Terms of service

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are a binding legal agreement between you and FireLoss Scout (“FireLoss Scout”, “we”, “us” or “our”). They govern your access to and use of this website, the information made available through it, any account you create, and any paid plan, allowance or feature offered through it (together, the “Service”).

By creating an account, purchasing a plan, or otherwise accessing or using the Service, you accept these Terms and the privacy policy, which is incorporated into them by reference. If you do not accept them, do not use the Service. If you accept them on behalf of a company, firm or other organization, you represent and warrant that you have authority to bind that organization, and “you” means both you and that organization. You represent that you are at least 18 years of age and able to form a binding contract.

1. What the Service is, and what it is not

FireLoss Scout is an independent, commercial information service. It collects, normalizes, classifies and presents information that public agencies, counties and other public bodies have already published, and it matches published fire-incident records to publicly recorded property information. It is an informational and research tool for general business awareness.

The Service is not, and you agree not to rely on it as, any of the following:

• an emergency, dispatch, alarm, life-safety, public-warning or monitoring system;
• an official record of any incident, property, person or event;
• a consumer report, consumer file, investigative consumer report or consumer reporting service;
• an insurance, underwriting, claims-adjusting, lending, credit, appraisal, title, escrow, tenant-screening, employment-screening, background-check or investigative service;
• legal, financial, accounting, engineering, restoration, safety or other professional advice; or
• a substitute for the official record held by the responsible agency, county, clerk or court, or for your own independent verification.

Fair Credit Reporting Act. We are not a consumer reporting agency as that term is defined in the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. (the “FCRA”), and any comparable state statute. The Service does not assemble or evaluate information for the purpose of furnishing consumer reports, and nothing obtained through the Service is a consumer report. You may not use the Service, or any information obtained through it, in whole or in part, as a factor in establishing any individual’s eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, housing, or any other purpose regulated by the FCRA. This restriction is a material term of these Terms.

2. Licence, and restrictions on use

Subject to these Terms and to payment of all applicable fees, we grant you a limited, personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable licence to access the Service and to use information it makes available to your account for your own internal business purposes during the period of your access. All rights not expressly granted are reserved to us and our licensors.

You will not, and will not authorize, assist or permit any other person to:

1. use the Service or any information obtained through it for any purpose regulated by the FCRA, as described above;
2. use the Service to harass, stalk, threaten, intimidate, defraud, discriminate against, or invade the privacy of any person, or to solicit any person in a manner that violates the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the CAN-SPAM Act, any federal or state do-not-call or do-not-mail registry, any state telemarketing or solicitation statute, or any other applicable law;
3. scrape, crawl, spider, harvest, bulk-download, index, cache beyond ordinary browser caching, or otherwise extract information from the Service by automated means;
4. resell, sublicense, rent, lease, distribute, publish, broadcast, or otherwise make the Service or information obtained through it available to any third party, or use it to build, train, populate or improve any dataset, list, model or product that competes with or substitutes for the Service;
5. share, transfer, sell or otherwise make available your account, your credentials, or any allowance or revealed information associated with your account, to or with any other person or organization, including within your own organization beyond the seats your plan provides;
6. circumvent, disable, degrade, probe or otherwise interfere with any access control, entitlement, rate limit, allowance, metering, authentication or security feature of the Service, or attempt to obtain information you have not paid for;
7. attend, approach or interfere with any incident scene, responder or investigation because of information found through the Service;
8. reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or attempt to derive the source code, structure or underlying ideas of the Service, except to the extent that restriction is prohibited by law;
9. remove, obscure or alter any notice, attribution or mark on the Service; or
10. use the Service in violation of any applicable law, regulation, court order, or the terms of use of any source from which information is drawn.

Each restriction in this section is a material term. We may investigate suspected breaches, and we may suspend or terminate your access immediately and without refund upon a breach or a reasonable belief of one, in addition to every other remedy available to us at law or in equity.

Gainesville public data. Gainesville Police Crime Responses material is provided under the City of Gainesville Open Data Terms of Use, which are incorporated into these Terms for that material. By receiving or using that material through the Service, you agree to the City's terms. Your use and onward distribution of that material are governed by the City's terms without additional restrictions from us. The access, account, payment and security requirements for using the Service continue to govern use of the Service itself. Where any provision of these Terms would restrict rights granted by the City's terms in that material, the City's terms govern that material. The City does not sponsor, approve or endorse the Service.

3. Accounts and security

You must provide an email address you control and keep your account information accurate. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account, whether or not authorized by you. You will notify us promptly if you suspect any unauthorized use. An account is for one person. We may refuse, suspend, restrict or close any account at our sole discretion. The Service is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.

4. Fees, renewal, cancellation and refunds

Prices and authorization. Paid plans and their prices are stated on the pricing page before purchase. You will never be charged without first agreeing to a price. By purchasing a plan you authorize us and our payment processor to charge your selected payment method the stated amount, together with any applicable taxes, immediately and then on a recurring basis as described below, until you cancel.

Automatic renewal. Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each billing period, for a further period of the same length, at the then-current price for your plan, and will continue to renew until you cancel it. You may cancel at any time from your account. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period then in progress; your access continues until that period ends, and no partial-period refund is given.

Allowances. A plan grants a stated number of leads per billing period. Allowances are a limited licence to view information, not property or currency. They have no cash value, are not redeemable, refundable, transferable or assignable, do not accrue interest, and do not expire at the end of the billing period in which they are granted. Unused allowance credits carry forward and remain available after your subscription ends, including on the free plan, until they are used, for so long as we continue to offer the Service. Purchased lead packs are drawn on only after the period allowance is exhausted and likewise do not expire. The free plan's monthly credit is offered only while your account holds no other credits, and lapses at the end of its calendar month. A lead you have already revealed remains viewable in your account for so long as we continue to offer the Service.

Refunds. Except where non-waivable law requires otherwise, all fees are non-refundable and all sales are final. This includes fees for a billing period that has begun, for an allowance you did not use in whole or in part, for a cancellation partway through a period, for a downgrade, and for any period during which your access was suspended or terminated for breach of these Terms. We may issue a credit or refund at our sole discretion in an individual case, and doing so creates no obligation, entitlement, course of dealing or precedent.

Changes to prices and plans. We may change our prices, allowances, plan contents, plan names and the composition of our plans at any time and at our sole discretion. A change to the recurring price or the allowance of a plan you currently hold takes effect at the start of your next billing period, and we will give you notice by email to your account address before that period begins. If you do not accept the change, your remedy is to cancel before that period begins; continuing after it begins is acceptance.

Failed payments and taxes. If a payment is declined or reversed we may retry it, and we may suspend, restrict, downgrade or terminate your access until payment succeeds. You are responsible for any sales, use, excise, value-added, withholding or similar taxes arising from your purchase, other than taxes on our net income. Prices are exclusive of such taxes unless stated otherwise. You are responsible for any chargeback, reversal or bank fee resulting from a payment you dispute other than in good faith.

Payment processing. Payments are processed by a third-party payment processor. Card and bank details are submitted to and held by that processor and are never received, processed or stored by us. Your use of the processor is subject to that processor’s own terms and privacy policy, and we are not responsible for its acts or omissions.

Free features. Any free feature, free allowance, sample, trial or promotional benefit is provided at our sole discretion, is not an entitlement, and may be changed, limited, suspended or withdrawn at any time without notice and without liability.

5. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE AND ALL CONTENT, DATA, RECORDS, CLASSIFICATIONS, ESTIMATES, ALERTS AND OTHER INFORMATION MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH IT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS”, “AS AVAILABLE” AND “WITH ALL FAULTS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, FIRELOSS SCOUT AND ITS OWNERS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AGENTS, SUPPLIERS AND LICENSORS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING, COURSE OF PERFORMANCE, USAGE OR TRADE PRACTICE, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, TITLE, QUIET ENJOYMENT, SYSTEM INTEGRATION AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, ACCURATE OR ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED THROUGH THE SERVICE IS OR WILL BE ACCURATE, CURRENT, COMPLETE OR SUITABLE FOR ANY PURPOSE. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED FROM US OR THROUGH THE SERVICE CREATES ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED HERE.

6. No guarantee as to any data

We make no representation, warranty, guarantee or undertaking of any kind, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, correctness, currency, reliability, timeliness, continuity, availability, sufficiency or fitness of any information made available through the Service. Without limiting the generality of the preceding sentence, you acknowledge and agree that:

1. incident records originate with third-party agencies and public bodies, are published on their own schedules and in their own formats, and may be delayed, provisional, incomplete, inconsistent, duplicated, superseded, corrected, withdrawn or simply wrong;
2. the authoritative reporting source publishes on a substantial delay, frequently measured in months, and no information on the Service should be assumed to be current;
3. same-day dispatch information is a record that a call was made, not a finding that a fire occurred, that any property was damaged, or that any report was ever filed; such calls are routinely cancelled, reclassified, duplicated or found to be nothing;
4. classifications, damage indications, summaries, interpretations and any derived field are our reading of published values, are produced by automated rules, and may be incorrect or may change;
5. estimated addresses, coordinates, map points and county attributions are derived and approximate, may be wrong, and are not official addresses or official locations;
6. property-owner names and mailing addresses are drawn from annual public tax rolls and comparable public sources; they are not a title search, are not evidence of current legal ownership, may be months or years out of date, may identify a trust, entity, agent, lender or predecessor rather than an occupant or current owner, and a mailing address is a correspondence address that may bear no relation to any residence or to the property concerned;
7. coverage is partial and uneven: not every county, agency, incident or property is represented, sources are added and removed without notice, and the absence of a record is not evidence that nothing occurred;
8. alerts, digests and notifications may be delayed, duplicated, suppressed, throttled, misdelivered, filtered as spam, or never delivered at all, and the absence of an alert means nothing whatsoever; and
9. the Service, or any part of it, may be unavailable, degraded, interrupted, changed or discontinued at any time, with or without notice.

You are solely responsible for independently verifying any information before relying on it, and for every decision you make, action you take, communication you send and expenditure you incur in reliance on it. Verification with the responsible agency, county, clerk, court or qualified professional is your responsibility and not ours.

7. Assumption of risk and your responsibilities

You use the Service at your sole risk and expressly assume the risks described in these Terms. You are solely responsible for your compliance with every law applicable to your use of the Service and of information obtained through it, including laws governing marketing, solicitation, telephone and electronic communication, direct mail, privacy, data protection, unfair and deceptive practices, and licensing of your own trade or profession. You are solely responsible for every contact, approach, solicitation or communication you make with any person or property identified through the Service, and for obtaining any consent that such contact requires.

8. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, NEITHER FIRELOSS SCOUT NOR ITS OWNERS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AGENTS, SUPPLIERS OR LICENSORS WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, BUSINESS, CONTRACTS, CUSTOMERS, OPPORTUNITY, GOODWILL, REPUTATION, DATA OR ANTICIPATED SAVINGS, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE, HOWEVER CAUSED, UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY INCLUDING CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, WARRANTY AND STATUTE, AND WHETHER OR NOT WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, WE WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO: YOUR RELIANCE ON ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED THROUGH THE SERVICE; ANY INACCURACY, OMISSION, DELAY, MISCLASSIFICATION, MISATTRIBUTION OR ABSENCE IN THAT INFORMATION; ANY DELAYED, DUPLICATED, MISDELIVERED OR MISSING ALERT OR NOTIFICATION; ANY UNAVAILABILITY, INTERRUPTION, SUSPENSION, CHANGE OR DISCONTINUATION OF THE SERVICE; ANY ACT OR OMISSION OF ANY AGENCY, COUNTY, PUBLIC BODY, SOURCE, PAYMENT PROCESSOR, HOSTING PROVIDER OR OTHER THIRD PARTY; ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR DATA; OR ANY CONTACT, SOLICITATION, DISPUTE OR CLAIM BETWEEN YOU AND ANY PERSON OR PROPERTY OWNER IDENTIFIED THROUGH THE SERVICE.

Our total aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service, in the aggregate and not per claim, is limited to the greater of what you have paid us in the twelve months before the claim and one hundred United States dollars.

The limitations and exclusions in this section and in section 5 apply even if any limited remedy fails of its essential purpose, apply to every claim and cause of action, and are an essential basis of the bargain between you and us. You acknowledge that we would not provide the Service on these terms or at these prices without them.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain warranties, damages or liabilities. Where and to the extent that is so, the affected exclusion or limitation does not apply to you, our liability is limited to the least extent permitted by that law, and every other provision remains in full force.

9. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless FireLoss Scout and its owners, officers, employees, contractors, agents, suppliers and licensors from and against any and all claims, demands, actions, proceedings, investigations, losses, liabilities, damages, judgments, settlements, fines, penalties, costs and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs, arising out of or relating to: your access to or use of the Service or of any information obtained through it; your breach or alleged breach of these Terms; your violation of any law or regulation; your violation or alleged violation of the rights of any third party, including rights of privacy, publicity, and intellectual property; and any contact, solicitation, communication or transaction between you and any person identified through the Service. We may assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, at your expense, and you will cooperate fully with that defence. You will not settle any matter in a way that imposes any obligation or admission on us without our prior written consent.

10. The records, and our rights in this presentation

The underlying incident and property records are public records produced by agencies and counties, and we claim no ownership of them. We do claim, and reserve, all right, title and interest in this presentation of them: the selection, arrangement, normalization, classification, enrichment, wording, design, software, trade marks, trade dress and any derived field or work, together with all intellectual property rights in them. You may read and search what the Service offers your account, use it for your own internal business purposes, and quote limited portions with attribution. Systematic scraping, bulk copying, redistribution, resale and the creation of a competing dataset or product are prohibited, as set out in section 2. Any feedback or suggestion you give us may be used by us without restriction, attribution or compensation.

11. Third-party sources and services

The Service depends on third-party agencies, counties, data sources, map providers, geocoding providers, mail providers, payment processors and hosting providers. We do not control them, we do not endorse them, and we are not responsible or liable for their acts, omissions, content, terms, availability, accuracy or security. Any change, restriction, interruption, price change, term change or withdrawal by any of them may change, degrade or end all or part of the Service at any time, without notice, and without liability to you.

12. Suspension and termination

We may suspend, restrict, downgrade or terminate your account and your access to the Service at any time, with or without notice, for any reason or no reason, including where we believe in good faith that these Terms have been breached, that the Service is being used unlawfully or abusively, or that suspension is necessary to protect the Service, its sources, other users or any third party. Where access is terminated for breach, no refund is due and any unused allowance is forfeited. You may stop using the Service at any time, and may cancel your subscription and delete your account from your account settings. We may also cease to offer the Service, or any part of it, at any time. Sections 1, 2, 4 (as to amounts owed), 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14 and 15 survive any termination or expiry.

13. Changes to these Terms and to the Service

We may modify these Terms at any time by posting a revised version with a new “Last updated” date. Where a change materially affects your rights or obligations we will also notify account holders by email to the address on the account. A change takes effect on the date posted, or on any later effective date stated in it. Your continued access to or use of the Service after that date constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms; if you do not accept them, you must stop using the Service and cancel any subscription. We may also add, change, suspend, limit or remove any feature, allowance, source, plan or part of the Service at any time.

14. Governing law, disputes, arbitration and class waiver

Governing law. These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Service are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules and without regard to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

Informal resolution first. Before commencing any arbitration or proceeding, you agree to contact us in writing, describe the dispute and the relief you seek, and allow us sixty (60) days to resolve it informally. Most problems are a wrong record or a misunderstanding about what the Service is, and both are faster to fix by email than by filing anything. This paragraph is a condition precedent to commencing any proceeding.

Binding individual arbitration. If a dispute is not resolved informally, you and we agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms, the Service, any plan or any information obtained through the Service, whether based in contract, tort, statute, fraud, misrepresentation or any other legal theory, will be resolved exclusively by final and binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect, before a single arbitrator. The arbitration will be seated in the Florida county in which we maintain our principal place of business or, at your written election, in the county where you reside, and may be conducted by telephone, video or on written submissions where the rules allow. The arbitrator has exclusive authority to decide all issues of arbitrability, scope, enforceability and interpretation of this section. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. The Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this section.

Class action and jury waiver. YOU AND WE EACH WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY AND THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, PRIVATE-ATTORNEY-GENERAL OR OTHER REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. Claims may be brought only in an individual capacity. The arbitrator may award relief only in favour of the individual party seeking relief and only to the extent necessary to provide relief on that party’s individual claim, and may not award relief affecting any other user. If a court decides that this paragraph is unenforceable as to any claim or any part of a claim, then the arbitration agreement above does not apply to that claim or part, which will instead proceed in the courts identified below, and the remainder of this section continues to apply.

Small claims and opting out. Either party may bring an individual claim in a small-claims court of competent jurisdiction instead of arbitration. You may opt out of the arbitration agreement and the class-action waiver by writing to us within thirty (30) days of first accepting these Terms, stating that you opt out and identifying your account. Opting out affects no other part of these Terms and will not affect your access to the Service.

Courts. Where a dispute is not subject to arbitration, it belongs exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Florida, and you irrevocably consent to the personal jurisdiction of, and venue in, those courts and waive any objection of inconvenient forum.

Time limit. To the fullest extent permitted by law, any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service must be commenced within one (1) year after the claim arises, or it is permanently barred.

15. General

Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the privacy policy and any order or plan description presented to you at purchase, are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service and supersede all prior or contemporaneous understandings, representations and communications about it. You have not relied on any statement not expressly set out here.

Severability and no waiver. If any provision is held unenforceable, it will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, or severed if it cannot be, and the remaining provisions continue in full force. Our failure or delay in enforcing any provision is not a waiver of it, and no waiver is effective unless made in writing by us.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or any right under them, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent; any attempt to do so is void. We may assign these Terms freely, including to an affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets.

Force majeure. We are not liable for any failure or delay caused by anything beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, fire, flood, storm, epidemic, war, civil unrest, labour dispute, power or telecommunications failure, internet or hosting outage, denial-of-service attack, act of government, or the failure, restriction or withdrawal of any third-party source or provider.

Notices and relationship. We may give you notice by email to the address on your account, by posting on the Service, or by any other reasonable means, and such notice is effective when sent or posted. You must give us notice in writing at the contact address below. Nothing in these Terms creates any partnership, joint venture, agency, franchise or employment relationship between us, and there are no third-party beneficiaries to these Terms other than the persons and entities identified in sections 8 and 9. Section headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

Language. These Terms are drawn up in the English language, which is the only authoritative and governing version. Any translation is provided for convenience only, has no legal effect, and in the event of any inconsistency the English text prevails.