Terms and Conditions

I. General

Heimto provides a platform on which private individuals and companies (hereinafter landlords) can advertise their holiday cottages, properties and houses (properties) on our website heimto.com or demanders (hereinafter tenants) can rent rent properties for temporary use directly from the landlord. The subject matter of these General Terms and Conditions (hereinafter: T&Cs) are the terms and conditions under which Heimto AS (hereinafter: Heimto provides a platform on which providers (hereinafter: Landlords) and demanders (hereinafter: Tenants) can come together and conclude a contract for the temporary rental of the properties (hereinafter: Rental Agreement).

Heimto is merely the operator of the platform and does not offer properties, houses or cottages on the platform itself. The rental agreement is concluded exclusively between the Landlords and the Tenants under the conditions agreed upon between them. Heimto does not become a party to the rental agreement, does not act as a representative of one of the parties to the rental agreement and does not act as a broker. Heimto does not influence the decision on the conclusion of rental contracts between the users, but merely provides the technical infrastructure for the initiation and conclusion of the contracts.

These terms and conditions form the of the contractual relationship between you as a user of the services and Heimto.

2. Services by Heimto

Heimto provides a digital communication environment for the conclusion of contracts between Landlords and Tenants via the platform, on which Landlords can post information about their properties as well as photos and the conditions of the rental (hereinafter: listings). Tenants have the opportunity to search for properties that meet their needs, compare prices and other conditions, contact Landlords and conclude a rental agreement.

Heimto endeavors to ensure the accessibility of the platform via the Internet as well as the technical functionality to the greatest possible extent. Due to maintenance work carried out on the platform, the further development of functionalities or malfunctions, the possibilities of use may be restricted or temporarily interrupted.

In order to prevent fraudulent behavior, Heimto performs a verification of Landlords and Tenants. Tenants can initiate the booking process and communicate with the Landlord by submitting booking requests.

3. Use of the Platform

Registration on the platform

To make use of our services, you must create an account with us Some functions of the platform, in particular the posting of listings by Landlords and the submission of booking requests by Tenants, require prior registration. The creation of an account is only permitted to legal entities and persons over 18 years of age. When registering, accurate and complete information must be provided. This information must also be kept up to date at all times thereafter.

The login data may only be used by the respective authorized user. The account may not be transferred to third parties. The user is obligated to keep the login data secret and to protect it from unauthorized access by third parties. If there is a possibility that third parties could have unauthorized access to the account, Heimto must be informed immediately on post@heimto.no. In this case, Heimto reserves the right to take measures against this and in particular to block the account or to change the login data. The user is responsible for all activities that are carried out using his user account unless he cannot be held accountable for the misuse of his user account due to no violation of the duties of care that rest upon him.

Verification of Landlords and Tenants

In order to prevent identity fraud and cases of fraud as far as possible and to ensure the security and integrity of the platform Heimto verifies the identity of Landlords and Tenants registered on the platform. Heimto uses various procedures for this purpose and may, in particular, also make use of the services of third-party companies. If Heimto requires the submission of documents, these must be provided within two business days.

Verification of Landlords may be carried out in particular by checking identification documents and/or other documents. In addition, information can also be requested in a telephone conversation to confirm the identity of the Landlord.

Verification of Tenants is carried out by checking identification documents and, if necessary, checking other documents. In addition, evidence of creditworthiness or salary and the financial circumstances may also be requested for the purpose of verifying the ability to fulfill payment obligations under the rental agreement. In addition, other documents may also be requested to prove a special status (e.g. enrollment certificate).

Verified users are marked as such on the platform. This marking does not constitute a binding statement about the existence of the verified persons, their ability to provide the contractual services or their future behavior. In particular, the verification of Landlords is also not associated with any statement about the existence of the property, its condition or the accuracy of the information provided by the Landlord in the listing. The verification or references to it on the platform merely contain the information that the user has gone through the verification process implemented by Heimto. In case of any doubts, the users themselves are required to inform themselves in a suitable manner about the identity and the power of disposal of their contractual partner.

Prohibited behavior

Users shall refrain from all actions that may jeopardize the functioning of the platform, violate applicable laws or impair the rights of third parties. In particular, it is prohibited to,

violate the personal rights of other users or third parties, for example by disseminating false statements, defamatory criticism, insults or images of recognizable persons without their consent,

use copyrighted content without sufficient legal basis or otherwise infringe the intellectual property or other rights of other users or third parties,

harm other users or third parties, engage in fraudulent activities, send spam or phishing messages or publish such content in listings,

access or modify data to which they are not authorized to have access, and

disable, disrupt or otherwise circumvent technical security measures.

Furthermore, users are prohibited from using bots, crawlers, scrapers or other automated processes to access the platform, store data or other content, otherwise interact with the platform or impair the proper functioning of it. In particular, it is prohibited to make reproductions for the purpose of text and data mining.

Deletion and restriction of content, blocking of users, check of listings for fraudulent activities

In the event of violations of these T&Cs, Heimto reserves the right, without prejudice to the right of termination ), to warn users, to delete listings or other content, to restrict the possibilities of using the platform for the user concerned or to block the user temporarily or permanently.

Heimto checks listings to determine whether they contain indications of fraudulent activity. If there are indications of attempted fraud, newly posted listings are not published and listings that have already been published are blocked. Listings can be released manually by Heimto after an individual check.

4. Offering properties via listings

Creation of listings

Landlords who offer an property for rent via the platform confirm explicitly that they are authorized to offer and rent out the property. Landlords are liable to Heimto and its contractual partners for all damages resulting from a lack of authorization to offer and rent out of the property. Furthermore, they assure that they are aware of the regulations for misappropriation applicable to the municipality in which the property is located and not to undertake any legally inadmissible misappropriation.

Landlords are obliged to describe the property they offer on the platform correctly and comprehensively. For this purpose, at least the information requested when creating the listing must be provided. Photos must reflect the actual condition of the property and must be updated as soon as changes are made to the property. The information on availability must also be kept constantly up to date.

If photos of the property were created by Heimto or on behalf of Heimto , landlords are also obligated to immediately indicate any changes to the condition or equipment of the property in the description of the listing or through more recent photos.

In addition to the required data and photos, landlords shall provide the following documents relating to the property:

House rules, if available

Equipment list, if available

Landlords are prohibited from placing listings on the platform that violate legal regulations, official orders or good customs. Furthermore, they are prohibited from posting content that violates the rights of third parties, in particular copyrights, trademark rights or personal rights.

Granting of rights and warranty

The Landlord grants Heimto the royalty-free, non-exclusive rights unlimited in terms of time and location to the content transmitted for the creation of the listing, in particular descriptive texts and photos, to use this content in whole or in part, to transfer these rights and to grant sublicenses, insofar as this is necessary for the provision of Heimtos contractual services to the users. This includes, in particular, the right to publish, reproduce, distribute and make the content publicly available by any means and in any form. This also includes the right to edit the content and use it in edited form. Included is a use of the content on the platform of Heimto, for example when displaying listings, especially after using the search function, but also on websites of third parties, especially to advertise the properties in the sense of the regulation in § 13, as well as on social networks.

The Landlord guarantees that the uploaded content is free of third-party rights, that he is entitled to dispose of these rights without restriction and free of third-party rights and that he has not otherwise disposed or will not otherwise dispose of these rights. The Landlord further guarantees that he has obtained all necessary consents of possibly identifiable persons and that the content does not violate any other rights of third parties.

Liability for information in the listing

Heimto is not involved in the rental contracts concluded between users and can also not verify whether the information about the property provided by the Landlord when creating the listing is correct. The Landlord is solely responsible for the content and accuracy of the listings and warrants that the listing is compliant with all applicable laws.

Heimto does not place listings for properties on behalf of Landlords on the platform. This is the sole responsibility of the Landlords. Should Heimto nevertheless create a listing for a Landlord in a specific case, Landlords are obligated in this case as well to provide the required information correctly and comprehensively, in accordance with applicable law, and if necessary, with recent photos.

Promotion of the listing on other websites

Heimto is entitled to advertise all listings and offered properties published by the Landlord on the platform on all other internet portals deemed expedient by Heimto. This includes, in particular, social media platforms, real estate portals, search engines and listings published via commercial networks on other websites. A separate consent by the Landlord is not required. Heimto decides on the measures taken for this purpose at its reasonable discretion, taking into account the legitimate interests of the Landlord. An entitlement to such a promotion does not exist.

5. Conclusion of the contract between users

Booking process

As soon as Heimto receives a booking request from a tenant via the platform, the Landlord will be informed. The Landlord must accept the request without undue delay or reject it with justification.

Following the acceptance by the Landlord, Heimto will perform a verification and contacts the Tenant to confirm the booking. In case of acceptance, the Tenant will be asked to pay the service fee and subsequently the property will be reserved for the Tenant on Heimto.

After this confirmation of the booking by the Tenant, the Landlord will be asked to confirm the booking and pay the service fee.

Following the booking confirmation of the Landlord, the Landlord and Tenant can conclude the rental agreement for the property.

Provision of contract templates

Heimto can provide templates for contracts for temporary rent for the conclusion between users. The contract templates provided are merely general suggestions for the rental agreements to be concluded between Landlords and Tenants. However, the regulations in the model contracts are expressly not designed taking into account the circumstances of the specific individual case. In this respect, Heimto does not perform a legal assessment. It is up to the Landlords and Tenants to independently check whether the regulations contained in the model contracts are provisions that are in line with their interests, whether the model contract used contains suitable regulations for the type of property and whether these are also legally effective.

Users are free to use the contract templates provided. Whether the provided templates are used for the conclusion of the contract is to be agreed upon between the Landlord and the Tenant in each individual case. The liability of Heimto for the content of these contract templates is excluded.

Digital signing of contracts

Heimto can offer Landlords and Tenants the option of signing rental agreements digitally. For this purpose, the documents are provided in digital form and can be signed by means of an electronic signature. Users are responsible for archiving all information about the booking, the contract documents and any other agreements.

This option to digitally sign contracts is only available if both the Landlord and the Tenant agree to this. This is to be agreed upon in detail between the users. If this option is not available in individual cases for technical reasons, this will be pointed out separately during the booking process.

Duties of the Landlords on site

The Landlord shall be available as the contact person on site for the property offered by him. In particular, in the event that the property is rented, the Landlord shall conduct any property tours, the handover of the property, any defect inspections and defect rectifications as well as the handling of the return of the property and comply with applicable laws in doing so.

If the Landlord is not personally available for this purpose, he may appoint a representative. In this case, the Landlord shall inform the Tenant of the name and contact details of the representative. The Landlord assures that the named person is informed about the duties as a representative of the Landlord and agrees to take over these duties and to pass on his personal data to third parties. Any changes are to be communicated to Heimto within seven days.

Confirmation of residence

The Landlord commits to issue the Tenant with a confirmation of residence if required.

Responsibility for performance of the contract and payment of taxes

The performance of the contracts concluded via the platform is the sole responsibility of the users involved in the rental contract. In particular, Heimto has no obligation to take measures to ensure the proper performance of the contracts. Heimto can also not guarantee the existence of properties offered in listings, their condition, their availability, as well as the accuracy of other information provided by the Landlord.

Landlords are responsible for complying with applicable legal obligations with regard to taxes and other duties. They shall independently report, collect and pay them properly in accordance with the applicable laws.

6. Heimto Service Fee

Charge of service fee

Heimto charges both Landlords and Tenants a service fee for the services provided in accordance with this contract pursuant to the following provisions.

Service fee for Landlords

For Landlords, a service fee is incurred as soon as a booking enquiry from a Tenant registered on the platform has been bindingly confirmed by the Landlord. The service fee arises regardless of whether the booking is concluded via the platform. The decisive factor is that the parties have come together via the digital infrastructure provided by Heimto. A circumvention of the service fee by concluding a booking outside the functionalities of the platform or through other arrangements is not permitted.

The amount of the service fee charged from the Landlords is displayed during the booking process before the booking is completed.

The service fee will be invoiced after the conclusion of a booking as well as each extension of the booking. In this respect, a circumvention through extension of the rental agreement or the initiation of such an extension outside the functionalities of the platform or through other arrangements is equally inadmissible. The Landlord must pay an additional service fee to Heimto in this case as well. The service fee is payable up to 14 days after invoicing unless a longer payment term is stated on the invoice. The Landlords agree to electronic invoice transmission.

The service fee is non-refundable. Heimto may, at its own discretion and considering the circumstances that led to the cancellation of a booking, reduce the amount or refrain from asserting the claim.

Service fee for Tenants

A service fee will be charged to the Tenant if the verification procedure according to § 4 has been successfully carried out regarding the Tenant and as soon as the booking has been bindingly confirmed by the Tenant. The amount of the service fee charged by Heimto to the Tenant will be indicated during the booking process.

The service fee is not refundable unless no booking for the property is concluded after confirmation of the booking and the Tenant is not responsible for the reasons for this.

Default on payment and bearing of additional costs in the event of incorrect invoice numbers

If users default on payment, charge EUR 5.00 in addition to the statutory default interest for each reminder. This does not apply if users can prove that no or significantly lower damages were incurred.

Users shall ensure that the invoice number is stated correctly when making bank transfers. Additional costs caused by incorrect invoice numbers as well as any return debit note fees are to be borne by the respective user.

7. Additional regulations

Limitation of liability

Heimto is liable in accordance with the statutory provisions for intent and gross negligence. The same applies to the assumption of guarantees, any other strict liability, in particular in accordance with the Product Liability Act or in the event of culpable injury to life, limb or health.

In the case of slightly negligent breaches of essential contractual obligations by Heimto, liability is limited to the typically occurring, foreseeable damage. Essential contractual obligations are obligations on whose fulfillment the users regularly rely and may rely on for the proper performance of the contract.

Any further liability of Heimto is excluded. Insofar as liability is excluded or limited, this also applies to the personal liability of Heimtos legal representatives, employees and other vicarious agents.

Liability for links

The platform contains links to external third-party websites over whose content Heimto has no influence. Therefore, Heimto cannot assume any liability for these external contents. The respective operator is always responsible for the content of the linked pages. The linked pages were checked for possible legal violations at the time of linking. Illegal contents were not recognizable at the time of linking. However, a permanent supervision of the contents of the linked pages is not possible and reasonable without specific evidence of a violation of the law. If we become aware of any infringements, such links will be removed immediately.

Indemnity

Users shall indemnify Heimto upon first request from all claims asserted by other users or third parties against Heimto, insofar as these are based on the content or design of the listings by Landlords, any other use of the platform or violations of these T&Cs or of any applicable laws. This also applies to cases in which a listing is advertised by Heimto on other websites. This also includes any court costs as well as the costs for a lawyer selected by Heimto in the amount of the statutory fees. This obligation to indemnify does not apply if the users are not responsible for the violation.

Furthermore, in the event that claims are asserted against Heimto by other users or by third parties based on the conduct of users on the platform, users are obligated to provide Heimto truthfully and completely with all information necessary to verify the legitimacy of the claims and to conduct an appropriate defense.

Term and termination of the T&Cs

These T&Cs are concluded for an indefinite period of time upon registration.

Users may terminate the contract at any time and without a notice period by e-mail. The deletion of the account by the users via the platform is equivalent to this. Rental contracts already concluded remain unaffected by this termination. Also unaffected are already existing claims from Heimto for payment of the service fee, especially in the case of an extension of the rental contract.

Heimto may terminate the user contract concluded with the user on the basis of these T&Cs at any time with a notice period of two weeks.

In addition, Heimto may terminate the user contract extraordinarily and without prior notice if the user commits a material breach of his obligations under these T&Cs, the user has significantly violated applicable laws, regulations or rights of third parties or Heimto deems such a measure necessary and appropriate to protect the personal safety or assets of Heimto, users or third parties (for example, in the case of fraudulent behavior by a user).

Subject to modification

Heimto reserves the right to amend these T&Cs at any time by giving reasonable notice of at least 15 days. The announcement will be made by publishing the amended T&Cs on the platform, stating the effective date. In addition, Heimto will also inform the users separately by email about the upcoming amendments.

Insofar as the amendment affects essential parts of the contract, i.e. in particular service obligations of Heimto towards the users, the consent of the users is required for its effectiveness. This consent may be given either expressly or conclusively, in particular by the continued use of the platform after receipt of the announcement in terms of paragraph 1, in particular by placing further listings as well as making booking requests. Insofar as the changes are insignificant or the changes are necessary to comply with a law, a legally binding court decision or a binding order of a competent authority, the change shall become part of the contract if the user does not object to the inclusion in the contractual relationship to Heimto in writing or text form within 15 days after receipt of the notification of the change. The continued use of the platform after the announcement as defined in paragraph 1 shall constitute a waiver of this right of objection.

If the users do not agree to the changes or exercise their right to object, Heimto reserves the right to terminate the contractual relationship. The users will then be able to terminate their account on the platform if they do not agree with the amended T&Cs.

Ranking of search results

The order in which the listings are displayed during a search performed on the platform depends on various parameters. Among the main parameters are:

The search operators and filters specified by the Tenants, especially with regard to the amount of the rent payment, the duration of the rent, as well as the characteristics of the property, for example, the location, the number of beds, as well as the availability, taking into account the minimum and maximum length of stay specified by the Landlord

the amount of rent requested by the Landlord, as well as the deposit required, if any

the characteristics of the listing, such as the description of the property and the photos attached to it

the number of booking requests made after the retrieval of the listing in the past

the number of booking requests confirmed by the Landlord in the past and the number of booking requests still pending

Data access

In general, only Heimto has access to the users' contact data, usage data, payment data, uploaded verification documents and, if applicable, other data provided by the users or generated during the use of the platform. Prior to the conclusion of the rental contract, Landlords receive only information about the Tenant's current professional activity and employer after a booking request has been submitted. Tenants do not receive access to the Landlord's data prior to the conclusion of the rental agreement but can only view the information contained in the listing. After the conclusion of the rental agreement, users have access to the data transmitted for the purpose of signing the rental agreement. The processing of personal data by Heimto is carried out in accordance with the privacy policy, from which the details of the data processing carried out can be seen.

Heimto may also transfer data provided by users to third parties for the purpose of verifying the identity of users or the authenticity of documents in accordance with the laws on data protection or telecommunications. Furthermore, this data as well as data generated while using the platform may be passed on to service providers, in particular for the purpose of communicating with users or in the context of the use of analysis tools. In this respect, too, the processing of personal data is carried out in accordance with the privacy policy. Notwithstanding the measures listed there, there is no possibility to refuse the transfer of data.

After the end of the contractual relationship, commercial users retain access to their account and the accessible data, unless they have deleted it via the platform or have otherwise requested a deletion or the account has been deleted by Heimto for other reasons. This applies without prejudice to any other legal claims for information.

Applicable law and place of jurisdiction

The business relationship between Heimto and the users is governed exclusively by Norwegian law. Any dispute arising between you as a user and us will be settled by a Norwegian court of law.

Closing provision

Should individual provisions of these T&Cs be or become invalid in whole or in part, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions, which shall remain in effect. Should any provision of these T&Cs be or become invalid, the statutory provisions shall apply in its place.

Applicable local regulations

Please note: If there is a discrepancy between the "Applicable Local Regulations" and the T&Cs, the rules set forth in the local regulations will take precedence.

Irrespective of local regulations, all provisions of the T&Cs remain in force unless their application is explicitly exempted by local regulations set forth below.

Heimto retains the authority to unilaterally remove the property from its platform at any time, without prior notice, should Heimto determine that the property does not adhere to the applicable regulations. Furthermore, Heimto may request any information it deems necessary at any point to ascertain the landlord's compliance with their obligations.

8. Offering properties via listings

Granting of rights and warranty

(1) The landlord grants Heimto a free of charge, non-exclusive license on the intellectual property rights, including trademarks, designs, and author's economic rights, related to the content transmitted for the creation of the listing, in particular descriptive texts and photos (hereinafter: the content), for the duration of the said intellectual property rights, and worldwide, to use this content in whole or in part, to transfer these rights and to grant sublicenses, insofar as this is necessary for the provision of Heimtos contractual services to the users.

The rights licenced, and in particular the author's economic rights that are licensed to Heimto include, in particular and without limitation:

The right of reproduction, including in particular the right to reproduce or to have reproduce all or part of the content, in whole or in part, in as many copies as Heimto wishes.

The right of representation, including in particular the right to communicate or to have communicated to the public the content, in full or in part, in as many copies as Heimto wishes.

The right to amend, edit, modify, change, translate, adapt the content, in whole or in part, in as many copies as Heimto wishes.

The right to use and exploit the content and any adaptation of the content for the provision of Heimtos contractual services to the users.

The right to assign or sub-license all or part of the rights hereby licensed, to any person, company or entity of Heimtos choice free of charge or for a fee.

The right to promote and advertise the content.

The rights assigned as per above may be exercised in all media, formats and languages (computer or other) by all processes known or unknown to this day and for all purposes.

(2) The landlord grants Heimto free of charge and worldwide, the authorisation to use, reproduce, represent, communicate, amend, edit, modify, change, translate, adapt, exploit and publish the landlord's publicity rights (name, surname, likeness, photography or any other personality right protected under French law), related to the content transmitted for the creation of the listing, in particular in descriptive texts and photos (hereinafter: the content), for a duration of five years, tacitly renewable for successive periods of one year unless the landlord withdraws his/her authorisation at the end of the initial period or at the end of any following period, insofar as this is necessary for the provision of Heimtos contractual services to the users.

9. Additional regulations

Limitation of liability

Heimto is not liable in case of events beyond its control, due to a third party or to a force majeure event .

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