Terms of Service

1. This Agreement

These Terms are an agreement between you and Reliable Intelligence, Inc., a Delaware corporation doing business as Castellan ("Castellan," "we," "us," or "our"). "You" means the person using our website or, where we are engaged for a property, the property owner and any person signing on the owner's behalf.

When we are engaged for a specific property, you will sign two documents: an Authorization permitting us to act for you before the county, and a Services Agreement setting out the scope of that engagement and our fee. Those signed documents, together with these Terms and our Privacy Policy, form the entire agreement between us.

2. What We Do

Each year, we review available assessment data for enrolled properties. Whether to pursue an appeal for a property in a given year is Castellan's decision, based on factors we weigh in our discretion — including estimated savings, the strength of available evidence, and the costs of pursuing the appeal. A property being assessed above its market value does not by itself mean an appeal will be filed. When we do pursue an appeal, we prepare and file it before the applicable deadline, correspond and negotiate with the assessing authority, and represent it through an administrative hearing where one occurs.

In any year we do not file an appeal for your property, you owe us nothing. Your owner portal shows your property's status at any time.

Unless your Services Agreement says otherwise, our services do not include appeals to a court following an administrative decision, representation on matters other than the assessed value of the property identified, preparation of tax returns, or payment of your property taxes.

3. What We Are Not

• We are not a law firm, and engaging us does not create an attorney-client relationship. We do not provide legal advice. If a matter requires counsel, we will say so, and you may engage counsel separately.
• We do not provide tax, accounting, appraisal, or investment advice. Nothing we provide is a certified appraisal, and our valuation analysis is not an appraisal under the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice unless expressly identified as one and performed by a licensed appraiser.
• We are not your county, and we do not control its deadlines, procedures, decisions, records, or the taxes it bills.

4. Eligibility and Authority

To engage us you must be at least 18 years old and must either own the property or be authorized to act for the owner. If you sign on behalf of an entity, a trust, or a co-owner, you represent that you have authority to bind that party. You agree to tell us if that authority changes or ends.

You also represent that no one else is currently engaged to appeal the same assessment for the same tax year, and that you will tell us if that changes. Duplicate filings can cause a county to reject an appeal.

5. How an Engagement Starts

Submitting a property address or contact information, or receiving our analysis, does not create an engagement and does not obligate either of us. We are engaged for a property only when you have signed the Authorization and Services Agreement for that property and we have accepted the engagement.

We may decline any engagement. Reasons include that the assessment appears fair, that a deadline has passed, that we cannot verify ownership or authority, that we do not operate in the jurisdiction, or that we have a conflict.

6. Fees

We work on contingency. There is nothing to pay up front, and if an appeal does not produce a reduction, you owe us no fee. Our fee is a percentage of the tax savings the appeal produces.

The exact percentage, the definition of savings, how the fee is calculated, and when it becomes payable are set out in the Services Agreement you sign for the property. That document governs. Percentages quoted on our website or in marketing material are illustrative and do not replace it. Fees may differ by state, by property type, and by engagement.

You remain responsible for any government filing fee that the jurisdiction charges, and for paying your property taxes when due, including any temporary or estimated bill issued while an appeal is pending. We do not pay your taxes and cannot stop the county from assessing interest or penalties on unpaid amounts.

7. Your Obligations

• Give us accurate information. Our analysis and the appeal we file depend on what you tell us. Inaccurate or incomplete information can weaken or invalidate an appeal.
• Cooperate and respond in time. Counties impose deadlines on evidence and hearings. If we ask for a document, a photograph, or a decision and you do not respond in time, the appeal may be limited, withdrawn, or lost.
• Forward what the county sends you. Assessment notices and county correspondence often go to the owner of record rather than to us. Send us anything you receive about the property's value promptly. See the Notice requirement below.
• Do not negotiate separately without telling us. If you contact the county about the value yourself while we represent you, tell us, so we do not work at cross purposes.
• Pay your taxes when due. An appeal does not suspend your obligation to pay.

The Notice of Assessed Value

8. No Guarantee, and the Risk of an Increase

We do not guarantee any outcome. No one honestly can. An appeal's result depends on the evidence, the jurisdiction's rules, and the judgment of the assessor or appeals board. We take on appeals we believe the county's own data supports, which is why we analyze before asking you to sign, but a supported appeal can still fail.

Any savings figure, range, percentage, or estimate we provide — on our website, in an analysis, or in conversation — is an estimate based on public assessment data and is not a promise, a guarantee, or a representation that any particular result will be achieved.

9. Where We Provide Services

We provide appeal representation only in the states and counties where we operate and where we are permitted to represent property owners. Our current service areas are the ones listed on our website, which we update as we expand. We may add or stop serving a jurisdiction at any time.

Some states regulate who may represent a taxpayer in an assessment appeal. We will not represent you in a jurisdiction where we are not authorized to do so. If we cannot act for you, we will tell you rather than file.

10. Electronic Signatures and Records

You agree that we may conduct this relationship electronically, and that your electronic signature has the same effect as a handwritten one under the federal E-SIGN Act and applicable state law. When you sign electronically, we retain a record that includes your name as typed or drawn, the date and time, and the IP address used.

You agree to receive agreements, notices, disclosures, and other records electronically, by email or through our website. To read and keep them you need a device with internet access, a current browser, an email account, and the ability to view and save PDF files. You may request a paper copy of anything you signed by emailing us, and you may withdraw your consent to electronic records by emailing us — though we may not be able to represent you if you do, because counties increasingly require electronic filing and signatures.

11. Consent to Contact You

By providing your phone number or email address, you agree that we may contact you at that number or address about a possible appeal, an appeal in progress, and your account — by email, text message, and telephone call, including with automated technology and with prerecorded or artificial voice messages where permitted by law. Some calls may be placed or handled by an automated voice agent using artificial intelligence; where that is the case we will identify ourselves and you may ask to speak with a person.

Consent to receive marketing calls or texts is not a condition of engaging us or of any purchase. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to any text message to opt out and HELP for help. You may opt out of marketing email using the unsubscribe link, and you may ask us on any call to place you on our internal do-not-call list.

Opting out of marketing does not stop communications necessary to represent you in a pending appeal, such as a filing deadline or a request for a document. Calls may be recorded or transcribed as described in our Privacy Policy, and where a state requires it we will tell you at the start of the call. See also our messaging program terms.

12. Payment Authorization

We may require you to place a payment method on file when you sign. Placing a card on file does not charge you anything at that time. You authorize us to charge that payment method for a fee that becomes due under your Services Agreement, after we have notified you of the amount and how it was calculated.

Your payment credentials are held by our payment processor, not by us. All payments are in U.S. dollars. You agree to provide and maintain current, complete, and accurate payment and contact information, and you remain responsible for the fee if a charge fails.

If an amount due is not received by its due date, a late fee of 1.5% of the outstanding balance per month, or the maximum permitted by law, whichever is less, will be added each month until the balance and accrued late fees are paid. Where your Services Agreement states a different rate, that rate controls.

If you dispute a charge, contact us first — we would rather resolve it directly than through your card issuer.

13. Ending an Engagement

Either of us may end an engagement in writing. Your Services Agreement governs what happens to our fee if you terminate after we have filed an appeal — in general, if a reduction is later obtained substantially on the basis of the appeal and evidence we filed, the fee still applies. Read that section of what you sign.

Ending an engagement does not affect obligations that have already accrued, and it does not withdraw a filed appeal unless we or you withdraw it with the county. Sections 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 23 survive termination.

14. Intellectual Property

Our website, our analysis methods, our software, and the materials we produce are owned by us and protected by intellectual property law. You may use the analysis we prepare for your property for your own purposes in connection with your appeal. You may not resell it, republish it as your own, or use our materials to provide competing services.

Data we obtain from public records is not ours, and nothing here restricts your use of public records. You keep ownership of documents you provide to us, and you grant us permission to use them to represent you, including by submitting them to a county.

15. Website Use

You may use our website for its intended purpose. You agree not to access it by automated means in a way that burdens it, attempt to breach its security, misrepresent who you are, submit a property address you have no legitimate interest in, or use it to violate the law. We may suspend access for any of these.

Our website may link to or embed third-party services, such as scheduling and payment providers. Those services have their own terms and privacy practices, and we are not responsible for them.

16. Disclaimers

Except as expressly stated in these Terms or in your Services Agreement, our website and services are provided "as is" and "as available," and we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

We do not warrant that our website will be uninterrupted or error-free, that public records we rely on are accurate or current, or that any estimate will prove correct. Assessment data comes from counties and third-party providers and may contain errors we cannot detect.

Some states do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so some of the above may not apply to you.

17. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither we nor our officers, employees, or contractors will be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost tax savings, lost opportunity, or loss of data, arising out of or relating to these Terms or our services, even if we were advised of the possibility.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability for all claims relating to an engagement will not exceed the greater of (a) the total fees you actually paid us for that engagement, or (b) five hundred dollars ($500).

Nothing in this section limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for our own fraud, willful misconduct, or gross negligence. Some states do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

18. Indemnification

We act on the information you give us and on your representation that you may engage us for the property. If that turns out to be wrong and a third party brings a claim against us because of it, you agree to defend us, indemnify us, and hold us harmless — including reasonable attorneys' fees — for claims arising out of:

• information you gave us being false, misleading, or incomplete, including documents you provided for use in an appeal;
• your breach of these Terms or of your Services Agreement or Authorization; or
• your not having the authority to engage us for the property, including where a co-owner, entity, or trust did not in fact authorize the engagement.

This applies only to claims brought by someone other than you, and it does not apply to the extent a claim arises from our own fraud, willful misconduct, or gross negligence. We will notify you promptly of any claim we believe is covered, and we may take over its defense at our own cost if we prefer.

19. Dispute Resolution and Arbitration

19.1 Talk to us first

If you have a problem, email us at info@castellan.so and describe it. Most disputes can be resolved this way. Before starting arbitration or a lawsuit, you agree to give us written notice of the dispute and 30 days to try to resolve it, and we agree to do the same for you.

19.2 Agreement to arbitrate

If we cannot resolve a dispute informally, you and we agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms, our services, or our communications with you will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its rules then in effect — the Consumer Arbitration Rules where those apply, and the Commercial Arbitration Rules otherwise. The arbitrator, and not a court, decides issues about the interpretation and enforceability of this section, except as stated in Section 19.5.

Arbitration is conducted remotely by default — by videoconference, telephone, or written submissions — so that neither of us has to travel. If you would rather appear in person, you may elect an in-person hearing in the county where you reside. You will never have to travel to another state to arbitrate with us.

19.3 Costs

For a consumer claim, we will pay the arbitration filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees that exceed what it would have cost you to file the same claim in court, unless the arbitrator finds your claim was frivolous or brought for an improper purpose. Each side otherwise bears its own attorneys' fees unless a statute or the arbitrator's award provides otherwise.

19.4 Individual basis only

You and we agree to bring claims only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims or preside over a class proceeding, and may award relief only in favor of the individual party seeking it and only to the extent needed to provide that party relief.

19.5 What is not covered

• Either of us may bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies there.
• Either of us may seek injunctive relief in court to protect intellectual property or to stop unauthorized access to our systems.
• Claims that cannot be arbitrated as a matter of law, including any claim for public injunctive relief, may be brought in court, and that claim will be stayed pending arbitration of the arbitrable claims.

19.6 Your right to opt out

You may reject this arbitration agreement by emailing info@castellan.so with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out" within 30 days after you first agree to these Terms, including your name and the property address. Opting out affects nothing else in these Terms, and we will not treat you differently for doing it. If you opt out, disputes proceed in court under Section 20.

19.7 Severability and survival

If the class-action waiver in Section 19.4 is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, then that claim, and only that claim, will proceed in court rather than in arbitration, and the rest of this section will remain in force. If any other part of this section is found unenforceable, it will be severed and the remainder will stand. This section survives termination of these Terms.

19.8 Time limit

To the extent permitted by law, any claim must be brought within one year after it arises, or it is permanently barred. This does not shorten a limitation period that cannot be shortened by agreement.

20. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. For any dispute not subject to arbitration, you and we agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in California, and we each waive any objection to venue there.

21. Notice for California Residents

Under California Civil Code section 1789.3, California residents are entitled to the following notice. The provider of this service is Reliable Intelligence, Inc., and our contact details are in Section 24. If you have a complaint about our service or want more information, contact us first at info@castellan.so — we would rather resolve it directly.

You may also contact the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210.

22. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms. When we do, we will change the "Last updated" date above. Changes apply going forward. If a change materially affects your rights and you have an active engagement, we will give you notice — by email or a notice on our website — before it applies to that engagement. Continuing to use our website or services after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms. A change to Section 19 does not apply to a dispute of which we already had notice.

23. General

• Entire agreement. These Terms, your signed Authorization and Services Agreement, and our Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us about our services, and replace any earlier understanding.
• Severability. If a provision is unenforceable, it is modified to the minimum extent necessary or severed, and the rest stays in force.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a provision, we have not waived it.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign them to an affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• Independent contractor. We act as your authorized representative for the limited purpose stated in your Authorization. Nothing here creates a partnership, joint venture, employment, or fiduciary relationship.
• Force majeure. Neither of us is liable for a delay or failure caused by something outside our reasonable control, including a county's closure, a change in law, or a failure of a government filing system. This does not excuse your obligation to pay a fee that has come due.
• Notices. We may give you notice by email to the address you provided or by posting on our website. You may give us notice by email to info@castellan.so.
• Headings. Section headings are for convenience and do not affect interpretation.

24. Contact Us

Reliable Intelligence, Inc. (Castellan)
Email: info@castellan.so
Phone: (470) 912-3429