Terms and conditions

These terms are between you and the operator of My Friend’s Hairy (“we”, “us”). The website at myfriendshairy.com, and the accounts and adverts on it, are the “Board”.

By accessing the Board, creating an account, placing an advert, or paying a fee, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Board. If you use the Board for a business, you confirm that you have authority to bind that business.

“Advert” means a listing of an animal placed on the Board.

“Fees” means a listing fee, an early-access pass, or a boost, as shown on the Fees page before payment.

“Rules” means the animal-listing rules published on the Rules page, as updated from time to time.

“User” means any person who visits the Board. “You” means the person, or the business that person represents, who accepts these terms.

The Board is a classifieds service for the rehoming of animals kept in England, Wales, or Scotland. We provide a place for Users to publish Adverts and to contact one another. We are not a party to any agreement for the transfer of an animal.

We do not sell, own, keep, transport, or deliver animals. We do not hold a deposit on an animal, and we do not take a commission on its price. Any sum paid for an animal is a matter solely between the Users concerned.

A Fee is consideration for the use of the Board. It is not consideration for an animal. Nothing on the Board is an offer by us to supply an animal.

You must be 18 or over to create an account, place an Advert, pay a Fee, or obtain a seller’s contact details. You must keep your sign-in credentials confidential and you are responsible for activity under your account.

Each person may hold one account. You must not open a further account to conceal the number of animals you have listed, to avoid a limit, or to evade a refusal or closure. Information you give us, including your name, email address, and telephone number, must be accurate and kept up to date.

You must state whether you advertise as a private seller, a licensed seller, or a rescue. If a private account is, in our reasonable view, carrying on a licensable activity, we may require a licence before further Adverts are published. You must not use a name that suggests you are a rescue, a local authority, or a veterinary practice if that is not true.

You may advertise an animal that you own or have bred, or an animal that a rescue is rehoming. The Advert must be placed in the correct species, describe the breed honestly, and use photographs of that animal. You must not use another person’s photographs, stock images, or images that do not show the animal advertised.

Every Advert must comply with the Rules. Those Rules cover, among other matters, the age at which an animal may leave, the presence of the mother where the law requires it, microchips, equine passports, and animals that may not be kept or sold. If these terms and the Rules conflict on a welfare or licensing point, the stricter requirement applies.

A newly published Advert is withheld from the public Board for 24 hours while early access is offered. During that period it may be opened only by you and by a User who holds a current early-access pass for the relevant species or breed. While early access is not offered, a new Advert is public when it is published.

An Advert is for one animal, or for one litter shown with the mother where the Rules require that. You must not offer an animal as a gift, as part of an exchange, or for delivery by courier or post. Collection is in person at the place where the animal is kept. You must not request a deposit or any other fee merely to view an animal, whether in person or by video.

You may withdraw an Advert at any time. We may refuse, withhold, or remove an Advert, and we may suspend or close an account, if these terms or the Rules are broken, if a report requires review, or if we reasonably consider the Advert misleading or unlawful.

Where the law of the nation in which the animal is kept requires a licence for the activity, you must hold that licence before the Advert is published, and the particulars you enter must relate to that nation. A licence issued in one of England, Wales, or Scotland does not authorise the activity in either of the others. The Board does not accept Adverts for animals kept in Northern Ireland.

Where a bird of prey may be kept only with registration, the listing process will state that requirement. An animal on the Board’s banned list must not be listed, offered, or described as available.

We do not verify every statement in an Advert. Before you pay any sum for an animal, you should view it, ask for a video call, and ask for such proof of identity as you consider appropriate. Any receipt is a matter between you and the other User.

A seller’s email address and telephone number are disclosed only to a signed-in User, and only once that User is permitted to open the Advert. You must not use those details for unsolicited marketing, harassment, or any purpose other than the animal in the Advert.

The current Fees are set out on the Fees page and may be changed. The amount displayed to you immediately before payment is the amount payable for that transaction. A promotional code is applied only if it is valid at the time of payment.

The listing fee is for publication of the Advert. It is not a warranty that the animal will be rehomed. If we refuse the Advert before publication, the listing fee for that Advert is not retained. While early access is offered, it allows a User to open matching Adverts during the first 24 hours. It does not reserve an animal. A 7-day pass expires seven days after it starts. A 30-day pass expires thirty days after it starts. Neither pass renews automatically. A boost affects only the order of Adverts within one species. If a boosted Advert leaves the Board, the next highest bid becomes the leading bid.

Card payments are processed by Stripe. We do not store card numbers. Where you complete identity verification, that check is carried out by Stripe Identity. A successful check against a passport or a photocard driving licence reduces the listing fee by 20 per cent.

If you are a consumer, you may cancel a contract for a Fee within 14 days after the day on which the contract is made, under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. A consumer is an individual acting for purposes wholly or mainly outside their trade or business. This right does not apply where you pay in the course of a business.

We do not start the service during those 14 days unless, before you pay, you expressly ask us to start at once and you acknowledge that you will lose the right to cancel once the service has been fully performed. That request is a separate confirmation at payment. It is not made by these terms alone, and it is not pre-ticked.

If you gave that confirmation and the service has been fully performed, the right to cancel is lost. If you gave it and the service has only begun, you may still cancel within the 14 days. We then keep a proportionate amount for the days already supplied and refund the balance. An Advert remains in the course of performance while it is published. A pass remains in the course of performance until it expires.

If we publish or unlock the service without that confirmation, you may cancel within the 14 days and we will refund the Fee in full. If we refuse an Advert before it is published, the listing fee is not retained. A refund is made to the original payment method within 14 days of your notice.

To cancel, tell us from your signed-in account, or through Help, before the 14 days end. We will confirm the contract by email. These terms do not affect any right under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 where a service is not performed with reasonable care and skill.

The operator of My Friend’s Hairy is the controller of personal data processed through the Board. This clause is our privacy notice for the purposes of the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

We process your account name and email address; the content of your Adverts, including photographs, town, and nation; the contact email address and telephone number you supply; licence particulars you enter; the amount and type of each Fee, any promotional code, and whether a Fee was refunded. If you verify your identity, we keep the fact of verification, the name returned by the check, and whether the document was a passport or a photocard driving licence. We do not keep a copy of the document. While you are signed in we also record pages viewed and the network address, for the prevention of abuse.

We process that data to perform the contract with you, to take payment, to apply the Rules, and to handle reports, appeals, and help requests. A live Advert is public except for the email address and telephone number, which are disclosed only as clause 7 provides. Stripe processes the payment and, if you start one, the identity check. The operator can review accounts, Adverts, and payments in order to administer the Board. We do not sell personal data.

An Advert is retained while it is live. The record is retained after withdrawal or removal so that a report or a Fee can still be examined. You may request access, correction, erasure, restriction, or object to processing, as the law provides. You may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk). The sign-in cookie is strictly necessary to keep your session. It is not used to track you across other websites.

You retain ownership of the text and images you upload. You grant us a non-exclusive licence to host, display, and reproduce that material on the Board, and in a share of the Advert, for so long as is reasonably required to operate the Advert and to keep a record of it. You warrant that you have the rights to grant that licence, and you are responsible for any claim that you do not.

You must not copy the Board, scrape it, or attempt to circumvent a control, including the 24-hour withholding of a new Advert. You must not interfere with the Board’s operation, introduce malicious code, or use another User’s account without authority.

We may suspend the Board, or any part of it, for maintenance, security, or where the law requires it. We do not guarantee that the Board will be uninterrupted or free of error.

The Board is a venue for Adverts. We do not inspect every animal or every User. We do not warrant that an animal is suitable for a particular home, that an Advert is complete or accurate, or that a User will complete a transaction.

We are not liable for a contract between Users, for any sum paid for an animal, or for an animal that is not as described. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be limited. Subject to that, our total liability to you arising out of these terms or the Board, whether in contract, tort, or otherwise, is limited to the Fees you paid to us in respect of the Advert or pass giving rise to the claim.

Links to other websites, including the legislation linked from the footer, are provided for information. Those sites are not under our control and have their own terms.

We may amend these terms by publishing the amended version on the Board. The published version is the version in force. If you continue to use the Board after the amendment is published, you agree to the amended terms. The Rules may also be updated, and an Advert must comply with the Rules in force when it is submitted.

These terms, together with the Rules and the Fees page, are the entire agreement between you and us for use of the Board. They replace any earlier understanding on that subject. If a court finds any part of these terms unenforceable, the remainder continues in effect. A delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver of it.

Nothing in these terms creates a partnership, joint venture, or agency between you and us. You may not assign your account. We may assign our rights and obligations to a successor that continues the Board. A person who is not a party has no right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce these terms.

We are not liable for a failure caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control. Notices to you may be sent to the email address on your account. Questions about your personal data may be raised from your account, or through Help once you are signed in.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, except that the welfare and licensing rules follow the nation in which the animal is kept. This does not deprive you of any mandatory right you have as a consumer to bring a claim in your home court.

Rules