Rules for messages, reports and complaints
Last updated 12 October 2026. These rules are part of the terms on which you use Homeproof.
What people can put on Homeproof
Three things on Homeproof come from the people using it rather than from us:
- Messages between a property's seller (or the estate agent acting for them) and someone thinking of buying it;
- papers a seller uploads, such as a gas safety record, which anyone with the certificate link can open;
- a seller's signed answers about their property.
These rules cover all three.
Who can send messages
Anyone with a confirmed account who has checked an address from their own check can ask its seller to talk, if the seller allows it. A request carries no message. A buyer whose check matches a seller who is taking requests is told that a seller of the property uses Homeproof. Each side sees the other's first name and surname. Sellers can say no with a reason, stop a person asking again, or stop all requests about their property. You can only reach a seller here if they use Homeproof; if a home is sold through an estate agent, contact the agent.
Both people must be signed in to an account with a confirmed email address. Each buyer has one conversation with the seller on each property check. Messages are text only: no pictures, no files, no group conversations, nothing public. You must be 18 or over to have an account.
Identity not checked. We confirm that an email address works, nothing more. A name on a message is the name the person gave us. Do not rely on a message for anything a buyer or seller would normally confirm through their conveyancer.
Bank details and payments
Never send or act on bank details by message, even from someone you know. Fraudsters take over email accounts and change bank details. Check any account number by phone with your conveyancer, on a number you already have.
A message that looks like bank details is not sent. Before a message is sent, an automatic check looks for a sort code together with an account number (including one split across two messages), either one beside words like "sort code" or "account number", or an IBAN. If it finds one, the message is not sent and not kept: you are told why and can take the details out. This is the only automatic check that stops anything.
Two other automatic steps never stop or remove anything: a message holding a web address gets a warning line under it, and a paper a seller uploads is read by machine so that facts in it (the date of a gas safety check, say) can be shown beside the seller's questions. Nothing automatic reads, ranks, hides or removes what people write or upload beyond that.
What is not allowed
- Anything illegal. That includes fraud and scams; threats, harassment, stalking and abuse; hate; terrorism; child sexual abuse or exploitation; intimate images of anyone shared without their consent; and sexual content of any kind.
- Asking for money, bank details, passwords or codes, or sending anyone to a payment page.
- Pretending to be someone else, or to act for someone you do not.
- Spam, advertising, and anything that has nothing to do with buying or selling the property.
- Other people's personal details, unless they have agreed.
If you break these rules we may remove what you wrote or uploaded, switch off your messages, or shut your account so nobody can sign in to it.
How we protect people from illegal content
- Terrorism content: we remove it as soon as we know of it, shut the account so nobody can sign in to it, and tell the police. An account run by or for a proscribed organisation is shut.
- Child sexual abuse material: we remove it as soon as we know of it, shut the account, and report it to the police. Messages cannot carry pictures or files. Only whoever ran a property's check (or a colleague in the same firm), or the seller they invited, can add papers to it, and only when signed in to an account with a confirmed email address: every paper added since 4 October 2026 is recorded against the account that added it, for as long as that account exists.
- Intimate images shared without consent: the person shown, or someone acting for them, can report one with the Report link beside a paper, or by email. If it is what the report says, we take it down within 48 hours of the report.
- All other illegal content, including fraud, threats and hate: we remove it as soon as we know of it, and we can switch off the sender's messages or shut the account. For a seller's signed answers, we ask whoever ran the check to change them, and delete the check if they will not.
We know of content when someone reports it to us or when we come across it ourselves. We do not read conversations nobody has reported.
Reporting
Anyone can report, whether or not they have an account:
- a message: the Report button under any message from the other side of your conversation;
- a seller's paper: the Report link beside it;
- a seller's answers: the "Report these answers" link beside them;
- anything else: email hello@gethomeproof.co.uk.
Reasons you can give:
- An intimate image of someone, shared without their consent
- A scam or fraud, such as a request for money or bank details
- Threats, harassment or abuse
- Hate towards a person or group
- Sexual content
- Spam or advertising
- Something else illegal
What happens next:
- We are told at once. We look at every report, usually within two working days, sooner for anything threatening someone's safety, and within 48 hours for an intimate image.
- For a message, we read it and up to three messages before it, so we can understand it.
- If we find it is illegal or breaks these rules, we remove it. For a message, we may also switch off the sender's messages. Otherwise it stays.
- If you are signed in, or you gave us an email address, we email you what we decided. When we remove a paper, we tell whoever uploaded it, or else whoever ran the check, and how to appeal.
If someone is in danger, call 999. To report fraud, contact Report Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or at reportfraud.police.uk.
Blocking
Either side can block a conversation. Nothing more can be sent in it until the side that blocked it opens it again. Blocking also ends any link between the buyer and the property.
Complaints and appeals
Email hello@gethomeproof.co.uk with the word "Complaint" in the subject if:
- you think something on Homeproof is illegal, or against these rules;
- you reported something and disagree with what we did, or we have not answered;
- we removed something of yours, switched off your messages or shut your account, and you think we were wrong (an appeal);
- you think our automatic bank-details check stopped a message it should not have;
- you think we are not doing what these rules say.
We acknowledge a complaint within two working days and give you our answer within ten working days. A complaint about an intimate image is dealt with first, within 48 hours. If an appeal shows we were wrong, we put back what we can, switch your messages back on and open your account again. You can also tell Ofcom, which regulates online safety, though it does not decide individual complaints.
How long messages and reports are kept
A request to talk that ended without an answer, or that the buyer withdrew, is deleted 30 days after it ended (a request lasts 90 days); one the seller said no to, 30 days after the day it would have ended; one the seller agreed to, 30 days after the agreement.
A conversation is deleted 12 months after its last message, or sooner if the property's check is deleted. A report, with its copy of the reported message or a description of the reported paper, is kept for 12 months after we deal with it. The privacy notice says more.
Who is responsible
Phil Hurman, trading as Homeproof, runs this service and is the person responsible for keeping it safe, for reports and for complaints. We review the risks of what people put on Homeproof at least once a year, and before we change how messages or uploads work.