1) Website Terms & Conditions (Terms of Use)
Effective date: [January 01, 2026]
Website(s): thehomeinspectorsgroup.com and energyaffordability.ca (including any subdomains, portals, forms, and tools) (collectively, the “Sites”)
Operator: The Home Inspectors Group Inc. (“THIG”, “we”, “us”, “our”)
Contact: [audit@thigroup.ca] | [1-866-907-9206] | [mailing address]
1. Acceptance of these Terms
By accessing or using the Sites, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Sites.
2. Who may use the Sites
You must be at least the age of majority in your province/territory to use the Sites. If you use the Sites on behalf of a business or another person, you represent that you have authority to bind them.
3. Scope of the Sites; no professional advice
The Sites provide information and may allow you to request services (e.g., energy audits) and/or submit program-related forms. Information on the Sites is for general informational purposes and is not legal, financial, engineering, or other professional advice. Any deliverables or services you purchase or receive from THIG may be governed by separate written agreements.
4. Accounts (secure areas)
Certain areas (including energyaffordability.ca/THIG Heat Pump) may require an account and login.
You agree to:
• provide accurate and complete registration information;
• keep credentials confidential and promptly notify us of suspected unauthorized access;
• be responsible for all activity under your account; and
• comply with any approval, training, or eligibility requirements we apply to portal access.
We may suspend/disable accounts to protect the Sites, enforce these Terms, or comply with law.
5. Acceptable use
You will not:
• use the Sites in a way that violates any law or regulation;
• upload malicious code, scrape, probe, or attempt to bypass security;
• submit false, misleading, or unauthorized information (including someone else’s personal information without authority/consent);
• interfere with the operation of the Sites.
6. Submissions; Submitted Data Ownership and licence
The Sites may allow you to submit information, files, form entries, documents, photos, measurements, and other content (collectively, “Submitted Data”).
6.1 Your ownership; your responsibility. As between you and THIG, you retain ownership of Submitted Data you provide, but you are responsible for ensuring you have the right to provide it and that it is accurate and lawful.
6.2 Licence to THIG. You grant THIG a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual (or for as long as permitted by law), irrevocable licence to host, store, reproduce, use, process, modify (for formatting/validation), translate, transmit, and disclose Submitted Data:
• to deliver requested services and administer programs;
• to communicate with you (including service messages);
• to maintain records, audit trails, quality control, fraud prevention, and compliance;
• to generate aggregated and/or de-identified data sets and analytics (which THIG may use for business, reporting, research, and program administration); and
• as otherwise described in the Privacy Policy.
6.3 Derived data. THIG owns all right, title, and interest in: (a) Site functionality, templates, workflows, and tools; and (b) analytics, metrics, insights, and other outputs generated from Submitted Data that are de-identified/aggregated or that do not reveal an identifiable individual, to the extent permitted by law.
6.4 No confidentiality for submissions. Do not submit confidential information you do not want used as described above, unless you have a separate written agreement with THIG stating otherwise.
7. Intellectual property
The Sites, including text, graphics, logos, design, software, and all content not submitted by users, are owned by THIG or its licensors and protected by intellectual property laws. You may view and use the Sites for your personal or internal business purposes, but you may not copy, distribute, reverse engineer, or create derivative works except as permitted by law or with our written permission.
8. Third-party services and links
The Sites may include third-party services (e.g., spam protection, embedded tools, analytics). For example, thehomeinspectorsgroup.com uses reCAPTCHA in forms.
Third-party services are governed by their own terms and privacy practices. We are not responsible for third-party sites/services.
9. Availability; changes
We may change, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Sites at any time. We may update these Terms by posting a new version with a new effective date. Your continued use after changes means you accept the updated Terms.
10. Disclaimers
The Sites are provided “as is” and “as available.” We do not warrant that the Sites will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free of viruses.
11. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, THIG will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenues, data, or goodwill arising from or related to the Sites or your use of the Sites, even if advised of the possibility.
To the extent permitted by law, THIG’s total liability for all claims relating to the Sites will not exceed $100 CAD (or the amount you paid to access the Sites, if any, in the 12 months before the claim).
(Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations; in that case, these limits apply to the fullest extent permitted.)
12. Indemnity
You will indemnify and hold THIG harmless from claims, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your Submitted Data, your misuse of the Sites, or your breach of these Terms.
13. Governing law; venue
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. You agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in Ontario, Canada, unless prohibited by law.
14. Contact
Questions about these Terms: [privacy@thigroup.ca or audit@thigroup.ca].
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2) Privacy Policy (Website + Portal)
Effective date: [January __, 2026]
This Privacy Policy explains how THIG collects, uses, discloses, and safeguards personal information on the Sites. THIG follows applicable Canadian privacy laws, including PIPEDA for commercial activities.
1. What we collect
Depending on how you use the Sites, we may collect:
A. Information you provide directly
• Contact and booking details (e.g., name, email, phone, preferred dates/times, message content).
• Account/portal registration details (advisor portal), and information submitted through portal forms.
• Documents, photos, measurements, and other Submitted Data you upload or enter.
B. Information collected automatically
• Device and browser data (IP address, device identifiers, browser type, operating system)
• Usage data (pages viewed, links clicked, timestamps, referring URLs)
• Cookies or similar technologies (see Cookies Policy below)
C. Communications
• Records of emails, calls, or messages with us.
2. How we use personal information
We use personal information to:
• provide services you request (e.g., booking, scheduling, service delivery);
• administer portal access, authenticate users, and manage submissions;
• respond to inquiries and provide support;
• improve our Sites, forms, tools, and operations (analytics and troubleshooting);
• protect against fraud, misuse, or security incidents;
• comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms.
3. Consent
We collect, use, and disclose personal information with consent, except where permitted or required by law. Consent may be express or implied depending on context (e.g., booking a service implies using your contact info to schedule and deliver it), consistent with Canadian privacy expectations.
4. Sharing and disclosure
We do not sell personal information. We may share personal information with:
• Service providers (hosting, analytics, form tools, email/SMS delivery, security, spam prevention such as reCAPTCHA).
• Program/operational partners where needed to deliver services or administer programs you engage with (only as required and subject to appropriate safeguards).
• Legal and compliance recipients if required by law, court order, or to protect rights, safety, and security.
• Business transactions (merger, financing, sale of assets), subject to appropriate confidentiality and legal requirements.
5. Data location / cross-border processing
Your personal information may be stored or processed in Canada or other jurisdictions by us or our service providers. Where information is processed outside your province or Canada, it may be subject to the laws of that jurisdiction. We use contractual and other safeguards designed to protect personal information.
6. Retention
We retain personal information only as long as needed for the purposes described above, including legal, tax, audit, and program requirements. We then delete, anonymize, or securely destroy it, where feasible.
7. Security
We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to sensitivity of the information (access controls, least-privilege, monitoring, backups, etc.). No method of transmission or storage is fully secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
8. Your rights and choices
Subject to applicable law, you may:
• request access to and correction of your personal information;
• withdraw consent (where feasible), understanding this may affect services;
• opt out of marketing communications at any time.
CASL (email/SMS marketing): If we send commercial electronic messages, we will follow CASL requirements (consent, identification, unsubscribe mechanism).
9. Children
The Sites are not intended for children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.
10. Changes
We may update this Privacy Policy by posting a revised version and updating the effective date. Continued use means you accept the updated policy.
11. Contact / privacy officer
Privacy Contact: [Name/Title], [privacy@thigroup.ca]
You can also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada if unresolved. (General guidance is available from OPC resources.)
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3) Cookies Policy (can be a section inside Privacy Policy)
We use cookies and similar technologies to operate the Sites, remember preferences, understand traffic and usage, and improve performance. Canadian privacy guidance recognizes cookies/tracking as a privacy issue requiring transparency and (where appropriate) consent.
Types of cookies we may use
• Strictly necessary: security, load balancing, session management, login functionality.
• Performance/analytics: understand how visitors use the Sites.
• Functional: remember preferences.
• Advertising/targeting (if enabled): measure campaigns and deliver relevant content.
Your choices
You can control cookies through browser settings and (where implemented) our cookie banner/preferences tool. Disabling certain cookies may affect Site functionality.