Terms & conditions

1. Who we are and what HomeChefs is

HomeChefs is operated by Lana Seelenbinder, trading as HomeChefs, 46 Tratinska Street, Zagreb, Croatia, OIB 81872952556 ("HomeChefs", "we", "us").

HomeChefs is a marketplace. We provide the software that lets home cooks publish meals and lets customers nearby find, order and pay for them. We do not cook, own, store, inspect or sell the food. When you order, the sales contract is between you and the cook. Our contract with you is about the use of the platform and the payment handling that goes with it.

2. A few words we use

• Cook — a person who publishes a kitchen and sells meals through HomeChefs.
• Customer — a person who orders a meal.
• Kitchen — a cook's page, with their dishes, hours, area and delivery radius.
• Order deadline — the latest time an order can be placed for a given slot, set by the cook.
• Handover — the moment the food passes from cook to customer, at collection or delivery.
• Handover code — the short code that confirms handover took place and releases payment.
• Service fee — the percentage HomeChefs keeps from the applicable value of a completed order, currently —%. Payment-provider banking, card-processing and payout charges are separate and are not included in this percentage split. The administrator may change the percentage at any time.

3. Accounts and eligibility

• You must be at least 18, or old enough to enter a binding contract where you live, and able to do so.
• Give accurate details and keep your email address current — it is how orders, receipts and disputes reach you.
• Keep your login private. Tell us immediately if you think someone else has access.
• One account per person. Cooks additionally accept the cook terms.
• Business use, resale of our data and automated access are not permitted without our written agreement.

4. How an order is made

A dish shown in the app is an invitation to order, not a binding offer. Your order is an offer to buy from the cook. The contract between you and the cook forms only when the cook confirms the order in the app. Until then, the cook may decline — for example if they have run out of an ingredient or cannot make the slot.

Portions are limited and are reserved for you the moment your payment is authorised. If the last portion is taken while you are checking out, the order will not go through and you will not be charged.

5. Pre-ordering, cut-off times and slots

Many kitchens cook to a weekly rhythm rather than on demand. A dish is only offered on the weekdays the cook has chosen for it, and the kitchen sets one cut-off time that applies to its whole menu — for example, orders for tomorrow must be in by 18:00 today. Before you pay, the app shows you the collection or delivery windows that are genuinely still available and asks you to pick one; you cannot pay without choosing a slot.

• You may order ahead for a future day, within the range the kitchen allows.
• Once the cut-off for a slot has passed, that slot disappears. This is normal, not an error.
• If the kitchen closes that day at short notice, or withdraws a dish you had already paid for, the order is cancelled and refunded in full and you receive a message apologising. You do not need to do anything.
• Times shown are the kitchen's local times, which matters if you are ordering across a border or a time zone.

6. Confirmation window

HomeChefs sets the confirmation time limit, and each kitchen chooses automatic or manual confirmation. The deadline that applies to your order is shown on its order page and cannot extend beyond its collection or delivery slot. If the order is not confirmed before that deadline, it is cancelled automatically and a full refund or payment release is initiated. Your payment provider determines when the money becomes available again. No service fee is charged on a cancelled order.

A customer can switch between collection and delivery only if the kitchen allows it, a same-day slot is available, and all order and kitchen deadlines still permit the change. The app shows any price difference before confirmation. A cash total changes with the order; a lower card price is refunded, and a higher card price requires an additional card payment. A card switch takes effect only after that payment or refund is confirmed. Otherwise the original order stays in place.

7. Prices, fees and taxes

• Cooks set their own prices, delivery fees and minimum order values. The price you see at checkout is the price you pay.
• HomeChefs charges the cook a service fee of —% of the applicable order value on completed orders; the cook's share is —%. The cook's share is calculated before the payment provider's banking, card-processing and payout charges. Those charges are deducted separately and are not included in the percentage split.
• The administrator may change the service-fee percentage at any time. The figure shown in the app and on this page is the current figure for new orders. An order already placed keeps the fee recorded when it was created.
• Cooks are responsible for their own taxes, invoices and any registration their activity requires. HomeChefs does not provide tax advice.
• The price shown at checkout is the full amount you pay. A registered kitchen may include sales tax in that price; where it does, the tax amount and kitchen registration number appear on the order record. Kitchens that do not charge sales tax do not add it to their orders.
• Where a kitchen's reward points reduce an order, the service fee is calculated on the reduced amount you actually pay.
• Prices are shown in the currency of the country the kitchen cooks in, which may differ from your own if you are near a border.
• The cook bears payment-provider costs, including payment processing, refunds, payouts and recovery of the cook's fees. These are not additional HomeChefs charges to the customer after checkout. Your own bank may separately charge you for currency conversion or services under your agreement with it.

8. Payment and when money moves

• Card payments are handled by our payment provider. HomeChefs never sees or stores your card number.
• Your payment is taken or authorised when you order, and is held. The cook is not paid at that moment.
• Money is released to the cook after handover is confirmed with the handover code, or after our team resolves a dispute in their favour.
• Payouts to the cook require verified identity and bank details with our payment provider. Until that is complete, funds stay held.
• If a payment fails, is reversed or is charged back, we may pause the order, hold payouts and ask you to settle the amount.

Missed collections are reviewed under our collection and refund policy. Time passing does not establish fault. A verified customer no-show requires timely recorded readiness, kitchen availability and contact evidence, reasonable unrecoverable costs and an opportunity to respond. Eligible undisputed cases may close automatically; unresolved exceptions go to support. A prepaid no-show may be allocated using the existing fee split and banking-cost rules; unpaid cash creates no payment, payout or collection-fee debt. Statutory rights and exceptional circumstances remain protected. No-show orders are not recorded as completed meals.

9. Handover codes

Each order gets a short code, visible to the customer. At handover the customer shares it and the cook enters it. That single step proves the food changed hands and releases the money.

• Do not share the code before you have the food. It confirms actual receipt; a separately reviewed no-show follows the refund policy.
• Cooks must not ask for the code in advance, and must not enter a code they were not given at handover.
• If a handover happened but the code was never entered, either side can ask us to review the order. We look at the order history, the chat and both accounts before releasing or refunding.

10. Cash on handover

Some kitchens accept cash at handover. The customer pays the cook directly, and the service fee of —% is still owed to HomeChefs by the cook on that order. We recover it from the cook's saved payment method, eligible future earnings or a separate fee payment. Kitchens have a cash allowance; when it is reached, further cash orders are unavailable while card orders remain available if the kitchen is otherwise eligible. This fee is the cook's responsibility, not an extra charge to you. Cash orders still use handover codes.

11. Collection and delivery

• Cooks publish their collection and delivery times, their days, and any days they have blocked. Orders can only be placed for open slots.
• For delivery, the cook sets the radius they can genuinely reach. Distances shown in the app are approximate and calculated from your chosen area, not tracked in real time.
• Give a reachable delivery address and be available during your booked window. If delivery cannot be completed, arrival evidence, contact attempts and the waiting period are recorded. The order may become a collection only after the kitchen confirms safe return and availability. Waiting alone never proves handover; the refund policy governs any unresolved no-show.
• Exact kitchen addresses are only shown to a customer with a confirmed order; a delivery address is only shown to the cook fulfilling it.

12. Cancellations and refunds

The full policy is on the refunds and cancellations page and forms part of these terms. In short: before the cook confirms you can cancel for a full refund; after confirmation it depends on how close the order deadline is; if a cook cancels or does not confirm, you are refunded in full. Because meals are prepared to order and perishable, the 14-day distance-selling withdrawal right does not apply once preparation has begun.

13. Reward points

A kitchen may run its own reward scheme. The points are issued by that kitchen, not by HomeChefs, and the kitchen funds every discount it grants. We only keep the record and apply the discount at checkout.

• Points are earned only at the kitchen that issued them and can only be spent there. They cannot be transferred, sold, combined between kitchens or exchanged for cash.
• 100 points equal one unit of the kitchen's currency when redeemed. The kitchen sets how many points you must hold before you can use them, the largest share of a meal they can cover, and whether points expire.
• Points are credited once an order is completed. A discount applies to the food only — never to a delivery fee — and the service fee is calculated on the reduced amount you actually pay.
• If an order is refunded, points you spent on it are returned and points you earned from it are taken back. On a partial refund we adjust proportionately.
• Points are not money and are not protected as a deposit. If a kitchen stops trading, closes its scheme or leaves HomeChefs, points held there may lapse. The kitchen's own obligations are set out in the cook terms.
• We may cancel points earned through fake orders, duplicate accounts or other abuse.

14. Saved meals, sharing, leaderboards and badges

• Meals you save are private to your account. Saving one does not reserve it or hold a price.
• Share links and QR codes lead only to pages that are already public. Sharing a kitchen does not share your account or order details.
• Leaderboards and achievement badges are worked out automatically from real orders and eligible reviews within an area. They cannot be bought, requested or negotiated, and they can change or disappear as activity changes.
• A ranking or badge reflects activity on the platform. It is not a guarantee of food quality, hygiene or safety, and it is not an endorsement by us.

15. Connected apps and assistants

You may connect an approved assistant or app to your HomeChefs account. After you grant permission it can browse public kitchens and read your own orders on your behalf, within the limits you approved.

• You stay responsible for anything done through a connected app, as if you had done it yourself.
• It only ever sees your own data — never another person's account, chat or address.
• You can withdraw the permission at any time in your account, and we may block an app that behaves unsafely.
• Automated access outside an approved connection is not allowed; see the acceptable use policy.

16. Chat, reviews and your content

• Order chat exists so cooks and customers can sort out a specific order. Keep it to that.
• Reviews may only be written by a customer who received the order, and must be honest. We may hide reviews that break the rules, and cooks may reply publicly once.
• You keep ownership of the photos and text you upload. You give HomeChefs a licence to show, resize and distribute them for the purpose of running and promoting the service, and you confirm you have the right to upload them.
• Cooks may use the built-in AI helpers for photos and text. Suggestions are proposals only: the cook remains responsible for every published word and image, and AI must never be used to invent ingredients, allergens or dishes.
• We may remove content that breaks these terms, the acceptable use policy or the law.

17. Rules of use

The acceptable use policy lists what is not allowed and applies to everyone. Two rules deserve repeating: do not arrange payment outside HomeChefs to avoid the fee, because it strips the customer of every protection; and do not misrepresent food, allergens or who cooked it.

18. Suspension and ending your account

• You can stop using HomeChefs at any time and ask us to delete your account. We keep order and payment records for as long as tax law requires.
• We may limit, suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, presents a safety or fraud risk, or leaves fees unpaid. Where we can, we tell you why and give you a chance to respond.
• Suspension does not cancel obligations already incurred: outstanding orders are honoured or refunded, and fees already owed remain owed.
• We may withhold a payout while an order, a report or a chargeback is being investigated.
• A kitchen can decide not to take new orders from a particular customer. If that happens you see a short note on that kitchen's page, and you can still order from every other kitchen on HomeChefs.
• Orders already placed are not affected: they are fulfilled or refunded as normal, and your reviews, reward points and refund rights stay exactly as they are.
• A kitchen may do this only for lawful, reasonable reasons. Unlawful discrimination, and retaliation for a lawful complaint, report or honest review, are not allowed. You can ask us to review the decision at support@home-chefs.app. Nothing here waives your statutory rights.

19. Our responsibility and its limits

• We provide the platform with reasonable skill and care, but cannot promise it is uninterrupted or error free.
• We are not the seller of the food. The cook is responsible for its preparation, safety, description and allergen information, and for any licence their activity needs.
• We are not liable for a cook's or a customer's behaviour, for food quality, or for losses we could not reasonably foresee.
• Where we are liable to a customer for our own failure in the platform or payment handling, our liability per order is limited to the value of that order, and otherwise to the fees you paid us in the previous twelve months.
• Nothing here excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or anything else that cannot be excluded by law. Your mandatory consumer rights are unaffected.

20. Events outside our control

Neither side is responsible for a failure caused by something genuinely outside their control — power or network failures, provider outages, extreme weather, strikes, illness or public authority measures. Where an order cannot go ahead for such a reason, it is cancelled and refunded.

21. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the service develops or the law changes. The updated date at the top always shows the current version. For changes that materially affect you, we give notice by email or in the app before they take effect. Continuing to use HomeChefs after that means you accept the new version; if you do not, you can close your account.

22. Law, disputes and complaints

Croatian law applies, and the courts of Zagreb have jurisdiction. This does not remove the protection of mandatory consumer law in your own country of residence. Consumers in the EU can find information about available dispute-resolution bodies through the European Commission's consumer dispute-resolution directory.

Please come to us first — most things are quicker to fix directly. Email support@home-chefs.app with your order number and we will reply in writing. Operator details are on the operator details page.