Terms of Service

1. Introduction

Welcome to Deck Experts LLC ("Company", "we", "our", "us"). These Terms of Service ("Terms", "Terms of Service") govern your use of our website located at deckexpertsny.com (the "Service") and any related services offered by Deck Experts LLC.

By accessing or using the Service, or by submitting the contact form, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you disagree with any part of the Terms, you may not access the Service.

2. Geographic Scope; Intended for New York Residents

Deck Experts LLC is located in Albany, New York, and offers deck building and home remodeling services only within Albany and the surrounding Capital Region of New York State. The Service is directed to, and intended for use by, individuals located in the United States who are seeking services within our service area. We make no representation that the Service or its content is appropriate, lawful, or available for use in any other location.

If you access the Service from outside our service area, from another state, or from outside the United States, you do so on your own initiative, at your own risk, and you are solely responsible for compliance with all local laws that apply to you. Accessing the Service or submitting an inquiry does not obligate us to provide services in, or travel to, any location outside our service area.

3. Communications

We may contact you by phone or email in response to quote requests you submit through the contact form. We do not send marketing or promotional communications. If you no longer wish to be contacted about your inquiry, email info@deckexpertsny.com.

4. Use of Service

Our Service allows you to request information about our deck building and home remodeling services. By submitting inquiries through our website, you grant us the right to contact you regarding your interest in our services.

You are responsible for providing accurate and complete information when using our Service. Submission of false or misleading information is prohibited.

5. Eligibility and Your Representations

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a legally binding contract to use the Service. By using the Service or submitting information through it, you represent and warrant that:

• the information you provide is accurate, current, and complete, and relates to a genuine inquiry about our services;
• you will not use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of these Terms;
• you have the right to provide any information you submit, and if you submit personal information about another person (for example, a co-owner, spouse, or tenant), you have that person's authorization to do so; and
• you are not submitting content that is false, misleading, defamatory, infringing, or otherwise unlawful.

You acknowledge and agree that your use of the Service is at your own risk, and that you assume full responsibility for any information you choose to provide to us. Deck Experts LLC is not responsible or liable for information that you submit without authority or that is inaccurate, incomplete, or unlawful.

6. Submissions

By submitting information or files (such as photos or PDF documents) through the Service, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use that information and those files solely for the purpose of responding to your inquiry, preparing an estimate, and providing the services you have requested. You retain all ownership rights in the information and files you submit.

You represent and warrant that you own, or have the necessary rights to share, any file you submit, and that your files do not contain unlawful content or infringe any third party's rights. Attachments are limited to image and PDF files; we may reject or delete any submission or attachment at our discretion.

7. Estimates and Consultations

Any estimates or consultations provided through our Service or subsequent communications are non-binding. No deal, order, or contract for services can be entered into through the Service: its only interactive function is a contact form used to request a consultation, and nothing on the Service constitutes a binding offer. All final pricing, scope, and terms for any project are set out exclusively in a formal written agreement between you and Deck Experts LLC at the time a deal is made, never through the website. All estimates are subject to change based on site conditions, material costs, and other factors discovered during the formal assessment process.

8. Intellectual Property

The Service and its original content (excluding content provided by users), features, and functionality are and will remain the exclusive property of Deck Experts LLC and its licensors. The Service is protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws of both the United States and foreign countries. Our trademarks and trade dress may not be used in connection with any product or service without the prior written consent of Deck Experts LLC.

9. Links To Other Web Sites

Our Service may contain links to third-party websites or services that are not owned or controlled by Deck Experts LLC.

Deck Experts LLC has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party websites or services. You further acknowledge and agree that Deck Experts LLC shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any such content, goods, or services available on or through any such websites or services.

10. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time if we reasonably believe your use violates these Terms or applicable law. All provisions of the Terms which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity, limitations of liability, and the arbitration agreement below.

11. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Deck Experts LLC and its officers, members, employees, and agents from and against any claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs, or debt, and expenses (including but not limited to reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from: (i) your use of and access to the Service; (ii) your violation of any term of these Terms; (iii) your violation of any third-party right, including without limitation any copyright, property, or privacy right; (iv) any content you submit through the Service; or (v) your breach of any representation or warranty in these Terms, including your submission of information about any third party without that party's authorization. We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which case you agree to cooperate with our defense of that claim.

12. Limitation of Liability

In no event shall Deck Experts LLC, nor its directors, employees, partners, agents, suppliers, or affiliates, be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, including without limitation, loss of profits, data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, resulting from (i) your access to or use of or inability to access or use the Service; (ii) any conduct or content of any third party on the Service; (iii) any content obtained from the Service; and (iv) unauthorized access, use or alteration of your transmissions or content, whether based on warranty, contract, tort (including negligence) or any other legal theory, whether or not we have been informed of the possibility of such damage.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the total aggregate liability of Deck Experts LLC arising out of or relating to your use of the Service and these Terms shall not exceed one hundred United States dollars (US$100.00). Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you; in that case, our liability is limited to the smallest amount permitted by applicable law.

13. Disclaimer

Your use of the Service is at your sole risk. The Service is provided on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis. The Service is provided without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement or course of performance.

14. Binding Arbitration and Class-Action Waiver

Please read this section carefully. It affects your legal rights, including your right to file a lawsuit in court.

You and Deck Experts LLC agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms, the Service, or any services we provide shall be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. The arbitration shall be seated in Albany County, New York, unless the parties agree otherwise. Judgment on the arbitration award may be entered in any court having jurisdiction.

Class-Action Waiver. You and Deck Experts LLC agree that each may bring claims against the other only in your or its individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims and may not otherwise preside over any form of representative or class proceeding.

30-Day Right to Opt Out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing info@deckexpertsny.com within 30 days after you first use the Service, with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out" and including your full name, address, and a clear statement that you wish to opt out. Opting out will not affect any other provisions of these Terms.

Exceptions. Notwithstanding the foregoing, either party may bring an individual action in small claims court, and either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent the actual or threatened infringement, misappropriation, or violation of intellectual property rights.

15. No Scraping or Automated Access

You may not, and may not permit any third party to: (i) use any automated system, including without limitation robots, spiders, scrapers, or offline readers, to access the Service in a manner that sends more request messages to our servers than a human can reasonably produce in the same period by using a conventional browser; (ii) harvest, collect, copy, or download any content from the Service (including the gallery images) except with our prior written permission; (iii) reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any portion of the Service; or (iv) interfere with or circumvent any security feature of the Service, including rate limits and CAPTCHA challenges. Violations may result in immediate termination of access and legal action.

Exception for search and AI indexing. We welcome automated access by legitimate search engine crawlers and AI assistant crawlers for the purpose of crawling, indexing, and answering user questions about our business, provided the crawler identifies itself accurately, honors the directives in our robots.txt file, and does not degrade the availability of the Service. This exception does not permit bulk downloading of gallery images for redistribution or any other activity prohibited above beyond ordinary crawling and indexing.

16. DMCA Copyright Complaints

If you believe that content on the Service infringes your copyright, please send a written notice to info@deckexpertsny.com that includes all of the following:

• A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on the owner's behalf.
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed.
• Identification of the material on the Service that is claimed to be infringing, with enough detail that we can locate it (including the URL).
• Your contact information, including address, telephone number, and email.
• A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the complained-of use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the owner's behalf.

We will respond to complete notices in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512). If you believe your content was removed in error, you may send a counter-notice to the same address that includes the equivalent information required for a counter-notice under the DMCA.

17. Force Majeure

Deck Experts LLC shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performance, or for any interruption of the Service, resulting from causes beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to acts of God, natural disasters, severe weather, fire, flood, epidemic or pandemic, labor disputes, shortages of materials or labor, utility or internet failures, acts of government, or the acts or omissions of third-party service providers.

18. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, United States, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Subject to the binding arbitration provision in Section 14, any dispute not subject to arbitration shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Albany County, New York, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be considered a waiver of those rights. If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by a court, the remaining provisions of these Terms will remain in effect.

19. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any other legal notices or policies we publish on the Service, constitute the entire agreement between you and Deck Experts LLC regarding your use of the Service, and supersede any prior agreements or understandings on that subject. Any formal written contract you enter into with Deck Experts LLC for specific services will govern that work and, to the extent it conflicts with these Terms as to that work, will control. Section headings in these Terms are for convenience only and have no legal effect.

20. Changes

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time. If a revision is material, we will try to provide at least 30 days' notice prior to any new terms taking effect. What constitutes a material change will be determined at our sole discretion.

By continuing to access or use our Service after those revisions become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised terms. If you do not agree to the new terms, please stop using the Service.

21. Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us:

• By email: info@deckexpertsny.com
• By phone: (518) 603-4344