Vendor (mower) terms

Version 30 August 2026 · draft for legal review · Mowie Pty Ltd

The short version. You're an independent business. Joining and bidding are free; we take 10% plus GST on that commission when a job is paid (0% for founding partners for 90 days). Your bid is the price - if a job's bigger than described, ask in the app before you start, never on the doorstep. Do the job, take a photo, get paid through Stripe. If we ever have a problem with you, you'll get it in writing with a week to respond, and a person decides. The full terms follow; they're the ones that count.

1. Who we are, and what you are

Mowie is operated by Mowie Pty Ltd ("Mowie", "we", "us"), a marketplace that connects customers who want their lawn mowed with independent lawn mowing businesses ("mowers", "you"). We are a venue and your limited payment collection agent; every contract for mowing is between you and the customer.

You are an independent business, not our employee, agent or partner. You choose which jobs to bid on, what to charge, when you work, what gear you use and who else you work for. There is no exclusivity, no minimum number of jobs and no penalty for not bidding. You're responsible for your own tax, ABN, GST, insurance, licences and safety.

2. Eligibility and getting approved

To hold a mower account you must be 18 or over (we ask for your date of birth and Stripe verifies your identity), hold a valid ABN that belongs to you or your business, complete a Stripe Express account (which means accepting Stripe's Connected Account Agreement and passing Stripe's identity and bank checks), and have an Australian mobile number. There is no upper age limit. We check your ABN against the Australian Business Register; you can choose whether the registered entity name is shown on your profile.

A person approves every mower, usually the same day and often after a quick call. Before you're approved you can see jobs near you - suburb, lawn size, what's asked - but not the block outline, photos or access details, and you can't bid. We may introduce further checks (for example a police check) with at least 30 days' notice.

Insurance. Public liability insurance is strongly recommended from day one and earns an Insured badge, which is shown to customers and improves your position in the "recommended" order. Where you haven't provided a current certificate, customers are told so before they hire you and asked to acknowledge it. Once you have completed 10 paid jobs through Mowie (or, for founding partners, when your commission-free period ends) a current certificate becomes a condition of bidding; we give at least 14 days' notice in the app before that applies to you. Certificates must be current: we record the expiry date and remove the badge when it passes. The badge tells customers you've given us a certificate; it isn't a statement by us about what your policy covers.

3. What you see, and what you may do with it

Listing details are shown to you so you can quote. Once you're hired you get the customer's name, address, mobile, gate code, access notes and whether anyone will be home. Use that information only to do the job. Keep gate codes and access details confidential, don't share or keep them beyond the job (apart from the records you need for your own tax and insurance), and don't use customers' contact details for marketing unless they've agreed. If a phone or notebook holding customer details is lost or stolen, tell us within 24 hours so we can help the customers. We record which mowers open which listings.

4. Bidding and jobs

A bid is a binding offer to perform the standard visit (or the service described) at that price on or after your stated earliest day. You may withdraw a bid until it's accepted. When a customer accepts, you must perform the job or reschedule with notice through the app.

Your bid is the price. If, on arrival, the job is materially bigger than the listing described - the grass is far longer than stated, or there's an area the customer didn't mention - ask for a price change in the app, before you start, using "Ask to change the price" on the job page, with a reason the customer reads. They can accept or keep your bid; nothing changes unless they accept. A request can't be more than double your bid: bigger than that is a different job, and the customer should relist it. Never ask for cash, a bank transfer or a different price on the doorstep, and never leave a job unmowed because the customer wouldn't pay more than your bid: do it at your bid price, or reschedule through the app with notice. Extras (hedges, green waste, gutters and the like) must be agreed in chat before work.

Turning up. Tap "on my way" when you leave. If weather stops you, use the rain-delay button with a new date - the customer is told automatically. If you can't do a job at all, tell the customer in chat and hand it back as early as you can; a cancellation on the day, or not turning up, counts as a no-show.

On site. Work only on the lawn areas listed, don't enter the house or any part of the property you don't need, keep gates as you found them and dogs secured, and take reasonable care around people, pets, sprinkler heads, cables and hoses. Tell the customer immediately in chat if you damage something. Keep to Victoria's residential noise rules for powered garden tools - not before 7 am or after 8 pm on weekdays, and not before 9 am or after 8 pm on weekends and public holidays - and any council rules that apply. Dispose of clippings and green waste lawfully. Don't apply herbicides, pesticides or fertilisers unless you're licensed to and the customer has asked. Completion photos show the finished lawn only: no people, no interiors, and avoid house numbers where you can.

5. Completion, payment and payouts

Mark jobs complete with at least one photo of the finished lawn. Payment is released when the customer approves, or automatically 48 hours after completion if they don't respond (we remind them 24 hours before). Payouts go to your Stripe account on Stripe's payout schedule, typically within 2 business days of approval. Mowie is your limited payment collection agent: a customer's payment to Mowie discharges their debt to you, and we pass it on through Stripe less our fees.

Issues. If a customer raises an issue before approving, payment is held and you're offered a return visit first. Make-good credits we grant are funded from our commission where the work was done; where the job wasn't done, no payment is due. A customer can also raise an issue for 7 days after a job is approved: you must respond in chat within 2 business days, and any refund we give then comes from Mowie's side - your pay for that job is unchanged unless the issue is about your conduct (a job you didn't do, a misrepresentation, a doorstep price change), in which case we may recover the refund from your next payout. The same applies if a customer's bank reverses a payment because of your conduct; otherwise Mowie wears chargebacks.

Customers pay by card through Stripe. You mustn't accept cash, bank transfers or any other payment for a job booked through Mowie.

6. Fees

Joining and bidding are free. On each paid job we deduct a commission of 10% of the job price, plus GST on the commission, as a Stripe application fee, together with the card processing costs shown on your earnings page. Founding mowers pay 0% commission for 90 days from joining. Every fee is itemised on your earnings page and in the CSV export; a tax invoice for our commission is available on request. We take no fee on work you do outside Mowie.

We may change our fees or these terms with at least 30 days' notice by email; a change doesn't apply to jobs booked before it takes effect, and you can leave at any time. We'll ask active mowers for feedback before a material change.

7. Customers are yours

You may keep working with customers you meet here, on or off the platform. We only take a fee on jobs booked through Mowie.

8. Reliability, conduct and reviews

We track completion and on-time rates and show them to customers. No-shows and lateness reduce your notification priority; repeated no-shows or conduct complaints lead to the process in section 9. Customers who've paid for a job can review it. We don't edit reviews or remove them for being negative; we do remove reviews that are unrelated to the work, abusive or unlawful, and you can report one to us.

Price conduct. Asking a customer for money outside the app, changing the price on site, or walking off a job over price is a serious breach. On the first confirmed report you're removed from the "recommended" order for 30 days and any founding-partner benefit is paused for the same period; on the second you're removed from Mowie. Where we refund a customer over your conduct, we recover it from your next payout.

9. Warnings, suspension and removal - the process

If there's a problem with your conduct or reliability we'll tell you in writing what it is and what we've been told, and you'll have 7 days to respond before we decide anything. A person decides, and you get the outcome in writing. Ordinarily the steps are a warning, then suspension, then removal. We may suspend you immediately, with reasons within 2 business days, only for serious misconduct: a safety risk to a customer, dishonesty, a doorstep price change, harassment, fraud or unlawful conduct. You can ask for any decision to be reviewed by emailing mowers@mowie.com.au. We follow the Fair Work Digital Labour Platform Deactivation Code as our standard whether or not it applies to you. Jobs you've completed are paid whatever the outcome; jobs already booked should be done or handed back with notice.

10. Damage and claims

If a customer reports that you damaged their property during a visit, we will give them your name, business name, ABN, contact details and the details of any insurance certificate you've uploaded, so they can make a claim directly or through your insurer. You agree to this by joining. We expect you to respond to the customer within 2 business days; an unresolved damage complaint counts as a conduct complaint under section 9.

11. Your own compliance

The Australian Consumer Law applies to the services you provide: they must be delivered with due care and skill, be fit for the purpose the customer described, and be done within a reasonable time. You're responsible for your tax affairs, including GST registration if it applies to you and accounting for GST on your services; we issue the customer's receipt on your behalf showing your ABN and GST status. You must hold any licence your work needs, and comply with workplace safety law for yourself and anyone working with you.

ATO reporting. We are required to report your transactions to the Australian Taxation Office under the Sharing Economy Reporting Regime, twice a year: your name, date of birth, address, contact details, ABN, the bank account Stripe pays you into, and the gross amounts and number of jobs paid through Mowie. This is a legal obligation, not something you can opt out of.

12. Privacy and data

Our privacy policy explains what we collect from you and who sees it: customers see your business name, photo, tagline, bio, work photos, suburbs, services, rating, reviews and badges, and a customer who hires you sees your mobile number. We share your details with a customer who reports damage (section 10), with Stripe, and with the ATO as above. Section 3 covers your obligations with customers' information.

13. Your content and our name

You own the photos and text you upload and confirm you have the right to use them. You give Mowie a non-exclusive licence to show them on your profile, on bids, and on our public suburb pages, until you remove them or leave; we don't use them in advertising without asking you. Photos of customers' properties must show the lawn and your work only. "Mowie" and our logo are ours; you're welcome to tell people "find me on Mowie" and to use the badges we give you, and nothing else without our written OK.

14. Liability and indemnity

You're responsible for your work and for complying with the law. You indemnify Mowie against claims by third parties, and the reasonable costs of dealing with them, to the extent they arise from your negligence, your breach of the law or your breach of these terms - and only to that extent. To the extent the law allows, our liability to you in connection with the platform is limited to re-supplying the service or refunding the commission we earned from you in the three months before the event, and neither of us is liable to the other for indirect or consequential loss. Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any right or remedy that can't be excluded by law, including the Australian Consumer Law guarantees that apply to services we supply to your business.

15. Leaving

You can stop using Mowie at any time: finish or hand back any booked jobs with notice, and delete your account from the account page. We can end this agreement under section 9. Sections 3, 10, 11, 13 and 14 keep applying after either of us ends it, and completed jobs are still paid.

16. Disputes with Mowie, and general

If you have a problem with a decision we've made or with these terms, email mowers@mowie.com.au: a person replies within 2 business days and you'll have an outcome within 10. If we can't agree, either of us can ask the Victorian Small Business Commission for low-cost mediation before going further; nothing stops either of us going to a court or tribunal. These terms are governed by the law of Victoria and its courts have jurisdiction. If any part is unenforceable the rest still applies. You can't transfer your account; we may transfer these terms to a successor operator of Mowie with notice to you. Notices go to the email on your account. These terms, the privacy policy and the pricing page are the whole agreement between you and Mowie about the platform.

Contact: mowers@mowie.com.au · contact page · customer terms · privacy policy