Payment Protection Terms

Pending legal review. This is not a final legal document and must not be treated as approved.

These terms govern money paid into a project on miidle. They form part of the agreement between you and MIIDLE LIMITED and sit alongside our Terms of Use and Dispute Policy. In these terms, Home Improver means the person funding a project, Tradesperson means the person carrying out the works, and Project Account means the account into which funds for a single project are paid.

1. Summary in plain English

Money you pay in is locked to the project you paid it into. It cannot be spent on anything else, and neither you nor your tradesperson can pull it back out alone. It leaves the Project Account in only three situations: you approve the work, both of you agree what should happen to it, or an independent determination decides. None of this takes away your legal rights.

2. How funds are held

2.1 Funds are received into a segregated client-money account operated by our regulated banking partner and held separately from miidle's own money. miidle does not hold the funds as principal, does not use them in the course of its own business, and does not pay interest on them.

2.2 On receipt, funds are allocated to the specific project and payment stage identified by the payment reference. They are ring-fenced to that project. They may not be applied to any other project, to any other customer, to another job with the same tradesperson, or to any sum owed to miidle other than the fees disclosed to you before you paid.

2.3 Until a Release Event occurs, the funds remain the property of the Home Improver, held to the joint order of the Home Improver and the Tradesperson. They do not form part of miidle's assets and would not be available to its creditors on an insolvency.

3. Your funding instruction

3.1 Before any money can be paid into a project, both parties are asked to accept the escrow mandate (version 2026-10) shown on the funding screen. Acceptance is recorded with a timestamp and a fingerprint of the exact wording displayed, and is available to either party on request.

3.2 By funding a stage you give miidle an irrevocable instruction to hold the funds and to release them only on a Release Event. Neither party may unilaterally withdraw, recall, cancel or divert funds once they have been received.

3.3 Clause 3.2 does not affect, and nothing in these terms excludes or limits: (a) rights under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 in respect of unauthorised or incorrectly executed payments; (b) reimbursement rights under the Faster Payments authorised push payment reimbursement rules; (c) cancellation rights under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013; or (d) statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Where any such right applies, funds are returned.

4. Release Events

Funds leave a Project Account only on one of the following:

4.1 Approval. The Home Improver approves a submitted stage. Silence does not approve the work and does not release the stage. The only unattended release is the holding-deposit default in the Dispute Policy, and that default is not a decision that the work was approved.

4.2 Agreed outcome. On a formal dispute, before RICS appoints the adjudicator, either party may propose a full release, a split, or a full return of that stage. The proposal takes effect only once the other party has accepted that exact version. It is not available on an ordinary in-progress stage. After appointment, one recorded discontinuance is allowed, and it applies only the scheduled fee liability. Cancelling a project does not itself pay, refund, or release any money. Settlement costs are shown before acceptance. Amounts that are still to be confirmed are not invented. A full return pays the tradesperson nothing and does not hand back fees beyond the quoted stage amount. miidle carries out a confirmed instruction once.

4.3 Independent determination. A determination under clause 5, or an order of a court of competent jurisdiction.

4.4 Legal or regulatory obligation. Where miidle or its banking partner is required to act by law, by a regulator, or to comply with obligations relating to financial crime.

4.5 Fees disclosed to you before payment are deducted at the point of release. No other deduction is made.

5. Independent determination

5.1 Where the parties cannot agree, the case is referred to RICS. RICS appoints the adjudicator. miidle does not choose the person or the outcome. When both evidence periods have closed and an adjudicator is appointed, an indexed evidence report is issued in the adjudicator portal. The decision is final and paid when it is issued. Consumer rights stay available.

5.2 Pending legal review, miidle uses the adjudicator's decision as a payment instruction for funds it holds. The instruction runs when the decision is issued. This clause is not final, and it is not an agreement that either party has given up a statutory right.

5.3 The determination does not remove your legal rights. Nothing in these terms requires you to submit a dispute to arbitration, prevents either party from bringing a claim in the courts of England & Wales, or limits a consumer's statutory rights. A party who disagrees with a determination may pursue the other party through the courts, and the determination is not a bar to those proceedings.

5.4 Where a party stops engaging - for example by failing to respond within the timescales in the Dispute Policy - miidle may direct the funds by applying the published rules of that policy. In doing so miidle applies the stated rules to observable facts such as deadlines and non-response; it does not decide the merits of the workmanship dispute, and clause 5.3 applies to any such direction.

5.5 The costs of a determination, and the card hold each party authorises before RICS appoints the adjudicator, are as set out in the RICS fee schedule. Where a figure is still to be confirmed, the page says so and does not invent an amount.

6. Our role

6.1 miidle acts as escrow agent and as the technical and administrative provider of the platform. It is not a party to the contract for the works, does not carry out or supervise the works, and gives no warranty as to their quality or fitness.

6.2 Payment protection governs when staged funds may be released or returned. It is not insurance, not a workmanship guarantee, and not a substitute for the Tradesperson's own obligations under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to carry out the works with reasonable care and skill.

7. Records and complaints

7.1 Every mandate acceptance, funding, approval, agreement and release is recorded with a timestamp and retained as an audit record. Either party may request the record for their own project.

7.2 If something goes wrong, contact us first at support@miidle.co.uk. If we cannot resolve your complaint within eight weeks, you may be able to refer it to an alternative dispute resolution body certified under the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015. We will tell you which body applies to your complaint and whether we agree to use it.

7.3 These terms are governed by the law of England & Wales.