The marketplace
HandNorth is a matching platform: we connect a client with an independent contractor. We operate a website and related tools that list professionals, let you post a project, compare public listings and quotes, and request a visit. That is listing and matching only. We do not perform the home work (assembly, mounting, plumbing or otherwise). We do not send our own crews. We do not supervise the visit. What happens on the job or project stays between you and the professional, except where the law makes HandNorth liable for our own acts as the platform. Verified waits until a person reviews ID. The four public listings today are Montage Express, Maison Solutions, ProFix Services and Atelier du Nord. A new Pro application opens a Work cabinet first.
Your agreement with the professional
When you hire a professional on HandNorth, the agreement for the visit and the work is between you and that professional. HandNorth is not a party to that service contract. We do not supervise the visit or direct how the work is done. The professional is not our employee, partner or agent. Messaging, a project record, and — when Stripe is live — a way to move funds are platform tools. They do not make us the person who showed up or the person paid for the labour.
Accounts
Create a Hire account to post and hire, or a Work account to apply as a Pro. Keep your email and password to yourself. You are responsible for what happens on your login.
All-in price and tax
The number you approve is the work plus tax. In Quebec that tax is GST+QST at 14.975%. There is no commission inside the job. Pros pay a subscription for marketplace access — see Pricing. Extra work after a quote is a change order: it is not added until the homeowner Accepts it in the thread. Furniture assembly and TV mounting can be booked as a published all-in package, not an hourly clock.
Escrow
Stripe escrow is on the way. A booking request today does not take a card. A person at hello@handnorth.com can hold a deposit by hand. Cash off-platform is not how we work.
Cancellation
Cancel a booking free up to 24 hours before a confirmed visit. Card refunds start when Stripe is live. After work starts, a person reviews both sides. Details are on the Cancellation page.
Professionals
Pros are independent contractors. They carry their own licence and insurance. In Quebec, regulated building work needs an RBQ licence. We also ask for liability insurance and CNESST where it applies. You keep 100% of the job; the subscription is how HandNorth is paid. The professional is solely responsible for how they perform the work, for the licences and insurance they must hold, and for damage, injury or delay they cause — except where the law makes HandNorth liable for our own acts.
No warranty of the work
Listings, quotes, reviews, a Verified badge and a licence or insurance on file are information on the marketplace. They are not a promise by HandNorth that the work will be done on time, to a particular standard, or without damage. You remain responsible for choosing who to hire, for reading the quote, and for access to the property. We do not warrant that a professional is available, licensed for every task they accept, or fit for that job.
Conduct
Do not post fake jobs, fake reviews, or harassment. Do not take a job off-platform to dodge escrow. We can close an account that breaks these terms or the law.
Where we operate
The brand is Canada and the United States. These terms are written to apply in every Canadian province and territory and in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia where you use HandNorth or where a visit is requested. Live booking follows the bench. Other cities open when people there can actually show up — see Service areas.
Location we guess
We may automatically guess your listed metro from your IP so copy and language can follow that city. A guess can be wrong. You must confirm the city for a job. A guessed city is not a live visit, not a local listing count, not a local price, and not a finding that HandNorth performed work or holds a contractor licence there. To the maximum extent permitted by the law of the place where you use HandNorth, we are not liable for a wrong guess. You can type a city or choose Canada & the U.S. Mandatory consumer and privacy rules that cannot be waived still apply.
Licensing, labour and the job site
HandNorth is not a contractor, subcontractor, general contractor or licensed trade in any Canadian province or territory or in any U.S. state or the District of Columbia. We do not hold an RBQ licence, an Ontario HCRA or other provincial contractor licence, a British Columbia or other West-Coast licence, or a U.S. state contractor licence, because we do not perform the work. Permits, inspections, building and electrical codes, workers’ compensation (CNESST, WSIB, WorkSafeBC or a U.S. equivalent), occupational health and safety, and occupiers’ or premises liability at the property are the professional’s and, where the law puts them there, the occupier’s — not HandNorth’s. We are not the professional’s employer under federal, provincial or state labour or employment standards. If a court later treats us as an employer or contractor for a narrow purpose, that does not make us the person who did the visit, and our liability goes no further than that law then requires.
As-is marketplace
The website, listings, quotes, messages and matching tools are provided as is and as available. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, quiet enjoyment and non-infringement. We do not warrant that access will be uninterrupted, that a listing or review is accurate or complete, that a professional is licensed for every task they accept, or that they will attend. Listings and messages are third-party content. We are not the publisher of the professional’s workmanship.
Release and assumption of risk
To the maximum extent permitted by the law of the province, territory, state or district where you use HandNorth or where the visit occurs, you release HandNorth and the people who operate it from all claims, losses, costs and damages arising out of a professional’s work or failure to work — including property damage, personal injury, death, delay, incomplete or defective work, stolen or misplaced goods, quotes, advice, and third-party claims. You assume the risk of choosing the professional and of allowing the visit. This release does not apply to liability that the law of that place does not let you release, including, in Quebec, our own intentional or gross fault, and any consumer-protection right that cannot be waived.
Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law in each Canadian province and territory and each U.S. state and the District of Columbia, HandNorth and the people who operate it are not liable for a professional’s acts or omissions, for third-party content, or for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential loss, lost profits, lost data, or loss of use. Where a claim against HandNorth is allowed at all, our total liability is limited to the amounts you actually paid HandNorth for marketplace access (if any) in the twelve months before the claim — and is otherwise CAD $0 if you paid us nothing — except where that cap is not allowed. We will not invent a payment, insurance payout or escrow hold we do not have. Stripe escrow is on the way. Trust & safety, Cancellation and Disputes describe platform process, not a guarantee of the work and not an admission of liability.
What the law will not let us drop
Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded under the laws that apply to you. That includes our own fraud; our own intentional or gross fault where a Civil Code or similar rule (including in Quebec) does not allow a waiver; death or personal injury to the extent a place does not allow a waiver of ordinary negligence; and consumer-protection, privacy or other statutes that cannot be waived. A mandatory rule in Quebec, Ontario, California, New York or any other province or state applies only as that place requires. It does not rewrite these terms for a place that allows the limit. If one sentence is unenforceable, it is modified to the least extent needed, or dropped, and the rest stays in force.
Time to bring a claim
Where the law allows a shorter contractual period, you must bring any claim against HandNorth within twelve months after you first knew or ought to have known the facts. Where a limitation statute cannot be shortened, that statute governs. This does not shorten a consumer right that cannot be shortened.
Claims between you and the professional
You will defend and cover HandNorth against claims by the other party or a third party arising from the visit, the work, your content, or your breach of law or these terms, to the extent the law allows, except where the claim comes from our own fraud or gross fault. A professional will cover us for claims arising from how they performed the work. This does not require you to give up a right a consumer statute gives you against HandNorth. You and the professional keep your rights against each other. No other person is a third-party beneficiary of these terms except as a statute requires.
Contact
Questions about these terms: hello@handnorth.com. There is no 1-800 and no live chat today.
