Terms of Use

By accessing or using this website, you accept without limitation or qualification, and agree to be bound by, the following terms and conditions ("Terms of Use").  Except as otherwise indicated, Domu may modify the Terms of Use at any time at its sole and absolute discretion, and any such modifications become effective immediately. Your continued access and/or use of this website following the posting of revised Terms of Use means that you accept and agree to any and all changes to the Terms of Use. If you do not agree to these Terms of Use, then you have no right to access or use this site. 

Domu.  Domu is an apartment listing service.  It neither offers real estate brokerage services nor charges commissions.  It allows anyone to advertise one or more Chicago apartments for rent.  The Domu website is made available to any member of the public who accepts and abides by the Terms of Use.  Any prospective renter may execute and save searches for no charge.  Domu does not negotiate leases, schedule showings, rate or endorse landlords, rate or endorse prospective tenants, collect or process any rent payments on behalf of landlords, managers, or renters, does not warranty the safety or habitability of any apartment (see the "Disclaimer Of Warranties" below), and does not participate in any way in the consummation of any leasing transaction. Domu provides a method for renters to contact landlords but does not participate in any communications between the parties.

License.  Domu grants you a limited, revocable, nonexclusive license to use this website consistent with these Terms of Use.  This license may be terminated by Domu at any time and in any manner, intentionally or inadvertently, with or without cause, and with or without notice.

Conduct.  You agree not to post any content (including text, images, videos, graphics, hyperlinks, and files) that (i) contains offensive words or images, including matter which is racist, discriminatory, vulgar, pornographic, obscene, libelous, defamatory, or abusive, (ii) violates any person's rights of privacy or publicity; (iii) purports to impersonate any other person, (iv) incites or threatens violence, (v) contravenes any federal, state, or local law relating to equal opportunity in the sale or rental of real estate, (vi) contravenes the Illinois Real Estate License Act, 225 ILCS 454/1 et seq., including any and all prohibitions against "blind advertising," (vii) contravenes the rules and regulations of any multiple listing service, (viii) creates a duplicate advertisement of an apartment or unit that is already advertised on Domu, (ix) is false or misleading, or which would operate as a deceptive trade practice; (x) infringes upon any trademark, patent, copyright, or other proprietary or intellectual property right, or (xi) induces a user to share personally identifiable information for an unlawful purpose. In addition, any time you post any content on the website, you represent and warrant that your content will not constitute a breach of the foregoing obligations and that you possess all of the necessary rights, titles, licenses, permissions, approvals, and/or authorizations to submit such content. Domu reserves the right to delete any listing, or portion of a listing, that violates these rules without providing a refund.

Unless you are a general purpose search engine, you agree (i) not to attempt to gain access to the Domu server other than through the user interface made available on the website and (ii) not to use any manual or automated mechanism or software, including spiders, bots, crawlers, indexers, or worms (collectively, “automated indexers”) to access, scrape, or crawl this website for any purpose, including to monitor, gather, copy,  systematically retrieve, or harvest any data from the Domu website, or to post any content to the website.  No matter who you are, you also agree (i) not to engage in any activity that would impair, impede, or disrupt the functionality of the Domu system, including but not limited to employing hot-links to images on Domu's website and uploading of any file or code designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of the Domu system or the computer of any Domu user, (ii) not to decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble or attempt to obtain the source code for the programs, applications, and pages that run on the Domu website or reside on the Domu server (iii) not to use any manual, computerized, or automatic process to post, publish, or copy the material on this website. 

Listings.  Whether you are a landlord, a property manager, or an agent, by listing an apartment for rent you acknowledge and agree that (i) you are authorized to create the listing, (ii) you are willing and authorized to lease the apartment at the price and on the terms set forth in the listing, (iii) you will include in the listing the physical address of the property, including the unit number if applicable, (iv) you will not advertise more than one apartment or building in an individual listing, either by advertising multiple units contemporaneously or by updating the listing to advertise a new unit number or physical address after an initial unit has rented; (v) you will not advertise any product or service other than the apartment or the building itself, (vi) you permit Domu to advertise the listing by placing a sign on the exterior of the apartment building, though Domu does not promise to place any such advertisement, (vii) you permit Domu to edit the description of your unit or building, though Domu does not promise to make any such edits, (ix) you will promptly delete or deactivate any apartment listing after you've found a renter, and (x) you own or have licensed the rights to post all of the content, including photos, data, and text, contained in your listing.  Domu reserves the right to delete any listing, or portion of a listing, that violates these rules without providing a refund.  

Spamming.  You agree not to harvest, by automated means or otherwise, any e-mail address on the Domu website for any purpose other than renting or listing an apartment or contacting Domu regarding the operation of the website.  The transmission of unsolicited commercial e-mail is governed by the federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and the laws of various states, including the Illinois Electronic Mail Act.  You further agree not to use the "Landlord Contact Form" to offer brokerage services of any type or to further any other commercial purpose.

Third-Party Websites.  During the course of your use of the Domu website, you may find links to websites operated by third-parties.  Once you follow any such link and land at a domain that does not contain the words "domu.com" in the uniform resource locator, you have departed from the Domu website.  At that point, you proceed at your own risk, and Domu disclaims all responsibility or liability for any transaction you engage in, any product or service you purchase, or anything that happens to you or your computer.  This does not imply, however, that Domu accepts responsibility for anything that happens to you or your computer during the course of your use of the Domu website.  For more details, please see the "Disclaimer Of Warranties" and "Limitations On Liability" paragraphs below.

Privacy Policy.  You understand and agree to the terms of the Domu Privacy Policy

Copyrights.  You grant Domu a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, sub-licensable, assignable, transferable, non-exclusive worldwide license to reproduce, modify, store, display, distribute, publish, or create derivative works from any content that you post to the Domu website.  All of the content on the Domu website, which includes content posted by the Domu user community, is protected by all copyright and intellectual property laws, as well as international treaties.  This includes all user-content, which is protected as a compilation or collective work.  Any unauthorized collection, aggregation, summary, compilation, display, reproduction, redistribution, retransmission, or reposting or other use of the content on this website is strictly prohibited.

If you are a prospective renter, you are authorized to copy or reproduce content from the website for your own exclusive use and solely to the extent that the information is necessary to assist you with your search.  If you are a general purpose internet search engine, you are authorized to retransmit only such content as is necessary to preview search results, provided such search results contain hyperlinks to the Domu website.  Domu reserves the right to revoke the foregoing authorizations at any time.

Software.  All of the software on this website is owned by Domu and/or its licensors and is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws, including relevant international treaties.  Any unauthorized reproduction, redistribution, publication, display, or other use of the software is prohibited and may result in severe civil and/or criminal penalties.  Violators will be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible.

Disclaimer Of Warranties.  YOU USE THE DOMU WEBSITE AT YOUR OWN RISK.  THE DOMU WEBSITE IS MADE AVAILABLE TO YOU SOLELY ON AN “AS-IS” BASIS, AND, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, DOMU EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  DOMU DOES NOT WARRANT THE COMPLETENESS OR ACCURACY OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE WEBSITE, DOES NOT WARRANT THE FIDELITY OF ANY SEARCHES EXECUTED BY ITS USERS, DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE WEBSITE WILL OPERATE RELIABLY OR ACCORDING TO DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS, DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE WEBSITE WILL BE FREE FROM VIRUSES OR WILL NOT HARM YOUR COMPUTER, DOES NOT WARRANT THE SAFETY, SECURITY, ADEQUACY, OR HABITABILITY OF ANY APARTMENT, DOES NOT WARRANT THAT YOU WILL SUCCESSFULLY RENT YOUR APARTMENT TO ANYONE, DOES NOT WARRANT THAT YOUR TENANT WILL NOT BE A DEADBEAT (or worse), AND DOES NOT WARRANT THE PERFORMANCE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OF ANY GOODS OR SERVICES ADVERTISED ON, OR THE ACCURACY OF ANY CONTENT CONTAINED ON, ANY THIRD-PARTY WEBSITE LINKED TO THE DOMU WEBSITE.

Limitation On Liability.  You acknowledge and agree that a substantial portion of the content on Domu's website is generated by private users and that Domu does not pre-approve such content nor promise to review it. 

DOMU SHALL IN NO EVENT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THE DOMU WEBSITE (EVEN IF DOMU HAS BEEN APPRISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES SUSTAINED AS A RESULT OF ANY CONTENT ON THE DOMU WEBSITE, ANY INTERRUPTION OR DISCONTINUATION OF THE DOMU WEBSITE, ANY LOSSES OR DAMAGES TO YOU RESULTING FROM YOUR DECISION TO SHARE PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH OTHER USERS OF THE DOMU WEBSITE, AND ANY CONTENT CONTAINED ON, OR GOODS OR SERVICES PURCHASED FROM, A THIRD-PARTY WEBSITE.  THIS LIMITATION ON LIABILITY SHALL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER THE LAW.

Indemnification.  You further agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Domu and its respective officers, directors, agents, members, managers, and employees from and against any and all liability, loss, or expense, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising from or relating to your use of the website, including your breach of any of these terms of use.

Infringement.  If you believe your copyright has been violated as a result of the posting of any content on this website, please notify us by sending an email to info@domu.com with the words "Notice Of Copyright Infringement" in the subject line, and please ensure that your notification contains the following things: (i) a specific description of the exact text, image, or video that allegedly infringes your copyright, (ii) the uniform resource locator or, alternatively, a screen shot of the webpage containing the allegedly infringing material, (iii) your name, address, e-mail address, and, if possible, your telephone number, (iv) a statement that you have a good-faith belief that there there is no legal basis for the use of the materials complained of, (v) a sworn statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information contained in your notice is accurate and that you are the owner, or an authorized agent of the owner, of the copyrighted material, and (vi) your electronic signature.  Domu will remove any content that we demterine to be infringing consistent with our obligations under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

Equal Opportunity.  Federal, state, and local anti-discrimination laws, including the federal Fair Housing Act, prohibit discrimination in housing. The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin in the sale, rental, or advertising of dwellings, in the provision of brokerage services, or in the availability of residential real estate transactions. According to regulations promulgated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (also known as HUD), this means that Domu customers who are not exempt from the act may not make, print, or publish, or cause to be made, printed or published, any notice, statement, or advertisement with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation or discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination.

Domu requires landlords and property managers to refrain from posting any material that could be construed as relating to a protected class of people.  Domu will promptly remove any content that is suggestive of a discriminatory motive or is otherwise offensive, and we encourage users to notify us of any listings that they find offensive or discriminatory.  However, because Domu is not able to pre-screen every user-generated posting on its site, it claims the benefit of all protections extended to us under section 230(c) of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, as applied in Chicago Lawyers' Committee For Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. v. craigslist, Inc., 519 F. 3d 666 (7th Cir. 2008).

If you should find a listing that appears to violate any anti-discrimination law or that otherwise seems inappropriate, offensive, or uncivilized, we encourage you to bring it to our attention.

Refunds.  Domu does not provide refunds unless a duplicate listing was mistakenly purchased.  To be eligible for a refund in this circumstance, you must notify Domu of the error within two business days of the purchase.  In addition, Domu may, but shall not be required to, issue refunds in its sole and absolute discretion in cases of fraud or abuse, or in other limited instances. Domu does not provide refunds under any other circumstances. To notify Domu of a request for a refund, you must submit a written explanation of the basis of your claim and send it by e-mail to info@domu.com.  Your notice must include your name and e-mail address, the identification number of the listing for which the refund is requested, and, with respect to the credit card used to make the purchase, your billing address and the last four digits.  If you purchased your listing through pay pal, your notice should include a transaction number or such other information as will allow Domu to identify the charge.

Domu is not responsible for refund requests that are not timely received in accordance with this policy for any reason, including without limitation, web congestion, addressing mistakes, computer or internet downtime, or communication through any medium not expressly referenced herein, including fax transmission or United States mail.

Miscellaneous.   These terms of use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois and without regard to choice-of-law principles.  You consent to personal jurisdiction in the federal and state courts in Cook County, Illinois, and waive any objection based on the doctrine of forum non conveniens.  You agree that any claim or cause of action arising from, or relating to, the Domu website must be filed exclusively in the federal or state courts located in Cook County, Illinois, within one year after the cause of action arises, otherwise the claim or cause of action shall be time-barred.  You further agree not to pursue any claim or cause of action against Domu as the representative of a class of similarly-situated plaintiffs.

If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction holds any provision of these terms of use to be unenforceable, that provision shall be given the maximum effect permissible, and the remaining terms of use shall continue in full force.  Any failure of Domu to assert any claim or take any action pursuant to these terms of use shall not be deemed a waiver of any right hereunder.  These terms of use constitute the entire agreement between the parties regarding the subject matter hereof.

Last Updated: March 2018