Terms of Service

Butz is for UC Berkeley students. You need a valid @berkeley.edu email address to sign up, and you must be at least 18 years old. One account per person. Don't share your login, and don't create an account on someone else's behalf.

Butz connects students who want to lend items with students who want to borrow them. When you book something, the rental agreement is between you and the other student. Butz is not a party to that agreement, does not own or inspect the items, and does not guarantee that an item is safe, functional, or as described.

We do run the payment flow, hold refundable deposits, and step in to resolve damage claims — but the item, the handoff, and the condition it comes back in are between the two of you.

• Describe your items honestly, including any damage, quirks, or missing parts.
• Meet in a safe, public place when possible, and bring a friend if you'd rather not meet alone.
• Show up on time for pickup and return, and communicate through Butz messages if plans change.
• Return items in the condition you got them. Normal wear is expected; breaking things is not.
• You are responsible for your own belongings. Butz does not insure items and does not replace them.
• Follow the law and your housing rules. If you're subletting the item's use to someone else, that's on you.

You may not list, rent, or hand off any of the following through Butz:

• Weapons of any kind, including replicas and ammunition
• Illegal items, stolen goods, or anything you don't actually own
• Anything that requires a licence, permit, or certification to operate or possess
• Live animals
• Alcohol, tobacco, vapes, or controlled substances
• Prescription medical devices and medication

Listings that break these rules will be removed by an admin, and repeat offenders lose their accounts.

Renters pay the rental subtotal, a refundable damage deposit, and a service fee at checkout. Butz charges a 7% platform service fee in total: 3.5% is added on top of the rental subtotal for the renter, and 3.5% is deducted from the owner's payout. No fee is charged on the deposit.

Owner payouts are settled manually by the Butz team. After a rental completes, your payout shows up as pending on your dashboard, and we send the money out on a regular schedule. If a payout looks wrong or is late, email us and we'll sort it out.

Cancellations, deposits, and damage claims are covered on the refunds & cancellations page.

Keep messages on Butz civil and related to renting. Harassment, threats, discrimination, spam, and attempts to move payment off the platform are all grounds for removal. Admins can read conversations when investigating a report or a damage claim.

We can suspend or permanently ban an account for abuse: fake listings, prohibited items, no-shows, damaging items and refusing to make it right, harassment, payment fraud, or trying to work around these rules. Suspended and banned accounts can't book, list, message, or leave reviews.

If you think we got it wrong, email hi@getbutz.com and a human will look at it.

After a rental is completed, both people can leave a review. Reviews should describe your actual experience. We may remove reviews that are abusive, off-topic, or clearly retaliatory.

Butz is provided as-is by a small student team. To the extent the law allows, we aren't liable for lost, stolen, or damaged property, for disputes between users, or for anything that happens during a meetup. Our involvement in a dispute is limited to the deposit we're holding.

We may update these terms as the platform changes; the "last updated" date at the top will change with them. Questions go to hi@getbutz.com.