Terms of Service

Last updated:

Welcome to Lumate Tenant Insight System (“Lumate TIS”, “Lumate”, “we”, “us”, or “our”). These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of Lumate websites, tenant and landlord dashboards, rental listings, applications, Tenant Insight Reports, verified screening features, messaging tools, and related products and services (collectively, the “Services”).

By creating an account, purchasing a Service, submitting information, requesting verification, accessing a report, submitting or reviewing a rental application, or otherwise using the Services, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

1. Service Description

Lumate provides technology intended to help renters organize and present rental-related information and to help authorized landlords and property managers review information submitted or authorized by rental applicants.

Depending on the feature selected, the Services may include:

• Applicant-provided housing, employment, income, household, payment-history, rental-preference, and related information.
• Lumate-generated informational scores, affordability metrics, stability ratings, profile-completion indicators, and lease-readiness summaries.
• Free or applicant-generated Tenant Insight Reports.
• Paid identity, credit, income, criminal-history, eviction-history, sex-offender-registry, global-watchlist, or other verification products when available.
• Third-party verification and screening services provided through Checkr or another disclosed service provider.
• Portable verified reports combining applicant-provided information, Lumate-generated informational metrics, and selected third-party verification results.
• Rental listings, rental applications, landlord review tools, messaging, notifications, and related workflow features.

2. Beta and Evolving Services

Lumate may make certain Services available as beta, preview, early-access, testing, or evolving production features. Features, data sources, screening products, scoring methodologies, report formats, prices, retention periods, and integrations may change as the Services evolve.

Unless otherwise required by law, we may add, modify, suspend, replace, or discontinue a feature at any time.

3. Applicant-Provided Information

Certain information displayed through Lumate originates directly from the applicant. Unless a field is specifically identified as verified, users should not assume that Lumate or a third-party provider independently confirmed that information.

Applicants agree to provide information that is accurate, current, and complete to the best of their knowledge and not to impersonate another person, submit false documents, intentionally misrepresent financial or housing information, or use another person's identifying information without authorization.

4. Lumate Scores and Informational Metrics

5. Verified Screening and Third-Party Information

Lumate may allow an applicant to request or purchase independent screening or verification services provided by Checkr or another third-party provider.

Depending on the products selected and information available, verification may include information concerning identity, credit, income, criminal history, eviction history, sex-offender registries, global watchlists, or other supported screening categories.

• Verification applies only to the particular products and fields identified as verified.
• A product marked “Not included” was not part of that screening and should not be interpreted as clear, passed, failed, or having no records.
• A result marked “Review” indicates that the third-party provider returned information requiring review; it is not itself a Lumate approval or denial recommendation.
• Third-party results may contain public-record, financial, identity, or other information obtained from sources outside Lumate's control.
• Lumate may organize, format, summarize, or display selected third-party information without independently creating or originating the underlying provider record.

6. Sensitive Identity Information

Certain verification products may require sensitive identifying information, including a date of birth or Social Security number. Where Lumate's verification workflow requests such information, it is used to submit the authorized verification request to the applicable provider.

Lumate is designed so that Social Security numbers and applicant dates of birth submitted for provider verification are not stored in Lumate's standard Firestore screening records. Certain provider-reported identity information may nevertheless appear in an authorized verified report or authenticated screening view when returned as part of the underlying verification result.

7. FCRA, Consumer Reports, and Rental Screening

Landlords, property managers, and other users accessing screening information agree that they will:

• Access screening information only for a lawful and authorized rental-related purpose.
• Obtain any applicant authorization, certification, disclosure, or other permission required by applicable law or by the screening provider.
• Use screening information only for the authorized rental transaction or other lawful purpose for which access was granted.
• Independently comply with the FCRA and applicable state and local tenant-screening requirements.
• Provide any legally required adverse-action notices when taking an adverse action based in whole or in part on consumer-report information.
• Not misrepresent Lumate-generated informational metrics as an independent credit report, background report, or guarantee.

Federal guidance recognizes rental denial, requiring a co-signer, requiring a larger deposit, or charging higher rent as examples of actions that may constitute adverse action when based on consumer report information. Users are responsible for determining and satisfying their own legal obligations.

8. Fair Housing and Non-Discrimination

The Services may not be used to discriminate unlawfully against applicants or tenants. Landlords and property managers are solely responsible for establishing and applying lawful rental criteria consistently and for complying with federal, state, and local fair housing, civil rights, source-of-income, criminal-record, accessibility, and anti-discrimination requirements.

Lumate does not instruct landlords to accept or reject an applicant based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

9. Applicant Authorization and Verification Requests

By intentionally requesting a verified screening through Lumate, an applicant authorizes Lumate to transmit the information necessary to initiate and administer the requested screening with the disclosed verification provider, subject to any additional disclosures, authorizations, or provider terms presented during the verification process.

Applicants may also be required to interact directly with the third-party provider to complete identity verification, provide additional information, or satisfy provider requirements.

10. Landlord Access to Applicant Information

When an applicant submits a rental application through Lumate, information associated with the submitted Tenant Insight Report may become available to the landlord or property manager responsible for that listing.

Where an attached report has completed verification, an authorized landlord may also receive access to normalized verification results and, when available, a secured verified report. Access is restricted through Lumate's application, authentication, ownership, and authorization controls.

Users may not attempt to bypass these controls, access another person's reports without authorization, scrape private screening information, or redistribute sensitive screening data for unrelated purposes.

11. Report Currency and Expiration

Lumate may designate a verified report as current for a limited period. Verified Tenant Insight Reports currently identify a 30-day verification-validity period beginning from completion of the underlying verification.

A report's displayed validity period is not necessarily the same as Lumate's internal data-retention period. Information may be retained after a report's displayed verification-validity period for account administration, recordkeeping, security, dispute handling, legal compliance, fraud prevention, or other legitimate operational purposes described in our Privacy Policy.

12. Accounts and Eligibility

• You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or use tenant-screening features.
• You must provide accurate account information.
• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and devices.
• You are responsible for activity occurring through your account unless prohibited by law.
• You may not create an account for another person without authorization.

13. Acceptable Use

You may not:

• Attempt to access accounts, applications, reports, screening results, messages, or personal information you are not authorized to access.
• Circumvent authentication, authorization, payment, rate-limiting, privacy, security, or storage controls.
• Submit false, fraudulent, misleading, or unlawfully obtained information.
• Use the Services for unlawful surveillance, harassment, discrimination, identity theft, fraud, or another illegal purpose.
• Reverse-engineer, disrupt, damage, probe, or interfere with Lumate systems except where such restriction is prohibited by law.
• Resell or commercially redistribute reports or screening information except through an expressly authorized Lumate feature or written agreement.

14. Payments, Screening Fees, and Refunds

Lumate uses Stripe to process payments. By purchasing a paid Service, you authorize the applicable charge and agree to any checkout terms presented at the time of purchase.

Screening transactions may cause Lumate or a third-party provider to begin processing a verification request shortly after payment. Because third-party screening costs may be incurred once processing begins, completed or initiated screening purchases are generally non-refundable except where required by law, where a duplicate charge occurred, or where Lumate determines that a technical failure prevented delivery of the purchased Service.

To request review of a charge, contact support@lumateinc.com.

15. Third-Party Services

The Services rely on third-party providers, which may include Checkr, Stripe, Google Firebase, email providers, push-notification services, and other infrastructure or verification providers.

Third-party products may be subject to separate terms, notices, authorizations, privacy policies, availability limitations, and legal requirements. Lumate does not control the accuracy, availability, or continued operation of systems operated by independent third parties.

16. Accuracy, Disputes, and Corrections

Applicants should review information displayed in their reports and notify the appropriate party if they believe information is inaccurate or incomplete.

Applicant-provided information may generally be corrected through Lumate where the applicable feature allows. Information originating from an independent screening provider may need to be disputed or corrected directly with that provider under its procedures and applicable law.

Lumate may provide provider identification or other information necessary to help users determine where a third-party screening issue originated.

17. Intellectual Property

Lumate and its licensors retain all rights in the Services, software, designs, branding, trademarks, scoring methodology, interfaces, original content, and other proprietary material, except for information owned by users or third parties.

Subject to these Terms, Lumate grants you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to use the Services for their intended purpose.

18. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy describes how Lumate collects, uses, discloses, stores, and protects information, including information handled through Firebase, Stripe, Checkr, verified reports, rental applications, and other Services.

19. No Legal, Financial, or Rental-Approval Advice

Lumate provides technology and information-management tools. Nothing in the Services constitutes legal advice, financial advice, credit counseling, a guarantee of housing, or a directive to approve or reject an applicant.

Users should obtain appropriate professional advice regarding screening policies, FCRA obligations, fair housing requirements, adverse-action procedures, privacy obligations, and applicable state or local law.

20. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. Lumate does not warrant that every report, score, third-party result, public record, verification, listing, message, or other item of information will be complete, accurate, current, uninterrupted, or error-free.

Third-party screening results are dependent on the records, systems, matching methodologies, and data sources available to the applicable provider.

21. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Lumate and its officers, directors, employees, affiliates, and service providers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages arising from or related to use of the Services.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Lumate's aggregate liability for claims arising from the Services will not exceed the amount paid by the claimant to Lumate during the three months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

Nothing in these Terms excludes rights or liabilities that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

22. Suspension and Termination

Lumate may restrict or suspend access when reasonably necessary to protect users, investigate suspected fraud or misuse, comply with legal obligations, address security risks, enforce these Terms, or protect the Services.

23. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms as the Services, laws, screening products, or business practices evolve. We will post the revised Terms and update the “Last updated” date. Where required by law, we will provide additional notice or obtain additional consent.

24. Governing Law

Except where applicable law requires otherwise, these Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles.

25. Contact

Questions about these Terms may be sent to support@lumateinc.com.