Terms of Service
Effective date: August 2026
If you do not agree, do not use Hanwok.
1. What Hanwok is
Hanwok is a marketplace that helps people:
- • Find skilled Artisans nearby and discover jobs,
- • Chat and agree payment terms (price and payment schedule),
- • Pay through escrowed payment batches (deposit, optional progress, and final),
- • Use Hanwok's dispute process for payment conflicts,
Hanwok is a marketplace intermediary. The binding work arrangement for a job is between the Customer and the Artisan. Hanwok provides matching, chat, escrow rails, and dispute process.
Hanwok is not:
- • The employer of Artisans
- • A party to the job agreement
- • A guarantor of quality, timeline, or fitness of work
- • An insurer of persons or property
Marketing and support copy must not contradict this role.
2. Definitions
- • Customer: the person who hires work and pays into escrow
- • Artisan: the person who offers skills, proposes payment terms, and may receive wallet credit after release
- • User: any Customer, Artisan, or other account holder
- • Payment Terms Agreement: the in-chat proposal that locks total amount and batch split after both parties Accept
- • Escrow:funds paid by the Customer for a batch and held by Hanwok's payment flow before release to the Artisan
- • Batch: a scheduled payment slice (deposit, optional progress, or final)
- • Release:the Customer action that moves a paid deposit or progress batch from escrow toward the Artisan's wallet
- • Dispute: a request for Hanwok to review a payment/job payment conflict
3. Eligibility and accounts
- • You must be at least 18 (or otherwise legally capable in Nigeria) to use Hanwok.
- • You must provide accurate registration information and keep it updated.
- • You are responsible for your login credentials and for activity on your account.
- • One person should not create accounts to evade bans, fees, or disputes.
- • Hanwok may refuse, suspend, or terminate accounts as described in these Terms.
4. Community Guidelines and Acceptable Use
You agree to follow Hanwok's Community Guidelines. You must not use the Services to:
- • Post or hire for illegal, fraudulent, exploitative, or prohibited work
- • Perform regulated trades without required licenses where the law requires them
- • Harass, threaten, scam, or impersonate others
- • Circumvent escrow, fees, freezes, or dispute processes in bad faith
- • Abuse card/bank chargebacks to avoid the in-app process (see section 10)
- • Scrape, attack, or reverse engineer the Services except as allowed by law
Hanwok may remove content, limit features, freeze funds, or ban accounts for violations. Enforcement is discretionary - we do not promise to police every job or message.
5. User content and license
You keep ownership of content you post (profiles, jobs, photos, messages, reviews, etc.). You grant Hanwok a worldwide, non-exclusive license to host, store, display, and use that content as needed to operate, improve, promote (where you made it public), and secure the Services, and to enforce these Terms.
You represent that you have the rights to post what you upload and that it does not infringe others' rights.
6. Jobs, chat, and Payment Terms Agreements
6.1. Job scope
Job descriptions, deliverables, and quality expectations live in the job post and chat between Customer and Artisan, unless Hanwok later offers structured scope fields. Hanwok does not warrant the work.
6.2. Payment Terms Agreement
- • The Artisan proposes payment terms; both parties mustAccept.
- • Accept binds Customer and Artisan to the total amount and batch split (2- or 3-batch) for that job.,
- • It is a commercial agreement between Customer and Artisan, not a price set by Hanwok as seller.
- • Expired, declined, or superseded proposals create no payment obligation.
- • Invoices must match an accepted, valid agreement.
- • Until renegotiation features are available, changing price or split requires a new proposal - not silent edits.
Do not treat "Accept" as unlimited flexibility to change payments anytime against a locked split.
7. Payments, escrow, batches, and release
7.1. How payment works
- • New jobs use batched payments (deposit, optional progress, final), subject to in-app policy limits (for example deposit percentage bounds and defaults).
- • The Customer pays the full batch amount through our payment partner (Paystack). Their terms also apply.
- • Funds for a batch sit in escrow until released or otherwise resolved under these Terms and product rules.
- • Platform fees (if any) are as published in-app/policy and are deducted from the Artisan on wallet credit at release (not as a separate "Hanwok sells the job" price). Fees may change with notice.
7.2. Two-speed release (product rules)
- • Deposit / progress: after payment (and applicable cooling or milestone rules), the Customer releases funds toward the Artisan's wallet. Release is an intentional Customer action (for example to fund materials). Released deposit/progress is not automatically refundable.
- • Final batch: typically paid after work is marked delivered; approval and a dispute window apply before funds move to the Artisan's wallet under product rules.
- • Lifecycle order matters: earlier batches generally must be handled before later steps (as enforced in the app).
7.3. Wallet balances
- • After release, funds may sit in held balance (cooldown / clawback window) before becoming available.
- • Hanwok may reverse or hold amounts from held balance in connection with disputes, fraud, chargebacks, or admin action.
- • Once funds are available or withdrawn, Hanwok generally cannot recover them. Your remedies may be limited to dispute/admin where still open, or claims between Users - not a guaranteed Hanwok refund.
- • Withdrawals, when offered, may require bank/KYC verification and may be delayed or held for risk review. No fixed payout SLA is promised until published.
7.4. Refundability ladder (important)
| Stage | What you should expect |
|---|---|
| Before any payment | You may cancel freely (no escrow funds). |
| Paid, still in escrow (not released) | Refund/cancel via mutual agreement or Dispute. |
| After Customer releases deposit / progress | Not automatically refundable; Dispute/admin only while recoverable (e.g. held balance). |
| After funds are available or withdrawn | Hanwok cannot recover them for you. |
| After the final dispute window closes | Same - final batch follows product release rules; no automatic refund. |
Do not assume "money is protected until the job is finished." That is true only for amounts still unreleased under product rules (especially the final batch while still protected by escrow/dispute windows). Deposit release is meant to move money toward the Artisan.
Legacy single-payment invoices (if any remain) follow the rules that applied when they were created.
8. Cancel, silence, and stuck payments
- • Before money moves: easy cancel.
- • Paid in escrow: mutual agreement or Dispute.
- • Hanwok does not auto-release escrow to the Artisan or auto-refund the Customer only because someone goes silent.
- • Silence is handled by reminders, Artisan request-release after an idle period (as published in policy), Dispute windows, and admin review - always subject to the refundability ladder.
- • Walking away after release is not an automatic refund.
9. Disputes
A Dispute is a request for Hanwok to review a conflict. It is a process, not insurance and not a guaranteed refund or timeline.
While funds remain recoverable under product rules, outcomes are generally limited to:
- • Full refund to the Customer
- • Full keep for the Artisan
- • Mutual cancel
Partial automated splits are not promised. Hanwok may be unable to enforce an outcome once funds have left recoverable held state (available or withdrawn).
Dispute and related windows (for example deposit ghosting window, final dispute days) are as published in-app or in payment policy and may be updated. Filing a Dispute does not mean “instant refund.”
Hanwok may review relevant chat, invoice, and payment records when handling a Dispute.
10. Chargebacks and payment reversals
Initiating a bank or card chargeback(or similar) to circumvent Hanwok's escrow or Dispute process is a breach of these Terms and may lead to suspension, termination, freezes, and recovery actions.
Failed, reversed, or fraudulent processor payments may reverse credits or trigger holds. You agree to cooperate with reasonable verification.
11. Off-app meetups, safety, and liability for real-world harm
Many jobs involve in-person work. You arrange and attend meetups at your own risk.
- • Hanwok does not employ Artisans.
- • Hanwok does not insure Users.
- • Hanwok does not accept liability for personal injury, property damage, theft, or illegal acts arising from in-person meetups or work.
- • Escrow and Disputes address payment, not injury or property claims.
- • You must verify identity and credentials yourself where it matters.
Marketing must not claim Workers are “verified,” “insured,” or “guaranteed safe” unless Hanwok runs a defined program that says so
For serious harm or crime, contact law enforcement and your insurer as appropriate. Civil claims between Users are between those Users.
12. Platform rights: freeze, suspend, terminate
Hanwok may, with or without prior notice where reasonably necessary:
- • Suspend or terminate accounts
- • Remove or limit content
- • Freeze escrow or wallet balances
- • Delay withdrawals
…for risk, Dispute, chargeback, fraud, Guidelines breach, legal obligation, or to protect Users or the platform.
Obligations that survive (open Disputes, fees, non-recoverable funds rules, indemnity where applicable) continue after termination.
13. Fees
Customer pays the batch amount shown at checkout. Any Hanwok platform fee is disclosed in-app/policy and taken from Worker wallet credit on release. Fees may change with notice. Do not rely on informal “no fees forever” claims unless we publish a binding commitment.
Paystack and banks may charge their own fees under their terms.
14. Disclaimers
Hanwok does not control Users and is not responsible for User statements, workmanship, or off-app conduct except as these Terms expressly require for payment processing and Dispute handling.
15. Limitation of liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, HANWOK IS NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES OR LOST PROFITS, DATA OR GOODWILL.
HANWOK'S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR CLAIMS ARISING OUT OFSERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) FEES YOU PAID TO HANWOK(PLATFORM FEES) IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS, OR (B) APPLICABLE LEGAL CAPS.
Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded under Nigerian law (for example fraud by Hanwok where applicable).
16. Indemnity
You agree to defend and indemnify Hanwok against claims, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your content, your jobs, your breach of these Terms, or your off-app conduct, except to the extent caused by Hanwok’s willful misconduct.
17. Privacy
Personal data is handled as described in our Privacy Policy. Payment processors have their own policies for card/bank processing.
18. Changes to the Services and Terms
We may change features, payment policy knobs (windows, percentages, fees), and these Terms. We will post updates with a new effective date and, where required, provide notice. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree, stop using the Services.
In-flight invoices may remain on the rules that applied when they were created.
19. Governing law and disputes with Hanwok
These Terms are governed by the laws of Nigeria. Disputes with Hanwok shall be handled by courts in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Contact before filing a claim.
Before filing a claim against Hanwok, please contact hello@hanwok.com so we can try to resolve the issue.
(This section is about disputes with Hanwok. Job payment Disputes between Customer and Worker follow section 9.)
20. General
- • If a provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
- • Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver.
- • You may not assign these Terms without our consent; Hanwok may assign to an affiliate or successor.
- • These Terms, Privacy Policy, and Community Guidelines form the entire agreement regarding the Services.
- • Section titles are for convenience only.
Contact
Hanwok Support & Legal
Email: hello@hanwok.com
Quick summary
(This summary is for quick reference and is not a substitute for the full Terms)
| Who contracts for the job? | Customer ↔ Artisan |
| Hanwok's role | Marketplace + escrow + Dispute process |
| Accept payment terms | Locks total + split |
| After deposit release | Not automatically refundable |
| After available/withdrawn | Generally unrecoverable by Hanwok |
| Silence | No auto-release / no auto-refund |
| Dispute | Process, not guaranteed refund |
| Chargebacks to dodge process | Breach |
| In-person harm | Your risk; payment tools ≠ safety warranty |
| Age | 18+ |