Terms of Use

The website located at https://off-leash.club (the “Site”) is owned and operated by BMD-Studios (“Company,” “us,” “our,” or “we”). the Off-Leash.club is a pet-friendly place directory and social feed for finding, rating, and following places and people. These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your use of the Site’s place directory, public feed, profiles, ratings, posts, and related features.

By accessing or using the Site, or by creating an account, you agree to these Terms. You must be at least 18 years old to use the Site. If you do not agree, do not use the Site.

1. Accounts

Some features require an account with an email, password, and public @handle. You agree to provide accurate information and keep credentials confidential. You are responsible for activity under your account. Notify us if you believe your account was accessed without authorization. We may suspend or terminate accounts as described below.

2. The directory and feed

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Site for your own personal, non-commercial purposes: browsing pet-friendly places, reading and posting to the feed and location boards, rating places, and following users or locations.

You may not:

scrape, bulk-export, or commercially exploit the directory or feed at scale;
interfere with the Site, reverse-engineer it, or bypass access controls;
use the Site to spam, harass, or mislead other users;
misrepresent ratings, claims, or manager status, or post fake reviews to manipulate scores.

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue parts of the Site at any time. We have no obligation to provide support or maintenance.

Listings may include data from third-party sources (including Google Places and OpenStreetMap) and user or manager contributions. We do not guarantee that any place is pet-friendly, open, accurate, safe, or suitable for you or your animals. Always use your own judgment.

3. User content

You may post text, photos, videos, ratings, replies, profile information, and similar content (“User Content”). You retain ownership of your User Content. You grant Company a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, display, reproduce, and distribute that content on the Site as needed to operate the directory and feed (including in public profiles, location pages, and the public feed).

You agree not to post User Content that:

is unlawful, harassing, defamatory, or invasive of privacy;
promotes cruelty to animals or dangerous conduct involving animals;
is spam, deceptive, or intended to fake or manipulate ratings or follows;
infringes others’ intellectual property or publicity rights;
contains malware or attempts to disrupt the Site.

We may remove or hide content and suspend accounts that violate these rules. We are not obligated to monitor all User Content, but we may moderate when we become aware of issues. Logged-in users may file reports (spam, harassment, animal welfare, fake reviews, and similar categories) with a short explanation. Verified managers may hide board posts on their own place and escalate ratings for admin review; they cannot change rating scores. Platform admins may hide posts or ratings, disable accounts, or lock a location out of search indexing. Soft-hidden content is excluded from public feeds and score calculations. Ownership disputes over who manages a listing use a separate dispute process (see §4), not the content report form. Details: our operational notes in the project’s moderation documentation.

Meetups and in-person contact. The Site may help people discover places and each other. We do not organize, supervise, or insure meetups. If you meet others or visit a place because of the Site, you do so at your own risk. You are responsible for your animals’ welfare and for complying with local leash, park, and animal laws.

User-submitted places

Logged-in users may propose a Google place or add a first-party listing (name, map pin, and related details). Submitting a place does not grant management rights or prove ownership. Community listings may be incomplete or inaccurate; use reports and moderation tools when something is wrong. We may remove, noindex, or merge duplicate listings.

4. Claiming, verification, and disputes

Plain-language overview: Managing places.

Claim race

You may request to manage a location listing. Multiple users may enter a public notice-period “race” for the same place. During that window the race appears on the location page and may appear in the public feed. Other users may agree or disagree with individual claims and may join the race. At the end of the window we select at most one winner (by community score, with ties broken by earliest claim, unless we intervene as platform operator). Other open claims for that place are rejected. A notice claimant cannot use manager tools until they win and the claim is active.

Listing notice

When we list a place from public data and have a published contact email for it, we may send that address one notice that the listing exists, with a link to the public page so the details can be checked. The notice includes a way to opt out of further email about that list. It does not make the recipient the manager. Management still goes through the claim race above.

One manager

At most one active manager (or steward) is associated with a location at a time. “Managed by,” “Verified,” and “Steward” labels are platform trust signals, not proof of legal ownership, leasehold, municipal authority, or employment. Community Steward status for parks and similar outdoor places is a lighter caretaker designation for public or shared spaces; it does not grant exclusive property rights.

Manager duties

If you manage a location you must provide accurate information, respect other users’ ratings and posts, and not use manager tools to suppress legitimate feedback or invent reviews. Name, address, and map coordinates stay platform-controlled; manager-editable fields are described on the manage page. Official board posts made from the manage surface are attributed as place voice and remain subject to these Terms.

Verification

An active basic manager may request Verified or Steward status using methods we offer (for example proving control of a website listed for the place, receiving a one-time code at an email address on that website’s domain, completing a steward waiting period for eligible outdoor categories, or submitting documents or video for human review). You represent that you are authorized to act for the place, that evidence is authentic and unedited where continuity is required, and that you will not spoof contact channels or publish verification tokens you do not control. We may approve, deny, expire, or revoke verification at our discretion. Verification is free to earn through the offered methods; we do not sell the verified badge itself.

Paid listings

After you are the verified or steward manager of a place, you may buy a paid listing subscription for that place. Dodo Payments is the merchant of record and bills the logged-in manager, not the location as a customer. The subscription covers that location only and ends if you cease to be its manager (we cancel the Dodo subscription; invoices and payment records stay with Dodo). We do not sell verification. Premium listing subscriptions may add a public badge, labelled post promotions, and manager insights on top of free verified/steward tools under the same entitlement.

Refunds

Premium listing subscriptions and event overflow fees are non-refundable. We do not provide prorated refunds or account credits for mid-cycle cancellation, unused premium tools, voluntary management transfer, loss of the manager seat, or admin revocation of a claim. You may cancel renewal through Dodo’s customer portal to stop future billing; access may continue through the end of the paid period where Dodo allows. Payment disputes and receipts are handled by Dodo as merchant of record under Dodo’s terms.

Challenges and transfers

After a claim is active, eligible users may open a management challenge with a written reason and optional evidence, subject to cooling-off periods and abuse limits. An open challenge does not by itself remove the manager. Community votes over a notice window may transfer management to the challenger when net agreement favors them; if the current manager is unverified (basic), the challenger may also take over by completing listing verification (website or email domain, or admin-approved evidence). We may dismiss a challenge, force a transfer, or revoke the claim (returning the listing to unclaimed). Active managers may voluntarily offer to transfer management to another account; the recipient starts as a basic manager and must re-verify, and Premium listing never transfers with the seat. Platform decisions do not determine legal title, and we are not obligated to mediate ownership conflicts between businesses, landlords, employees, or public authorities.

False claims

Misrepresenting authority to manage a place, submitting false verification evidence, or manipulating claim races (including coordinated inauthentic agree/disagree voting) is a breach of these Terms and may result in removal of claims, content, or accounts.

Platform administrators may force race outcomes, override verification, or revoke management for trust and safety, legal, or operational reasons.

5. Privacy

Your use of the Site is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which explains what we collect and how we use it. If there is a conflict about personal data, the Privacy Policy controls.

6. Third-party services

The Site may send in-app notifications, optional browser push alerts (when you subscribe), and optional email summaries for premium location managers. You can manage push and digest preferences on the Notifications page. Push uses your browser’s notification permission; digests use the email on your account.

The Site uses infrastructure and APIs from third parties (including Cloudflare for hosting and storage, Google Places for destination search and place enrichment, Google and Meta/Facebook for optional social sign-in when configured, Cloudflare Turnstile for bot checks on certain forms, and—when email-domain verification is enabled—an email delivery provider (SMTP transactional email). We do not control those services. Their terms and privacy practices apply to their processing. Links to external sites are provided for convenience; we are not responsible for third-party sites.

Interactions with other users are solely between you and them. We are not responsible for loss or harm from those interactions, and we may (but need not) get involved in disputes.

7. Intellectual property and feedback

The Site’s branding, software, and original compilation of content belong to Company or its licensors. These Terms do not transfer ownership to you beyond the limited license above. Third-party place photos may carry photographer or Google attributions that must remain visible where shown.

If you send feedback or suggestions about the Site, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use that feedback without attribution.

8. Disclaimers

THE SITE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, COMPANY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE, OR THAT LISTINGS, SCORES, OR USER CONTENT ARE ACCURATE OR COMPLETE.

9. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW: (A) COMPANY WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, OR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM THESE TERMS OR YOUR USE OF THE SITE (INCLUDING VISITS TO LISTED PLACES OR MEETUPS WITH OTHER USERS); AND (B) OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM UNDER THESE TERMS IS CAPPED AT THE GREATER OF (i) USD $50 AND (ii) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO COMPANY UNDER THESE TERMS IN THE SIX MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM. MULTIPLE CLAIMS DO NOT INCREASE THIS CAP.

10. Termination

These Terms remain in effect while you use the Site. We may suspend or terminate access (including deleting an account) if we believe you violated these Terms or for operational reasons. Upon termination, license restrictions, ownership, disclaimers, liability limits, and dispute provisions survive.

11. Changes

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes may be noted on the Site or by email if we have an address on file. Continued use after changes means you accept the updated Terms.

12. Governing law and disputes

These Terms and any dispute arising out of them or the Site are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. You and Company consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the courts of Cape Town, South Africa, except that either party may seek injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to protect intellectual property, and either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court where available.

13. Contact

Questions about these Terms: admin@bmd-studios.com
922 Touches str Weltevredenpark Roodepoort Gauteng 1709 South Africa