Terms of Service

1. Parties and scope

These Terms of Service are entered into by you (or the business entity you represent — an "Appraiser," "Firm," or "Customer") and Athena Systems LLC, a Washington limited liability company ("Athena Systems," "North Star," "we").

These Terms apply to use of the Service (defined in §2 below), including the marketing website at athenadecisionsystems.com, the web application, the public verification endpoint, and any associated APIs. They do not apply to third-party services we integrate with; those carry their own terms.

2. Service description

North Star is a software service for evaluating real-estate appraisal work files against published compliance rules (USPAP, Fannie Mae Selling Guide, FHA Handbook 4000.1, VA Pamphlet 26-7, USDA HB-1-3555, Washington and Oregon appraiser-licensing rules, and additional published source material as listed at athenadecisionsystems.com/catalogs).

On each evaluation, the Service produces:

• A set of findings against the rules that apply to your submission. Each finding is associated with a severity (critical / material / advisory), a citation to the source authority, and improvement guidance.
• A cryptographic Decision Record that seals the evaluation event — the work file content hash, the rule-set hash, the timestamp, the findings hash, and our digital signature. The Decision Record is offline-verifiable using our published public key.
• A human-readable Evaluation Report summarizing the findings, improvement guidance, and the Decision Record's metadata.

North Star is a software tool. It does not perform appraisals, render opinions of value, provide legal advice, or substitute for professional judgment. See §6 and §9 below.

2a. Products and customer status

North Star operates in two products, both of which produce a sealed Decision Record. They differ in evidentiary scope.

• Assembly — the primary product. A custodial workflow in which an agent helps you assemble the work file from its source documents (engagement letter, MLS comps, county records, in-field photos, sketches, inspection notes). Every input is witnessed into the audit chain at the moment of capture. The resulting Decision Record is a Custodial Provenance Witness — it attests not only the evaluation event but also the chain of custody from each input's source to its appearance in the work file.
• Evaluate — for already-finished work files. You submit a complete work file authored elsewhere; North Star runs it against the rule library and seals the evaluation. The resulting Decision Record is an Evaluation Event Witness — it attests what was evaluated, when, against which rules, with what findings, but does not witness how the work file was assembled.

The framing in §6 (what the Decision Record attests, what it does not) applies to both. The Assembly seal additionally attests the custodial chain; the Evaluate seal does not. You agree to represent each Record consistent with its actual evidentiary scope.

At the time these Terms were last updated, Evaluate ships first; Assembly is in active development. We may add new modes in the future; those Terms will apply to new products unless we update these Terms per §14.

3. Account creation and eligibility

To use the Service, you must:

• Be at least 18 years old and capable of entering into a binding agreement.
• Be using the Service in a professional capacity related to real-estate appraisal, appraisal review, lending, or a related regulated activity.
• Provide accurate registration information and keep it current.
• Keep your account credentials confidential and notify us promptly of any suspected unauthorized access.

We may suspend or close accounts for inaccurate registration information, suspected fraudulent use, violation of these Terms, or as required by law.

4. License grant and customer obligations

Subject to your continued compliance with these Terms and payment of applicable fees (§7), we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for your internal business purposes during the term of your subscription.

You agree not to:

• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Service or its underlying engine (except to the extent permitted by applicable law that overrides this restriction).
• Use the Service to evaluate work files you do not have a legitimate professional reason to evaluate — for example, you may not bulk-evaluate third-party reports you obtained without permission.
• Resell, sublicense, or commercially redistribute access to the Service.
• Use the Service to harass, defame, or discriminate against any individual or class of individuals.
• Interfere with the operation of the Service, including any denial-of-service attempt, scraping at a rate likely to disrupt other users, or attempts to gain unauthorized access to other accounts.

You are responsible for the work files you submit and the use you make of the resulting Evaluation Reports. You are responsible for complying with your own state's appraisal licensing rules, USPAP, and any other regulatory regime applicable to your practice.

5. Data ownership and processing

You own your work files. Submitting a work file to the Service does not transfer ownership of the underlying data to us. You retain all rights, title, and interest in your work files.

You grant us a limited, non-exclusive license to process your work files solely for the purpose of providing the Service. This includes (a) running our rule engine against the submitted content, (b) producing the Decision Record and Evaluation Report, (c) storing the data on our infrastructure for the duration of your subscription, and (d) using the data internally to debug and improve the Service.

We do not:

• Sell your work files or your evaluation history to third parties.
• Use your work files to train any large language model or other machine-learning system that produces output for other customers, except as expressly authorized by you on an opt-in basis. (If we develop a feature that benefits from cross-customer training, we will ask you to opt in to it; opt-out remains the default.)
• Share your work files with anyone outside Athena Systems employees and contractors who need access to operate the Service, except (i) at your direction, (ii) as required by law, or (iii) as part of a legitimate verification of a Decision Record on which you are the data subject.

Decision Records and Evaluation Reports we produce on your behalf are jointly the work product of our engine and your submitted content. You may export, archive, and share them freely. We retain a copy as part of the audit chain — see §6 below.

For full details of what data we collect and how we handle it, see our Privacy Policy.

5a. Data retention and deletion

We hold your data only as long as the Service needs it, and we tell you exactly how long that is. The window differs by artifact type and by the product you use:

Evaluate work files

If you use Evaluate (Evaluator status), the raw work-file documents you upload — PDFs, MISMO XML, photos, sketches, supporting evidence — are retained as follows:

• Monthly plans: 90 days from the moment you complete the upload.
• Annual plans: 1 year from the moment you complete the upload.

The retention clock starts at upload completion, not at seal completion, so that the total time we hold your documents is capped by the stated window regardless of how long any individual evaluation takes to run or review.

You may request deletion of any uploaded Evaluate work file at any time within the retention window. Two channels:

• Customer dashboard "Delete now" button: deletion is processed immediately. The file is marked deleted on the API call; the underlying object is purged from primary storage within minutes and from operational backups within 14 days (see "Operational backups" below).
• Email to support@athenadecisionsystems.com: we process out-of-band deletion requests within 72 hours. Email requests carry a small triage overhead (identity confirmation, scope check) that the in-product flow handles automatically.

After the retention window expires (or after you request deletion), the raw work-file documents are permanently removed from our infrastructure. The associated sealed Decision Record remains verifiable indefinitely — see below.

Assembly work files

If you use Assembly (Assembly status), the raw work-file documents you assemble through the Service — engagement letters, sales contracts, MLS exports, captured photos with their original EXIF metadata, sketches, supervisor and trainee logs, communications — are retained for:

• 5 years from the assignment effective date, mirroring the appraiser's own record-keeping obligation under USPAP, WAC 308-125-210 (Washington), and OAR 161-050 (Oregon).
• +2 additional years after disposition if you flag the assignment as the subject of judicial or regulatory proceedings.

Assembly's value is the custody chain, and a custody chain loses value if its underlying evidence disappears. The 5-year-plus retention is what makes the Assembly product fit for its intended use as an audit-defensible trail of how your appraisal product was assembled.

You may export your Assembly work files at any time during the retention period. You may also request immediate deletion of a specific case before the retention window expires; doing so removes the underlying documents and replaces them with a deletion-event record in your audit chain noting that you requested removal. The sealed Decision Record for the case remains verifiable.

Sealed Decision Records and the audit chain

Sealed Decision Records, the chained timestamps, and the signatures that bind them are retained indefinitely. They are the verification artifact and they are immutable.

A sealed Decision Record contains a cryptographic hash of the work file at the moment of sealing, not the work-file contents themselves. Verifying the seal years later does not require the underlying file — only the seal and the public key. Deleting the work file under the retention windows above does not break verification of the seal that referenced it.

Because the seal is the audit-defensibility claim that the Service exists to produce, we cannot delete sealed Decision Records on customer request. If you believe an identifying field in a seal's body needs to be anonymized for a legitimate purpose — for example, a borrower's right under a state-privacy statute — contact support@athenadecisionsystems.com and we will work through the request. The cryptographic record itself remains intact.

Per-evaluation attestation

The per-evaluation attestation you complete at the moment of sealing (see §6a) is bound into the Decision Record at seal time and follows the seal's retention — permanent and immutable.

Operational backups

We maintain operational backups of our infrastructure for up to 14 days for disaster-recovery purposes. When you delete a work file under the windows above, the deletion propagates to the backup tail within the 14-day backup horizon. Backups are not used to extend retention beyond the stated windows.

Changes to retention windows

We will not shorten retention windows for documents you have already uploaded under the windows that were in effect when you uploaded them. If we lengthen them, the new windows apply going forward; documents uploaded under the previous shorter windows continue under their original schedule unless you opt in to the new one.

6. The Decision Record — what it attests, what it doesn't

The cryptographic Decision Record sealed on every evaluation is an evaluation-event witness, not a content attestation. This framing is a deliberate, contractually-binding posture by Athena Systems — both for your protection and for ours.

The Decision Record attests:

• The exact bytes of the work file you submitted (SHA-256 content hash).
• The exact moment of evaluation (RFC 3161 third-party timestamp).
• The exact rule set applied (engine version + compiled-rules hash).
• The exact findings produced (results hash, deterministically reproducible).
• The signing identity (Ed25519 public-key id).
• Continuity of evidence — every Record links to the prior one via the predecessor hash.

The Decision Record does NOT attest:

• That your work file is accurate. We do not source-verify the data you submit.
• That your valuation is correct. Our rules evaluate compliance, not value opinion.
• That observed condition matches reported. We witness what you report, not what physically exists.
• That comparable-sale source data is accurate. MLS, deeds, and prior-sale histories are taken from your submission as given.
• That the report passes any standard outside our published rule set. A passing evaluation reflects only the specific rules that fired.
• That the evaluation is legal advice or professional opinion. North Star is software. Use it as a tool.

You agree to represent the Decision Record consistent with this framing — in your work files, in client communications, in court declarations, and in any other downstream use. You agree not to claim, imply, or permit a third party to claim that the Decision Record certifies the accuracy of your valuation or the truth of any factual claim in your report. Misrepresentation may be grounds for account termination (§12).

We retain a copy of each Decision Record indefinitely as part of the audit chain. This is necessary because the chain's predecessor-hash linkage relies on prior Records' availability. You may export the Decision Record at any time for your own records.

6a. The per-evaluation attestation

Before North Star seals any Decision Record, you must affirmatively attest, on the screen presented at the moment of sealing, that:

• The content you submitted (Evaluate) or assembled (Assembly) is accurate to the best of your professional knowledge.
• You understand the Decision Record witnesses the evaluation event (and, in Assembly, the custodial chain) but does not attest the correctness of your underlying valuation, observations, comparable selections, or other professional judgments.
• Any factual error in submitted or assembled content remains your professional responsibility. The seal does not transmute submitted content into verified content.

The exact text of your attestation, the time you accepted it, and a cryptographic binding between your acceptance and the resulting Decision Record are recorded into the Record's attestation field. This is the informed-consent layer of the seal: regulators and auditors re-verifying the Record years later will see both the cryptographic proof of evaluation and your professional attestation of the inputs.

A reduced-friction express attestation option, combining the three acknowledgments above into a single checkbox, may be enabled on your account. The express option is opt-in only and requires its own one-time acknowledgment when enabled. Records sealed under the express attestation carry the same legal weight as records sealed under the three-checkbox flow.

7. Fees and payment

The fee tiers, billing cadences, and payment-frequency discounts currently offered are published at athenadecisionsystems.com/northstar/pricing. The tier you select at signup, the billing cadence (monthly, quarterly, or annual) you select, and any volume discounts that apply form the agreed fee schedule of these Terms.

Fees are stated in U.S. Dollars and exclude any applicable taxes (sales, use, B&O, or other) which are your responsibility unless we are required by law to collect them.

You authorize us to charge your designated payment method for recurring fees according to the cadence you selected. Failed payments may result in suspension of the Service after a reasonable grace period and written notice.

Pre-paid quarterly and annual periods are non-refundable for the period prepaid, except as expressly stated in the refund policy published with the tier at the time of purchase. Monthly billing may be cancelled at any time; unused portions of a current month are not refundable but no further months are charged.

Fee changes apply to new sign-ups and renewals; existing customers retain their signed-up tier through the end of their current billing period (monthly, quarterly, or annual) unless they affirmatively upgrade or change tier.

Upgrades from Evaluate to Assembly at mid-period are pro-rated against the higher tier. Downgrades take effect at the next billing-period boundary; the unused portion of the higher tier is not refunded.

8. Service availability and changes

We aim for high availability but make no specific uptime commitment in this version of the Terms. [TODO: insert SLA terms if and when offered, with credits / remedies for missed targets.]

We may make changes to the Service over time — rule additions, predicate refinements, engine updates, UI improvements. We will not retroactively change the rule set in force on a previously-sealed Decision Record; that Record stays bound to the rule-set hash recorded at seal time.

We may add, modify, or retire specific rules in the rule library. Material rule changes are announced in advance with an effective date. Customers may comment on proposed rule changes; see the customer-feedback channel at athenadecisionsystems.com/catalogs.

We may temporarily suspend the Service for maintenance, security incidents, or to comply with legal requirements, with notice where practicable.

9. Warranties and disclaimers

We warrant that the Service will perform substantially in accordance with our published documentation when used as intended.

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." Except as expressly stated in these Terms, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Without limiting the foregoing:

• We do not warrant that the Service will catch every possible compliance issue in your work file. Our rule library covers what it covers; we publish the full library at athenadecisionsystems.com/catalogs. Issues outside the scope of our rules are not the Service's responsibility.
• We do not warrant that a finding-free evaluation result means your work file is correct, defensible, or regulatory-compliant beyond the specific rules that fired. See §6.
• We do not warrant that our rule library reflects the most-current state of the underlying source authorities at any given moment. Rules are updated periodically; source authorities may change between updates.
• Findings, improvement guidance, and Decision Records are tools to support — not replace — your professional judgment.

10. Limitation of liability

[TODO: jurisdiction-specific liability cap and exclusion language. Initial draft anticipates a cap at 12 months of fees paid by the customer in the period immediately preceding the claim, and exclusion of consequential / indirect / punitive damages to the maximum extent permitted by law. Final structure subject to attorney review.]

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:

• Athena Systems' total cumulative liability arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall not exceed the fees you paid us in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
• Neither party shall be liable to the other for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, punitive, or exemplary damages (including loss of profits, business, data, or goodwill) arising out of or relating to these Terms, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
• The limitations in this §10 do not apply to (a) your payment obligations under §7, (b) either party's indemnification obligations under §11, or (c) liability for gross negligence, fraud, or willful misconduct.

11. Indemnification

[TODO: mutual-indemnification language to be finalized at attorney review. Initial draft anticipates customer indemnification for misuse of Decision Records (e.g., representing them as content attestations contrary to §6) and Athena indemnification for IP infringement of the Service itself.]

12. Termination and post-termination data access

Either party may terminate these Terms (or your subscription to the Service) for any reason on [TODO: notice period — initial draft: 30 days written notice].

We may terminate immediately for: material breach of these Terms (including misrepresentation of Decision Records contrary to §6); non-payment of fees after reasonable notice and cure period; or suspected fraud / illegal use.

On termination:

• You may export your data (work files, findings, Decision Records, Evaluation Reports) for a period of 60 days after termination. The export window applies regardless of which retention tier you were on under §5a; we will not accelerate deletion past the §5a window for the sole purpose of denying you the export. Note that documents whose §5a retention window expires during the 60-day post-termination period are still deleted at the §5a window expiry — the post-termination export window does not extend the §5a windows. Export proactively if you want to retain documents that are near their retention boundary.
• We will retain the Decision Records you sealed during your subscription as part of the audit chain. The records remain offline-verifiable indefinitely using our published public key — even if your account is closed and even if Athena Systems ceases to operate. See athenadecisionsystems.com/audit-chain.
• Raw work-file documents follow the retention windows stated in §5a (Data retention and deletion). Termination does not extend these windows; documents uploaded under an Evaluate or Assembly tier run out their already- stated retention from upload (Evaluate) or from assignment effective date (Assembly), then are permanently deleted. You may request immediate deletion of any document at any point during its retention window as described in §5a.
• Your accrued payment obligations through the termination date remain due.

13. Governing law and dispute resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Washington, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles.

[TODO: dispute-resolution clause — mediation / arbitration / venue. Initial draft anticipates AAA commercial arbitration in Seattle, with venue in King County Superior Court for any injunctive relief. Final structure subject to attorney review.]

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will post the updated Terms here with a revised "Last updated" date. Material changes will be communicated to active subscribers by email at least 30 days before they take effect.

Your continued use of the Service after a material change constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree, you may terminate your subscription per §12.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms: legal@athenadecisionsystems.com.

Customer support: hello@athenadecisionsystems.com.

Mailing address: available on request via legal@athenadecisionsystems.com.