Terms of service

YardShift is a hyperlocal marketplace connecting Barrhaven homeowners with teen workers (ages 13–17) for lawn mowing and snow shoveling. These terms apply to everyone who uses it: homeowners, teens, and the parents/guardians who approve a teen's account.

Who can use YardShift

Teens must be between 13 and 17 and have a parent or guardian approve their account before they can claim any job — no exceptions. Homeowners must be adults capable of entering a paid agreement. Parents approve their teen's account through a one-time secure link and aren't required to create their own account for that step.

How jobs work

Homeowners post jobs with an address, price, and service type. Approved teens within their chosen radius can claim a job, but a claim only locks in once the homeowner approves it. Either side can decline a claim without penalty to the teen's standing — declining is about fit, not a judgment on the teen. A homeowner who doesn't respond to a claim within 24 hours automatically reopens the job to other teens.

Payment

All payment runs through the platform via Stripe — no cash transactions between homeowners and teens. Because a teen can't hold a payment account themselves, the parent or guardian who approved their account sets up the payout account (via Stripe Connect) that receives payment on the teen's behalf. When a homeowner approves a claim, their card is authorized (held) for the job's price plus the service fee. It isn't charged until the payment is released.

Once a job is marked done, the homeowner can release the payment right away. If they don't, it's released to the teen's parent automatically three days after the job was marked done, or sooner if the card authorization is about to run out (card authorizations only last about seven days). A homeowner who reports a problem with the job before then puts the payment on hold while we look into it. If a job is never marked done, it's reopened after six days and the authorization is cancelled, so the homeowner isn't charged. This is an early implementation and may change as the platform grows.

Communication and conduct

Once a homeowner approves a claim, both sides can message each other in-app to coordinate the job — chat closes once the job is done. For everyone's safety, especially given teens are minors, phone numbers and email addresses aren't allowed in chat and messages containing them won't send. Keep communication respectful and job-related. Abusive behavior, harassment, or attempts to bypass the platform's trust and payment protections can result in account suspension.

Reviews

After a job is marked complete, both sides are asked to review each other. Reviews stay hidden until both are submitted, to keep them honest rather than retaliatory. A review you believe is false or abusive can be reported for review.

Not an employer

A teen who claims a job through YardShift is doing so as an independent worker, not as an employee of YardShift or of the homeowner whose job they claim. YardShift doesn't set a teen's hours, assign specific jobs to them, or direct how the work gets done — a teen chooses which posted jobs to claim, and does the work using their own judgment, within whatever reasonable instructions a homeowner gives about their own property. A homeowner who pays for a job through the platform is paying for that job, not taking on an employer role or bringing the teen on as household staff.

Practically, this means the usual rules that come with an employment relationship — minimum wage, overtime, workers' compensation, payroll withholding, and so on — aren't something YardShift or a homeowner is providing through the platform. Because the workers here are minors, this is a genuinely more sensitive question than a typical gig-work classification, and how it holds up can vary by where you live. This is exactly the kind of language that needs real legal drafting, not a boilerplate paragraph — treat this section as a statement of intent, not a settled legal conclusion.

No warranty

YardShift connects homeowners and teens; it doesn't supervise the work itself. Homeowners are responsible for a safe property and reasonable instructions; teens are responsible for doing the job they claimed. This section is exactly the kind of language that needs real legal drafting before launch.

Changes

These terms may change as the product changes. Material changes will be communicated before they take effect.