Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of SubKey Social (“SubKey”, “we”, “us”), a platform that helps university students list, discover, and coordinate room and apartment subleases. By creating an account or using the service, you agree to these Terms.

1. Eligibility

SubKey is intended for students with a valid university (e.g. .edu) email address. You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to use the service.

2. What SubKey is — and is not

SubKey is a discovery and coordination tool. We are not a party to any lease, sublease, or rental arrangement between users. Any payment-terms agreement generated through SubKey (including documents signed via our e-signature provider) is an agreement between the users, not with SubKey, and does not by itself constitute a legal sublease. A binding sublease must be completed through your building or landlord’s official process.

SubKey does not provide legal advice. Nothing on the platform is a substitute for advice from a qualified attorney. You are responsible for confirming that subletting is permitted under your own lease and local law.

3. Accounts and conduct

You are responsible for the accuracy of your listings and profile and for all activity under your account. You agree not to post false, misleading, illegal, discriminatory, or infringing content, and not to misuse, scrape, or attempt to disrupt the service.

4. Your content and the license you grant us

You retain ownership of the content you post — listings, photos, videos, profile details, and messages (“User Content”). By posting User Content, you grant SubKey a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, and distribute that content solely for the purpose of operating, improving, and promoting the service. This license ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies retained in routine backups or as required by law.

You represent that you own or have the necessary rights to the User Content you post and that it does not violate the rights of any third party. You are solely responsible for your User Content, and SubKey does not endorse and is not responsible for any User Content posted by you or other users.

5. Copyright and DMCA

We respect intellectual property rights and expect our users to do the same. If you believe content on SubKey infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent at subkeysocial@gmail.com including: (a) your signature; (b) identification of the copyrighted work; (c) the location of the infringing material; (d) your contact information; (e) a statement of good- faith belief that the use is unauthorized; and (f) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and you are authorized to act. We will remove infringing material and may terminate repeat infringers.

6. AI features

Parts of SubKey use artificial intelligence — including an AI assistant in the onboarding chat (powered by Anthropic) and automated roommate-compatibility scoring. When you interact with these features, your inputs may be sent to our AI sub-processor to generate a response.

AI output can be inaccurate, incomplete, or unsuitable for your situation. Roommate scores and any AI-generated suggestions are provided for convenience only, are not a guarantee of compatibility, safety, or outcome, and are not legal, financial, or professional advice. You should independently verify anything important before relying on it, and you use AI features at your own discretion.

7. Payments and platform fee

Payments are processed by Stripe; SubKey never stores your full card details. When rent is collected through the platform, SubKey charges a 3% platform fee on the transaction. Listing boosts are billed through Stripe Checkout. Charges for rent are made directly to the listing owner’s connected Stripe account, and the listing owner — not SubKey — is responsible for the underlying transaction, refunds, and any disputes.

8. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

The service is provided “as is” without warranties of any kind. We do not verify the identity of users beyond university email, nor the legality, safety, or accuracy of any listing or arrangement. To the maximum extent permitted by law, SubKey is not liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the service or any dealings between users. Our total liability to you for any claim relating to the service will not exceed the greater of the fees you paid to SubKey in the 12 months before the claim or US $100.

9. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless SubKey and its officers, employees, and agents from any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or related to: (a) your User Content; (b) your use of the service; (c) your violation of these Terms or of any law or third-party right; or (d) any dispute or dealing between you and another user, including any sublease or rental arrangement.

10. Dispute resolution, arbitration, and governing law

Please read this section carefully — it affects your legal rights.

Informal resolution first. Before starting any formal proceeding, you agree to contact us at subkeysocial@gmail.com and give us at least 30 days to resolve the dispute informally.

Binding arbitration. Except for the exceptions below, any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the service will be resolved by final and binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. The arbitration will be conducted in Baltimore County, Maryland, or by video/telephone where available, and judgment on the award may be entered in any court with jurisdiction.

Class-action waiver. You and SubKey agree that each may bring claims only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, or representative proceeding.

Exceptions. Either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court, and either party may seek injunctive relief in court for intellectual- property or unauthorized-access claims. If the class-action waiver is found unenforceable, the remainder of this section still applies.

Governing law. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. To the extent any dispute proceeds in court rather than arbitration, it will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Baltimore County, Maryland.

11. Termination

You may delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms.

12. Changes

We may update these Terms from time to time. Every version is identified by the “Last updated” date above, and we record which version you agreed to.

Material changes require your renewed agreement. When we materially change these Terms — including any change to Section 10 (arbitration and class-action waiver) — we will present the updated Terms to you and ask you to affirmatively accept them the next time you use SubKey. Changes do not apply to you until you accept them, and continuing to use the service without accepting is not agreement. Non- material changes (such as typo or contact-detail corrections) take effect when posted.

13. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email subkeysocial@gmail.com.