This is the deal in writing. We would rather tell you exactly how the money and the visits work than describe it vaguely — so everything below is the same thing the rest of this site says, in one place.
These terms apply to every Groundkeep plan, seasonal visit, and service. By starting service, keeping a card on file, or letting us onto your property to work, you agree to them. “We,” “us,” and “Groundkeep” mean Groundkeep, a DBA of Ian C. Swanson Companies, LLC. “You” means the person who signed up and the owner or lawful occupant of the property we service.
A plan is a visit each season, billed over twelve months. You are buying a year of service. The monthly amount is that year’s price divided by twelve. It is not a month-to-month arrangement that happens to recur, and the visits are not spread evenly across the months you pay in — most of the work lands in spring and fall.
Plan members get member rates on additional services, done during a visit already on the calendar, and billed after that visit.
A standalone seasonal visit or a single menu service is a one-time purchase at the non-member price. It creates no plan, no monthly billing, and no member rates.
We schedule plan visits on our own seasonal calendar. You do not pick visit dates. We tell you when we are coming.
A valid payment card is required for the life of your plan. You authorize us to store it with our payment processor and to charge it under this section.
You must keep a working card on file. If your card expires, is declined, is reported lost, or is otherwise unusable, you must provide a replacement immediately. Failure to keep a valid card on file permits us to suspend or terminate service without notice.
Your authorization covers all of the following, without a further checkout, signature, or confirmation step:
Approval of an additional service may be given in writing, by text, by email, or verbally to the person doing the work. Approval is approval; no separate payment step is required.
This authorization stands until you revoke it in writing. Revoking it while you owe a balance does not extinguish the balance, and it ends your plan under Section 8.
Authorization holds on larger visits. When the work scheduled for a single visit is large, we place a $250 authorization hold on the card on file. A hold is not a payment. It reserves that amount of your available credit and takes nothing. We place it close to the visit rather than at signup, because a card authorization only lasts about a week.
The hold is released after the visit. When we record the visit as done, we cancel the hold. The reserved amount goes back to your available credit on your bank’s own schedule, which is not something we control.
If you cancel, we may capture the hold instead of releasing it. Captured money is applied to what you already owe us under these terms — the square-up in Section 8, the cancellation and no-access fee in Section 6, or an unpaid balance. It is not a penalty added on top of what you owe.
If the hold is declined, we do not deliver the visit. A card that will not carry the hold is a card we will not schedule large work against. We will tell you, and you can give us a different card.
Your plan begins on the earliest of: the date you complete signup, the date we first successfully charge your card, the date of your first scheduled visit, or the date you first receive service from us.
Billing begins at signup, not at first visit.
You are responsible for safe, unobstructed access to the work areas on your service day — unlocked gates, a clear driveway and walkways, pets secured indoors or away from the work area, vehicles moved, and every area we need reachable.
You are responsible for telling us about property conditions we cannot see, including septic fields, irrigation lines, invisible fencing, buried utilities, low-voltage lighting, unstable decking or railings, damaged roofing or gutters, and any surface that cannot bear a ladder.
If we cannot perform a service because of property conditions, access, weather, safety, or anything outside our control, no refund and no substitute service is required, and Section 6 applies.
You can cancel your plan at any time, and you pay only for visits already done. A plan is a year, billed monthly. There is no notice period: a text or an email ends it. Visits not yet done are not charged, and Section 8 squares up the ones that were.
Cancelling or rescheduling a scheduled visit within 48 hours of that visit, or any no-access condition when we arrive, is billed at $150 or 50% of the service price, whichever is greater. Cancelling your plan is not a cancelled visit and carries no fee.
No-access conditions include a locked gate, a blocked driveway or work area, an unsecured pet, an unreachable service area, an inaccessible interior when interior work is scheduled, and your absence when your presence is required.
Once a service is scheduled, payment for it is non-refundable. Not once performed — once scheduled. Our costs are committed when the calendar is committed. When you cancel your plan, Section 8 applies instead: you pay only for visits already done.
Deposits. We may require a deposit of up to 50% of the total price on larger projects. Deposits are non-refundable.
If a charge fails, we may retry it. We will tell you, and you must clear the balance immediately.
While any balance is unpaid we may suspend service without notice, decline to schedule, and cancel scheduled visits. Suspension does not pause billing and does not extend your plan year.
Unpaid balances accrue a late charge of 10% per month, compounded monthly, or the maximum rate permitted by Michigan law, whichever is less. A returned or reversed payment carries a $75 fee.
You are responsible for all costs of collection, including collection agency fees, court costs, and reasonable attorney’s fees, whether or not suit is filed.
Starting a chargeback on a charge you authorized under Section 2 is a breach of these terms, and does not relieve you of the underlying balance or of the cost of responding to it.
A plan is a year, billed monthly. You can cancel it at any time and pay only for visits already done. A text or an email is enough, and there is no notice period.
Stopping service does not end what you owe for work already delivered. A plan front-loads the work against twelve months of payment, so we square up on the way out.
The square-up runs both directions. We total the member one-off price of every service actually delivered to you since signup — the member rate for a service bought on its own, never the non-member price — and subtract everything you have paid us since signup. If the result is positive, that amount is due as one final invoice, charged to the card on file. If the result is negative, we refund you the difference. We show you both numbers, and we never keep an overpayment.
The square-up is done by hand. Nothing about it is automatic. A person works it out, and we show you both figures.
There is no notice period and no fee for ending a plan early. The square-up above is the whole of what happens to the money.
We may terminate immediately, without notice, for non-payment, for failure to keep a valid card on file, for breach of these terms, for unsafe or abusive conditions at the property, or for any conduct that endangers a person doing the work.
Inspect the work and report any issue in writing within 24 hours of the visit. Dispute any charge in writing within 48 hours. Those 48 hours run from the charge, or from the day we tell you about it in writing — a confirmation, a receipt, or an invoice — whichever is later. Issues and charges not raised inside those windows are not eligible for review, adjustment, credit, or refund. Written means email or text to the address or number we service you from.
This work happens on structures, surfaces, and materials that age, weather, and fail. Some of that failure is revealed by the work rather than caused by it. You accept the following risks and waive any claim against us arising from them:
You confirm that you own the property or have the owner’s authority to authorize this work.
You are responsible for your animals. Secure every pet indoors or away from the work area before your service window. Gates open, equipment runs, chemicals and de-icing materials are in use, and doors and gates may be left open in the ordinary course of the work.
We assume no liability for injury to, illness of, escape of, or loss of any animal, or for any harm an animal causes to a person working at the property, however it happens. You are responsible for any injury your animal causes to any person or property at the premises, and you will indemnify us for it under Section 12.
An unsecured animal is a no-access condition under Section 6. We may leave without performing the service and bill accordingly. Nobody is required to enter a property, or stay on one, with an animal loose.
You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Groundkeep, Ian C. Swanson Companies, LLC, its owner, employees, and contractors from any claim, demand, action, loss, liability, damage, fine, cost, or expense — including reasonable attorney’s fees — arising out of or relating to:
This survives the end of your plan.
Our total liability to you for any claim is limited to the amount you paid for the specific service that gave rise to the claim.
We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost use, loss of property value, diminution in value, relocation costs, or business interruption, under any theory, whether or not we were told such damages were possible.
We make no warranties of any kind, express or implied, and specifically disclaim any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or workmanlike performance, except as stated in writing.
Nothing we do is an inspection, a certification, or a warranty of condition. Any report, photograph, note, or observation we give you — including Home Vitals — is a record of what we saw on the day. It is not a professional inspection, it is not a guarantee, and it must not be relied on for any transaction, any claim, or any safety determination.
Please read this section carefully. It affects how disputes between us are resolved.
Informal resolution first. Before either of us starts a formal proceeding, the complaining party will send the other a written description of the dispute and the relief sought, and give the other 30 days to fix it.
Binding arbitration. If that fails, any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms or our services will be resolved by binding individual arbitration, administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, before a single arbitrator, seated in Oakland County, Michigan, or held by telephone, videoconference, or on documents at the claimant’s election.
Class action waiver. All claims must be brought individually. Neither of us may bring a claim as a plaintiff or class member in a class, collective, consolidated, coordinated, or representative proceeding, and the arbitrator has no authority to hear one or to award relief to anyone other than the parties.
Small claims. Either of us may instead bring an individual claim in small claims court in Oakland County, Michigan, if it qualifies there.
Your right to opt out. You may opt out of this arbitration section by sending us written notice within 30 days of first agreeing to these terms, giving your name, service address, and that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out changes nothing else in these terms and will not affect your service.
Time limit. Any claim must be filed within one year of when it arose, or it is permanently barred.
If the class action waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim proceeds in court and the rest of this section still applies to every other claim.
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Michigan, without regard to conflict of law principles. Subject to Section 14, any proceeding will be brought only in the state or federal courts serving Oakland County, Michigan, and you consent to that jurisdiction and venue.
We serve a defined area. If your property falls outside it, we may decline or end service. A move outside the service area ends your plan and triggers the square-up in Section 8.
If we do not enforce a term or a fee on one occasion, we have not given up the right to enforce it on any other occasion. No waiver of any provision is effective unless it is in writing and signed by us, and a waiver given once applies only to the instance it names.
Letting something slide — not charging a cancellation fee, waiving a late charge, absorbing a cost — is a courtesy for that occasion. It is never an amendment to these terms and never a course of dealing.
Home Vitals is the record of your house we build for you: dated notes and photos from every visit, yours to keep. It comes with every Groundkeep plan at no extra cost. It is a record, not an inspection — see Section 13.
We photograph work areas before and after service for quality, dispute, and record purposes. What we take, how we use it, and how to have it deleted are covered in full on the privacy policy — including our promise that we do not publish a photo of your home, or use one in advertising, without asking you first.
On access: we keep your gate codes and exterior-access notes so we can do the work. We do not hold keys — you are home when we work inside.
Service texts, opt-in, and how to stop them are covered on the privacy policy. Short version: service messages only, no marketing texts, reply STOP to opt out.
Groundkeep and Yard Patrol are two brands of one business, Ian C. Swanson Companies, LLC — same owner, same bank account. A card you save with us is saved once and pays for either brand's work, and your name, email address, phone number and service address are held on one customer file covering both. Nothing is passed between companies, because there is only one company.
Card charges appear on your statement as ICS, the name our payment account is registered under, followed by the brand the charge was for. If a line on your statement says ICS and you are not sure what it is, call or text us before disputing it and we will tell you which visit it was.
What we hold, what we have never held, what stays with the brand that took it, and how to tell us you would rather we did not keep a card on file — and what we do instead when you do — are set out in plain words on the privacy policy. That section is part of these terms, and agreeing to these terms includes agreeing to it.
Groundkeep's checkout has one agreement box, and one tick covers all of it. This is what that tick covers, in full:
I agree to the Groundkeep terms and the Yard Patrol terms, and to Groundkeep and Yard Patrol sharing my contact details and saved payment method with each other, as described in the privacy policy.
One box, three things: both sets of terms and the sharing between our two brands. Ticked once and timestamped. This wording was last revised on September 1, 2026; if we change it, that date changes with it, and the version posted here when you ticked the box is the version that governs.
We may update these terms. Material changes take effect 30 days after we post them or tell you about them. Continuing service after that is acceptance. The version posted here always governs.
Questions about these terms?
Call or text (586) 343-0788 · Email ian@groundkeepco.com
By starting service, you agree to these terms.