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Terms of Service

Draft prepared with AI assistance; not legal advice. To be reviewed by a lawyer.

Last updated: draft of 3 November 2026.

1. Who we are and what these terms cover

Fileherald is the name under which this service is offered ("we", "us", "our"). These terms apply to our subscriptions, free samples, emails, files and website at fileherald.com (together, "the service"). "You" means the business that asks for a sample or starts a subscription, and the people who use the service for it.

By requesting a sample, starting a subscription or using the service, you agree to these terms. Our Data Use and Sources Policy and our Credits and Refunds Policy are part of these terms. If you sign an order form with us, the order form wins where it differs from these terms. Our Privacy Notice explains how we handle personal information.

2. Businesses only

  • The service is for businesses. You may use it only for your business, never for personal, family or household purposes.
  • The person accepting these terms must be at least 18 and authorized to accept them for the business.
  • Give us accurate details (your business name, an email address you use for the business and billing details) and keep them up to date.
  • Keep your billing link and download links within your team, and tell us at once if you think someone else has them. You are responsible for everything done through them.
  • We may ask how you will use the data, and we may decline any sample request or order.

3. The service and the data

Each subscription delivers the records that match the filters you choose (for example, states and equipment categories, or counties and trades) in a morning email digest with a CSV file of the same records, and, on some plans, through the other delivery methods described on our pricing page.

Where the records come from

Every record starts as an official public record published by a government office, such as a state UCC filing office or a county or city building department. Our Sources page lists each source, how often it updates and the terms it publishes. We add our own work on top: cleaned company names, the companies-only rule (a name with no company marker, such as LLC, Inc. or Corp., is treated as a person and left out), categories from the published text by fixed keyword rules (and, for some UCC filings, from the lender's name, labelled as such), short summaries written by those rules, and flags such as an approaching lapse date. We do not yet match records to company or license registers. The Data Use and Sources Policy explains how.

As published, with no promise of accuracy

Records are delivered as the source published them, plus our additions. Public records can be late, incomplete or wrong, and our categories, summaries and flags can be wrong too. We do not promise that any record is accurate, complete, current or fit for any particular purpose, or that the service will run without interruption, and we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, to the fullest extent the law allows. Every record links to its official source: check it there before you rely on it. Our remedy for bad records is the credit described in the Credits and Refunds Policy.

The sources' own disclaimers apply

Each source publishes its own terms, and they apply to its records alongside these terms. Several say their data is provided "as is", for reference only, with no warranty, and that the government office is not responsible for how it is used. We do not speak for any government office, and nothing we deliver is endorsed by one. The State of Colorado asks that this notice be shown with its data:

The data made available here has been modified for use from its original source, which is the State of Colorado. THE STATE OF COLORADO MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTY AS TO THE COMPLETENESS, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, OR CONTENT OF ANY DATA MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THIS SITE. THE STATE OF COLORADO EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The data is subject to change as modifications and updates are complete. It is understood that the information contained in the Web feed is being used at one's own risk.

Coverage can change

Government offices can change, delay, reprice or stop their data, or ask us to stop distributing it. When that happens we may add, change or remove sources, areas or fields. If a change removes a material part of what you pay for, we will tell you, and you may cancel and get a pro-rated refund of any prepaid fees for the time left. A day with no new records from a source is shown as a gap, not hidden.

Dates, deadlines and counts are for information

Filed dates, lapse dates, deadline countdowns, value bands and record counts help you plan your outreach. They are not legal or financial advice. If a deadline matters to you (for example, a notice-to-owner or lien deadline, or a UCC lapse date), work it out from the official record with your own advisers.

4. What you may use the data for

While your subscription is active and paid, we give you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the records we deliver, inside your own business, for:

  • business prospecting: finding and researching companies that may become your customers;
  • market intelligence: tracking activity in your market, your territory and your competitors; and
  • loading records into your own CRM, spreadsheets and internal tools for those purposes.

Any number of your employees, and contractors working for you, may use the records for these purposes inside your business. You are responsible for their use. After your subscription ends you may keep records already delivered, for the same internal purposes and under the same rules, including sections 5 to 7.

5. What you must not do

You must not, and must not let anyone else:

  • Use the data to decide eligibility. Do not use any record, alone or with other information, to decide or help decide whether any person or business is eligible for credit, insurance, employment, or housing (including tenant screening), to set the terms or price of any of these, for underwriting or identity verification, or for any other purpose covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) or a similar state law. We are not a consumer reporting agency, and nothing we deliver is a consumer report. For a real credit decision, use your own underwriting sources and the official record itself.
  • Resell or redistribute the data. Do not sell, license, rent, share, publish or give the records, or any list, file or database built from them, to anyone outside your business, including list brokers, data resellers, data aggregators and your own clients; and do not use the records to build or improve a data product offered to others. This does not limit your right to get the same public records directly from the official source.
  • Break the rules on calls, texts and email. Do not contact anyone in a way that breaks the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the national or any state Do Not Call rules, the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act, the CAN-SPAM Act, or any other federal, state or local law on calls, texts, faxes, email or mail. For example: no autodialed or prerecorded calls or texts to mobile numbers without the consent the law requires, and no sales calls to numbers on a Do Not Call list unless an exemption truly applies to you.
  • Load our phone numbers into dialers. Do not load phone numbers from the service into an autodialer, predictive dialer, prerecorded-message or mass-texting system.
  • Harass or mislead anyone. Do not use the records to harass, threaten, intimidate, defame or discriminate against anyone; do not mislead anyone about who you are or where you got their details; do not imply that you act for, or are endorsed by, a government office or by us; and do not send anything made to look like an official notice or bill.
  • Profile private individuals. Do not use the service to research or profile private individuals, for example to find a property owner's personal details.
  • Misuse the service itself. Do not copy the service in bulk by automated means other than the delivery methods we provide, share download links publicly, test or get around its security, or use it in a way that harms it or other customers.
  • Break the law or a source's terms. Do not use the service in breach of any law, or of the published terms of a source listed on our Sources page.

6. Your outreach is your responsibility

You decide whether, when and how to contact anyone, and you alone are responsible for doing it lawfully. That includes:

  • checking numbers against the national and state Do Not Call registries and your own internal do-not-call list before any sales call, and keeping the records the law requires;
  • getting any consent the law requires before calling or texting mobile numbers, or before using automated or prerecorded calls or texts;
  • following CAN-SPAM and state email laws: honest sender details and subject lines, a clear statement that an email is an advertisement where the law requires one, your valid postal address, a working way to opt out, and honoring every opt-out within 10 business days;
  • honoring the opt-out and removal requests you receive, and the removal notices we send you (section 7); and
  • holding any license your business needs (for example, as a lender or broker) and following the rules of your industry.

Any mobile, landline or Do Not Call flags we provide are an aid, correct as far as we know on the day we delivered the record. They can be wrong or go out of date, and they do not replace your own checks.

7. Corrections and removal notices

Companies and people can ask us to correct or remove a record (see our Privacy Notice). When we remove a record for that reason, or because a source asks us to, we stop delivering it to every customer and may send you a removal notice. Within 30 days of a removal notice, delete that record from your systems or, where that is not practical, mark it so it is no longer used for outreach. When we correct a record, use the corrected version from then on.

8. Free samples

  • A free sample holds up to 10 recent records for the filters you choose. A person reviews every request before anything is sent, and we may decline a request.
  • For the Florida construction feed you may ask from a Gmail or other free email address, with your company's name. For the equipment-finance (UCC) feed, ask from your company email address.
  • One free sample per company. A sample is free, needs no card, and does not start a subscription or a trial.
  • Sample records are covered by these terms, including sections 4 to 7.

9. Plans, prices and payment

  • Plans, prices and what each includes are shown on our pricing page, at checkout or on your order form. A feature listed as planned (in the short list of planned features under the plans) is not part of what you buy until it goes live and is added to your plan.
  • Prices are in US dollars and do not include sales or similar taxes, which we add where the law requires.
  • Payments are handled by our payment processor, Stripe, by card or US bank debit (ACH). We never see or store your full card or bank account number.
  • Subscriptions are billed in advance, monthly or annually. Invoices for annual, exclusive-territory and team plans are due on the date shown on the invoice.
  • If a payment fails, Stripe retries it and we email you. If a payment is still unpaid 14 days after it was due, we may pause deliveries until it is paid.
  • Upgrades take effect straight away, and you are charged the pro-rated difference for the rest of the billing period. Downgrades take effect at your next renewal.

10. Renewal, cancellation and pausing

Automatic renewal

Every subscription renews automatically at the end of each billing period (every month for monthly plans, every year for annual plans) and the renewal is charged to your payment method on file, until you cancel. The price, billing period and renewal date are shown at checkout and on your receipt. We email a reminder at least 30 days before each annual renewal, with the price and how to cancel. If we change your plan's price, we email you at least 30 days before the change takes effect, and the new price applies from your first renewal after that notice.

Cancelling

You can cancel a monthly or annual plan at any time with one click from the billing link in every digest, or by emailing hello@fileherald.com. Cancelling stops the next renewal; your plan keeps running until the end of the period you have paid for. An exclusive territory is a quarterly or annual commitment: cancelling it stops its renewal, and it runs to the end of the committed term (section 11). Refunds follow the Credits and Refunds Policy. In short: if you cancel a paid plan within 30 days of its first payment, we refund what you paid for it in full; after that, there are no refunds for part of a month, and a pro-rated refund if you cancel an annual plan within 30 days after it renews.

Pause instead

Monthly plans bought at checkout can be paused for one, two or three months: email us to pause. Nothing is delivered and nothing is charged while a plan is paused. It restarts automatically at the end of the pause, and we email you a reminder before it does. Annual plans, exclusive territories and Team plans (sold by quote) cannot be paused.

11. Territories and exclusive territories (Florida construction feed only)

What each plan receives. A Local plan receives one county, up to 3 trades you choose. A Pro plan receives every county we cover, up to 3 trades you choose; new counties are added automatically for those trades. A Supplier / Team plan receives every county and every trade, at the price on your quote or order form.

How many subscribers share a territory. Each trade and county goes to at most 5 subscribers, counting Local, Pro and Team together, or to one exclusive subscriber. A Local subscriber takes a seat in each of its trades in its one county; a Pro subscriber takes a seat in each of its trades in every county; a Supplier / Team subscriber takes a seat in every trade and county its plan receives. Our territory checker shows the seats taken in each one.

If you buy an exclusive territory, these extra terms apply:

  • A territory is one trade in one county, or in one city where the official data covers only that city, as named on your order form. Territories are sold first come, first served.
  • What exclusive means. While your exclusive term is active and paid, you are the only one of our subscribers who receives that trade's records for that territory. We will not deliver them to any other subscriber, on any plan: not on a shared plan for that trade and territory, and not on plans that cover several trades or counties (such as Pro or Supplier / Team plans), which leave your territory out while your exclusive term lasts.
  • We sell an exclusive territory only where no other subscriber, on any plan (Local, Pro or Supplier / Team), receives that trade in that territory, so an exclusive never takes a territory away from another subscriber. A Pro or Supplier / Team plan started after an exclusive was sold leaves out that trade and county, and says so up front; our territory checker shows which those are. Your order form names the territory and confirms this.
  • The records stay public records. Counts and statistics about your territory, and a few records with the company names partly hidden, may still appear on our public pages and in our public instant samples, as they do for every territory.
  • Exclusive territories need a quarterly or annual commitment, paid in advance. Exclusivity ends if you downgrade or cancel, at the end of a term you do not renew, or if a payment is more than 14 days late.
  • Your order form states a monthly volume floor: the number of records we expect your territory to produce in a month, worked out from its history. If the records delivered in a calendar month fall below 60% of that floor, you get a credit that matches the shortfall, calculated as set out in the Credits and Refunds Policy. The floor is an estimate, not a promise of volume, and the credit is your remedy for a low month.
  • Exclusivity covers only our own subscribers. The permits are public records: it does not stop anyone getting the same records from the official source or from someone else, and we never claim it does.

The Equipment-finance (UCC) feed has no exclusive territories.

12. Our rights in the service

We do not claim to own the facts in the public records themselves. We own, or are licensed to use, everything else in the service: the selection, arrangement and compilation of records; our cleaned company data; categories, summaries and flags; the digests and files as we format them; and our software, website and brand. Apart from the license in section 4, these terms give you no rights in them. If you send us suggestions, we may use them without owing you anything.

13. Suspension and ending the service

We may suspend or end your access straight away, without a refund, if we reasonably believe that you have broken section 5 or 6, that you are using the service for a purpose covered by the FCRA, that continuing would break a law or a source's terms, or that your account is a security risk. Where it is practical and lawful, we will tell you why and give you a chance to fix the problem first.

We may also end your subscription, or the service as a whole, for any other reason with 30 days' notice and a pro-rated refund of any prepaid fees for the time left.

When your access ends, sections 5, 6, 7 and 12 to 18 keep applying.

14. Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent the law allows:

  • we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive loss, or for lost profits, revenue, business, goodwill or data, even if we were told it might happen; and
  • our total liability for all claims about the service is limited to the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event that led to the claim, or $100 if you paid us nothing.

These limits do not apply where the law does not allow them, and they do not limit what you owe us for fees or under section 15.

15. Your promise to cover us (indemnity)

You will defend us, and the people who work for us, against any claim, fine or demand by anyone else (including a government body) that arises from: your use of the records; your calls, texts, emails, mail or other outreach, including claims under the TCPA, Do Not Call rules, CAN-SPAM or state law; any use of the records that section 5 forbids; or your breach of these terms or of the law. You will pay the damages, fines, settlements and reasonable legal costs that result. We will tell you promptly about any such claim and let you control its defense, but you may not settle it in a way that admits fault for us or binds us without our written consent.

16. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms. For a change that matters to subscribers, we will email you at least 30 days before it takes effect and post the new version on this page. If you do not agree, you may cancel before the change takes effect and get a pro-rated refund of any prepaid fees for the time left. If you keep using the service after that date, you accept the change. Changes required by law or by a source, or that only make the terms better for you, may take effect sooner.

17. Florida law and courts

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida and applicable US federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute about the service or these terms will be decided only by the state or federal courts located in Florida, and both of us agree to those courts' jurisdiction. Either of us may still ask any court with jurisdiction for urgent relief, such as an order to stop misuse of the data.

18. Other legal points

  • Whole agreement. These terms, the policies they link to and any order form are the whole agreement between us about the service.
  • Events outside our control. Neither of us is responsible for delays caused by events outside reasonable control, including outages or changes at a government data source, our hosting or email providers, or the internet.
  • Transfer. You may not transfer your subscription or these terms without our written consent. We may transfer them to a business that takes over the service, and we will tell you if we do.
  • If part of these terms fails. If a court finds any part unenforceable, the rest still applies, and that part applies as far as the law allows.
  • No waiver. If we do not enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later.
  • Notices. We send notices to the email address on your account; you send notices to hello@fileherald.com. Email counts as written notice.
  • Independent businesses. Nothing in these terms makes us partners, agents or employees of each other.

19. Contact

Fileherald
500 Brickell Ave, Unit 2907, Miami, FL 33131
Email: hello@fileherald.com