Renting safely
What this platform does not do
- No required identity verification. Identity verification is optional and most accounts do not have it. A verified badge means our provider checked a government ID against a selfie — nothing more. It is not a character reference, an address check or a background check, and an account without one is not suspicious. Nobody's background is checked either way.
- No insurance or damage cover. If something is damaged, lost or stolen, that is between you and the other party. There is no fund behind it, and nobody here decides who is right. An owner can claim against a deposit and a renter can accept or decline it — but a declined claim is the end of what the Service can do, and a deposit is a fixed sum that will often be less than the item is worth.
- No payment protection from us. Payments run through Stripe in test mode. Use a test card — real cards are not accepted and no real money moves. We are not an escrow service, and outside the deposit-claim flow we do not move money between you to settle a disagreement.
- No staffed moderation team. Reports are recorded and land in a demo review queue that a single admin account can move through open, reviewing and closed. Changing a status records a decision and nothing else — no listing is taken down and no account is suspended.
- An “email confirmed” badge means very little. It is a demo display state. Treat it as decoration, not evidence.
What it does do
- Keeps your address private until you agree to a rental. Listings show a neighbourhood name and a distance — never an address or an exact position. Exact pickup instructions are released to the other party only once a request is accepted.
- Ties reviews to completed rentals. You cannot review someone you never actually rented from, which makes ratings harder to manufacture.
- Keeps a record. Every state change on a rental is logged with who did it and when, and both parties can see the full history.
- Scopes conversations to a rental. A message thread has exactly two participants and cannot be read by anyone else.
Before you hand anything over
- Meet somewhere you are comfortable. You are not obliged to invite anyone into your home, and a driveway or a public car park is a perfectly normal handoff.
- Photograph the item with both of you present, before and after. It settles almost every dispute about condition before it starts.
- Agree in the message thread what happens if it breaks, and what “returned on time” means. Having it in writing costs nothing.
- For anything valuable, check whether your own home or contents insurance covers lending it out. Most policies have something to say about this.
- Trust your instincts. If a request or an owner feels wrong, decline. You never need a reason.
If something goes wrong
Open a dispute from the rental page — it flags the rental and preserves the record. Then talk to the other party in the thread; most problems are a misunderstanding about timing or condition. For anything involving real loss or a crime, this platform is not a substitute for your local authorities or your insurer.
You can also check what is not allowed and report a listing or a person from their page.
The rules behind this page
This page is advice. The rules are elsewhere: Community Guidelines set out what is expected of both parties when you meet in person, Cancellations covers what happens to the money when something falls through, and the Terms of Service set out who is responsible for what.
This page is guidance, not a contract. See all policy pages for the terms that actually govern using this marketplace.