Terms of service

What TakeOver is

TakeOver introduces a student who needs out of an off-campus lease to a student who needs in. That is the whole of it. We are a matchmaker, not a party to your lease and not a letting agent.

What we do not do

• We do not approve anybody. Your apartment complex runs the application, the credit check and the approval, under their own criteria.
• We do not contact your leasing office, ever. If a listing says the office knows, that is the lister saying so.
• We do not hold your deposit, your rent or any money that moves between you and the other student.
• We do not draft, sign, witness or store your lease. A copy uploaded for verification is checked and is not a legal record.

Who may use it

You must be 18 or older and legally able to enter into a lease where the property is. One person, one account. A parent or co-signer may hold their own account and be invited onto a student’s lease as a co-pilot.

Posting a lease

When you post, you are telling us three things are true. If any of them is not, take the listing down.

• The lease is real, it is yours, and you have signed it
• Your leasing office allows a takeover, or you are asking them
• Anybody you live with knows this is happening

What it costs

Searching, saving, posting a lease and sending interest are free and always will be. The person handing a lease over buys an Access Pass to reply once somebody has asked about it. The searcher is never charged, at any point.

The Access Pass

A pass covers one listing for thirty days and starts when you first reply, not when you buy it. Days you add extend what is left. If a conversation reaches an application, it stays open to both of you whether or not the pass has lapsed.

What you may not do

• Post a lease that is not yours, or one you have already handed over
• State or imply a preference about who may apply (see the fair housing notice)
• Take a conversation off TakeOver to get around the pass, then charge somebody for the introduction
• Ask for money, a deposit or a transfer before the leasing office has approved the person
• Scrape, resell or republish listings

Ending it

You can close your listing or delete your account whenever you like. Deleting removes you and everything attached to you, and we cannot put it back. Messages you have already sent stay in the other person’s thread, still attributed to you, because their record of a conversation is theirs.

If something goes wrong

A dispute about a lease is between you, the other student and the leasing office. We will help where we can, and we will act on reports, but we cannot enforce a lease or recover money for you.