Apartment Bids - Terms of Use

Terms of Use - ApartmentBids.com

[Dated as of February 17th, 2009]

This is a Terms of Use Agreement (“Agreement”) between ApartmentBids, LLC (“ApartmentBids”, “We” or “Us”) and you (“You” or “Your”) as a user searching for rental properties on ApartmentBids.com (the “Website”). This Terms of Use Agreement controls the terms and conditions regarding Your use of the Website and You acknowledge and agree that the terms and conditions then in effect, including the Privacy Policy posted on the Website, shall govern each and every use by You of this Website.   We reserve the right to change the terms of this Agreement and Your use will be governed by the then applicable terms and conditions. For this reason, We encourage You to periodically visit the Website and review the terms and conditions of this Agreement. If You do not agree to this Agreement in its entirety, You are not authorized to use the Website in any manner.

Our Service. Our Website is an online advertising and research service for prospective and current renters seeking residential rental properties. We provide prospective and current renters with an opportunity to research and learn about rental properties and the surrounding neighborhood. You will be required to complete a user profile during the registration process (“Registration Profile”). You will then be required to verify Your Registration Profile and upon completion of the verification, You will be able to search rental property profiles on the Website. If You are interested in a particular rental property, You may click the “Request a Bid” button that is located on the rental property’s profile page. Please note, when You click on the “Request a Bid” button, Your complete Registration Profile (including Your full name and contact information) will be transferred to the designated recipient (ex: leasing manager, leasing agent, property manager or landlord) responsible for marketing that particular property. Thereafter, Your Registration Profile may be reviewed by the designated recipient for that particular property and You may receive correspondence via email or telephone with a “Bid”. A “Bid” is a personalized marketing pitch that is tailored to Your particular rental needs. We make no guarantees that a “Bid” will include special offers or deals. Landlords and property managers may only use the information contained in Your Registration Profile to contact You with a Bid offering. Each time You click on “Request a Bid” You explicitly agree and give Us permission to transfer Your full Registration Profile to the designated recipient for that property. Prospective and actual renters may use this Website at no charge. Landlords and property managers please click here for more information about listing a property on this Website. It is our goal to make the rental process easier for You. We don’t want You to waste Your time or a landlord/property manager’s time. Therefore, it is crucial that the information contained in Your Registration Profile is complete and accurate. You agree that the information provided by You in the Registration Profile is true, complete, accurate and current.

The Leasing Process. You acknowledge and agree that we are not acting as a real estate broker for any party in any lease transaction. We do not own, operate or manage any residential rental properties. As such, we cannot and do not (a) guarantee that You will be contacted by a rental property each time You submit a Bid Request; (b) guarantee that Your Bid will include any promotional or pricing incentives such as special pricing, special offers and deals; (c) guarantee that there will be a lease transaction between You and a landlord/property manager; or broker, lease, or sublease, or offer to broker, lease or sublease any residential rental properties.

We highly recommend that You physically visit each rental property You are interested in before You sign a lease agreement. Landlords and property managers may require additional information from You in order to complete a rental application. Rental application approval and ultimate terms and conditions of any lease agreement will be provided by the landlord/property manager. ApartmentBids is not responsible for paying Your rent and/or moving costs. You may be eligible for a bonus if You sign a lease with an apartment community found through the Website. Please click here to learn more about our bonus terms. If You are applying for a bonus, We may request a copy of Your lease documents.

Your License to Us. By submitting material on the Website, User hereby grants to ApartmentBids a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, fully transferable, fully sub-licensable right and license to use, copy, modify, display, distribute, store, and otherwise use and exploit such materials in any form, media, software, or technology of any kind now existing or developed in the future. You further grant ApartmentBids a royalty-free right and license to use Your name, image and likeness in connection with the use, reproduction and distribution of any such material.   While ApartmentBids is under no obligation to monitor the content provided by its users, it may, in its sole discretion, remove any content that it deems objectionable, offensive or unlawful.

Our License to You. By using the Website, You are granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable and limited license to access the Website and associated content in accordance with this Agreement. ApartmentBids may terminate this license at any time for any reason whatsoever. No part of this Website may be reproduced in any form or incorporated into any information retrieval system, electronical or mechanical. You may not use any automated means or form of scraping or data extraction to access, query or otherwise collect information related to ApartmentBids from the Website except as expressly permitted by ApartmentBids. Further, You may not use, copy, emulate, clone, rent, lease, sell, modify, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer or transfer the Website, or any content of the Website or any portion thereof. You may not use any device, software or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Website. You may not take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the ApartmentBids infrastructure. Your right to use the Website is not transferable. ApartmentBids reserves any rights not explicitly granted in this Agreement.

Permitted Use. As a condition of using this Website, You will comply with all applicable laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations regarding Your use of this Website. You will not use this Website in any way prohibited by this Agreement. We reserve all rights and will seek all remedies available by law and in equity for violations of this Agreement, including termination of Your use of this Website. You explicitly agree that You will not:

-use the Website if You are not actively searching for new residential rental property;
-use the Website if You are not able to form legally binding contracts or are under the age of 18 years old;
-provide inaccurate contact information or other information completed by You while registering on the Website or other information provided by You related to Your move;
-submit material that is patently offensive to the online community, such as content that promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;
-submit material that could be harmful to minors;
-engage in commercial activities or sales, such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, spam, advertising, chain letters, or pyramid schemes to other users of this Website;
-distribute technologies (including, but not limited to viruses) that may harm the Website, the interests of other users of this Website, or the interests of landlords/property managers that are using our Website;
-copy, modify, republish or distribute content from the Website;
-impersonate another person or otherwise misrepresent Your affiliation with another person or entity or attempt to hide Your identity;
-transmit to ApartmentBids.com or any third party user of the Website any information or materials of any kind which (i) violate, plagiarize or infringe upon the intellectual property or contractual rights of any third party, (ii) are libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicitly or abusive, or (iii) contain any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, interfere with, intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information.
-submit material that solicits passwords or personally identifiable information for unlawful purposes from other users;
-use any robot, spider, or other automatic device, or a manual process, to monitor or copy web pages or the content contained in the Website;
-use any device, software or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Website; and
-decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise attempt to obtain the source code for the software on the Website.

Trademarks. The term “ApartmentBids” and any other trademarks, trade names, logos and service marks (collectively, the “Marks”) displayed on this Website are the property of ApartmentBids or other third parties. You are not permitted to copy or otherwise use these Marks without the prior written consent of ApartmentBids or such other owner.

Proprietary Rights. The content, organization, graphics, design, compilation, magnetic translation, digital conversion, software, services and other matters related to the Website are protected under applicable copyrights, trademarks, and other proprietary rights which shall include, but not be limited to, intellectual property rights. The copying redistribution, publication or sale by You of any part of this Website is strictly prohibited. You will not acquire ownership rights to any content, document, software, services or other materials viewed at or through the Website. The posting of such information or material on the Website by ApartmentBids does not constitute a waiver of any right in such information and/or materials.

If any individual or corporate entity feels that their work has been copied or used on this Website in a manner that infringes upon an intellectual property right, please notify us immediately. We honor intellectual property rights of others and respond to claims of intellectual property infringement quickly. ApartmentBids will promptly process and investigate notices of alleged intellectual property infringement and take appropriate actions under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, Title 17, United States Code, Section 512 (c)(2) (“DMCA”) and other applicable intellectual property laws. Pursuant to the DMCA, Notification of Infringement must be sent to a Service Provider’s Designated Agent. Notification must be submitted to the following Designated Agent for this Website:

To be effective, the notification must be a written communication that includes the following:
1.A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
2.Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
3.Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material;
4.Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted;
5.A statement that the complaining party has a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law;
6.A statement that the information in the notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
Duplication of Content. You may not modify, copy, reproduce, distribute, republish, download, display, sell, compile, post or transmit in any form or by any means without our prior express written consent.

Modification. We reserve the right in our sole discretion and without notice to You to edit and/or delete any content appearing on the Website.

Disclaimer. Although We would like the information contained on our Website to be accurate, it is impossible to prevent errors. Therefore, We do not guarantee the accuracy of any information available on our Website and assume no responsibility for the accuracy of the information contained on the Website. ApartmentBids is not responsible for any errors, omissions, or misrepresentations. The information contained in our property profiles, including availability, property features, neighborhood conveniences, floor plans and rent ranges are provided by landlords and property managers and subject to change. Therefore, You should independently verify the information contained in a property profile with the respective property.

YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT THE USE OF THIS WEBSITE AND RELIANCE ON ITS CONTENT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. ALL INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEBSITE IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS, AS AVAILABLE” BASIS WITH ALL FAULTS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. WE HEREBY DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND WARRANTIES OF NONINFRINGEMENT. ALL INFORMATION RELATING TO APARTMENTS AVAILABLE ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED BY THE LANDLORD, PROPERTY MANAGER OR OTHER THIRD PARTIES. WE MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER (EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED) TO YOU AS TO THE EXISTENCE, OWNERSHIP OR CONDITION OF AN APARTMENT; AS TO THE ADVERTISED RENT, LEASE TERMS, SECURITY DEPOSIT, OR APPLICATION FEES, IF ANY; OR AS TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY INFORMATION ABOUT AN APARTMENT ADVERTISED ON THE WEBSITE. WE DO NOT VERIFY OR WARRANT THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF SUCH INFORMATION. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT, IN OUR SOLE DISCRETION, TO CORRECT ANY ERROR OR OMISSION ON THE WEBSITE OR IN THE CONTENT. ALL APARTMENTS ARE SUBJECT TO PRIOR LEASE. IF YOU HAVE A CONCERN, DISPUTE OR ISSUE REGARDING AN APARTMENT, YOU MUST ADDRESS SUCH CONCERN, DISPUTE OR ISSUE WITH THE LANDLORD OR PROPERTY MANAGER.

Limitation on Liability. ApartmentBids, its members, managers, shareholders, officers, directors, employees or agents shall not be liable for any damages or losses including, without limitation, direct, indirect, consequential, special, incidental, or punitive damages, resulting from or caused by the Website, Your use of the Website, Your inability to use this Website, Your use of or reliance on the information presented on this Website, this Agreement or otherwise (including, without limitation, damages resulting from negligence). In no event shall the aggregate maximum liability of ApartmentBids, its members, managers, shareholders, officers, directors, employees or agents exceed fifty dollars ($50.00).

Release. If a dispute arises between You and any users (including landlords and property managers) of this Website you hereby release Us from any claims, damages (actual and consequential), liabilities, and demands of every kind and nature, now known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or connected to in any way such disputes.

Indemnification. You hereby agree to indemnify and hold ApartmentBids, its subsidiaries and affiliates, and each of their respective members, managers, shareholders, officers, directors, employees, and agents harmless from and against any and all claims, expenses (including court costs and attorney fees), damages, suits, costs, demands and/or judgments whatsoever, made by any third party due to or arising out of: (a) Your use of this Website; (b) Your breach of this Agreement; and/or (c) Your violation of any rights of another individual and/or entity. The provisions contained in this paragraph are for the benefit of ApartmentBids, its parents, subsidiaries and affiliates, and each of their respective members, managers, shareholders, officers, directors, employees and agents. Each of these individuals and entities shall have the right to assert and enforce these provisions directly against You on its own behalf.

Linking. Website operators may link to the Website’s home page only. We reserve the right to reject or terminate any linking to the Website.

Fair Housing. We are in compliance with all state and federal housing laws. We are not responsible for the actions of any of the landlords and property managers featured on our Website. For more information, please see our Equal Housing Policy.

Bonus Terms. If You are claiming a bonus, please see the Bonus Policy for additional terms and conditions.

Privacy Policy. Use of the Website, and all comments, feedback, information, or materials that You submit through or in association with the Website, is subject to our Privacy Policy, which is hereby incorporated into and made a part of this Agreement. We reserve the right to use all information regarding Your use of the Website, and any and all other personally identifiable information provided by You, in accordance with the terms of our Privacy Policy (http://www.ApartmentBids.com/privacy_policy.html)

Legal Warning. Any attempt by any individual, whether or not a ApartmentBids customer, to damage, destroy, tamper with, vandalize and/or otherwise interfere with the operation of the Website, is a violation of criminal and civil law and ApartmentBids will diligently pursue any and all remedies against any offending individual or entity to the fullest extent allowed by law and in equity.

Applicable Laws. You acknowledge and agree that although the information and materials on the Website may be read throughout the world, this Website is designed and intended for use in the United States and use of this Website by You will be construed and evaluated according to the laws of the United States. ApartmentBids makes no representation that the information and materials contained in the Website are appropriate outside of the United States. You hereby agree that in the event any dispute arises outside under this Agreement or Your use of the Website or the Services, the laws of the State of Illinois shall apply without resort to its choice of law provisions or rules. You hereby agree that any cause of action You may have with respect to the Website must be exclusively filed in the federal or state courts located in Cook County, Illinois, within one (1) year after the cause of action arises or the cause is barred. You also hereby consent to personal jurisdiction in the federal and state courts located in Cook County, Illinois and further agree that the federal and state courts located in Cook County, Illinois, and waive any objection based on forum non conveniens.

Contact Information. The “contact us” page on the Website contains e-mail links and a physical address that will allow You to contact us directly with any questions or comments. (http://www.ApartmentBids.com/contact_us.html)

home	work here	list with us	privacy policy
about us	press room	affiliates	terms of use
contact us	faq's/help	advertise	bonus terms