Terms of Service

Flatswaps is operated by Flatswaps Limited, 77 Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2, D02 VK60, Ireland, registered with the Companies Registration Office under number 765432, VAT IE1234567A. Full details are in our Imprint.

Flatswaps is an online intermediation platform. We give you the tools to publish a home, find a swap partner, message them, agree terms and record a contract. We are not a party to the swap or tenancy you agree with another member, not a letting agent, not an estate agent and not an insurer. The agreement about the home itself is between you and the other member.

• You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter into a binding contract.
• You must give accurate registration details and keep them current. One person, one account.
• Keep your password confidential. Tell us promptly at support@flatswaps.com if you think someone else has accessed your account. You are not liable for unauthorised use once you have notified us.
• We may ask you to verify your phone number or identity before you can use certain features.

If you are a consumer in the EU or EEA, you have the right under Art. 9 of Directive 2011/83/EU to withdraw from a paid subscription within 14 days, without giving any reason. The period runs from the day the contract is concluded.

To withdraw, tell us in an unambiguous statement — email support@flatswaps.com is enough. You may use the model withdrawal form in Annex I(B) of the Directive, but you do not have to. Sending your message before the 14 days expire is sufficient.

We will refund all payments received from you without undue delay and no later than 14 days after we are informed, using the same payment method you used, at no cost to you.

This right concerns your contract with Flatswaps. It does not apply to the swap or tenancy agreement you conclude with another member — cancellation of that is governed by section 6 and by whatever you agreed with them.

When you publish a home you confirm that:

• You own it, or you have your landlord's permission to sublet or exchange it.
• Everything you state — size, rooms, rent, amenities, availability, photos — is accurate and current, and the photos show the actual property.
• The home meets the safety, building and habitability rules that apply where it is.
• You have checked the local rules on short-term letting, subletting and home exchange, including any registration, permit or tourist-tax requirement, and you comply with them. Many cities restrict this. It is your responsibility, not ours.
• You will honour confirmed swaps and bookings.

You keep ownership of the photos and text you upload. By publishing them you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, display, resize and distribute them for the purpose of operating and promoting the platform. This licence ends when you delete the content, except for copies in backups and where we must retain it for legal reasons.

You must not:

• Post listings for homes you have no right to offer, or that do not exist.
• Discriminate against other members on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, age, sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Harass, threaten, defame or impersonate anyone.
• Use the platform for money laundering, fraud or any other unlawful purpose.
• Take conversations off-platform in order to avoid fees, or solicit payment by methods that bypass our checkout.
• Scrape, crawl or bulk-extract listings or member data, or upload malicious code.
• Post fake reviews, or offer anything in exchange for a review.

When you and another member confirm a swap, a contract arises between the two of you. Our contract tool produces a document recording what you agreed and lets both sides sign it electronically. Electronic signatures made this way are valid under Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 (eIDAS).

Read what you are signing. We generate the document from your inputs; we do not check it for legal validity in your jurisdiction, and it may not by itself satisfy local tenancy law formalities. For anything significant, take your own legal advice.

Cancellation terms are whatever the two of you set out in your agreement. We are not a party to it, so we cannot enforce it, compel performance or compensate you for a cancellation. We can provide records of what was agreed and exchanged on the platform if you need them for a dispute.

Creating an account and browsing are free. Paid plans and their prices are shown before you pay, inclusive of VAT where applicable. We charge no fee on the home exchange itself.

Subscriptions renew automatically for the same period unless you cancel before the renewal date. You can cancel at any time in your account settings; cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period and you keep access until then.

We will tell you at least 30 days in advance of any price change, and you may cancel before it takes effect. Payments are processed by Stripe and PayPal; we never see your full card number.

Under Art. 16 of the Digital Services Act, anyone can notify us of content on Flatswaps they consider illegal. Use the report function on the listing or profile, or email legal@flatswaps.com — that address is also our point of contact under Art. 11 DSA. Tell us where the content is and why you think it is illegal, and we will confirm receipt and decide without undue delay.

If we remove your content or restrict your account, we will give you a statement of reasons as required by Art. 17 DSA, explaining what we did, why, and how to challenge it. You can appeal to legal@flatswaps.com within six months, and we will review the decision under human supervision. You also retain the right to go to court, and to use a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body under Art. 21 DSA.

You can close your account at any time from your settings. Closure does not release you from swaps you have already confirmed with other members.

We may suspend or terminate your account where you seriously or repeatedly breach these terms, where we are legally required to, or where keeping the account open would create a real risk to other members. Except where the law prevents us or there is an ongoing criminal investigation, we will give you reasons and, for termination, 30 days' notice. Where the risk is immediate — fraud, a safety threat, unlawful content — we may act first and explain afterwards.

You can appeal any suspension or termination at legal@flatswaps.com. If we terminate a paid plan for a reason other than your breach, we will refund the unused part.

We provide the platform with reasonable skill and care and we are liable for our own failures. Specifically:

• We do not exclude or limit liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot be limited under Irish or EU law.
• We are liable for foreseeable loss caused by our breach of these terms or by our failure to supply the service in conformity with Directive (EU) 2019/770.
• We are not liable for the conduct of other members, the condition, safety or legality of any home listed, or whether another member honours an agreement with you. Those are matters between you and them.
• For anything else, our aggregate liability is limited to the greater of the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event, or €100.

If the service is faulty, you have the statutory remedies in Directive (EU) 2019/770 — bringing it into conformity, a price reduction, or termination. Nothing here affects those.

These terms are governed by Irish law. If you are a consumer resident in the EU or EEA, this choice does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory consumer law of the country where you habitually reside, as provided by Art. 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 (Rome I).

You may bring proceedings in the Irish courts or in the courts of your own country of residence, as provided by Art. 18 of Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 (Brussels I recast). We may only bring proceedings against a consumer in the courts of the country where they live.

Before going to court, please contact us at legal@flatswaps.com — most disputes are resolved quickly that way. We are not obliged to participate in alternative dispute resolution before a consumer arbitration board, and we do not currently do so.

If a court finds any provision of these terms invalid or unenforceable, the rest stays in force and the invalid provision is replaced by the closest lawful equivalent.

Our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy form part of your agreement with us. These terms are published in several languages; the English version prevails in the event of a discrepancy, without prejudice to mandatory consumer protections in your own language under local law.

Questions about these terms: legal@flatswaps.com.