Terms of Use

1. Acceptance of Terms

TriCities Board is the operating name of Community Print & Publishing Ltd. These Terms of Use are an agreement between you and Community Print & Publishing Ltd.; "TriCities Board", "we", "our", and "us" refer to Community Print & Publishing Ltd. By accessing or using the TriCities Board website ("tricitiesboard.org"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use and all applicable laws and regulations. If you do not agree with any part of these terms, you may not use our services.

2. Account Registration

• You must be at least 14 years of age to create an account.
• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials.
• You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration.
• You are solely responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.
• You must notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account.

3. User Conduct

When using TriCities Board, you agree not to:

• Post content that is defamatory, obscene, threatening, discriminatory, or hateful.
• Impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or misrepresent your affiliation.
• Upload viruses, malware, or any code designed to disrupt or harm the platform.
• Use the platform for spam, unsolicited advertising, or unauthorized promotional material.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to other user accounts or our systems.
• Violate any applicable local, provincial, national, or international law.

4. User-Generated Content

• Ownership: You retain ownership of content you create and post on TriCities Board.
• License: By posting content, you grant TriCities Board a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use, display, reproduce, and distribute your content on our platform and associated channels.
• Responsibility: You are solely responsible for the content you post. Content must not infringe on any third-party intellectual property rights.
• Removal: We reserve the right to remove any content that violates these Terms or our Community Guidelines without prior notice.
• Backups: We take reasonable steps to protect original content posted on official site surfaces, including copies of the business and organization listing photos and videos we publish. Those systems exist so we can recover content when recovery is possible. They are not a guarantee, and they do not cover everything you upload.
• Keep your own copy: If you want a file to exist forever, keep your own original in a place you control. Uploading it here is not a substitute for that.
• Marketplace and Homes & Spaces videos: these are not archived. After you remove a listing the file is kept for 72 hours so you can download it, and is then deleted permanently.

5. Contributor Accounts

• Contributors are approved users who may submit articles for publication on TriCities Board.
• Contributor status is granted at our sole discretion and may be revoked at any time for violations of our Content Guidelines or these Terms.
• Compensation for published articles is subject to the terms outlined in our Content Guidelines.
• Articles submitted for publication must be original and comply with all applicable guidelines.

6. Marketplace, Homes & Spaces Listings

• TriCities Board provides a platform for users to post classified listings and marketplace items.
• Homes & Spaces is an advertising venue for homes and commercial space for rent or lease, homes, commercial property and land for sale, and local businesses for sale. TriCities Board is not a brokerage. It does not accept rental applications, screen tenants, negotiate or create leases, collect deposits, process rent, present or negotiate purchase offers, hold funds, close transactions, or act as a landlord, tenant, property manager, licensed real estate agent, brokerage, or business broker.
• We do not guarantee the accuracy, quality, or legality of items listed by users, and we do not verify title, ownership, corporate authority, licence status, or any financial figure stated in a listing. Revenue, cash flow, and similar figures in a business-for-sale listing are the seller’s statements and are unverified; obtain independent accounting and legal advice before purchasing.
• All sales, rentals, payments, inspections, transfers, and agreements are conducted directly between users — TriCities Board is not a party to any transaction and does not provide purchase, payment, ownership, tenancy, or fraud protection.
• Advertisers must be the owner or have authority to sell or advertise the property or business, identify their role when requested, disclose required information accurately, and comply with applicable consumer, housing, human rights, tenancy, real estate, vehicle, marine, tax, zoning, and other laws. Advertising in a licensed capacity requires advertising under your own name and brokerage and supplying your B.C. licence number for verification against the BCFSA public register.
• Housing advertisements must describe the property, not who may occupy it. Wording that excludes or discourages people on grounds protected by the B.C. Human Rights Code is prohibited and may be removed.
• Phone confirmation only shows control of a mobile number at the time of confirmation; it is not an identity, ownership, authority, licence, or trustworthiness guarantee. Identity verification (section 6C) confirms that a real, identified person holds the account, and is likewise not an ownership, authority, licence, or financial guarantee.
• You agree to deal honestly and in good faith with other users in all marketplace interactions.
• You must not request passwords, verification codes, gift cards, cryptocurrency, payment-release fees, account-upgrade fees, deceptive overpayment refunds, or banking credentials from another user.
• Marketplace listings expire after 30 days unless renewed. Advertisers must mark completed sales as sold and completed rentals as rented.

The Marketplace Safety & Participation Policy forms part of the rules for using Marketplace and Homes & Spaces.

6B. Marketplace Reporting, Evidence & Enforcement

• You may report suspicious listings, users, and conversations. You must provide honest information and must not submit a knowingly false, retaliatory, or harassing report.
• When suspected fraud is reported, we may preserve a server-generated listing image, structured listing and account snapshots, complaint details, linked conversation content, media references, hashes, and moderation events. A case-scoped hold may preserve later messages in the reported conversation.
• We may calculate an internal explainable risk score to prioritize Admin review. The score does not automatically remove content, restrict an account, decide guilt, or contact law enforcement.
• After manual review, we may take no action, contact involved users, request information, warn or restrict accounts, remove listings, preserve evidence, suspend or block accounts, or reverse a prior action.
• We may disclose lawful records to police or another competent authority when required by law, needed in an emergency, or an administrator determines that suspected serious criminal conduct should be reported. Police decide whether to investigate or lay charges.
• You must not engage in vigilantism, publish accusations, threaten another user, or attempt to identify or punish a person based on a listing, report, warning, or Admin review.

6C. Identity Verification

• One-time government photo-identification verification is required before publishing any Homes & Spaces listing, and before submitting or claiming a business or organization profile. Ordinary marketplace item listings do not require it.
• Verification is performed by our identity provider, Stripe Identity. You submit your identity document and a selfie to that provider; TriCities Board never receives or stores your identity document images. We receive and retain only the outcome, the verified legal name, the document type, and the date of verification.
• The verification fee is CAD $5.00, charged once per account. The fee is waived for owners of businesses on a paid listing plan. Paying the fee covers the identity check only; it does not include advertising, impressions, or any listing upgrade. A one-time advertising credit of 500 ad impressions is included with a paid listing plan (entry-level Established and above), not with the fee. The fee is non-refundable, including where verification fails because the document or selfie could not be matched.
• You must verify your own identity using your own genuine, valid government identification. Attempting to verify using another person’s identity, an altered document, or a photograph of a photograph is prohibited and may result in removal of listings and suspension of your account.
• We may compare your verified legal name against the contact name, company, and any licence claim on your listings. A mismatch is surfaced to administrators for review.
• Verification confirms that a real, identified person holds the account at a point in time. It is not a guarantee of ownership, authority, licence status, solvency, financial accuracy, or trustworthiness, and it does not make TriCities Board a party to any transaction.

See How we verify people and the Privacy Policy for details on what is collected and retained.

6A. Job Postings & Volunteer Opportunities

Businesses and organizations may publish job postings and volunteer opportunities on TriCities Board. TriCities Board is a community information platform only. We are not the employer, recruiter, or volunteer coordinator for third-party listings, and we do not guarantee that any role will be filled, that pay or duties are accurate, or that any application will receive a response.

Employers and organizations are solely responsible for complying with applicable law. See our Recruiting & Job Listings Policy and Applicant & Volunteer Privacy Notice.

7. Intellectual Property

The TriCities Board name, logo, design, graphics, and all original content created by our team are the intellectual property of Community Print & Publishing Ltd. (operating as TriCities Board) and are protected by applicable copyright and trademark laws. You may not copy, reproduce, or distribute any part of our platform without written permission.

8. Third-Party Services

Our platform integrates with third-party services including Google, Facebook, and Supabase for authentication and data management. Your use of these services is subject to their respective terms and privacy policies. TriCities Board is not responsible for the practices of third-party services.

9. Disclaimers

• TriCities Board is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis without warranties of any kind.
• We do not warrant that the platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure.
• We are not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of user-generated content.
• We are not liable for any losses or damages arising from your use of the platform.
• We are not responsible for restoring content that is lost — whether through something outside our control, a third-party outage, a hardware or software failure, an action taken by you or by an administrator, or any other reason. Keep your own original copies of anything you cannot afford to lose.

10. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, TriCities Board and its operators shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of or related to your use of the platform, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

11. Account Suspension & Termination

• We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account at any time for violations of these Terms.
• Users who are permanently banned may not create new accounts.
• Upon termination, your right to use the platform ceases immediately.
• You may delete your own account at any time through your account settings.

12. Modifications to Terms

We may update these Terms of Use from time to time. We will notify users of any material changes by posting the updated terms on this page with a new effective date. Your continued use of the platform after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised terms.

13. Governing Law

These Terms of Use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of British Columbia, Canada, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any disputes arising under these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of British Columbia.

14. Contributor Photo & Media Licensing

• Ownership: Photographs, images, and other media files submitted by contributors as part of an article submission remain the intellectual property of the contributor who created or owns them.
• License Grant: By submitting photographs or other media to TriCities Board, you grant TriCities Board a perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, display, distribute, and publish such media in any and all published materials — including but not limited to online articles, social media posts, newsletters, and promotional materials — for the purposes of TriCities Board business and community operations.
• Attribution: TriCities Board will make reasonable efforts to credit the contributor when displaying their photographs, but is not obligated to provide attribution in all contexts (e.g., social media thumbnails, digital ads).
• Representations: By uploading media, you represent and warrant that you own or have the necessary rights, licenses, and permissions to grant this license, and that the media does not infringe on any third-party intellectual property or privacy rights.
• No Compensation: This license is granted without additional compensation beyond any article publication fees outlined in the contributor agreement. No further royalties or fees are owed for the use of submitted media under this license.
• Work We Commission: Written articles that TriCities Board pays for are the property of TriCities Board. The author keeps the byline and may share our published link anywhere, but a paid piece is not republished in full elsewhere as the author's own work. Video that TriCities Board pays for and crews itself is likewise our property: share the link or the embed freely, but our masters are not re-uploaded to channels outside our own. Video submitted by a business or member remains theirs to post wherever they choose, provided it is not edited in a way that damages the reputation or credibility of TriCities Board, its partners, employees, contractors, or affiliated organizations.

15. Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms of Use, please contact us at: admin@tricitiesboard.org