Plots, takeovers and Club Credits

1. Who provides Claim The Club, and who it is for

Claim The Club is provided by Ludren Technologies Limited, company number 17549669, registered in England and Wales, registered office 28 Brock Street, Bath, United Kingdom, BA1 2LN. Ludren Technologies Limited is the seller of every plot, development and renewal bought here and the controller of the personal data the service holds. Customer support and complaints: info@claimtheclub.com.

Claim The Club is provided for customers purchasing advertising for business, trade, craft or professional purposes. By buying you confirm that you are purchasing for such a purpose and not as a consumer for private use. A plot is a business advertising service: it is not property, an investment, a share, a financial product, a bet, a prize or an auction between customers, and nothing about it appreciates or pays a return.

2. The six-month plot term and £25 renewal

A plot is a six-month advertising licence. Your term starts the moment your payment settles and ends exactly six months later. The end date is shown before you pay, on your plot page and in your account. Every available plot opens at £5.

During the last seven days of your term you can renew for £25, paid by card. Credits cannot be used for a renewal. Renewal adds six months to your existing end date, not to the day you pay, and nobody can take your plot over during those seven days. If the term ends without a renewal, the plot is released.

A plot is not property, an investment, a share or an auction lot. Nothing about it appreciates or pays a return. Showing a brand on it is paid placement: it is not a verification, an endorsement, an accreditation or any check of the business shown.

3. Takeover protection

During your term another member can take your plot over unless it is protected. Every claim or takeover is protected for 24 hours from the moment the payment settles.

Cash you actually pay towards the plot's credit value during the current term earns more protection: £25 in total earns seven days, £100 earns 30 days, and £500 protects the plot for the rest of the term. Each level activates once per term, runs from the moment the qualifying payment settles, and never past the end of the term. A higher level only ever extends protection; the periods do not add together.

Credits you spend and the takeover fee never count towards protection, and neither does a payment that fails, is cancelled, refunded or disputed. Takeovers are also blocked during the last seven days of a term, which is the renewal window.

4. How takeover prices are calculated

The takeover price is 125% of the plot's credit value, rounded to the nearest whole pound with exact halves rounded up. It is never below the credit value and never more than £1,000.

The difference between the price and the credit value is the takeover fee. The fee is not refundable, does not count towards protection, and is never returned to anyone, as credits or otherwise. Because of the rounding, the fee is not exactly 25%: a plot with a £5 credit value is taken over for £6, of which £1 is the fee.

A previous takeover's fee never enters the credit value, so a plot that has changed hands several times costs the same to take over unless development has been added.

Before you pay, the page shows the price, any takeover fee, any credits applied, the cash payable, the date your protection ends, the date your term ends and what you would receive if you were displaced. The price you are shown is the price you are charged. It is calculated by us from the plot's recorded figures, never sent by your browser.

5. Credit value and what is returned after a takeover

A plot's credit value, called its recoverable basis in our records, is the £5 claim plus the development bought during the current occupancy. It never includes a takeover fee, and it can never exceed £800: a purchase that would take it past £800 is refused. A plot with a credit value of exactly £800 is taken over for £1,000.

If your plot is taken over you receive its credit value as Club Credits, and nothing of the fee. You do not receive money. What comes back can never exceed the price the new holder paid or the £800 ceiling.

The part of the credit value you paid for in cash comes back as credits that expire twelve months after the takeover. The part you paid for with credits comes back with those original credits' expiry dates. If those credits would already have expired, that part is not revived.

Your brand comes down from that plot but stays in your account. The development stays with the plot, and the new holder takes the plot on with the same credit value.

6. How Club Credits work and expire

Club Credits are a discount against future purchases on this site. They are not money and have no cash value. They cannot be withdrawn, exchanged for cash or transferred to anyone else, and they can be used only on Claim The Club products, or on future releases we explicitly mark as eligible.

Credits expire twelve months after they are issued, and the oldest-expiring credits are spent first. Spending credits never refreshes or extends any of them, and signing in does not change any expiry date. Expired credits cannot be spent, returned or revived.

Credits are applied automatically and in full before any card payment, so an order covered entirely by credits takes no card payment at all. Spending credits is final: once an order using them completes, those credits are gone. Credits cannot be used for a renewal.

Your account page shows each tranche of credits, when it expires and what expires within 30 and 90 days. You are reminded 90, 30 and 7 days before a tranche expires.

7. Development and advertising

Development is £5 a stage, bought in the same payment as the plot or on its own later, up to £500 of build value per plot. Development you pay for adds to the plot's credit value and, when paid in cash, counts towards takeover protection. It stays with the plot when the plot changes hands.

Development levels describe the plot, not the business on it. They are not a rating, a review, a verification or a quality mark.

A plot lets you show one brand: a name, a logo, a description and a link to your own website. You can keep any plot out of the public directory; the map, the plot page and search are unaffected. We may restrict a listing's logo, description or link while we look into a report, and you can appeal. A restriction never changes who holds the plot or what they paid.

8. What happens when a term expires

When your term ends without a renewal, your branding comes off the plot and it opens again at £5 for whoever claims it next. The development you paid for stays on the map, but the next holder does not inherit your credit value: theirs starts at £5.

A term that runs its full course produces no credits and no payment, because the whole term was supplied. You are reminded 30, 7 and 1 days before your term ends.

9. Refunds, complaints and your rights

Your advertising placement begins when payment settles. Payments are normally non-refundable once the service has started. We will correct or refund duplicate or incorrect charges, and provide the remedies required if the service is not supplied as described or applicable law requires otherwise.

An agreed takeover is part of the service you bought: the licence provides for it, your protection and the credit value you receive are explained above, and a takeover does not create a right to a cash refund. A term that runs its full six months has been supplied in full and produces no refund and no Club Credits. Unused or expired Club Credits cannot be exchanged for cash.

Refunds and payment disputes raised through Stripe are handled through our payment exception process: a refunded or disputed payment stops counting towards protection and credit value, and the plot may be placed on hold while we look into it. Where a refund is due we make it to the card that paid.

Complaints can be sent to info@claimtheclub.com. We will acknowledge a complaint promptly and normally answer it within 14 days. Nothing in these terms removes rights that cannot legally be excluded, and nothing here is a waiver of your statutory rights.

10. Closure arrangements

If Claim The Club is ever wound down, closure is announced at least six months ahead and shown on every page. From the announcement there are no new cash purchases, takeovers or renewals. Existing terms and protection are honoured up to the closure date, and no term or protection runs past it.

Credits can be spent on available plots and development until a published final-use date, after which remaining credits expire. Credits have no cash value and there is no cash redemption. Closure and expiry remain subject to your statutory rights.