Koti Pro Terms of Service

Koti Pro Terms of Service

1. The Koti platform and the pro relationship

Koti connects Miami-area homeowners with home-service professionals

("pros"). Pros are independent businesses, not employees or agents of Koti.

Nothing in these terms creates employment, partnership, or agency.

2. Eligibility

To use a pro account your business must operate in Koti's coverage area,

with accurate business information and a valid payment method on file. You

are responsible for holding every license Florida law requires for the

work you perform.

3. Fees

Koti charges a fixed fee per accepted lead. The fee for each lead is shown

before you accept. Accepting a lead authorizes Koti to charge the displayed

fee to your payment method on file.

Koti Pro subscription does not change lead fees. Pros pay the fixed fee

shown for each lead they accept, whether or not they subscribe to a paid

plan, including Koti Pro.

A "lead unlock" is your paid acceptance of a request — whether it

reached you through Koti matching or a homeowner chose you directly

from your public profile — that reveals the homeowner's contact

details. The same per-category fees, and the same First Lead Free

terms in Section 7, apply to both kinds of unlock.

An unlock buys the connection — the homeowner's contact details and

direct communication. It is not a guarantee that the homeowner will

hire you, or that a project will be booked or completed.

Koti charges no commission and takes no percentage of the amount paid for a

job. Fees owed to Koti are only the lead fees described in this section and

any subscription fees for a paid plan you choose.

Homeowners pay pros directly for the work performed. Koti is not a party to

the agreement between a pro and a homeowner for the job itself.

4. Leads and availability

Koti does not guarantee any number, volume, or value of leads. Lead

availability depends on homeowner demand in your categories and coverage

area. Fees for accepted leads are non-refundable except as described in the

published refund and credit policy.

5. Conduct and termination

Pros must respond to homeowners promptly and professionally. Koti may

suspend or terminate accounts for fraud, abuse, or repeated failure to meet

service standards.

Your public profile is your storefront; keep it accurate and current.

Content you post — business description, service areas, portfolio

photos — must be yours or used with permission, including the

homeowner's permission for photos of a home you worked on. Do not post

false credentials, photos of work that is not yours presented as your

own, or testimonials that are not from real customers. Verification

labels, where shown, describe only the specific item that was checked.

Before an unlock, communication with a homeowner happens through

Koti's messaging, with contact details masked on both sides. You may

not attempt to bypass an unlock by exchanging contact details in

messages, profiles, or photos, or by moving the conversation off Koti

before an unlock.

Reviews are written by homeowners only after a project arranged

through Koti is completed. You may not solicit or pay for fake

reviews, and you may not discourage or filter negative reviews.

Public listing. When your account is ready to receive requests, Koti

automatically lists you in its public professional discovery using the

information from your registration and profile. Your public listing

shows only your first name and last initial, your profile photo if you

provided one, your services, and your service areas — plus your

verified license or certificate number where Florida law requires it

in contractor advertising. Your business name, full name, phone

number, and email address are never shown publicly. You can edit your

profile at any time, and pausing or closing your account removes your

public listing.

KotiProtect — Koti's accidental-damage assistance program. Koti offers

homeowners a discretionary assistance program, KotiProtect, for accidental

property damage on projects booked and paid through Koti, under the

KotiProtect Terms. Eligibility and claim decisions are Koti's alone.

Your cooperation. If Koti reviews a KotiProtect claim about one of your

projects, you will respond to Koti's requests for information and

documentation within 5 business days and will provide accurate records you

hold about the project (such as invoices, photos, and communications).

Koti may review the project's records, communications, and payments in

deciding a claim.

Enforcement. Claim outcomes — including a finding that damage resulted

from your work, or a failure to cooperate with a review — may be taken into

account in enforcement under these terms, including warnings, suspension,

or termination.

Your responsibility is unchanged. KotiProtect does not insure you, does

not pay your liability for you, and does not reduce or replace your

responsibility for your work or for damage you cause. Assistance Koti pays

a homeowner is Koti's discretionary decision under its program.

How you may describe it. You may describe KotiProtect to homeowners only

as Koti describes it in the KotiProtect Terms. You may not describe it as

insurance, or promise a homeowner that a claim will be paid.

6. Changes to these terms

Koti may update these terms. Material changes will be communicated, and

continued use of the platform after a new version takes effect requires

accepting the new version.

7. Promotional offers

Koti may offer promotional benefits, such as the First Lead Free benefit

described below.

First lead free (one per business). A business that has never completed

a successful lead unlock on Koti — whether paid or free — receives its

first successful marketplace lead unlock free of the unlock fee stated in

the Fee Schedule; Koti waives that fee in full. Any prior successful unlock,

paid or free, makes the business ineligible. Repeat Customers (Hire Again)

unlocks do not count toward, and do not consume, this benefit; failed or

abandoned unlock attempts do not count either. The benefit is available

only for services for which the business holds the legally required license

or a verified lawful exemption; while that verification is pending, the

benefit is reserved for the business and is neither consumed nor expired —

but the reservation ends at the business's first successful unlock, so a

business that unlocks a lead (at the standard fee or otherwise) before its

verification completes has used its first unlock and the reserved benefit

no longer applies. Before a business with a reserved benefit confirms an

unlock that would end the reservation, Koti displays a clear warning of

that consequence. Eligibility is determined per business (including linked

accounts) from Koti's unlock records. A partner insurance purchase is not a

condition of this benefit. No retroactive refunds or courtesy grants apply

to unlocks completed before this benefit's activation.

Acceptances must be genuine and in good faith; test, duplicate,

self-generated, or fraudulent accepts are excluded and the benefit may be

revoked for abuse. Promotional benefits cover the unlock fee only. If a

free request results in an invalid contact, Koti will replace the request

or re-credit the benefit; no cash refunds. Koti may modify or end

promotional offers prospectively.

8. Online payments and processing fees

1. Your merchant account. When you enable online payments, your

customers pay your invoices by card on a Stripe-hosted checkout page.

Payments are processed by Stripe on your own Stripe merchant (connected)

account. You are the merchant of record for your invoice payments. Koti

never holds, moves, or has access to your payment funds.

2. What your customer pays. Your customer always pays exactly the

invoice total. No processing fee or surcharge is added to your customer's

payment.

3. Processing fees — paid by you. Stripe charges a processing fee on

each successful card payment. That fee is deducted by Stripe from your

proceeds before payout, so the amount you receive is the invoice total minus

Stripe's processing fee. Processing fees are borne entirely by you, the

contractor. The applicable fees are Stripe's standard processing fees for

your account, as published by Stripe and displayed in your Stripe Dashboard;

the exact fee charged on each payment is shown in your Stripe account and

reconciled in your Koti Payments view (gross amount, Stripe fee, and net

amount for every payment).

4. No Koti commission. Koti charges no commission and no application fee

on your online invoice payments. Koti's only charges are the ones described

elsewhere in these Terms (lead unlock fees and, for Koti Pro members, the

subscription).

5. Payouts. Your net proceeds (invoice total minus Stripe's processing

fee) are paid out to your bank account by Stripe according to your Stripe

payout schedule and Stripe's own terms.

6. Refunds. If you refund a payment, the refunded amount is debited from

your Stripe account balance (or a future payout). Under Stripe's pricing,

Stripe does not return the original processing fee when a payment is

refunded — that fee remains your cost.

7. Disputes and chargebacks. If a customer disputes a payment, the

disputed amount and any Stripe dispute fee are collected from your Stripe

account, and you are responsible for them.

8. Negative balances. If refunds or disputes exceed your Stripe account

balance, Stripe may recover the difference from you, including by debiting

the bank account connected to your Stripe account, under your agreement with

Stripe. Koti is not responsible for processing fees, refund amounts, dispute

amounts or fees, or negative balances on your merchant account.

9. Seeing the arrangement before you enable payments. The processing-fee

arrangement in this section is summarized on Koti's online-payments setup

page before you start Stripe onboarding, and Stripe presents its own pricing

and terms during onboarding. By completing onboarding and enabling online

payments, you accept this section and Stripe's applicable pricing.

9. Service scope conditions

For any service you offer through Koti — whether you declare it when you

create your account or add it later — you agree to the scope conditions

for that service in this section. These conditions state, for each

service, the work Florida law allows and the credential the law requires,

if any. A local Business Tax Receipt is a tax receipt, not a license,

and does not satisfy any license requirement in this section. If you

begin offering work that requires a license you do not hold, you must

obtain and submit the required license before accepting that work

through Koti.

The limits at a glance:

• Roofing: requires a Florida roofing contractor license (or a

Miami-Dade certificate of competency for roofing); offer only work

your license covers.

• Plumbing: requires a Florida certified or registered plumbing

contractor license (or a county certificate of competency); offer

only work your license covers.

• HVAC / air conditioning: requires a Florida certified or

registered air-conditioning contractor license (or a county

certificate of competency); offer only work your license covers.

• Pool services: cleaning and routine maintenance need no license,

limited to ordinary cleaning and water treatment; repairs, equipment

work, refinishing, piping or construction require the pool/spa

contractor license for that work.

• Handyman / general repairs: no license; minor repairs only —

under $2,500 total per job (labor + materials), and never structural,

roofing, electrical, plumbing, air-conditioning, pool-equipment or

alarm work at any price.

• Drywall & painting: painting needs no license (except rooftop

painting or coating above three stories in Miami-Dade, which can

require a local license); drywall patching and minor repair need no

license; full drywall installation requires a gypsum drywall

specialty license, a general, building or residential contractor

license, or a county certificate of competency.

• Windows & doors: replacement without structural changes requires

a general, building or residential contractor license, a window and

door or glass & glazing specialty license, or a county certificate

of competency; new or enlarged openings and structural changes are

general, building or residential contractor work only.

• Security & smart home: alarm systems, fire alarms and hardwired

low-voltage work require a Florida ch. 489, Part II license; no part

of this service is license-exempt.

• Furniture assembly: no license; assembling furniture and finished

products only — no in-wall wiring, plumbing connections or structural

fixing.

The full conditions for each service:

Roofing. Installing, repairing or replacing roof systems requires a

Florida roofing contractor license under ch. 489, FS, or a Miami-Dade

certificate of competency for roofing. You may offer through Koti only

roofing work your license or certificate covers.

Plumbing. Plumbing work requires a Florida certified or registered

plumbing contractor license under ch. 489, FS, or a county certificate

of competency for the jurisdiction where the work is performed. You may

offer through Koti only plumbing work your license or certificate

covers.

HVAC / air conditioning. Air-conditioning work requires a Florida

certified or registered air-conditioning contractor license under

ch. 489, FS, or a county certificate of competency for the jurisdiction

where the work is performed. You may offer through Koti only

air-conditioning work your license or certificate covers.

Pool services. Pool cleaning and routine maintenance — ordinary

cleaning, brushing, vacuuming, skimming, water-chemistry balancing and

routine filter cleaning that does not affect the pool's structure or

permanently installed equipment — does not require a contractor license

under ch. 489, FS, and needs no separate confirmation: it is covered by

your acceptance of these Terms. Repair, equipment replacement,

refinishing, piping, resurfacing, building or remodeling of pools or

spas requires a Certified or Registered Pool/Spa Contractor license

for that work, and you must hold and submit it before accepting that

work through Koti.

Handyman / general repairs. Handyman and general repair services

must stay within the work Florida law allows without a contractor

license: no structural or load-bearing work, no roofing, no electrical

work, no plumbing work, no air-conditioning work, no pool equipment

work and no alarm work — at any price — and any other construction-type

job must stay casual and minor, under $2,500 in total (labor and

materials) for the whole job (§489.103(9), FS). You must hold, or

obtain before starting work, the local Business Tax Receipt for the

places where you work, and you must not describe yourself as a licensed

contractor.

Drywall & painting. Painting — interior and exterior — does not

require a state contractor license, and local governments may not

require one (§489.117(4)(a), FS), with one exception: rooftop painting

or coating above three stories in Miami-Dade County may require a

local license, and you must hold it to offer that work through Koti.

Drywall patching and minor repair that does not involve load-bearing

walls or any plumbing, electrical or air-conditioning work does not

require a license. Full drywall installation — beyond patching and

minor repair, on non-load-bearing partitions — requires a Gypsum

Drywall specialty license, a general, building or residential

contractor license, or a Miami-Dade or Broward certificate of

competency; work on load-bearing walls, or a contract that also

includes plumbing, electrical or air-conditioning work, always

requires the corresponding contractor license.

Windows & doors. Installing or replacing exterior windows and

doors, hurricane protection and shutters without changing the

structure — no new or enlarged openings and no changes to structural

members (replacing window bucks in a retrofit is allowed) — requires a

Florida general, building or residential contractor license, a Window

and Door Installation or Glass & Glazing specialty license, or a

county certificate of competency for this trade. In the Miami-Dade /

Broward hurricane zone the work also requires a permit and approved

products (Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance or Florida product

approval). Creating or enlarging window or door openings, or any work

that changes structural members, may be performed only by a Florida

certified general, building or residential contractor — specialty

licenses do not cover it.

Security & smart home. Installing, maintaining, repairing,

monitoring, inspecting or servicing burglar or fire alarm systems for

compensation requires a Florida alarm system contractor or certified

electrical contractor license under ch. 489, Part II, FS — there is no

minimum job size, and cameras or other devices that are part of an

alarm system, or whose signals are monitored, are alarm work.

Hardwired low-voltage wiring installed inside a structure likewise

requires a Part II license; a Limited Energy Systems specialty license

is enough when the work is not alarm work. No part of this service is

license-exempt.

Furniture assembly. Assembling furniture and installing finished

products that do not become a permanent fixed part of the structure

(§489.103(6), FS) does not require any license and needs no separate

confirmation: it is covered by your acceptance of these Terms. Work

that adds in-wall wiring, plumbing connections or structural fixing is

not furniture assembly and follows the conditions of those trades.