Damage and Loss Policy

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Rentrio does not provide insurance and does not guarantee that you will be reimbursed if something is damaged or not returned. We hold the renter’s payment until the rental is complete, and we help both people put the facts on record — but a claim is ultimately between the owner and the renter.

If an item matters enough that you could not afford to replace it, arrange your own cover before renting it out.

What counts as ordinary wear

Anything that gets used shows it. Scuffs, faded paint, worn grips, a scratched hull, a creased hem, a loose thread, a garment that needs pressing — these are the cost of renting an item out and are not chargeable to a renter. An owner who cannot accept that should not list.

Clothing has one more: it comes back needing to be cleaned. That is not damage, it is what renting out clothing is. The owner cleans it between renters and should price the item accordingly.

What counts as damage

Two tests, because one is not enough. An item can be damaged without breaking — a stained silk dress still works perfectly.

• Anything that stops the item working as it did.
• Anything that changes how it looks, in a way ordinary use would not — a stain that does not come out, a burn, a tear, a shortened hem.
• Breakage, cracks, tears, water damage, missing parts.
• Damage from using the item for something it is not designed for.
• Damage from ignoring the owner’s stated rules.
• Alterations of any kind. Taking a garment in or up is permanent, and it is not yours to change.

Still being finalised. Where the line falls when a professional clean does not lift a stain — whether the renter owes the cleaning attempt, the drop in the item’s value, or its replacement — is not settled. Nor is who chooses the cleaner. Both need deciding before clothing volume makes it a weekly question.

Photographs are what settle this

Both people can take photographs at pickup and at return, and add notes on the item’s condition. Once saved they cannot be changed or removed — that is deliberate, and it is the single most useful thing you can do for yourself in a disagreement. A claim with before-and-after photographs is resolvable; one without is a disagreement between two people’s memories.

Reporting it

• Tell the other person immediately, through Rentrio messaging.
• Report a problem on the booking. This puts the owner’s payout on hold while it is looked at.
• Include photographs, and a repair quote or replacement cost where you have one.

Reports must be made before the rental completes and the payout is released. Once money has been sent to the owner, Rentrio cannot recall it.

What we can and cannot do

• We can hold the payout, put both accounts’ records in front of an administrator, and suspend an account that is behaving badly.
• We cannot charge a renter’s card for damage, adjudicate the value of a repair, or compel anyone to pay.

Where the two people cannot agree, the owner’s remedy is the ordinary one available to anyone owed money in Nova Scotia.

Refundable damage deposits

A listing may require a refundable damage deposit. When it does, the renter’s card is placed under a temporary hold at pickup. It is a hold, not a payment: the money is not moved to Rentrio and it is not paid to the owner unless a damage claim is approved.

The amount is a share of the replacement value the owner declared — 25%, 50% or 75% — and is fixed when the booking is made. Editing the listing afterwards does not change it. It can never exceed the declared replacement value, and there is a platform maximum above which no deposit is held whatever the item is worth.

How a deposit is resolved:

• The owner has 12 hours after the return is confirmed to report damage. If they report nothing, the hold is released and nothing is taken.
• A claim must state an amount and a reason, and cannot be more than the deposit that was held.
• The renter then has 12 hours to accept or dispute it. Accepting takes only the amount claimed; the rest of the hold is released.
• If the renter disputes, or does not answer, Rentrio reviews the claim, the response and the handoff photographs and decides. Silence is not agreement, and it does not award the deposit to the owner.
• Any part of the deposit not settled is released back to the renter’s card. Banks commonly take a few days to show a released hold.

Because a card hold expires, a rental that carries a deposit is limited in length — five days at the time of writing. A booking will be refused rather than accepted with a hold that could expire before a claim could be settled.

Free-to-borrow items may also require a deposit. There is no rental charge on those bookings and no payout to the owner; the deposit is separate from either.

Condition photographs taken at pickup and return are the evidence a claim is judged on. Take them.

This is not insurance. It is a limited amount of one renter’s own money, held temporarily. Rentrio does not guarantee that damage will be covered, does not reimburse losses from its own funds, and does not promise that a deposit will be enough.