Third House — Terms of Service

Effective date: [DATE] Version: [1.0] Last updated: [DATE]

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") form a binding agreement between you and [LEGAL ENTITY NAME], a [STATE] [ENTITY TYPE] ("Third House", "we", "us"), governing your access to and use of the Third House website, applications, and services (the "Platform").

By creating an account, purchasing anything, or using the Platform, you agree to these Terms, the Acceptable Use Policy, and the Privacy Notice, each incorporated here by reference.

If you are an astrologer providing services on the Platform, the Astrologer Agreement also applies and controls in the event of conflict as to your provision of services.

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1. What Third House is, and what it is not

1.1 The service

Third House computes astrological charts from birth details and offers three things built on them:

• Mercury, an AI astrologist that converses about your chart;
• Written reports, generated documents delivered as PDFs;
• Live readings with independent human astrologers, by text or video.

1.2 Third House is a marketplace, not the provider of readings

Live readings are provided by independent astrologers, not by Third House. We are not a party to the reading itself. We provide the venue, the scheduling, the chart data, the payment rail, and the dispute process. We do not supervise, direct, or control the content of any reading.

1.3 What readings are

Readings, reports and Mercury's replies are interpretations of astrological charts, offered for personal reflection, self-understanding and entertainment. They describe patterns and periods; they do not predict specific events, and nothing on the Platform is professional advice.

Nothing on the Platform is, or substitutes for:

• medical, psychiatric, or mental-health advice, diagnosis, or treatment;
• legal advice;
• financial, investment, tax, or insurance advice;
• advice about pregnancy, fertility, or the termination of a pregnancy;
• advice on whether to take, continue, change, or stop any medication or treatment.

If you are in crisis, contact emergency services or a crisis line. In the United States, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).

This restriction binds astrologers too. It is a term of the Astrologer Agreement and of the Acceptable Use Policy, and breaking it is grounds for removal.

1.4 Mercury is an AI, and it can be wrong

Mercury is an artificial-intelligence system. It is labelled as such throughout the Platform and you should never be in doubt that you are talking to software.

The distinction that matters: the astrological calculations are computed by our chart engine, not by the AI. Positions, houses, aspects, and the equivalents in each tradition come from an ephemeris and are deterministic. The AI interprets those figures in language. Interpretation is where error lives, and it can produce statements that are wrong, internally inconsistent, or not supported by your chart.

Do not act on anything Mercury says in a way that matters without your own judgement.

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2. Definitions

Term	Meaning
Account	Your registered user account.
Astrologer	An independent practitioner approved to offer readings.
Balance	Optional prepaid value held to your Account, in USD cents.
Birth Data	Birth date, birth time (where known), birth place, and the coordinates and timezone derived from it.
Content	Anything submitted, generated, or delivered through the Platform.
Reading	A live text or video session with an Astrologer.
Report	A generated written document you purchase.
Session	A Reading, and the record of it.
Subscription	Third House Premium.

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3. Eligibility and accounts

3.1 Age

You must be 18 or older. The Platform is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn an account belongs to a minor we will close it and delete the associated personal data.

3.2 Your account

You are responsible for the security of your credentials and for activity under your Account. Notify us at hello@thirdhouse.app if you suspect unauthorized use. One person, one Account. Do not share it, sell it, or transfer it.

3.3 Accuracy of Birth Data

Charts are computed from what you enter. If your birth time is wrong, the houses and rising sign are wrong, and every reading built on them inherits the error. We do not verify Birth Data against any record and cannot.

Where a birth time is unknown, the Platform omits houses and the rising sign rather than guessing. This is deliberate and is not a defect.

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4. Third House Premium (subscription)

4.1 What it costs and what it includes

Premium is US$12.00 per month (PREMIUM_PRICE_CENTS, src/lib/stripe/client.ts).

	Free	Premium
Mercury messages	15 per day	Unlimited, subject to §4.4
Chart systems	Western (tropical) only	Western, Vedic, Hellenistic, Chinese (BaZi)
Saved charts	1	3

Source: src/lib/mercury/entitlements.ts.

4.2 Billing, renewal, and cancellation

Premium bills monthly in advance through Stripe and renews automatically until cancelled. You may cancel at any time from Settings. On cancellation you keep Premium until the end of the period already paid for; we do not prorate or refund a partial month. We do not charge you again after cancellation.

The Platform distinguishes "renews on the 14th" from "ends on the 14th" and shows you which applies (subscriptions.cancel_at_period_end).

4.3 Price changes

We may change the price. For existing subscribers, a change takes effect no earlier than the next renewal after [30] days' notice to your registered email, and you may cancel before it takes effect.

4.4 Fair use

Premium messaging is unlimited for ordinary personal use. We may apply rate limits to protect the service, and may suspend accounts engaged in automated querying, resale, or extraction of model output at scale. See the Acceptable Use Policy.

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5. Reports

5.1 Purchase and delivery

Reports are one-time purchases at the price shown at checkout (currently US$29 for a deep-dive, US$34 for a compatibility report, US$39 for a year-ahead report — report_products). They are generated after payment and delivered as a PDF to your Reports page, usually within minutes.

5.2 A report is a snapshot

A Report is written from your chart as it stood when the Report was generated. If you later correct your Birth Data, existing Reports are not regenerated and will disagree with your current chart. The Platform tells you this at the point of editing, and locks a chart from further edits once a Report has been written from it, precisely so a delivered document cannot come to contradict your account. To read a corrected chart, save it as a new chart and purchase against that.

5.3 Refunds on Reports

Because a Report is delivered immediately and cannot be returned, all sales are final once the Report has been delivered, except:

• We failed to deliver it. If generation fails and we cannot deliver, you are refunded in full.
• We delivered the wrong thing — the wrong chart, the wrong person, or the wrong product.
• Where the law gives you a right you cannot waive, which we honour.

5.4 What you may do with a Report

The Report is yours to keep, print, and share privately. You may not resell it, publish it commercially, or present it as your own professional work product. See §11.

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6. Live readings with astrologers

6.1 Booking and rates

Astrologers set their own rates. Text readings bill per minute at the rate shown on the profile and locked at the moment the session is accepted. Video readings are scheduled and billed at a flat rate for the booked duration.

6.2 How payment works

Before a session starts, we run a payment waterfall: any Balance is applied first, and a hold (a manual-capture authorization) is placed on your card for the remainder up to your spend cap. If the authorization is declined the session never starts. When the session ends we capture only what was actually used and release the rest.

This means the amount held is not the amount charged. The hold reserves your cap; the capture reflects the minutes you used.

6.3 Spend caps, warnings, and automatic end

You set a spend cap. As you approach it you are warned and may extend, which places a fresh authorization. If you do not extend, the session ends automatically after a short grace period.

Disclosure: metering runs on a scheduled worker, so a session may exceed your cap by up to approximately one minute of billing before it ends (architecture.md §8). We disclose this rather than imply the cap is exact.

6.4 Sessions under two minutes are never charged

If a session ends within two minutes, the authorization is cancelled outright and nothing is captured (architecture.md §7).

6.5 Disconnections

If either party is absent for more than 90 seconds, billing pauses and the interruption is recorded. Either party may then resume or end.

6.6 Cancellation, no-shows, and requests that expire

A session request not accepted within 120 seconds expires; the hold is cancelled and nothing is charged. Cancellation and no-show terms for scheduled video sessions are [TO BE SPECIFIED: notice window, consumer no-show charge, astrologer no-show remedy], resolved from recorded attendance events.

6.7 Disputes about a session

Raise a billing dispute within [30] days at hello@thirdhouse.app. We review the session record — timing events, attendance, and where necessary the transcript — and may issue a refund to Balance or to your card. Approved refunds default to Balance credit with a to-card option.

Session transcripts and event records are retained to resolve disputes and to respond to card-network chargebacks. See the Data Retention Schedule.

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7. Balance, payments, and taxes

7.1 Balance is prepaid value, not money

Balance is optional stored value for use on the Platform. It is denominated in US dollars, is not a bank deposit, not legal tender, earns no interest, and is not redeemable for cash except where law requires.

Balance comes from top-ups you purchase and from promotional, referral, or goodwill credits we grant. Purchased and promotional Balance are recorded distinctly.

7.2 Expiry

Purchased Balance does not expire. Promotional credit may carry an expiry, disclosed when granted.

7.3 Payment processing

Payments are processed by Stripe. We do not receive or store your full card number. Your use of payment features is also subject to Stripe's terms.

7.4 Refunds generally

Except as stated in §5.3 and §6.7, payments are non-refundable. Approved refunds default to Balance credit; you may request a refund to your original payment method instead.

7.5 Taxes

Prices exclude tax unless stated. We collect and remit sales tax where we are required to.

7.6 Chargebacks

Contact us before disputing a charge with your bank — most issues resolve faster directly. Filing a chargeback while a dispute is open with us may lead to suspension pending resolution. We may present the session record as evidence.

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8. Your content and your chart

8.1 You own what you submit

You keep ownership of your Birth Data, messages, and other content. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, process, and display it solely to operate the Platform for you — computing your charts, running your conversations, generating your reports, and delivering your sessions.

8.2 We do not train models on your data

We do not use your Birth Data, conversations, session transcripts, or reports to train AI models, and our processing agreements with AI providers prohibit their use of our data for that purpose.

8.3 Birth Data is sensitive

We treat Birth Data as sensitive personal information: it is collected minimally, kept out of logs and client-side analytics, and shared with an Astrologer only for a session you booked with them. See the Privacy Notice.

8.4 Reviews

Reviews must reflect a genuine session. We may remove reviews that breach the Acceptable Use Policy. We do not remove a review merely because it is negative, and we do not permit astrologers to condition service on a favourable review.

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9. Intellectual property

9.1 Ours

The Platform, the chart engine, the report templates, the Third House name and marks, and the software are owned by us or our licensors. Nothing here transfers them.

9.2 Yours, in a Report

On delivery you receive a perpetual, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Report for your own personal, non-commercial purposes. Underlying templates, engine output formats, and software remain ours.

9.3 Feedback

If you send us suggestions, we may use them without obligation to you.

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10. Acceptable use

The Acceptable Use Policy is part of these Terms. It prohibits, among other things, harassment, fraud, scraping, circumventing the Platform's payment system, and using the Platform to give or seek medical, legal, or financial advice.

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11. Non-circumvention

The Platform connects consumers with Astrologers at our cost. For [12] months after your first session with an Astrologer, you agree not to deliberately arrange or accept readings from that Astrologer outside the Platform where the purpose is to avoid Platform fees.

This does not restrict a relationship that predates the Platform, and it does not prevent you from ending your use of the Platform.

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12. Suspension and termination

12.1 By you

Close your Account at any time from Settings. Purchased Balance remaining at closure is [TO BE DECIDED: forfeited / refundable / refundable above a threshold].

12.2 By us

We may suspend or terminate for breach of these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, for fraud or chargeback abuse, where required by law, or where continued service poses risk to others. Where practical we give notice and an opportunity to respond; where the risk is serious we act first.

12.3 What survives

Termination does not affect accrued payment obligations, retention of records we must keep (see the Retention Schedule), or sections that by their nature survive — §§8.1, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16.

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13. Disclaimers

THE PLATFORM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE". To the fullest extent permitted by law we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty arising from course of dealing.

We do not warrant that the Platform will be uninterrupted or error-free, that Mercury's interpretations are accurate, or that any Reading, Report, or prediction will prove correct.

We do not warrant, endorse, or guarantee any Astrologer, their qualifications, or the content of any Reading. We apply a review process before approval; it is not a professional credential and we do not represent it as one.

Some jurisdictions do not allow these exclusions, in which case they apply to the maximum extent permitted.

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14. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law:

(a) Neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, even if advised of the possibility.

(b) Our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Platform will not exceed the greater of (i) the total amount you paid us in the twelve months preceding the event, and (ii) US$100.

(c) Nothing limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any liability that cannot be limited by law.

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15. Indemnity

You will indemnify and hold harmless Third House, its officers, employees, and agents from claims arising out of your breach of these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, your content, or your unlawful use of the Platform. We will notify you of any such claim and you may control the defence with counsel reasonably acceptable to us; you may not settle in a way that imposes obligations on us without our consent.

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16. Disputes

16.1 Talk to us first

Most problems resolve at hello@thirdhouse.app. Both parties agree to attempt informal resolution for [30] days before formal proceedings.

16.2 Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of [STATE], without regard to conflict of laws principles.

16.3 Arbitration and class waiver

16.4 Time limit

Any claim must be brought within [one year] of when it arose, to the extent permitted by law.

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17. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. For material changes we give at least [30] days' notice by email and in-product, and the updated Terms take effect on the stated date. Continuing to use the Platform after that date means you accept them. If you do not, stop using the Platform and close your Account.

We maintain a changelog of versions.

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18. General

Entire agreement. These Terms, the Acceptable Use Policy, and the Privacy Notice are the entire agreement between us on this subject.

Severability. If a provision is unenforceable, the rest stands.

No waiver. Not enforcing a provision is not a waiver of it.

Assignment. You may not assign these Terms. We may assign them in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delay caused by events beyond reasonable control.

Notices. We contact you at your registered email. Contact us at hello@thirdhouse.app or [POSTAL ADDRESS].

Relationship. Nothing creates a partnership, joint venture, employment, or agency relationship between you and us.

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Contact: [LEGAL ENTITY NAME], [POSTAL ADDRESS], hello@thirdhouse.app