This Neighbor Agreement ("Agreement") is between you and Show-Me Neighbors, LLC, a Missouri limited liability company ("Show-Me Neighbors," "we," "us" or "our"). It covers your use of the Show-Me Neighbors website, app and phone line (together, the "Platform") to offer companion visits, rides and errands to older adults ("clients") and their families. Please read it carefully and keep a copy. You can always find the current version at showmeneighbors.com/neighbor-agreement.html.
By typing your name and signing, you agree to everything in this Agreement. If you do not agree, please do not sign or use the Platform as a Neighbor.
1. Who can be a Neighbor
You must be at least 21 years old, legally allowed to work in the United States, and pass our interview, background check and driving record check. Everything you tell us in your application and later must be true, accurate and complete, and you agree to keep it up to date. You are responsible for your own phone, internet and any other equipment you need to use the Platform.
2. You are an independent contractor
You are an independent contractor, not an employee of Show-Me Neighbors. Nothing in this Agreement, our policies, or anything we say or write creates an employment relationship or a promise of employment.
- Taxes. We do not withhold any taxes from your pay. You are responsible for paying all federal, state and local taxes on what you earn. We will send you a Form 1099 when the law requires it. If we ask, you agree to show that your taxes have been paid, and you agree to cover any cost to us caused by your late or unpaid taxes.
- No employee benefits. You are not eligible for employee benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, unemployment insurance or workers' compensation from Show-Me Neighbors. Any insurance you want for yourself is your choice and your cost.
- Other work. You may work for anyone else, including other companies, as long as it does not break the "Families book through us" section below.
- Speaking for us. You may not sign contracts, make promises or take on debts in Show-Me Neighbors' name, and you may not say you are our employee. You may not use our name or logo for your own business without our written permission.
- No uniform or purchases. You are never required to wear clothing with our name or logo, or to buy or rent anything from us.
- How you do the work. You decide how you carry out each visit, as long as you follow the law, this Agreement and the client's reasonable wishes.
We may also work with as many other Neighbors as we choose.
3. Your hours and visits
You choose when you are available, and you can change it any time in the app. You are free to accept or turn down any visit offer. We do not require you to take a minimum number of visits.
Once you accept a visit, the client is counting on you. Please show up on time. If you cannot make it, cancel in the app as soon as you know so we can find someone else. We keep a record of cancellations and missed visits. If you cancel or miss visits much more often than most Neighbors, or you miss a visit without telling us, we may pause or end your access to the Platform.
4. What Neighbors do and never do
Neighbors offer companionship and everyday help: conversation and company, rides, errands, shopping, going along to appointments, light help around the house, and help with phones and technology.
Neighbors never:
- give hands-on personal care, such as bathing, dressing, grooming, help in the bathroom, or feeding;
- give, sort, or remind about medicine, or do any medical or nursing task, such as wound care;
- lift or carry a person, or help someone move from a bed, chair, car or the floor;
- use ladders or power tools, do yard work, or do anything that is unsafe for you or the client;
- take or borrow money, cards, checks, passwords, or gifts beyond a small thank-you treat, or get involved in a client's finances, will or property;
- bring other people or pets on a visit.
If a client asks for something on this list, kindly say no and tell us in the app.
5. Safety and emergencies
If a client falls, is hurt, or seems very unwell, never try to lift them. Call 911 first. Stay with them until help arrives, then call the Show-Me Neighbors on-call line and write what happened in the app. If you ever feel unsafe on a visit, leave and call us.
6. Driving
Because Neighbors give rides and run errands, you agree to:
- have a valid driver's license and a registered vehicle that you own or are fully allowed and insured to drive;
- keep auto insurance that meets or exceeds Missouri's minimum requirements. Whether to buy more coverage is your decision, and we suggest you talk with your insurance agent about driving for a service like ours;
- show us proof of insurance when we ask and whenever it changes, and tell us at least 30 days before your insurance ends or is cancelled;
- keep your vehicle safe and in good working order, and obey all traffic laws;
- use your phone only hands-free while driving, and only for calls or directions. Never text, email, browse or watch anything while driving;
- never have family, friends, pets or anyone else in your car while you are driving a client or driving as a Neighbor.
You are responsible for your own vehicle costs, tickets, tolls and parking. When a visit includes miles driven for the client, the client pays the posted mileage rate through the app and it is added to your pay.
7. Background and driving record checks
You agree to a criminal background check and a driving record check before you start, and again at least once a year, and at other times when we have a good reason. You will give separate consent on the background check company's own secure form, as the law requires. Staying a Neighbor depends on passing these checks.
The cost of your checks. Applying is free, and we pay for your checks up front. After you start, a small amount comes out of each of your first visits until the check cost is covered. After you complete the number of visits shown in the app, we pay the whole amount back to you. If you stop being a Neighbor before then, the amount already taken out is not paid back. The current amounts are always shown in the app and the application.
8. Pay
The pay for each visit is shown in the app before you accept it. We pay you weekly by direct deposit through our payment company for the visits you finished, minus any check cost described above. You agree to give accurate bank details through the payment company's secure page. If you think a payment is wrong, tell us within 30 days.
9. Tell us right away
You agree to tell us right away, in writing (email or the app), if:
- you are in a car accident while working as a Neighbor;
- your driver's license is suspended, revoked or expires, or your insurance changes or ends;
- you are charged with or convicted of any crime, or plead guilty or no contest to one;
- something happens on a visit that affects a client's health or safety, or anyone else's;
- you are named in any claim or lawsuit about your work as a Neighbor.
Not telling us may end your access to the Platform.
10. Privacy and confidentiality
As a Neighbor you will learn private things about clients and their families, such as their health, home, routines and finances, and you may see private information about Show-Me Neighbors and how the Platform works ("Confidential Information"). You agree to:
- use Confidential Information only to do your visits;
- never share it with anyone, including on social media, unless the law requires it;
- never take photos or videos of clients or their homes without their permission;
- keep your phone locked and protect any device you use for the Platform;
- tell us right away if you think information was shared by mistake, or someone got into your account.
This promise continues even after you stop being a Neighbor.
11. Families book through us
Clients and families you meet through Show-Me Neighbors keep booking through the Platform. While you are a Neighbor, and for 12 months after you stop, you agree not to offer or provide paid services directly to any client or family you met through Show-Me Neighbors, or to use what you learned through the Platform to go around us. This does not stop you from working for anyone you did not meet through us.
12. Your account
Keep your sign-in private. Never let anyone else use your account or do visits in your place. You are responsible for everything done with your account. Tell us right away if you think it was misused. We may turn off any account at any time.
13. Using the Platform fairly
You agree not to use the Platform for anything illegal or harmful; not to post or send anything false, harassing, hateful, threatening or that invades someone's privacy; not to use a false name; not to try to break into, overload or copy the Platform or other people's accounts; and not to use robots or scrapers on it. You agree to follow our anti-discrimination and anti-harassment rules and our other Neighbor policies, which we will share with you and may update. If a policy ever conflicts with this Agreement, this Agreement controls.
14. Our name and app
The Show-Me Neighbors name, logo, app, website and content belong to Show-Me Neighbors, LLC. We give you a limited, personal permission, which we can take back, to use the Platform only to work as a Neighbor. You may not copy, change, sell or share the Platform or its content.
15. Ending this Agreement
You may stop being a Neighbor at any time by telling us in writing. We may pause or end your access to the Platform at any time, for any reason, with or without notice. We will pay you for visits you completed before then, minus any amounts described in section 7. Sections 2, 10, 11, 16, 17 and 20 continue after this Agreement ends.
16. The Platform is offered "as is"
We work hard to keep the Platform running well, but we provide it "as is" and "as available," without promises of any kind, including that it will always work, be error-free, or fit a particular purpose. To the fullest extent the law allows, Show-Me Neighbors and its owners, managers, employees and partners are not responsible for indirect, special, incidental, consequential or punitive damages, or lost profits, related to your use of the Platform. If we are found responsible for anything, our total responsibility to you is limited to the pay you earned through the Platform in the 3 months before the claim.
17. Your responsibility to us
You agree to defend and cover Show-Me Neighbors and its owners, managers, employees and partners against claims, costs and damages, including reasonable attorney fees, that come from your breaking the law, your breaking this Agreement, or your carelessness or wrongdoing while working as a Neighbor or driving. You will not settle any such claim for us without our written OK.
18. Photos and stories (only if you say yes)
We will only use your photo, video, name or words in our marketing if you tick the box saying yes when you sign, or give us permission later. If you say yes, you allow Show-Me Neighbors to use them, without payment, on our website, social media, ads and printed materials. You can change your mind any time by emailing hello@showmeneighbors.com. We will stop using them in anything new, though we cannot take back things already printed or posted by others.
19. Signing and notices online
You agree that signing by typing your name online is the same as signing on paper, and that we may keep an electronic record of this Agreement and your signature. You agree that we may send you notices and documents by email or in the app, and that a printed copy of this Agreement and those notices may be used as evidence like any paper business record.
20. Missouri law and disputes
Missouri law governs this Agreement. If there is ever a disagreement, we both agree to first try to work it out by talking. If that does not work, any court case will be brought in the state or federal courts serving the county where Show-Me Neighbors has its main office in Missouri, and we both agree to those courts. If a court finds that one side substantially won, the other side pays the winner's reasonable attorney fees and court costs. Either side may ask a court to stop a breach of sections 10 or 11 right away.
21. Changes to this Agreement
We may update this Agreement from time to time. We will email you or show a notice in the app at least 14 days before a change takes effect, unless the law requires a faster change. If you keep using the Platform after the change takes effect, you accept the new version. For big changes we may ask you to sign again.
22. The rest
This Agreement, together with our Neighbor policies and our privacy policy, is the whole agreement between you and Show-Me Neighbors about being a Neighbor. If any part is found to be unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a part right away, we can still enforce it later. You may not transfer this Agreement to anyone else. We may transfer it if Show-Me Neighbors is sold or reorganized.
Questions
Email us at hello@showmeneighbors.com. We are happy to explain anything here before you sign.