Terms of Service

1Who we are

Pet Custody is run by Spring Chicken ("we", "us" and "our"). You can reach us at hello@petcustody.com.

In these Terms, "you" means each person who uses Pet Custody, including both owners on a pet agreement.

2What Pet Custody is, and is not

Pet Custody is a drafting and signing service. We turn the answers you and the other owner give into a draft custody agreement for a pet you share, help each of you confirm your identity, and collect electronic signatures with a record of every step.

Pet Custody is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Using Pet Custody does not create a lawyer and client relationship between you and us.

If a lawyer reviews your draft as part of an order, that lawyer is a separate licensed professional and is responsible for their own review.

The law treats pets differently from place to place. In many places a pet is treated as property, and a court may decline to enforce a shared schedule or care plan the way it would enforce one for a child. Some places let a court look at the animal's wellbeing, and some respect an agreement between owners as a contract. Whether your agreement can be enforced depends on where you live, what it says, how it was made, and the facts when someone tries to rely on it. We cannot promise that a court will enforce your agreement.

An agreement made here is a record of what the two of you decided, and most of its strength comes from both of you keeping to it. It does not by itself decide who legally owns the animal, and it does not replace adoption or purchase papers, licensing, microchip registration or insurance. After you sign, update those records yourselves where they matter.

If there is a real disagreement over ownership, a safety concern for the animal or for a person, or a court case under way, speak to your own lawyer before you sign anything.

3Who can use Pet Custody

You must be at least 18, able to enter into a contract, and using Pet Custody to make an agreement with the other person who shares the pet.

You must be a real owner or carer of the animal, or have a genuine claim to share in its care. Do not use the service to take an animal that belongs to someone else.

Give accurate account details, keep your sign in details safe, and tell us if you think someone else has used your account. You are responsible for what happens under your account.

4How it works

• One owner starts an agreement and enters the other owner's email address. The other owner is invited by email.
• Each of you answers your own questions about the pet, where it lives, its care and its costs. While you fill them in, your answers are kept apart from the other owner's.
• Each of you confirms your identity with a photo of a government ID and a live selfie.
• Once you have both finished, the person who started the agreement checks out and pays.
• The agreement is drafted from both sets of answers.
• Each of you reads the agreement and approves it, then you both sign online.

Nothing is binding on either of you until you have both signed. You can stop at any point before then.

By entering the other owner's email address you confirm that you are inviting a real co-owner of the animal, for a real agreement between the two of you, and that they know about it.

5Your responsibilities

• Give complete and truthful answers, especially about who has cared for the animal, its health and any known behavior problems. An agreement built on missing or false information may not hold up.
• Read the whole agreement and its plain English summary before you approve it, and ask for changes if anything is wrong or unclear.
• Make this agreement freely. Do not use Pet Custody if either of you is being pressured, threatened, rushed or deceived.
• Put the animal's welfare first. Do not use an agreement to punish the other person or to cut them off from an animal in their care.
• Check what your location requires, and get your own legal advice where it matters.

6AI drafting

Your draft and its plain English summary are produced with the help of artificial intelligence, from the answers you and the other owner give.

AI can make mistakes, miss issues, or write wording that does not fit your situation. We build in checks, but we do not promise that a draft is complete or correct. You are responsible for reading it. If you want a professional's opinion, take the draft to your own lawyer.

7Review by a lawyer

Review by an independent lawyer is not part of an order unless it is shown to you at checkout. We may offer it, change it or stop offering it at any time.

If a lawyer does review a draft, they can approve it, ask for changes, or decline to approve it as drafted. If that happens we will tell you why, and you can revise and try again. A lawyer's approval is not a promise that a court will enforce your agreement.

8Electronic signatures and records

You agree to sign electronically and to receive records electronically, including these Terms, notices and your agreement. To the fullest extent the law allows, an electronic signature has the same effect as a handwritten one.

Before anyone signs we confirm their identity, and each signer confirms a code sent to their email or phone. Signing is carried out through SignWell. Each step is recorded with the date, time and technical details such as your IP address.

The signed PDF carries an agreement number and a QR code so that it can be verified later. You can print the PDF if you want a paper copy.

If you want to withdraw your consent to electronic records, email us before you sign. You will not be able to use Pet Custody after that.

Pet Custody acts as a witness by keeping the audit record of your signatures. This is not notarization, and it may not satisfy a place that requires a notary or specific witnesses. If you add your own witness, we invite them to sign through the same process.

9Prices, payment and promo codes

Prices are shown in US dollars before you pay. The price is per owner, and the person who starts the agreement pays for both owners at once. A witness of your own and any extra pet are priced separately where they are offered. Payment is taken on a page run by Stripe, and Stripe's terms apply to it. We do not see or store your card number. Taxes are added where the law requires.

A crossed out price shows the regular price. Sale prices can end or change, and the price shown on Stripe's page when you pay is the price you pay.

Promo codes are entered on Stripe's checkout page. One code can be used per order. A code has no cash value, cannot be combined with another unless we say so, and may expire or be withdrawn.

We may change our prices. A change does not affect something you have already bought.

10Refunds

Your fee pays for drafting, identity checks, signing and record keeping. Drafting begins as soon as your payment clears, so if you simply change your mind after your draft has been generated, we do not refund the fee.

We will make it right, with a refund where that is the right fix, if:

• a problem on our side or with a provider we chose stops us from delivering your draft or signing
• you are charged twice, or charged the wrong amount
• you ask to cancel before your draft has been generated

To ask, email hello@petcustody.com within 30 days of payment with the email address on your account. We reply within 5 business days. Refunds go back to your original payment method through Stripe and can take several days to appear.

Nothing here limits any rights you have under consumer laws where you live.

11When something is unavailable

Pet Custody depends on other services for payments, identity checks, electronic signatures, email and AI drafting. Sometimes one of them is slow or down. When that happens we work to restore things, and your saved answers and progress stay in your account.

We do not promise uninterrupted service. If a problem like this stops you from finishing for an extended time, you can ask for a refund under the Refunds section.

12Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• use Pet Custody for anything unlawful, fraudulent or deceptive
• give a false identity, or use someone else's ID or photos
• start an agreement with someone who has not agreed to it
• claim an animal that you do not own or share in the care of
• interfere with Pet Custody, probe it for weaknesses, scrape it, or copy or reverse engineer it
• use Pet Custody to harass or pressure another person

13Your information

You keep ownership of what you give us and of your agreement. You give us permission to store, process and share it as needed to run Pet Custody for you, as described in our Privacy Policy.

We own Pet Custody's software, design, brand and templates. The text of your own agreement is yours to use for your own purposes.

14Other services we use

Payments and identity checks run on Stripe, electronic signatures on SignWell, and AI drafting on OpenAI. Their own terms and privacy policies apply when you use them through Pet Custody. The Privacy Policy lists what we share with each.

15Disclaimers

Pet Custody is provided as is and as available. To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including any warranty of accuracy, fitness for a particular purpose, or non infringement, and any promise that an agreement will be valid or enforceable in any place.

16Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, for lost profits, or for loss that comes from a court or authority declining to enforce an agreement, or from the other owner not keeping to it.

Our total liability for any claim connected with Pet Custody is limited to what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose.

Some places do not allow these limits. Where that is so, they apply only as far as the law lets them. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

17If someone breaks these Terms

You agree to cover reasonable losses and costs we suffer because of a claim that comes from your breach of these Terms, or from information you gave us that you knew to be false.

18Ending your use

You can stop using Pet Custody at any time, and you can ask us to delete your account. We may suspend or end access if you break these Terms, if we suspect fraud, or if the law requires it.

A signed agreement stays valid between you and the other owner, and its record stays available for verification, whatever happens to your account.

19Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Quebec and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. If a dispute cannot be settled, it will be heard in the courts of the judicial district of Montreal, Quebec.

Before either side starts a legal claim, please email hello@petcustody.com and give us 30 days to try to put things right.

If you are a consumer, you keep any rights to bring a claim in your home courts, or to rely on your local consumer protection law, that the law gives you and that cannot be waived.

20Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change is significant, we will tell you by email or on the site before it takes effect. If you keep using Pet Custody after that, you accept the change.

A change to these Terms never alters an agreement you and the other owner have already signed with each other.

21Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email hello@petcustody.com.