Tenant Answers Terms of Service

The short version

This is a summary, not the agreement. If anything here differs from the numbered sections below, the numbered sections control.

Tenant Answers is a monthly subscription at the price shown on our pricing page, set by the number of homes you own. Prices exclude VAT. There is no setup fee and no per-user or per-request charge. You can cancel at any time from the billing page, and your access continues to the end of the month you paid for.

Your information belongs to you. You can export it at any time, and for at least 30 days after your subscription ends. If your trial or subscription ends, your workspace is paused, not deleted. We permanently delete your data from live systems within 30 days of your verified request. Backup copies expire in the ordinary course of backup rotation.

You decide what gets released. Our tools find likely personal details and help you redact them, but every response is a decision your staff make and check. We do not make that decision for you, and no tool guarantees a document is safe to release.

We process your tenants' personal data on your instructions under the Data Processing Agreement, which forms part of these Terms. Your data is hosted in Microsoft Azure's UK West region.

We do not use generative AI, redact video or audio, or take payments from tenants.

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between PALDAM LLC, a limited liability company organised in California, United States ("PALDAM", "we", "us" or "our"), and the organisation that obtains access to Tenant Answers ("Customer"). "Service" means the Tenant Answers websites, hosted application, tenant portals, documentation, support and related services that PALDAM makes available. The individual accepting these Terms confirms that they have authority to bind the Customer. If that is not true, they must not accept these Terms or use the Service on the Customer's behalf.

1. Agreement and order of precedence

By ticking the acceptance box, creating a workspace, starting a trial, buying a subscription or using the signed-in Service after being shown these Terms, the Customer agrees to them. The Data Processing Agreement at tenantanswers.co.uk/Legal/Dpa ("DPA") forms part of these Terms. If the DPA and these Terms conflict on the processing of personal data, the DPA controls. PALDAM does not accept customer terms or implied amendments; a purchase order or supplier form is for the Customer's administrative convenience only, and any terms in it that add to or conflict with these Terms have no effect.

2. Who can use the Service

The Service is offered to housing associations and other registered providers of social housing in England, and to organisations that manage homes on their behalf, together with the individuals authorised to act for them. It is not offered to consumers. PALDAM checks eligibility against the Regulator of Social Housing's register and may ask for evidence before activating a workspace or at any time afterwards. PALDAM may decline or close an account that does not meet this section.

3. Trial, subscription, billing and VAT

Eligible organisations may have one 14-day free trial unless PALDAM agrees otherwise in writing. No payment method is needed to start a trial. A trial may be ended for misuse, security risk or ineligibility. If the trial ends before the Customer subscribes, the workspace is paused, not deleted: staff sign-in is suspended, the tenant portal stays online, and the Customer's data is kept unchanged until the Customer subscribes or asks for deletion under Section 9.

Subscriptions are billed monthly in advance in pounds sterling by card through self-service checkout, and renew each month until cancelled. The plan is set by the number of homes the Customer owns, as shown on the pricing page. If the number of homes the Customer owns moves into a different band, PALDAM may move the subscription to that band's published price from the next renewal after giving at least 30 days' notice. Fees are non-refundable except where the law requires or these Terms say otherwise.

Prices exclude VAT. PALDAM is established outside the United Kingdom and supplies the Service to business customers. Under section 8 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994 (the reverse charge), the Customer accounts for any UK VAT due on the supply. Invoices state this. The Customer is responsible for any other taxes on its purchase, other than taxes on PALDAM's income.

PALDAM may change prices on at least 30 days' notice. A change takes effect no earlier than the first renewal after the notice period.

4. Cancellation, suspension and termination

The Customer may cancel at any time from the billing page. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid month, and no termination fee applies. PALDAM may suspend access immediately where reasonably necessary to deal with a security threat, unlawful use, non-payment, material breach, risk to another customer or a legal requirement. Where practicable, PALDAM will give notice and a reasonable chance to put things right. Either party may terminate for a material breach that is not remedied within 14 days of written notice. Sections that by their nature should survive termination do so, including Sections 8 to 16.

5. Authorised use and account security

The Customer may allow its employees, board members, contractors and agents to use the Service for the Customer's information, data protection and complaint work. The Customer will keep sign-in details confidential, use reasonable access controls, remove access promptly when it is no longer needed, and tell security@tenantanswers.co.uk of any suspected compromise. The Customer is responsible for activity through its accounts, except where caused by PALDAM's breach of these Terms.

The Customer and its users must not: access another customer's data; probe or test the Service's security without PALDAM's written permission; get around usage or security controls; introduce malicious code; run denial-of-service or load tests; scrape or bulk-extract data other than through the export tools; reverse engineer the Service except where the law allows it despite this restriction; or use the Service unlawfully.

6. Customer Data

"Customer Data" means the information, documents, images, messages and settings submitted to or generated for the Customer through the Service. As between the parties, the Customer keeps all rights in Customer Data. The Customer gives PALDAM the right to host, copy, transmit, transform, display, back up, secure and otherwise process Customer Data only as needed to provide, maintain, protect, support and improve the Service, to follow the Customer's documented instructions and to meet legal obligations. PALDAM does not sell Customer Data and does not use it to train machine-learning or generative AI models.

The Customer is the controller of personal data in Customer Data, and PALDAM processes it as the Customer's processor under the DPA. The Customer confirms that it has a lawful basis to submit Customer Data and instruct PALDAM to process it.

7. Legal responsibility for responses

The Service provides workflow and reference tools. It does not give legal advice or make decisions about what to disclose. Time limits, working-day calculations, bank holiday calendars, grounds for withholding, letter templates and other reference content reflect PALDAM's reading of the Social Housing Tenant Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs), the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code at the time of writing. They may be incomplete or overtaken by new guidance, and they cannot know the facts of a particular case. The Customer must check the rules that apply to it and remains responsible for answering tenants, meeting time limits, deciding what to disclose or withhold, applying adequate redactions, and approving every response.

8. Redaction and human review

Redaction tools help authorised staff with documents and images. They include manual tools, pattern searches, text recognition for scanned pages, tagging with grounds for withholding, and a flattened release copy. They do not redact video or audio and do not use generative AI. No automated, pattern-based or manual process can find every sensitive item or guarantee a document is safe to release. Text recognition can miss or misread text, and files can contain layers, attachments or metadata that need separate checking. Before any disclosure, an authorised user of the Customer must check the complete release copy and approve it. The Customer is responsible for what it releases.

9. Export and deletion

At any time during the subscription, and for at least 30 days after it ends, the Customer may export its data through the Service. The export includes request records, tenant contact details the Customer collected, timelines and status history, audit history, and the document files still held under the Customer's retention settings. Files already cleared under those settings cannot be included, but their removal date and content fingerprint stay in the exported metadata. Support tickets and PALDAM's internal operational records are not included.

When a trial or subscription ends, the workspace is paused, not deleted; subscribing again restores access. PALDAM permanently deletes Customer Data from live systems within 30 days of a verified deletion request from an authorised administrator of the Customer, and may delete a workspace that has stayed closed for more than 12 months after giving notice to the Customer's contacts on file. Backups exist only for disaster recovery and expire in the ordinary course of backup rotation, after which they cannot be recovered. PALDAM may keep limited records needed to comply with law, resolve disputes, enforce these Terms, investigate security or fraud, and keep billing and audit history.

The Customer remains responsible for its own retention schedule and for the original records held in its own systems. The Service is a tool for handling requests and complaints, not the Customer's records management system.

10. Security and incidents

PALDAM maintains appropriate technical and organisational security measures, described in the DPA. Security is shared: the Customer must set access appropriately, protect its devices and sign-in details, and review audit activity. If PALDAM becomes aware of a personal data breach affecting Customer Data, it will notify the Customer as set out in the DPA.

11. Service changes and availability

PALDAM may change the Service to improve security, reliability, usability or legal compliance, to deal with abuse, or to reflect changes in third-party services. PALDAM will not materially reduce the core paid functionality during a paid month without reasonable notice, unless a change is needed for security, law or a third-party dependency. Maintenance, internet failures, attacks and provider outages may interrupt access. Any availability figure PALDAM publishes is a target, not a commitment, and carries no service credits.

If PALDAM decides to stop offering the Service, it will give the Customer at least 90 days' written notice, keep the export available throughout that period, and refund any fees paid for the period after the Service stops, unless continuing would be unlawful or would create a serious security risk.

12. Support

PALDAM provides support through the Support page in the Service. Response times are targets, not guaranteed resolution times. The Customer should not put unnecessary personal data in support tickets.

13. Intellectual property and feedback

PALDAM and its licensors own the Service, software, designs, documentation and trade marks, excluding Customer Data. No rights are granted except the right to use the Service during an active trial or subscription. PALDAM may use suggestions and feedback without restriction or payment, provided it does not identify the Customer publicly without permission.

14. Confidentiality

Each party will use reasonable care to protect the other's non-public information that should reasonably be understood as confidential, and use it only for the purposes of these Terms. This does not apply to information that is public through no breach, already lawfully known, independently developed or lawfully received without restriction. If the Customer receives a request for PALDAM's information under any access regime, it will, where the law allows, tell PALDAM promptly and give it a reasonable chance to explain any reasons for withholding.

15. Liability

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law.

Subject to that, the Service and its reference content are provided "as is" and "as available", and PALDAM gives no warranty, condition or other term, whether implied by statute, common law or otherwise, that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that any redaction, text recognition, search, time limit or reference feature will find every issue or meet every legal requirement.

Subject to the first paragraph of this section, neither party is liable to the other for any loss of profit, revenue, savings, goodwill or business, or for any indirect or consequential loss, and PALDAM is not liable for losses arising from the Customer's decisions to release, withhold, retain or delete information. Each party's total liability arising out of or in connection with the Service and these Terms, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise, is limited to the fees paid by the Customer to PALDAM in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or £100 if the claim arises during a free trial. This cap does not apply to the Customer's obligation to pay fees.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them, including non-contractual disputes or claims, are governed by the law of England and Wales. Before starting proceedings, a party will send the other written notice of the dispute, and the parties will try in good faith to resolve it for at least 30 days. This does not stop either party seeking urgent relief to protect data, confidential information or intellectual property. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

17. General

Neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control, except for payment obligations. The Customer may not assign these Terms without PALDAM's consent, except to a successor organisation that takes over its homes and agrees to these Terms. PALDAM may assign them as part of a merger, reorganisation or sale of all or substantially all of the relevant business. The parties are independent contractors. A person who is not a party has no right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce these Terms. Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. If a provision is unenforceable, the rest continues. Notices and signatures may be electronic. These Terms, the DPA and the Privacy Notice are the whole agreement about the Service, and each party confirms it has not relied on any statement not set out in them.

18. Changes and notices

PALDAM may update these Terms. For a material change affecting an active paid subscription, PALDAM will give at least 30 days' notice by email or in the Service, unless an earlier change is required by law or for security. The revised Terms apply from the first renewal after the notice period. Notices to PALDAM must be sent to legal@tenantanswers.co.uk and by post to:

PALDAM LLC
2108 N Street #1668
Sacramento, CA 95816
United States

Notices to the Customer may be sent to its administrator or billing contact.