Terms & Conditions

The short version

The rest of this page sets that out properly. It does not replace your rights under Indian law, which nothing here can take away.

1. Who we are, and what we do

NearbyRents (“we”, “us”, the “platform”) operates a website on which people in India publish listings for items and spaces they are willing to rent out, and on which other people find them and get in touch.

That is the entire service. We are an intermediary within the meaning of the Information Technology Act 2000. We provide the place where a listing is published and a message is sent. We do not participate in what happens next.

What we are not

• Not an owner or a seller. Nothing on this site belongs to us.
• Not a rental company or a hire shop. We have no stock, no depot and no fleet.
• Not an agent of either the owner or the renter, and not a broker acting for either of you.
• Not a payment processor or an escrow service. No rent and no deposit passes through us.
• Not an insurer, a guarantor or a surety for any item, any person or any transaction.
• Not an inspector or a certifier. We do not see, test or verify the goods.
• Not a courier. We do not deliver, collect, store or transport anything.
• Not a dispute-resolution body, an arbitrator or a mediator. We have no authority to decide who is right.

2. Who may use the site

You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into a contract under the Indian Contract Act 1872. One person, one account. You are responsible for everything done through your account.

Sign-in is a code sent to your email address — there are no passwords. Keep access to that mailbox secure. Anyone who can read your email can sign in as you.

3. Listings are published by their owners, unchecked

Every title, description, photograph, specification, price and availability window on this site was written and uploaded by the person offering the item. Listings go live immediately. We do not review, verify, approve or fact-check them before they appear, and we do not inspect the goods at any point, before or after.

We remove listings that are reported to us and found to breach our Community Guidelines or the law. That is moderation after the fact. It is not a quality check, it is not an endorsement, and you should not treat the continued presence of a listing as either.

If you list something

• You confirm you own the item, or are otherwise entitled to rent it out.
• Your description, photographs and price must be accurate and current.
• You are responsible for holding every licence, permit, registration, insurance policy, tax registration and permission the law requires for what you are offering — a vehicle permit, a driving licence, a fitness certificate, an event or premises licence, a GST registration where one applies. We do not check for any of these and we never will.
• You are responsible for your own tax on what you earn. We do not deduct, collect or report it.
• Some listing text can be drafted with AI assistance at your request. You remain responsible for every word you publish, including words a machine suggested. Read it before you post it.

If you rent something

• Inspect the item yourself before you pay. Look at it, test it, ask questions, and do not rely on a photograph as a statement of condition.
• Agree the terms — price, duration, deposit, condition, what happens if it breaks — directly with the owner, in writing if you can.
• Hold whatever licence or permission the law requires for using what you are renting.
• Return the item on time and in the condition you received it, as agreed with the owner.

4. The rental is your contract, not ours

Every term of that rental is yours to settle between you: the price, the hourly, daily or monthly rate, the duration, the deposit, who pays for fuel or cleaning, what counts as damage, what happens if the item is returned late, and what happens if it is not returned at all.

We set none of those terms, hold no record of what you agreed verbally, cannot interpret your agreement for you, and cannot enforce it against either of you. Any figure shown on this site is the owner’s own asking rate, not a price we have set, approved or checked.

5. Money never passes through us

For item rentals you pay the owner directly — in cash, by UPI, by transfer, or however the two of you arrange it. We do not collect rent, do not hold security deposits, do not operate escrow and take no commission from your rental.

Because no money reaches us, we cannot refund it, reverse it, release it, freeze it or compensate you for it. If you have paid someone and are unhappy, that is a matter between you and them. See Cancellations & Refunds for the full position.

The one thing we charge for is a subscription sold to a business listing a venue. Those terms, and the only refunds that exist on this platform, are on the Cancellations & Refunds page.

6. Cancellations

There is no platform cancellation policy for item rentals, because there is no platform booking and no platform payment to cancel. If you and the other person agree to call it off, you call it off between you, and whatever money has changed hands is settled between you on whatever terms you agreed.

We do not mediate cancellations, do not impose cancellation charges, do not hold anyone to a booking, and do not compensate either side when one of you pulls out. An owner who cancels on you, or a renter who does not turn up, is not something we can make right.

7. Disputes between users

If an item is returned damaged, returned late, or not returned; if a deposit is withheld; if the goods were not as described; if someone does not pay — you resolve it between yourselves, and failing that through the police or the civil courts, in the same way you would over any other private agreement between two people.

You may tell us about a user who is behaving badly, and reports do inform whether an account or a listing stays on the site. That is enforcement of our rules about who may use the platform. It is not a ruling on your dispute and it will not get your money or your property back.

8. No warranties

The platform is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent permitted by law we exclude all warranties, conditions and representations, express or implied, including as to merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

In particular, we do not warrant or represent that:

• any listing is accurate, current, lawful or complete;
• any item exists, is available, is safe, is roadworthy, is functional, is clean, is insured, or is as described;
• any user is who they say they are, owns what they are offering, or will do what they promise;
• any rental will take place, or will go well;
• the site will be uninterrupted, secure, error-free or available at any particular time.

A verification badge or trust score reflects limited signals only — a confirmed email address, account age, rating history, activity on the platform. It is not an identity check, a background check, a credit check, a character reference, or any assurance that a person or their goods are as described.

9. Limitation of liability

That exclusion covers, without limitation:

• loss of, theft of, or damage to any item, whether the owner’s or the renter’s;
• personal injury, illness or death arising from the use of any item or entry to any premises, except where the law does not permit this to be excluded;
• death, injury, damage or penalty arising from the use of a rented vehicle, including any traffic offence, accident, challan, impoundment or absence of a valid licence, permit, fitness certificate or insurance;
• money paid to another user and not returned, including rent, advances and security deposits;
• an item that was never delivered, never collected, returned late, or returned in a worse condition;
• an item that was misdescribed, counterfeit, faulty, unsafe or unlawful;
• the conduct of any user, on the platform or in person, including fraud, theft, harassment, assault or any criminal act;
• any loss of profit, revenue, business, goodwill, data or opportunity, and any indirect or consequential loss of any kind.

Where liability cannot lawfully be excluded altogether, our total aggregate liability to you for all claims is limited to the greater of (a) the total amount you have actually paid to NearbyRents in the twelve months before the claim, which for almost every user of this site is nil, and (b) ₹1,000.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by our own negligence, or for our own fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation. Your rights under the Consumer Protection Act 2019 and other Indian consumer law are unaffected.

10. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless NearbyRents, its operators and its staff against any claim, demand, loss, liability, penalty or reasonable legal cost arising out of your use of the platform, anything you publish on it, your breach of these terms or of any law, or any rental you enter into with another user.

11. Acceptable use

The full list is in our Community Guidelines, which form part of these terms. In summary, you must not use NearbyRents to:

• list anything unlawful, stolen, counterfeit, recalled or prohibited — including weapons, drugs, wildlife products and anything whose rental requires a licence you do not hold;
• misrepresent an item, a price, your identity or your right to rent something out;
• harass, threaten, defraud, impersonate or discriminate against anyone;
• take the platform’s contact details, listings or data by scraping, crawling or bulk extraction;
• interfere with the site’s operation or security, or attempt to access accounts or data that are not yours;
• post spam, or use the messaging system to advertise something unrelated.

We may remove any listing, suspend or delete any account, and withdraw access to the platform, at our discretion and without notice, where we consider these terms or the law to have been broken.

12. Reporting unlawful content

As an intermediary we act on content once we are properly notified of it. If something on this site is unlawful, infringes your rights, or breaches our guidelines:

• use the Report this listing link on the listing itself; or
• write to us through the contact page, telling us exactly which listing or account you mean, what is wrong with it, and how we can reach you.

We acknowledge reports within 24 hours and aim to resolve them within 15 days, in line with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021.

13. Grievance Officer

In accordance with the Information Technology Act 2000 and the rules made under it, complaints about content on this platform, or about how we have handled your personal data, may be sent to our Grievance Officer through the contact page, marking your message “Grievance”.

We will acknowledge your complaint within 24 hours and seek to dispose of it within 15 days of receipt.

14. Content you post

You keep ownership of the photographs and text you upload. By posting them you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, resize and display them for the purpose of operating and promoting the platform. You confirm you have the right to grant that licence — in particular, that the photographs are yours to use and not taken from somewhere else.

The NearbyRents name, design and software remain ours.

15. Privacy

How we handle your personal data is set out in full in our Privacy Policy, which is written against the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023. Our use of cookies and local storage is in the Cookie Policy. Those pages govern — there is no separate privacy wording on this page, deliberately, so there is only ever one version of it.

16. Changes to the platform and to these terms

We may change, suspend or withdraw any part of the platform at any time, and we may update these terms. The date at the top of this page tells you when it last changed. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the revised terms.

We may also close your account, or stop providing the service altogether, at our discretion.

17. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of India. The courts of Pune, Maharashtra have jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of them, save that nothing here prevents a consumer from bringing proceedings where Indian consumer law entitles them to.

There is no compulsory arbitration clause on this platform. An earlier version of this page said disputes would go to binding arbitration. We do not operate an arbitration scheme and that clause has been removed rather than left to mislead.

18. General

• If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.
• Not enforcing a term on one occasion does not waive it.
• These terms, together with the Community Guidelines, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Disclaimer and Cancellations & Refunds page, are the whole agreement between us.
• You may not transfer your account or your rights under these terms to anyone else.

19. Contact

Questions about these terms, reports about a listing, or a formal grievance: use the contact page. It reaches us directly and we reply to the address you give.