Terms & Conditions of Use

1. Acceptance of these Terms

These Terms & Conditions of Use (“Terms”) are a legally binding agreement between you (“you,” “your,” or “Customer”) and SecondAppraisal Inc. (“SecondAppraisal,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). They govern your access to and use of the SecondAppraisal website, its subdomains, and all related pages, features, content, tools, communications, and services (together, the “Service”).

By accessing or using the Service in any way — including browsing the website, using any free tool, starting a consultation, creating an account, or purchasing services — you agree to be bound by these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and our Legal Disclaimer, each incorporated by reference. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

Where we present a checkbox, button, or similar mechanism asking you to agree to these Terms, checking that box or clicking that button is your electronic signature and your affirmative acceptance of these Terms as of that moment.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a legally binding contract to use the Service. The Service is intended for users located in the United States and concerns U.S. motor-vehicle insurance claims. By using the Service, you represent that you meet these requirements and that the information you provide is accurate.

3. Who we are; nature of the Service

SecondAppraisal is an independent vehicle-appraisal company. We provide a professional, independent opinion of a vehicle’s actual cash value and related consulting support to vehicle owners (policyholders) who have received a total-loss settlement offer from an insurance company. The Service is not, and does not provide:

• Legal services or legal advice. SecondAppraisal is not a law firm and our personnel are not your attorneys. Nothing in the Service creates an attorney-client relationship, and communications with us are not protected by attorney-client privilege. See our Legal Disclaimer.
• Insurance, or insurance advice. We are not an insurance company, agent, or broker, and we do not sell, adjust, or administer insurance.
• A guarantee of any outcome. Our work is advisory and informational in nature (see Section 7).

We act solely on behalf of our clients (the policyholders) and are not affiliated with or acting on behalf of any insurance carrier. Where any service would require a license in your jurisdiction that we do not hold, we will not provide that service there.

4. Definitions

• “Content” means all text, graphics, images, reports, data, software, and other materials available through the Service.
• “Customer Materials” means documents, photographs, vehicle and claim information, and other materials you submit.
• “Reports” means the preliminary valuations, valuation reports, and formal appraisal reports we prepare.
• “Consultation” means an engagement in which you ask us to evaluate your total-loss claim and, where we agree, to prepare Reports and provide negotiation support.

5. Accounts and registration

To use certain features you must create an account. You agree to:

• provide accurate, current, and complete information and keep it updated;
• maintain the confidentiality and security of your account credentials;
• accept responsibility for all activity under your account; and
• notify us immediately at support@secondappraisal.com of any unauthorized use.

6. Description of services and deliverables

Depending on the engagement, the Service may include:

• a free preliminary consultation and preliminary valuation used to screen whether we can assist;
• a total-loss valuation report with comparable-vehicle research and market analysis;
• research and negotiation support to assist you in your negotiations with your insurer; and
• a formal written appraisal report delivered in PDF or similar format.

We may use independent contractors and third-party data sources to perform the Service, and we may modify, add, or discontinue features as described in Section 24.

7. No guarantee of outcome; how the guarantee works

Results vary, and we do not and cannot guarantee any specific outcome, settlement amount, increase, timeline, or success. Any statistics, averages, ranges, testimonials, or examples shown on the website describe past results of other customers, are not a promise or prediction about your claim, and should not be relied upon as a guarantee. Your results depend on facts outside our control, including the condition of your vehicle, your policy language, applicable law, the quality of available evidence, and the decisions of your insurer.

The “minimum guarantee.” Where we advertise a minimum-additional-value guarantee (for example, “at least $1,000 more or you pay nothing”), it operates as follows and only as follows:

• We screen each consultation and only agree to act as your appraiser where we believe we can recover at least the advertised minimum additional value over your insurer’s initial offer.
• If we agree to be your appraiser and ultimately do not deliver at least that minimum additional value, your service fee is waived in full and you pay nothing for the covered services.
• The guarantee is a fee waiver and is not a payment, refund of other amounts, cash guarantee, or promise that your insurer will pay any particular amount. The specific terms in effect when we accept your consultation control, and we will communicate them before you incur any fee.

8. Fees, payment authorization, and billing

Free intake. Your initial consultation and preliminary valuation are free.

Service fee. If we agree to act as your appraiser, our service fee for the standard engagement consists of a total-loss valuation report fee plus research-and-negotiation time, billed at the hourly rate and subject to the hour cap published on our Pricing page and disclosed to you before any charge. Additional or optional services have separate fees that we will disclose and that you must agree to before they are performed.

Authorization and timing. After we agree to take on your consultation, we ask you to authorize payment by securely saving a payment method with our payment processor (a card pre-authorization). There is no upfront payment. We do not charge your payment method until we have completed the work on your behalf, and only in the amount disclosed to you, subject to the fee waiver in Section 7.

No recurring charges. The Service is not a subscription. We do not enroll you in any recurring or auto-renewing charge.

Payment processing. Payments are processed by a third-party payment processor (currently Stripe), subject to the processor’s terms and privacy policy. We do not store full payment-card numbers.

Taxes. You are responsible for any applicable taxes other than taxes on our net income.

Disputes and chargebacks. If you believe a charge is incorrect, contact us at support@secondappraisal.com within 60 days so we can resolve it. Initiating a chargeback without first contacting us is a breach of these Terms; we reserve the right to contest chargebacks we believe are improper and to recover associated costs.

Refunds. Except where required by law or expressly stated in writing (including the fee waiver in Section 7), fees for services already performed are non-refundable.

9. Your responsibilities and representations

You agree that you will, and you represent and warrant that:

• you will provide accurate, current, and truthful information about yourself, your vehicle, and your insurance claim;
• you are the owner of the vehicle at issue, or an authorized representative, and are authorized to engage us and submit the Customer Materials;
• you have the right to submit all Customer Materials and that doing so does not violate any third party’s rights or any law;
• you will not use the Service for any fraudulent, unlawful, or improper purpose, or submit false or misleading information;
• you will cooperate reasonably and promptly during the consultation; and
• you will not misrepresent our Reports, advice, or role to your insurer, any tribunal, or any third party.

You are solely responsible for your own decisions, including whether to accept, reject, or negotiate any insurance settlement offer.

10. Authorization and scope of engagement

By engaging us for a Consultation, you authorize us to analyze your claim, prepare Reports, and prepare materials and provide guidance to assist you in communicating and negotiating with your insurer regarding your vehicle’s value. We act as your independent appraiser and consultant, not as your legal representative, insurance adjuster (except where properly licensed and expressly agreed), or attorney. The scope of any engagement is limited to the services we expressly agree to provide.

11. Customer Materials; license you grant us

You retain ownership of your Customer Materials. You grant SecondAppraisal a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, process, and use the Customer Materials as necessary to provide and improve the Service, to prepare and deliver Reports, and as described in our Privacy Policy. You represent that you have all rights necessary to grant this license. We retain Customer Materials and records of the engagement in accordance with our Privacy Policy and our legal and recordkeeping obligations.

12. Intellectual property

The Service, the Content, and the Reports (excluding your Customer Materials), including all text, graphics, logos, designs, and software, are owned by SecondAppraisal or its licensors and are protected by intellectual-property laws. The “SecondAppraisal” name and logo are our trademarks.

When you have paid for a Report, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use that Report for your own personal, non-commercial purposes in connection with your insurance claim. You may not otherwise copy, modify, distribute, sell, license, or create derivative works from the Service, the Content, or the Reports, and you may not resell or redistribute third-party data except as permitted by the applicable third party.

13. AI and automated processing

We use artificial-intelligence and other automated tools (for example, to read and extract data from uploaded insurer reports and to help generate draft valuation content and analysis). AI-generated output can contain errors, omissions, or inaccuracies. Reports reflect our professional opinion and are subject to human review, but the Service, including any AI-assisted output, is provided without a warranty of accuracy and is not a substitute for your own judgment or for professional advice. You should review all Reports and not rely on any single number as a definitive statement of value.

14. Communications and electronic consent (E-SIGN)

You consent to receive communications from us electronically, including by email, SMS/text message (where you separately opt in), in-app messages, and, where applicable, telephone or automated/AI-assisted calls (where you separately consent). You agree that electronic communications, agreements, notices, disclosures, and records satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing, consistent with the federal E-SIGN Act and similar state laws. SMS and email consents are handled separately from these Terms; where presented as optional, opting in is voluntary and is not a condition of purchasing the Service.

Call recording. Where you consent (for example, by checking the contact-consent box during sign-up), you agree that we may record, monitor, and store telephone calls with you — including voicemails and automated or AI-assisted calls — for quality assurance, training, dispute resolution, and recordkeeping. We will also identify recording at the start of a call where required by law. Some states require all parties to a call to consent to recording; by consenting here and by continuing a call after any recording notice, you provide that consent. You may decline recording on any given call, in which case we may be unable to continue that call by phone and will follow up through another channel.

By providing your phone number and consenting to receive SMS messages, you agree to receive the following types of text messages from SecondAppraisal:

15. Third-party services and links

The Service relies on, and may link to, third-party services and data sources (for example, payment processing, authentication, communications delivery, storage, and vehicle/market data providers). We are not responsible for the availability, accuracy, content, or practices of third parties. Your use of a third-party service may be governed by that party’s terms and privacy policy.

16. Prohibited conduct

You agree not to:

• use the Service in violation of any law or these Terms;
• submit false, fraudulent, or infringing information or materials;
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service or other users’ accounts or data;
• interfere with or disrupt the Service or its infrastructure, including via scraping, automated data collection, denial-of-service activity, or malware;
• reverse engineer or attempt to extract source code except as permitted by law; or
• use the Service or Reports to provide competing services or to resell our Content or third-party data.

17. Confidentiality and no privilege

We treat your Customer Materials and consultation information as confidential and handle them in accordance with our Privacy Policy. However, because we are not a law firm, communications with us are not protected by attorney-client privilege or the work-product doctrine and may be discoverable in litigation. Do not send us materials you wish to keep privileged.

18. Disclaimer of warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service, the Content, and the Reports are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, or that the Service, Content, or Reports are accurate, complete, current, or reliable. We do not warrant or guarantee any particular outcome. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so some of these exclusions may not apply to you.

19. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, SecondAppraisal and its officers, directors, employees, contractors, and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms, under any legal theory, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms will not exceed the greater of (a) the total amounts you paid to SecondAppraisal in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100). Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of these may not apply to you.

20. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless SecondAppraisal and its officers, directors, employees, contractors, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or related to: (a) your use of the Service; (b) your Customer Materials; (c) your breach of these Terms or your representations in Section 9; (d) your violation of any law or any third party’s rights; or (e) any misrepresentation by you to your insurer or any third party. We may assume the exclusive defense of any matter subject to indemnification by you, in which case you agree to cooperate with us.

21. Dispute resolution; binding arbitration; class-action waiver

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY — IT AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS.

21.1 Informal resolution first. Before starting an arbitration or other proceeding, you and SecondAppraisal agree to try to resolve the dispute informally. Send a written notice describing the dispute and the relief sought to support@secondappraisal.com (we will send ours to your contact information on file). The parties will attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute for 60 days after the notice is received. If unresolved, either party may proceed under this Section 21.

21.2 Agreement to arbitrate. Except for the carve-outs in Section 21.5, you and SecondAppraisal agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms (including their formation, interpretation, breach, or termination) will be resolved by final and binding individual arbitration, rather than in court. This agreement to arbitrate is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act.

21.3 Arbitration rules and forum. The arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect, as modified by these Terms, in English. Unless the parties agree otherwise, any in-person hearing will take place in the U.S. county where you reside; claims may also be resolved by telephone, video, or document submission where the rules allow.

21.4 Arbitration costs. The allocation of filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees is governed by the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules. To the extent those rules require SecondAppraisal to bear certain fees for consumer claims, we will do so.

21.5 Carve-outs. This arbitration agreement does not require arbitration of: (a) claims that qualify for small-claims court (so long as the matter stays there and proceeds individually); or (b) claims for injunctive or other equitable relief to address actual or threatened infringement, misappropriation, or violation of intellectual property rights. Either party may also bring an individual action in court to compel arbitration or enforce an award.

21.6 Class-action and jury-trial waiver. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you and SecondAppraisal each waive any right to a jury trial and agree that claims may be brought only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. If this class-action waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim or request for relief, that claim or request will be severed and may proceed in court, while the remainder proceeds in arbitration.

21.7 Right to opt out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement (Sections 21.2–21.6) by sending written notice to support@secondappraisal.com within 30 days after you first accept these Terms. Your notice must include your name, the email associated with your account, and a clear statement that you want to opt out of arbitration. Opting out will not affect any other part of these Terms.

21.8 Severability. If any portion of this Section 21 (other than the class-action waiver, addressed in 21.6) is found unenforceable, that portion will be severed and the remainder will continue to apply.

21.9 Survival. This Section 21 survives termination of these Terms and your relationship with SecondAppraisal.

22. Governing law and venue

These Terms and any dispute not subject to arbitration are governed by the laws of the State of Utah, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, and by applicable U.S. federal law (including the Federal Arbitration Act). For any dispute not subject to arbitration and not brought in small-claims court, you and SecondAppraisal consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in Utah.

23. Termination and suspension

You may stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access or your account, in whole or in part, at any time, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, created risk or legal exposure for us, or for operational, legal, or security reasons. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 7–9, 11–13, and 17–25) will survive.

24. Changes to the Service and to these Terms

We may modify or discontinue the Service at any time, and we may update these Terms from time to time. When we make changes, we will update the “Version” and “Last updated” date above and post the revised Terms; for material changes we will use reasonable efforts to provide additional notice (for example, a notice on the website or by email). Your continued use of the Service after the updated Terms take effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, stop using the Service.

25. General

• Entire agreement. These Terms, with the Privacy Policy, Legal Disclaimer, and any terms expressly agreed for a specific service, are the entire agreement regarding the Service and supersede prior agreements on that subject.
• Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in force, and the unenforceable provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets.
• Force majeure. We are not liable for any delay or failure to perform due to causes beyond our reasonable control.
• Relationship. Nothing creates a partnership, joint venture, agency (except the limited authorization in Section 10), or employment relationship.
• Notices. We may give notice via the contact information associated with your account or by posting on the website.

26. State-specific notice (California)

If you are a California resident, you may report complaints to the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs using the contact information published by that agency. This notice is provided for compliance purposes and does not expand our obligations under these Terms.

27. Contact