Terms & Conditions

Agreeing to these terms

These Terms & Conditions are an agreement between you and Maison Home Help Collective, operating as [LEGAL ENTITY NAME] (“Maison,” “we,” “us”), an Ohio business located in [CITY], Ohio.

They apply when you use www.maisonhomehelp.com, submit a family intake form or caregiver application, or engage us for any service. By doing any of those things, you're agreeing to what follows. If you don't agree, please don't use our services.

What Maison is, and isn't

This is the most important section in these terms, so we've put it near the front.

Maison is a placement and referral service. We source, interview, and vet caregivers, and we introduce them to families we think they'll suit. That is the whole of what we do.

Maison is not a childcare provider. We do not care for children. We are not a daycare, a licensed childcare center, or a home health agency, and we do not supervise caregivers in your home.

Maison is not the caregiver's employer. Caregivers introduced through Maison are not our employees, agents, contractors, or representatives. We don't set their wages, control their work, schedule their days, or direct how they care for your children. When you hire a caregiver, the working relationship is between you and that person — Maison is not a party to it.

Maison does not guarantee outcomes. We can't promise that a search will produce a placement, that a placement will last, or that any caregiver will perform to a particular standard. What we promise is a careful, honest process.

Caregivers, for their part, are independent of Maison. Being in our network is not an offer of employment from us, and it doesn't entitle anyone to placements, hours, or income.

Who can use our services

• You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter a contract.
• Families must be seeking care within our service area — currently Stark and Summit Counties, Ohio. We'll tell you plainly if you're outside it.
• Caregivers must be at least 18, legally authorized to work in the United States, and able to pass our vetting.
• Everything you tell us must be accurate and complete. Material misstatements — on an intake form, an application, or in conversation — are grounds for ending the relationship without refund.

We may decline to work with anyone, at any time, for any lawful reason. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected by federal or Ohio law.

How a placement works

Every family search follows the same path:

1. Registration. You submit an intake form, we have a consultation, and you pay the registration fee. The search begins.
2. The search. We source and personally interview candidates, then present two to three we genuinely stand behind, with our notes on each.
3. Meet and trial. We coordinate a meet-and-greet and a paid trial day. You pay the caregiver directly for trial time, at the agreed hourly rate.
4. Agreement and placement. If it's a yes on both sides, we help draft the work agreement between you and the caregiver, and we invoice the placement fee.
5. Support. We check in at 30, 60, and 90 days and stay available afterward.

Timelines vary with the role and how specific your search is. Most nanny placements come together within a few weeks of the first conversation, but we don't guarantee a timeline — and we would rather tell you the bench is thin than send you a weak match.

A trial day is a real working day. The caregiver is paid directly by you for that time, and Maison is not responsible for arranging, supervising, or insuring it.

Fees and payment

Maison charges flat fees, never a percentage of your caregiver's salary. Current fees for your specific service are the ones quoted in your written service agreement and on our website at the time you engage us. The structure works like this:

A few things worth stating plainly:

• Payment is due before the start date. We may delay or decline to confirm a placement until the fee is paid.
• Fees are non-refundable once a placement is confirmed, except as described in the guarantee below.
• Invoices are payable in full. Amounts more than 15 days past due may accrue interest at 1.5% per month, or the maximum Ohio law allows, whichever is lower. If we have to pursue collection, you're responsible for reasonable costs.
• Fees are for our placement work — the sourcing, vetting, matching, and support — not for the caregiver's services. The caregiver's wages are separate and paid by you, directly.
• We may change our fees at any time. Changes never apply to a search already underway or a placement already confirmed.

The guarantee

Every nanny placement comes with a guarantee window. If the placement ends inside that window, we conduct a replacement search at no additional placement fee.

What the guarantee is

A replacement search — the same process, at no additional placement fee. It is not a refund, and it is not a promise that a replacement will be found. If we can't find a suitable replacement within a reasonable period, we'll say so honestly and discuss what makes sense from there.

Conditions

• Your account must be paid in full.
• You must tell us within 14 days of the placement ending, and give us an honest account of what happened.
• The role must be materially the same as the one we searched for. A significantly changed schedule, location, pay, or set of duties is a new search.
• The guarantee covers one replacement search per placement fee.

What voids it

• The family failed to pay the caregiver as agreed, or materially breached the work agreement.
• The role was eliminated — a move, a schedule change, a parent leaving work — rather than the match failing.
• Material information about the household or the role was withheld from us or from the caregiver.
• The caregiver was subjected to treatment that would cause any reasonable person to leave.

Outside the guarantee window, we may offer a re-search at a reduced goodwill rate. That's a courtesy, offered case by case, and not a right under these terms.

Hiring outside the agreement

This one protects the work we've already done, and it's standard across the industry.

When we introduce you to a caregiver, that introduction represents real work — sourcing, interviewing, reference checks, and screening we've already paid for. So: if you hire, engage, or otherwise compensate a caregiver introduced by Maison — in any capacity, at any point within 12 months of the introduction — the applicable placement fee is due, whether the arrangement was made through us or not.

This applies equally if the caregiver is hired by a member of your household, a relative, or a friend you referred them to. It applies to informal arrangements, trial extensions, and side hours.

Caregivers: the same principle runs your way. Please don't accept employment from a Maison family outside the placement process, and tell us if you're approached directly. It protects your standing with us and keeps the process fair to everyone.

If you were already in contact with a caregiver before we introduced them, tell us right away and we'll sort it out — we're not looking to charge for work we didn't do.

Your responsibilities as an employer

When you hire a caregiver, you are a household employer. That carries real legal obligations, and they belong to you.

Maison will help you think it through and will draft a work agreement as part of your placement. That help is practical, not legal or tax advice, and it doesn't shift any of these responsibilities to us. You are responsible for:

• Wages and hours — paying at least minimum wage, paying overtime where required, and keeping accurate time records. Household employees are generally covered by federal and Ohio wage and hour law.
• Taxes — Social Security and Medicare, federal and Ohio unemployment tax, withholding, and the year-end forms that go with them.
• Work authorization — verifying your employee's eligibility to work in the United States.
• Insurance — workers' compensation where required, and confirming that your homeowner's or renter's policy covers a household employee. We strongly recommend talking to your insurance agent before a start date.
• A safe workplace — your home is now a workplace.
• Supervision and daily direction — the schedule, the duties, the expectations, and the day-to-day judgment calls.
• The hiring decision itself — meeting candidates, checking what matters to you, reviewing screening results, and deciding. We give you our honest perspective; the decision is yours.

We're not lawyers, accountants, or insurance agents, and nothing we tell you is a substitute for professional advice. A household employment payroll service is worth every penny, and we're glad to point you toward one.

Terms for caregivers

Joining the Maison network is free, and it stays free. We never charge caregivers to apply, to be vetted, or to be placed.

In return, we ask that you:

• Give us accurate information about your experience, certifications, availability, and history.
• Consent to our vetting — a personal interview, reference checks, and background screening — and complete it honestly. Your rights around background checks are set out in our Privacy Policy and come from federal law.
• Hold current CPR certification before placement, and keep it current.
• Tell us promptly if something material changes: your availability, your certifications, your transportation, or anything that would affect a family's decision.
• Communicate directly and professionally with families, and give reasonable notice if you need to leave a role.
• Keep what you learn in a family's home confidential — during the placement and afterward.

Being in the network doesn't guarantee introductions, placements, or income. We may remove a caregiver from the network at any time — most often for inaccurate information, a failed or lapsed screening, unreliability, or conduct that would concern a family. Where the reason involves a background report, you'll receive the notices federal law requires before any final decision.

You set your own rates within the range families are offering, and you're free to decline any introduction. Nothing here makes you an employee of Maison or restricts you from working with families or agencies outside our network.

What our vetting does and doesn't cover

Every caregiver we place is personally interviewed, reference checked, and background screened, with driving records where a role involves driving. We take it seriously, and we don't make exceptions — including for caregivers we know personally.

Here's what it can't do. Background screening reports what has been documented in the jurisdictions searched, as of the date of the search. It cannot surface conduct that was never reported, never charged, or recorded somewhere the search didn't reach. References describe the past. Interviews reveal a great deal, but not everything.

Ongoing supervision belongs to you. We do not monitor caregivers after placement, and our check-ins at 30, 60, and 90 days are a courtesy and a conversation, not oversight.

Memberships and introductions

Sitter and mother's helper services work differently from nanny placements.

• One-time introductions are charged per introduction and are complete once the introduction is made. Because the work is the introduction itself, these fees are non-refundable and carry no guarantee window.
• Memberships run for a fixed term — quarterly or annual — and give you access to introductions from our vetted network during that term. Fees are paid at the start of the term and are non-refundable once the term begins.
• Memberships do not auto-renew unless you tell us in writing that you'd like them to. We'll reach out before your term ends.
• Availability isn't guaranteed. A membership gives you access to introductions, not a promise that a particular sitter will be free on a particular night. We'll always tell you honestly what the bench looks like.
• All bookings, scheduling, and payment for sitter and helper time are arranged directly between you and the caregiver.

Ending the relationship

You can stop a search at any time by telling us in writing. The registration fee isn't refundable, and any fees for work already completed remain due. If we've presented candidates, that work has been done.

We may end an engagement if fees go unpaid, if information given to us was materially false, if conduct toward a caregiver or toward us is abusive, or if we come to believe we can't serve you well. Where we end an engagement for a reason that isn't your fault, we'll refund fees for work not yet performed. Where the reason is a serious breach on your side, we won't.

Sections that by their nature should outlive the engagement do: fees owed, hiring outside the agreement, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnification, and dispute resolution.

Disclaimers

Our services are provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent Ohio law permits, Maison disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Specifically, we do not warrant that a search will result in a placement, that any placement will last for any period, that any caregiver will meet your expectations, that background screening will surface all relevant information, or that our website will be uninterrupted or error-free.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for our own fraud, willful misconduct, or gross negligence, or for anything the law does not permit us to disclaim.

Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent Ohio law permits:

• Maison's total liability arising out of or relating to these terms or our services will not exceed the total fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose.
• We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost wages, lost profits, or the cost of substitute childcare.
• We are not liable for the acts or omissions of any caregiver, or of any family, whether during a trial day, a placement, or afterward. The relationship between family and caregiver is theirs.

These limits apply even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose, and they reflect the reality of what a placement fee buys: a careful search, not responsibility for what happens in your home afterward. Some limitations may not apply where Ohio law doesn't allow them.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Maison and its owner and personnel from claims, damages, losses, and reasonable legal fees arising out of your use of our services, your relationship with a caregiver or family introduced through us, your obligations as a household employer, your breach of these terms, or your violation of any law or the rights of another.

We'll tell you promptly about any claim we think this covers, and we'll cooperate reasonably in the defense.

Privacy and confidentiality

How we handle personal information — yours, your children's, and caregivers' — is set out in our Privacy Policy, which is part of these terms.

Both directions of confidentiality matter here. Candidate profiles, our notes and perspective, screening results, and family details are shared with you for the purpose of a specific search. Please don't forward them, post them, or share them with anyone outside your household. Caregivers, likewise, keep what they learn in a family's home private.

Our website and content

The Maison name, logo, website, written materials, candidate profiles, work agreement templates, and process documents are ours, and are protected by copyright and trademark law. You're welcome to use them for your own placement; please don't copy, republish, or use them to build a competing service.

If you send us a testimonial or review, you're giving us permission to publish it with your first name and last initial. Tell us if you'd rather we didn't, or want it taken down later, and we will.

Our site links to other places — Instagram, our screening provider, outside resources. We don't control those, and we're not responsible for their content or their practices.

If we disagree

Most problems get solved by picking up the phone, so that's where these terms start.

1. Talk to us first. Email hello@maisonhomehelp.com describing the issue and what you'd like to see happen. We'll respond within two business days, and both sides agree to work at it in good faith for 30 days before going further.
2. Then mediation. If 30 days doesn't resolve it, we'll try mediation with a neutral mediator in Ohio, splitting the mediator's cost.
3. Then court. If mediation doesn't work, either of us may go to the state or federal courts serving [COUNTY] County, Ohio, and we both consent to that jurisdiction.

Either of us may skip these steps to seek an injunction where genuinely urgent, or to file in small claims court. And nothing here prevents anyone from reporting a safety concern to the authorities at any time — if a child's safety is at issue, make the call first.

These terms are governed by Ohio law, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules.

Changes to these terms

We'll update these terms as Maison grows. The “Last Updated” date at the top always reflects the current version, and changes take effect when posted.

Changes never apply retroactively to a search already underway, a placement already confirmed, or a membership term already paid for — those are governed by the terms in effect when you engaged us. If we make a change that materially affects active clients or caregivers, we'll email you rather than rely on you noticing.

General provisions

• Entire agreement. These terms, our Privacy Policy, and any signed service agreement are the whole agreement between us on this subject.
• Severability. If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest stays in force and that part is narrowed only as far as necessary.
• No waiver. If we don't enforce something once, we haven't given up the right to enforce it later.
• Assignment. You may not assign these terms without our written consent. We may assign them if the business is sold or transferred.
• Independent parties. Nothing here creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, or employment relationship between Maison and you, or between Maison and any caregiver.
• Events outside our control. Neither of us is liable for delays caused by things genuinely beyond our control — illness, weather, emergencies, or the failure of services we depend on.
• Notices. Email is fine for notices in both directions. Ours go to the address you gave us; yours go to hello@maisonhomehelp.com.
• Headings. Section titles are for navigation and don't affect meaning.