Terms of Service

Halekin is a technology platform that matches families with independent Kin and supports scheduling, communication, payment, and record-keeping around visits. We vet Kin (including a Vulnerable Sector Check), provide training materials, require a code of conduct, and maintain incident and safety tooling, but:

• Kin are independent contractors, not employees or agents of Halekin.
• Halekin is not a regulated health service. Kin do not provide medical, nursing, personal care (bathing, toileting, dressing, medication administration), or professional services (legal, tax, accounting, regulated therapy).
• Halekin does not guarantee the acts or omissions of any individual Kin. We carry insurance (see §11) and operate a safety program, but those are risk-management tools, not guarantees.

• You must be at least 18 years old to hold an account.
• You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential and for everything that happens under your account.
• You will keep account information (email, phone, payment method) current.
• We may decline to create an account, or close an existing account, if we reasonably believe continued use would violate these Terms or applicable law.

When you add a member (the senior) to your family account, you represent to us that:

• You have authority (as power of attorney, substitute decision-maker, or a practical caregiving relationship) to share the member's personal information with Halekin and Kin, and to authorize visits and related services on their behalf.
• You will share visit summaries and safety observations with the member or their other decision-makers as appropriate.
• You will update us promptly if the member's situation changes in a way we need to know about (e.g. hospitalization, move, change in decision-maker).

Co-managers (siblings, other family) can be invited with your permission. Only the account holder is responsible for billing.

The member (senior) is the person the visits are for. Members have their own rights under our Privacy Policy, including the right to access or correct information we hold about them. A member who doesn't want further visits, for any reason, at any time, can tell us directly and we will stop.

If you apply to be a Kin, you agree to the separate Kin Agreement you sign during onboarding. These Terms apply to you as well, with the following additions:

• You are an independent contractor. You are not an employee of Halekin or of the family. You are responsible for your own taxes (including HST/GST self-assessment where applicable), CPP contributions, and any other legal obligations of self-employment.
• You control when you are available, which visits you accept, and how you perform accepted visits within the scope of service defined in the Kin Agreement.
• You will consent to and pass a Vulnerable Sector Check before completing visits.
• You will complete required training modules before your first visit.
• You will not provide services outside the defined scope (see §10).
• You will not solicit family or member contacts to pay you outside the platform. Doing so is a material breach and grounds for termination.
• Nothing in these Terms prevents you from providing similar services elsewhere. Your availability is your own.

Booking

When you book a visit, you authorize Halekin to charge applicable fees (including any overage) to the payment method on file, and you authorize us to share the information a Kin needs to complete the visit. If a visit ends earlier than scheduled, you are charged only for the time actually used. For subscription members, a chargeable cancellation draws one included hour from your plan rather than a separate dollar fee.

Cancellation fees

• 24+ hours before the scheduled start: no fee.
• 4–24 hours before: 50% of the visit charge.
• Less than 4 hours before or no-show: 100% of the visit charge.
• Member hospitalization, sudden medical emergency, or a Kin cancellation: the fee is waived. Halekin has discretion to waive fees in other exceptional circumstances.

Pause

You may pause your subscription for 1 to 8 weeks from your billing page. During a pause we will not charge you and you cannot book new visits; already-scheduled visits during the pause window remain on the calendar unless cancelled separately. Billing resumes automatically when the pause ends, or earlier if you resume yourself.

Cancellation of subscription

You may cancel your subscription at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; visits already booked for dates within that period remain on the calendar. We don't issue refunds for partially-used billing periods.

• Subscription fees are billed in advance each period to the payment method on file. The amount, included hours, and overage rate for each plan are shown when you select or change a plan and on your billing page.
• Included hours do not roll over. Unused hours expire at the end of each billing period.
• Overage (visits beyond included hours) is charged at the published overage rate and added to the next regular invoice.
• All fees are in Canadian dollars and exclusive of applicable taxes (HST/GST). Taxes will be added at checkout where required.
• If a charge fails, we will retry per the payment processor's standard dunning schedule and notify you. Repeated failures will result in account suspension until payment is resolved.
• Fee changes will be notified at least 30 days in advance and will take effect on your next billing period.

You will not, and will not permit anyone else to:

• Use Halekin to deliver any medical, nursing, or other regulated service.
• Harass, discriminate against, or mistreat a Kin, a member, our staff, or other users.
• Request a Kin to perform unsafe or illegal tasks, or anything outside the scope in §10.
• Provide false identity or profile information, or impersonate someone else.
• Circumvent our fees, matching, or payment system (including by paying Kin directly off-platform for visits arranged through Halekin).
• Scrape, crawl, reverse-engineer, or interfere with the platform.
• Use the platform in violation of any law or regulation that applies to you.

You retain ownership of information you submit (profiles, visit notes, photos, messages). You grant Halekin a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, display, and store your content as needed to operate the service. We may use de-identified or aggregated data to improve Halekin and share wellbeing trends; we will never identify a member, family, or Kin in that data.

The Halekin platform, brand, and software are our property. You may not use our name, logos, or likeness without permission, except to refer to the service factually.

Halekin is a non-medical companion and household-help service. It is not a substitute for professional medical care, personal care, home-health care, or mental-health treatment. Kin do not administer medication, perform personal hygiene care, make medical decisions, diagnose, or treat. If a member has a medical emergency, call 911. If a member needs regulated care, please engage a qualified regulated provider.

The platform is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all implied warranties including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. Nothing in this paragraph limits any non-excludable consumer rights you have under applicable law.

To the fullest extent permitted by law:

• Halekin's aggregate liability to you under these Terms is limited to the greater of (a) the fees you paid Halekin in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the liability, and (b) CAD $500.
• We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, punitive, or special damages, or for lost profits, lost revenue, or lost data, even if we were advised of the possibility of those damages.
• We maintain commercial general liability insurance applicable to incidents during visits. The terms of that policy (not these Terms) govern whether a particular claim is covered.
• Nothing in this section limits liability for fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, bodily injury or death caused by our negligence, or any other liability that cannot be limited by applicable law.

You will indemnify and hold harmless Halekin, its officers, directors, employees, and sub-processors from any third-party claim arising from (a) your breach of these Terms or the Privacy Policy, (b) your misuse of the platform, or (c) a dispute between you and another user that Halekin did not cause. We'll tell you promptly about any claim, let you defend it (with counsel of your choice reasonably acceptable to us), and cooperate on request at your expense.

• You may close your account at any time from your settings, or by emailing support.
• We may suspend or terminate your account immediately if you breach these Terms, a Kin fails a safety review, a payment dispute is unresolved, or continued service would create risk to a member, a Kin, or the platform.
• Sections that by their nature survive termination (§7 fees due, §9, §10, §11, §12, §15, §16) continue to apply.

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make a material change, we will post the revised Terms and notify active account holders at least 14 days in advance by email or in-app message. Your continued use after the effective date is your acceptance of the revised Terms. If you don't agree, you may close your account before the effective date.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable there, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

You and Halekin agree that the courts of Ontario (including the Small Claims Court where applicable) have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim or dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the service, and each of us consents to the personal jurisdiction of those courts. Nothing in these Terms waives any non-waivable consumer right you have under applicable law.

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any document we expressly incorporate by reference, are the entire agreement between you and Halekin regarding the service.
• Severability. If any part of these Terms is held invalid, the rest remains in effect.
• No waiver. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms to an affiliate or a successor in a business transfer.
• Force majeure. Neither party is liable for failures caused by events beyond reasonable control (natural disasters, strikes, regulatory action, outages of third-party providers).
• Language. These Terms are drafted in English. If we provide a translation, the English version governs in case of conflict.
• Consumer protection. If you're a consumer in Ontario, nothing in these Terms limits the rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act, 2002. Some provisions of that statute cannot be waived, and they apply despite anything in these Terms.

Questions? Reach out. For privacy matters, see our Privacy Policy.