Terms & Conditions

1. About these terms

These terms govern your use of www.theboatfloats.com (“the Site”), operated by Northrule Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (“we”, “us”, “our”).

By using the Site you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Site.

2. The service

The Boat Floats is an online directory of businesses, services, locks, canals and moorings on the UK inland waterway network. We provide information to help boaters find services — we do not provide the services listed.

We make reasonable efforts to keep listing information accurate, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of any information on the Site. You should verify details directly with the business before relying on them.

3. User accounts

• You must provide a valid email address to create an account
• You are responsible for keeping your login details secure
• You must be at least 16 years old to create an account
• We may suspend or delete accounts that violate these terms

4. Reviews

When you leave a review on the Site, you agree that:

• Your review is based on a genuine experience with the business
• Your review is honest, fair and not misleading
• You will not post content that is defamatory, abusive, discriminatory, threatening or illegal
• You will not post content that infringes the intellectual property rights of any third party
• Your review (including any photos) may be displayed publicly on the Site

We reserve the right to remove reviews that violate these terms at our discretion. Business owners may respond to reviews publicly via their dashboard.

5. Business listings

If you claim and manage a business listing:

• You confirm that you are authorised to represent the business
• You are responsible for keeping your listing information accurate and up to date
• You will not use your listing to post misleading, deceptive or unlawful content
• We may display your listing data publicly, including in search results, on map pages and in our directory

6. Paid plans

• Premium listing plans (Enhanced and Featured) are billed monthly via Stripe
• Prices are as displayed on our pricing page at the time of purchase
• You may upgrade, downgrade or cancel at any time from your business dashboard
• On cancellation, your listing reverts to the free Basic plan at the end of the current billing period
• We offer a 14-day money-back guarantee from the date of your first payment
• Refunds are processed to the original payment method via Stripe

7. Intellectual property

The Site design, code, branding and original content are owned by Northrule Ltd. You may not reproduce, distribute or create derivative works without our written permission.

Canal, lock and geographic data is sourced from OpenStreetMap contributors (Open Database Licence) and the Canal & River Trust (Open Government Licence). Business data sourced from these providers remains subject to their respective licences.

By submitting content to the Site (reviews, photos, listing information), you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use, display and distribute that content in connection with the operation of the Site.

8. Limitation of liability

The Site is provided “as is” without warranties of any kind. To the fullest extent permitted by law:

• We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of the Site or reliance on information displayed on it
• We are not liable for the quality, safety or legality of services provided by businesses listed on the Site
• We are not liable for any disputes between users and businesses
• Our total liability to you for any claim shall not exceed the amount you have paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim

Nothing in these terms excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or any other liability that cannot be excluded by law.

9. Prohibited conduct

You must not:

• Use the Site for any unlawful purpose
• Scrape, crawl or harvest data from the Site by automated means without our written permission
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the Site or its infrastructure
• Post spam, fake reviews or misleading content
• Impersonate another person or business

10. Third-party links and services

The Site contains links to third-party websites (e.g. business websites, Google Maps, WhatsApp). We are not responsible for the content, privacy practices or availability of these external sites.

11. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. We will post the updated version on this page with a revised date. Continued use of the Site after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

12. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

13. Contact

If you have any questions about these terms, please email hello@theboatfloats.com.