder of the job price. The service fee is kept on top as non-refundable processing.
• Less than 24 hours’ notice: the tradie is paid 32% of the job price; HaT keeps the greater of 8% or the platform minimum; you are refunded the remainder of the job price. The service fee is kept on top as non-refundable processing.
• If the tradie cancels or does not show: you are refunded in full, HaT absorbs the processing cost, and the tradie carries a reliability consequence on their next job.

Nothing in this section limits any refund or remedy you are entitled to under the Australian Consumer Law where a service is not delivered with due care and skill.

Sometimes a tradie finds something the original scope did not cover. HaT’s rule is simple and protects you: a tradie must propose and get your agreement to any extra charge before doing that extra work. You will see the reason, the price, and the evidence for it, and you can accept or decline. Work you did not agree to is not payable.

A conditional that the tradie disclosed on their original bid is different: you were told up front it might come up and at what price, so if it does, that is an informed part of the deal. A brand-new charge that was never disclosed and is sprung on you mid-job is not, and will be treated as bad faith in a dispute. Declining an extra is fine; where a decline genuinely prevents the tradie finishing safely or lawfully, that is handled through the dispute process, not by charging you anyway.

If you and the tradie disagree about whether the job was done, or about an extra, either side can raise a dispute. While a dispute is open, the money in escrow is frozen — it is not released to the tradie and not refunded to you until the dispute is resolved.

We resolve disputes on the evidence, not on who complains loudest. HaT assembles the evidence bundle automatically: the job’s scope card, the structured bid and its disclosed conditionals, the tradie’s completion photos, the full chat transcript, and the booking timeline. The completion photos measured against the agreed scope are what decide whether the job was “done”.

A person at HaT reviews the bundle and makes a decision, with a target of three business days from when the evidence is complete. We write down the decision and the reasons for it. The decision is final within HaT. The table below sets out the situations we see most often and what normally happens to the held money in each. These are the usual outcomes, not a promise: the reviewer decides on the evidence and may reach a different result where it is fairer.

“Final within HaT” does not take away your legal rights. Our decision does not limit your rights under the Australian Consumer Law, your ability to raise a chargeback with your card issuer, or your ability to complain to ACT Fair Trading or another regulator.

Reviews on HaT come only from people who actually completed a transaction together, so they reflect real jobs. Reviews must be honest and based on your own experience. Do not post reviews that are fake, paid for, defamatory, or intended to coerce the other party. We may remove reviews that break these rules or the law, and we may act on patterns that indicate manipulation.

HaT works because the deal happens on the platform — that is what lets us hold money safely, keep a record, and stand behind a dispute. So you must not solicit or arrange payment for a HaT job outside HaT, share contact details to take the job off-platform, or otherwise try to route around the platform. You must not misuse the service, upload unlawful content, harass others, or attempt to break or probe our security. Off-platform payment solicitation is a serious breach and is monitored.

You can stop using HaT at any time. We may suspend or close an account that breaches these terms, poses a safety or fraud risk, or repeatedly lets the other side down. Where money is held for an in-progress job, we will still see that job and any dispute through to a fair resolution. When you delete your account we anonymise your personal information as described in our Privacy Policy.

HaT provides the platform “as is”. The work itself is performed by the tradie, who is responsible for it. To the fullest extent the law allows, HaT is not liable for the quality, safety, or outcome of work performed by a tradie, or for a customer’s conduct. Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts, or modifies any guarantee, right, or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law or other laws that cannot lawfully be excluded. Where our liability can be limited but not excluded, it is limited to the extent permitted by law.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. We may update these terms as HaT grows; when we make a material change we publish a new version and record your acceptance the next time you use HaT. If you do not agree to an updated version, stop using the service.

These terms are a working draft pending professional legal review. If anything here is unclear, please ask us.