Liability & Responsibilities

The short version

Everything below is a longer way of saying that, plus what it means the day something actually goes wrong.

What RCL actually does

Two things, and only two:

• We write and run software — a calendar, a client book, invoices, an inventory, a messaging thread.
• We introduce homeowners looking for a technician to technicians who cover their area.

We are not a contractor. We are not a broker of construction services. We are not an insurer, a warranty company, or an inspector. We do not set a technician’s prices, choose their jobs, set their hours, tell them how to do the work, or send anybody to your property.

The technician is an independent contractor

A technician using IrriFlow is running their own business. They are not our employee, our agent, our partner, or in a joint venture with us, and nothing about how the app works makes them one.

• They choose whether to accept any job.
• They choose their hours, their days, their service area and their prices.
• They supply their own tools, vehicle, parts and labour.
• They may work for anybody else, including our competitors, at the same time.
• They are responsible for their own taxes, and for anybody they employ or subcontract.

When you agree work with a technician, that contract is between you and them. We are not a party to it and we do not take a cut of it.

What the technician carries

All of it. Specifically:

• The workmanship. Whether the work was done properly is between the homeowner and the technician who did it.
• Damage. Damage to your property, your system, your landscaping or anything else caused by the work is the technician’s responsibility, and it is what their general liability insurance is for.
• The warranty. Any guarantee on parts or labour is the technician’s warranty, on their terms. IrriFlow does not give one and does not stand behind one.
• Licensing and compliance. Texas licenses this work, and the technician holds the licence, pulls any permit, and follows the code.
• Backflow and cross-connection. This is a public-health matter with its own rules, and it is the licensed technician’s to get right.
• Their own people. Anyone a technician brings to your property is theirs.

Texas requires a licence to sell, design, install, maintain, alter, repair or service a landscape irrigation system. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality licenses Landscape Irrigators and Irrigation Technicians. A technician on IrriFlow agrees to hold every licence the work requires, to carry general liability insurance in at least the amount their licence requires, and to tell us within seven days if either lapses.

What a “verified” badge means

We are not an inspector and we do not audit anybody’s work. If a technician gives us a document that is false, expired or somebody else’s, that is grounds for immediate termination and everything that follows from it is theirs.

A rating on a card is what other homeowners said, arithmetic we do not adjust by hand. Position in a list is decided by coverage, availability, verified documents and rating, and it is not for sale.

Prices, quotes and arrival times

A price shown on a technician’s card is that technician’s price, from their own price sheet. We do not set it, cap it, or hide anybody for charging more than somebody else. An estimate is theirs and so is the final bill.

A day the calendar suggests is an estimate about driving time. It is never a promise about when anybody will arrive, and neither we nor the technician is bound by one.

Texas sales tax on irrigation work depends on whether the job is a repair, maintenance or new construction, and who has to collect it. We have not settled that question with an accountant yet, so documents in this app say tax is undetermined rather than showing you a zero. Getting it right is the technician’s obligation.

Work protection

We intend to offer work protection on jobs paid for through the app: the money is held until the homeowner confirms the work is done, and workmanship is covered for 30 days. It would be funded out of subscription revenue and never charged to a homeowner.

When it does exist: work protection is not insurance and it is not a warranty from us on a technician’s behalf. It does not replace a technician’s liability cover and it does not make us responsible for their work.

If something goes wrong

If you are a homeowner and a job was done badly, or something was damaged:

• Talk to the technician first. Most of it ends there, and they would usually rather fix it than argue about it.
• If it does not end there, their general liability insurance is the route. Ask them for their certificate — they agreed to carry one.
• Tell us as well. We keep the record of the job, the messages and the photographs, and we will give you your copy of it. We will also act on the technician’s standing with us.
• For a licensed trade there is a regulator, and complaints about licensed irrigation work in Texas go to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Technicians: you cover us for your work

If you are a technician, you agree to defend and hold RCL harmless from any claim, loss, fine or reasonable legal cost arising out of:

• the work you perform or fail to perform;
• injury to any person, or damage to any property, caused by you or by anybody you engage;
• your failure to hold or maintain a required licence, permit or insurance policy;
• any tax, wage or benefit claim by you or by anybody you engage, including any claim that you are our employee;
• anything you publish through the app, including a photograph you did not have permission to publish.

We will tell you promptly about any claim we want covered, you may take over the defence with counsel we reasonably approve, and we will not settle a claim you are defending without asking you first. The Technician Agreement sets this out in full.

What we are responsible for

Saying what we are not responsible for is easy, so here is the other half. We are responsible for the software: for keeping your records safe, for the privacy promises in our Privacy Policy, for the accuracy of what we publish about the documents we checked, for not selling your information, and for saying plainly when a part of this product does not work yet. If we get one of those wrong, that one is ours.