Legal

Terms of Service

Effective date: August 9, 2026  ·  Last updated: September 17, 2026

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a legal agreement between you and Covara (“Covara,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) governing your access to and use of covara.care, our account portal, and our mobile applications (together, the “Services”). By creating an account or otherwise using the Services, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Services. Please also review our Privacy Policy, which explains how we handle your information and is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

1. Eligibility & accounts

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to create an account. If you register as a CNA, you represent that you hold a current, valid nursing-assistant certification/license in the state where you provide care. If you register as a family, you represent that you have authority to arrange care for the person receiving it (the “care recipient”), whether that is yourself or someone else.

You are responsible for the accuracy of the information in your account and for keeping your login credentials confidential. Two-factor authentication is required on every account and is set up for you when you confirm your email address: unless you switch to an authenticator app in your account settings, we send a single-use sign-in code to that email address each time you sign in. You are responsible for activity that occurs under your account. Notify us promptly at hello@covara.care if you suspect unauthorized use.

2. The nature of the Services

Covara operates a marketplace and scheduling/billing platform that helps families find, evaluate, schedule, and pay independent CNAs for non-medical support — things like companionship, personal care, mobility assistance, light housekeeping related to care, and similar support, as described by the caregiver’s selected services. Covara:

• is not a licensed home care agency, and does not hold itself out as one;
• does not employ, direct, or supervise the day-to-day work of any caregiver;
• is not a party to, and does not guarantee the outcome of, any caregiving arrangement between a family and a caregiver;
• does not itself provide medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or emergency response; and
• does not guarantee that any particular caregiver will be available, or that a family’s care needs will be filled.

Families and caregivers are solely responsible for deciding whether to engage each other and for the care arrangement itself, including its safety, appropriateness, and legality.

3. Family responsibilities

As a family, you agree to:

• provide accurate information about the care recipient’s needs so caregivers can be matched appropriately;
• provide a reasonably safe environment for a caregiver to work in;
• treat caregivers with respect and not request services outside the scope of non-medical support or outside what the caregiver has agreed to provide;
• maintain a valid payment method on file and pay all amounts due for scheduled and completed visits, as described in Section 7; and
• call 911 (or the local emergency number) for any medical emergency — Covara and its caregivers are not an emergency response service.

4. Caregiver responsibilities & independent contractor status

Caregivers who use Covara are independent contractors, not employees, agents, or representatives of Covara. Covara does not control the manner or means by which a caregiver performs care, does not set a caregiver’s hours beyond the availability the caregiver themselves provides, and does not provide caregivers with equipment, training, or supervision for the care they deliver. Caregivers are solely responsible for their own tax obligations (Covara does not withhold taxes from caregiver payouts), for maintaining any licenses, certifications, or insurance required by law, and for the quality and legality of the care they provide.

By using the Services as a caregiver, you represent that your license information is accurate and current, and you agree to notify us promptly if your license lapses, is suspended, or is revoked.

5. Verification & background checks

Covara reviews each caregiver’s license before they can offer care through the Services, through Checkr, Inc., a third-party screening partner, where available, and otherwise through manual review by our team against the applicable state licensing board’s public record (real-time automated verification is not available in every state). Covara also requires a criminal background check through Checkr as a condition of a caregiver’s account becoming active. This screening is governed by applicable law, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) where it applies, and is subject to a separate disclosure and written authorization obtained directly from the caregiver before any report is requested. A completed check may be recorded automatically from Checkr or, where it cannot be, confirmed manually by our team against Checkr’s own record, the issuing authority, or a document on file, with a recorded reason and an audit trail; the check itself is required either way and is never waived. See our Privacy Policy for more detail. Families are responsible for deciding, based on the information Covara actually provides about a specific caregiver, whether that caregiver is appropriate for their needs.

Verification fee. Caregivers pay a one-time $100 fee to cover the cost of this background check, charged before it is run, as one of the professional costs of operating as an independent contractor through the Services — comparable to maintaining your own license, certification, or insurance. This fee is reimbursed to you, added to a normal payout rather than refunded to a card, once you have been paid for 250 invoiced hours of care through the Services; it is not refunded if that threshold is never reached. Background checks are also a legal condition of Covara operating as a caregiver-matching marketplace in some states.

6. Offers, scheduling, visits & cancellations

A family may offer a recurring or dated schedule to a caregiver through the Services; a caregiver may accept, decline, or propose changes. Once accepted, an engagement governs the visits scheduled under it until it ends. Either party may cancel an individual upcoming visit, or end the engagement entirely, through the Services; canceling or ending an engagement may affect future scheduled visits as described in the app. Repeated late cancellations or no-shows by either party may affect that party’s standing on the Services.

Caregivers confirm arrival and departure by clocking in and out of each visit through the app, which Covara uses to verify that a visit occurred (see our Privacy Policy). A missed or incorrect clock event can be corrected by the caregiver or, if needed, by Covara, each within the limits described in the app.

7. Fees, billing & payouts

Families pay an hourly rate for each visit, which includes the caregiver’s rate plus Covara’s platform fee; the specific split for an engagement is shown in the app before or at the time an offer is accepted and does not change retroactively for that engagement. Visit charges accrue as visits are completed and are billed automatically to the family’s payment method on file on a periodic (currently weekly) basis. You authorize Covara and its payment processor to charge your payment method for all amounts you owe under these Terms.

When a family is charged for a visit, payment is split at that same moment through our payments provider: the caregiver’s share is paid directly to the caregiver, and Covara’s platform fee is collected separately from the same charge. A caregiver’s payout is not Covara’s money to hold. In the ordinary case the family’s payment is split at the moment it settles and the caregiver’s share is transferred directly to their own connected account, without passing through a Covara-controlled balance. Where that direct split is not possible — for example if the caregiver’s payout account is not yet fully set up — the payment settles to Covara and the caregiver’s share is transferred to them promptly afterwards. Covara’s own revenue is limited to the platform fee described above either way. Removing your last payment method on file, or having a charge repeatedly fail, may result in outstanding charges being settled against it before removal and in affected engagements ending, as described in the app.

Covara is not a guarantor of any family’s payment. If a family’s charge is declined, a family fails to maintain a valid payment method, or a payment is disputed or charged back, a caregiver’s right to payment for services rendered is against the family who received them, not against Covara — except for any amount Covara has actually collected as a specific caregiver’s share and not yet paid out to them. Covara uses commercially reasonable efforts to facilitate collection, including automatic retries and pausing further scheduling for a family with a failed payment until it’s resolved, as described in the app, but does not guarantee collection or payment.

8. Billing disputes

If you believe a specific visit charge is incorrect, you can dispute it through the app within the window the app provides. The caregiver may resolve the dispute directly; if you’re not satisfied with that resolution, you may escalate it to Covara for a final decision. Covara’s decision on an escalated dispute is final as between the family and the caregiver, but does not limit any other right either of you may have under applicable law.

9. Direct engagement fee

Covara invests significant time and resources in advertising for, screening, verifying, and matching caregivers with families, and in the ongoing scheduling, verification, billing, and support infrastructure that makes an engagement work. This Section protects that investment.

If a family (or a member of the family’s household, or the care recipient) engages, hires, or otherwise obtains caregiving services — directly, through a third party, or through a different agency — from a caregiver they were introduced to through Covara, outside of the Services, the family agrees to pay Covara a direct engagement fee of $2,000 per caregiver so engaged. This fee applies whether the outside arrangement begins while a Covara engagement with that caregiver is still active or after it has ended, for as long as the caregiver relationship continues to be introduced-through-Covara in origin, and for up to twenty-four (24) months after the introduction or the end of the last Covara-facilitated engagement with that caregiver, whichever is later.

This fee does not apply if you and the caregiver had an existing care relationship before being introduced through Covara, or if Covara agrees in writing to waive it (for example, as part of a retention conversation). Openly telling Covara that you are ending your engagement to continue with a caregiver privately does not by itself waive this fee, but we would rather know than not — use the in-app options for pausing or ending an engagement to tell us what’s going on, and we may be able to work out an arrangement (including, in some cases, a reduced fee or a way to keep the caregiver’s support without losing what Covara provides). Covara may use both automated signals and manual review to identify a likely direct engagement and will contact the family before invoicing this fee.

This Section survives the end of your account or any engagement.

10. Messaging, monitoring & prohibited conduct

Messages sent through the Services, and the free-text you enter elsewhere on the Services — including profile text, care-recipient notes, care-task notes and references — are automatically screened for patterns that look like contact information, to help enforce Section 9 and keep arranging-care activity on the Services where it’s protected by verification, billing, and dispute resolution. Profile text stays subject to this screening for as long as the profile exists, even after a family and caregiver have exchanged contact details. See our Privacy Policy for how this works.

You agree not to: misrepresent your identity, credentials, or the care recipient’s needs; use the Services for any unlawful purpose; harass, threaten, or discriminate against another user; attempt to circumvent the Services as described in Section 9; interfere with or disrupt the Services or attempt to access accounts or data that aren’t yours; or use automated means to scrape or access the Services except through our published APIs, if any.

11. Intellectual property

Covara and its licensors own the Services, including our software, design, and trademarks. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Services for their intended purpose while your account is active. You retain ownership of the content you submit (like your profile information and messages), and grant Covara a license to use it to operate and improve the Services.

12. Disclaimers

THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. COVARA DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE, OR THAT ANY CAREGIVER WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS. COVARA MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR GUARANTEES CONCERNING ANY CAREGIVER’S TRAINING, SUPERVISION, OR COMPETENCE. COVARA IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACTS OR OMISSIONS OF ANY CAREGIVER OR FAMILY, WHO ARE INDEPENDENT OF COVARA AS DESCRIBED IN SECTIONS 2 AND 4.

13. Limitation of liability & indemnification

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, COVARA AND ITS OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS OR DATA, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES OR ANY CAREGIVING ARRANGEMENT MADE THROUGH THEM. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, COVARA’S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM RELATING TO THE SERVICES WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID COVARA IN THE SIX MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE, OR (B) $100. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

You agree to indemnify and hold Covara harmless from claims, damages, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from your violation of these Terms, your use of the Services, or a caregiving arrangement you enter into through the Services.

14. Suspension & termination

You may stop using the Services and close your account at any time. Covara may suspend or terminate your account, or restrict your access to the Services, if we believe you’ve violated these Terms, created risk or possible legal exposure for Covara or another user, or for other reasons described in the app. Where reasonably possible, we’ll tell you why. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 9, 12, and 13) do survive.

15. Governing law & dispute resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of [STATE], without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising from these Terms or the Services will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in [COUNTY/STATE], and you consent to their jurisdiction, except where applicable law requires otherwise.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we’ll update the “Last updated” date above and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. Your continued use of the Services after an update means you accept the revised Terms.

17. Miscellaneous

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remain in effect. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Covara regarding the Services. You may not assign your rights under these Terms without our consent; we may assign ours in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. Notices to you may be sent to the email on your account.

18. Contact us

If you have questions about these Terms, contact us at:

Covara
hello@covara.care