Terms of Service

These Terms of Service govern your use of Rate My Area at ratemyarea.com. By creating an account or using the service, you agree to these Terms. If you use the service for an organization, you represent that you are authorized to accept these Terms for it. Contact support@ratemyarea.com with questions.

You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of legal majority where you live if higher, and have the capacity to agree to these Terms. Provide accurate information, protect your credentials, and promptly address unauthorized account use. You are responsible for activity through your account to the extent permitted by law.

Subject to these Terms, Rate My Area gives you a limited, revocable, nonexclusive, nontransferable permission to use the service for lawful personal or internal business research. The service and its design, software, trademarks, and content are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws.

Scores, rankings, estimates, comparisons, percentiles, summaries, AI-assisted content, resident reviews, and other content are informational and may be incomplete, outdated, inaccurate, biased, or based on imperfect sources. ZIP, city, county, and area aggregates do not describe every property or person. Percentiles depend on the comparison population and methodology, and missing sources can affect a result.

• Rate My Area does not guarantee safety, the absence of crime, school quality or enrollment boundaries, commute conditions, housing cost or value, availability, or investment outcomes.
• Independently verify material information with primary sources, relevant authorities, and qualified professionals before housing, financial, or other important decisions.
• The service is not an emergency service and does not provide legal, financial, real-estate, insurance, lending, or other professional advice. Use does not create an agency, fiduciary, or professional relationship.
• Do not use the service as the sole basis for housing, lending, insurance, employment eligibility, or unlawful discrimination, including housing steering based on protected traits.

Data from public or third-party sources remains subject to the rights, licenses, and conditions of those sources. References do not mean that a source endorses Rate My Area. Availability or accuracy of third-party content is not guaranteed.

You keep ownership of content you submit. You grant Rate My Area a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, reproduce, display, distribute, moderate, and otherwise use that content only to operate, improve, promote within the service, and provide the service. This license does not authorize unrelated exploitation of private data or sale of your private data. We will respect deletion requests subject to legal, security, and operationally necessary copies.

• Submit truthful, first-hand reviews and disclose material conflicts or incentives.
• Do not submit misleading content or misrepresent firsthand experience, or submit personal information about others, doxxing, harassment, discriminatory threats, unlawful content, infringing material, or defamatory factual assertions.
• Do not coerce, threaten, or penalize anyone for an honest negative review.

We may review, moderate, remove, or restrict content that violates these Terms, law, or service rules, but we do not promise to monitor all content. You can report concerning content or send copyright and other complaints to support@ratemyarea.com.

You may use available sharing tools with appropriate attribution. You may not bulk extract, scrape for database resale, republish substantial content, circumvent access controls, abuse credentials, use malicious automation, interfere with or overload the service, or violate applicable law. Ordinary public search indexing remains subject to applicable robots controls and legal rights.

We may change, suspend, or discontinue features when reasonably necessary for security, law, operations, or a material breach. We will provide reasonable notice where practical and legally required. You may stop using the service and contact support@ratemyarea.com regarding your account. Provisions that by their nature should continue, including restrictions, intellectual-property provisions, disclaimers, and liability limits, survive termination.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the service is provided AS IS and AS AVAILABLE, without warranties of accuracy, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, noninfringement, availability, or error-free operation. This does not limit rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Rate My Area will not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or punitive damages, or lost profits, revenue, data, or goodwill. Our total liability arising from the service will not exceed the greater of US$100 or the fees you paid for the service in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. These limits do not exclude liability for fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or other liability that cannot legally be excluded.

To the extent permitted by law, you will defend and indemnify Rate My Area against third-party claims arising from your unlawful content, infringement of another person's rights, or material violation of these Terms, but not from our own wrongdoing. We will provide notice, reasonably cooperate in the defense, and you may not admit liability or settle a claim imposing obligations on us without our consent.

Please contact support@ratemyarea.com first so we can try to resolve concerns informally. Informal resolution is optional and does not block your right to use a court, regulator, or other remedy available by law. Applicable law and courts are determined by applicable law, and mandatory consumer protections in your place of residence remain available.

If Rate My Area offers paid features in the future, the purchase price, billing, and any applicable refund terms will be clearly disclosed before purchase.

We may update these Terms prospectively. We will provide material notice or request renewed agreement where required. If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to the extent allowed by law. We may assign these Terms only with reasonable safeguards for users where applicable. For questions about these Terms, contact support@ratemyarea.com.