Terms of Service

1. Scope and Acceptance

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern the relationship between you ("User", "you") and the operator of flat-finder.ch ("we", "us", "the Service"). By creating an account, accessing, or otherwise using the Service, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you must not use the Service.

2. Definitions

• Service — the flat-finder.ch web application, its APIs, email notifications, and all related functionality.
• User Content — search prompts, preferences, notes, and any other data you submit to the Service.
• AI Output — scores, reasons, summaries, and any other content generated by automated systems (artificial intelligence) within the Service.
• Third-Party Content — property listings, descriptions, images, and metadata originating from external real-estate portals.
• Account — the user account created upon registration, authenticated via our identity provider.

3. Beta Status

The Service is currently in an early beta phase. This means that features, functionality, portal coverage, and the user interface may change at any time without prior notice. We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability, and disruptions, errors, or data loss may occur. The beta status does not affect your statutory rights. By using the Service during the beta phase, you acknowledge and accept these limitations.

4. Eligibility and Account Registration

• The Service is primarily intended for users in Switzerland. It may be accessed from other jurisdictions, but we make no representation that the Service is appropriate or available outside Switzerland.
• The Service is not directed at children. If age-related legal restrictions apply in your jurisdiction, you are responsible for complying with them.
• You must provide a valid email address for account verification. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activities that occur under your account.
• You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration and to update it as necessary.

5. Service Description

flat-finder.ch is an AI-assisted flat-search aggregation service. It searches publicly available property listings across major Swiss real-estate portals on your behalf, applies automated scoring and analysis based on your personal preferences, and delivers the results via email notifications. The Service processes publicly accessible information and does not control the availability, accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of Third-Party Content.

The Service is designed exclusively for long-term residential rental listings in Switzerland. It does not support and is not intended for furnished or short-term rentals, flat/room-sharing (WG), property swaps, property purchases, or commercial real estate. Use of the Service for purposes outside this scope is at your own risk and may produce unreliable results.

The Service does not guarantee that all available listings matching your criteria will be discovered or surfaced. Coverage depends on which portals are integrated at any given time. The list of integrated portals is subject to change without notice and is not publicly disclosed.

6. User Obligations and Acceptable Use

You agree to use the Service only for its intended purpose and in compliance with applicable law. In particular, you shall not:

• use the Service for any illegal, fraudulent, or abusive purpose;
• attempt to interfere with, disrupt, or reverse-engineer the Service or its infrastructure;
• circumvent security measures, access controls, rate limits, or usage restrictions;
• use automated tools (bots, scrapers, crawlers) to access the Service unless explicitly authorised by us;
• resell, sublicense, or commercially redistribute the Service or its outputs without prior written consent;
• craft or submit prompts designed to manipulate, override, or circumvent the Service's AI systems ("prompt injection"); such conduct constitutes a material breach of these Terms and will result in immediate account suspension or termination.

7. Intellectual Property

All rights in the Service — including but not limited to software, design, trademarks, and documentation — are owned by or licensed to us. These Terms do not grant you any rights in or to the Service beyond the limited right to use it in accordance with these Terms. We do not claim ownership over Third-Party Content or User Content.

8. User Content and Licence Grant

You retain ownership of your User Content. By submitting User Content to the Service, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, revocable licence to process, store, and use that content solely for the purpose of providing and improving the Service. We will not sell or share your User Content with third parties except as described in our Privacy Policy.

9. Third-Party Services and Content

The Service relies on third-party providers for core functions including authentication, email delivery, DNS, cloud infrastructure, and AI processing. We may change providers over time. Third-Party Content displayed within the Service originates from external real-estate portals; we do not guarantee its accuracy, legality, or availability. Links to third-party websites are provided for convenience and do not imply endorsement. Links to property listings contained in email notifications are provided directly from the originating real-estate portal; the content of those pages is entirely outside our control. You are solely responsible for independently verifying the accuracy, current availability, and legitimacy of any listing before contacting a landlord or submitting personal information to a third-party platform. Details regarding sub-processors are described in our Privacy Policy.

10. AI-Generated Outputs

The Service uses automated systems ("AI") to summarise, categorise, score, and evaluate property listings. AI Outputs are generated algorithmically and may be incomplete, inaccurate, outdated, or misleading. They are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal, financial, tax, or housing advice. You should independently verify any information before making decisions based on AI Outputs. We disclaim all liability arising from reliance on AI-generated content. For reference, see also the terms of our AI processing provider (currently OpenAI Terms of Use), which note that output may not always be accurate.

11. Availability and Maintenance

We aim to provide the Service on a continuous basis but do not guarantee uninterrupted availability. Scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, updates, infrastructure issues, or force-majeure events may cause temporary or prolonged unavailability. We will make reasonable efforts to notify users of planned downtime where practicable.

Search executions are subject to system scheduling and may not occur at the exact time you request them. Executions may be delayed by up to twenty-four (24) hours due to queuing, rate limits imposed by third-party portals, or internal scheduling constraints. We provide no guarantee as to execution timeliness.

The availability and responsiveness of integrated third-party portals are entirely outside our control. Portal-side outages, structural changes, or access restrictions may cause search executions to fail, return incomplete results, or be skipped entirely without prior notice.

12. Disclaimer of Warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis without warranties or representations of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will meet your requirements, be error-free, or that defects will be corrected. This disclaimer does not affect mandatory statutory warranties under Swiss law that cannot be excluded by contract.

13. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by Swiss law (including Art. 97 ff. and Art. 100/101 of the Swiss Code of Obligations), we exclude liability for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of profit, data, business opportunities, or goodwill. Our total aggregate liability for direct damages arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service shall not exceed the total amount you have paid to us for the Service in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim. During the current free beta period, this amount is CHF 0. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for damages caused by wilful misconduct or gross negligence, or any other liability that cannot be excluded under mandatory Swiss law.

14. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless us and our affiliates from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your use of the Service, your violation of these Terms, or your infringement of any third-party rights.

15. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service immediately and without prior notice if you violate these Terms or applicable law, or if we reasonably believe that your use of the Service poses a security risk or is otherwise harmful. You may terminate your account at any time by contacting us at [email protected]. Upon termination, your right to use the Service ceases, and we may delete your account data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

16. Usage Limits

• You may run at most one (1) search execution per day per account. This applies to both manual and scheduled runs.
• You may create up to five (5) searches in total.
• Only one (1) search may be active at a time; all others remain paused. To activate a different search, pause the currently active one first.
• We reserve the right to adjust these limits at any time to maintain service quality, fairness, and operational sustainability. We will notify users where reasonably practicable before material changes take effect.
• Each account is tied to a single email address. If you require more searches or wish to maintain more than one (1) active search simultaneously, you must register a separate account using a different email address.

17. Email Delivery

Notification emails are sent via a third-party email delivery service. After submission to that provider, delivery depends on recipient mail servers, spam filters, and their respective policies. We cannot guarantee that emails will be delivered, and messages may be delayed, filtered, blocked, or bounced. You are advised to check your spam or junk folders and to add our sending domain to your safelist.

18. Pricing and Future Subscriptions

The Service is currently provided free of charge during the beta phase. If we introduce paid subscription plans in the future, we will update these Terms with information regarding pricing, billing cycles, cancellation, and refunds. We will notify existing users with reasonable advance notice before any paid plans take effect. Continued use of the Service after the introduction of paid plans constitutes acceptance of the applicable pricing terms.

19. Cookies

We use essential cookies that are strictly necessary for the operation of the Service (e.g. session management and authentication). These do not require consent.

In addition, we use Google Analytics 4 with mandatory IP anonymisation for aggregate usage measurement, on the basis of legitimate interest (nFADP Art. 31(2)(d) / GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)). No advertising or remarketing features are enabled. You may opt out at any time via your browser cookie controls or the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. EU/EEA users may also exercise their right to object under GDPR Art. 21. For full details and opt-out instructions, see the Cookies section of our Privacy Policy.

20. Data Protection

We process personal data in accordance with the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP/DSG) and, where applicable, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For comprehensive information on how we collect, process, store, transfer, and protect your personal data, including your rights as a data subject, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

21. Amendments

We reserve the right to amend these Terms at any time. The current version is always available on this page with its effective date. If we make material changes, we will take reasonable steps to notify you (e.g., via email or an in-service notice). Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of the amended Terms constitutes your acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree with the amended Terms, you must stop using the Service and may request deletion of your account.

22. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, such provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid and enforceable, or if modification is not possible, deemed severed. The remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

23. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the substantive laws of Switzerland, excluding its conflict-of-law provisions and the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). The exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms is Zürich, Switzerland, subject to any mandatory statutory venue provisions.

24. Contact

For questions regarding these Terms, please contact us at [email protected]. For full operator identification and contact details, see our Impressum.

25. Notification Recipients and Access Rights

When creating or editing a search, the account owner may designate additional email addresses ("Recipients") to receive search result notifications. By adding a Recipient, you represent and warrant that you have obtained the necessary consent from that individual to share their email address with us and to send them automated notification emails on your behalf.

• Recipients receive email notifications only. They are granted no access to the Service, the account, or any search configuration.
• Recipients cannot view, create, edit, pause, delete, or otherwise manage any search, nor can they modify account settings or access any data stored within the account.
• Only the authenticated account owner may add or remove Recipients. A Recipient who wishes to be removed from all notifications may contact us at [email protected]; we will process such requests promptly.
• We process Recipients' email addresses solely for the purpose of delivering notifications and in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

26. Security Notices and Phishing Awareness

Your account security is important. Please be aware of the following:

• We will never ask for your password. flat-finder.ch and its representatives will never request your account password, authentication codes, or any other credentials via email, chat, or any other channel.
• Verify the sender domain. Legitimate emails from flat-finder.ch are sent exclusively from addresses ending in @flat-finder.ch. If you receive a message purportedly from us that originates from a different domain, treat it as fraudulent and do not interact with it.
• Do not click suspicious links. If you receive an unsolicited email that requests urgent action, asks you to verify credentials, or appears unusual in any way, do not click any links. Navigate directly to flat-finder.ch in your browser instead.
• Report suspected phishing. If you believe you have received a phishing email impersonating flat-finder.ch, please report it to [email protected].

We accept no liability for losses, damages, or harm arising from phishing attacks, social engineering, or fraudulent impersonation of the Service by third parties, provided that such events are not attributable to a breach of our own security obligations under applicable law.