ProperFit Hire

Terms of service

Last updated: 5 May 2026

Plain-English summary. You send me a job spec and candidate CVs. I score them deterministically and send back a ranked report within 24 hours. £99 per cohort, payable after delivery. If you don't like the report, don't pay. We delete your files in 7 days. Final hiring decisions are yours.

1. The service

ProperFit Hire ("I", "me", "Brian Gillingham") provides deterministic CV-cohort scoring and recruitment consultancy services through the Mermoid platform. Customers ("you") submit a job specification and candidate CVs and receive a ranked, citation-backed report.

2. Pricing & payment

  1. Pay-per-cohort: £99 per cohort, payable upon receipt of the delivered report. If you find the report unsatisfactory, no payment is due provided you notify me within 7 days of delivery.
  2. Retainer: £249 per month, billed monthly via Stripe. 30-day rolling cancellation; cancel by emailing me before your next billing cycle.
  3. Full agency: 10% of the placed candidate's first-year gross salary, payable 50% on shortlist delivery and 50% on placement, plus the rebate schedule below.
  4. All prices are in GBP and exclusive of VAT (I am not VAT-registered at the time of writing).

3. Replacement guarantee (Full Agency only)

If a candidate placed under the Full Agency tier leaves voluntarily, or is dismissed for cause, within the rebate period:

  1. Within 30 days — 100% rebate of placement fee.
  2. Within 60 days — 75% rebate.
  3. Within 90 days — 50% rebate.
  4. After 90 days — no rebate.

Rebates are credit notes against future placements OR refunds at your discretion.

4. Your obligations

  1. You confirm you have the legal right to share each candidate's CV with me for scoring (typically Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR legitimate interest applies; you should have a candidate privacy notice in place).
  2. You will not upload CVs of candidates who have explicitly objected to your processing under Article 21 UK GDPR.
  3. You will use the report as decision-support, not as the sole basis for a hiring decision (this aligns with ICO 2026 ADM guidance on automated employment decision-making).

5. My obligations

  1. Deliver the ranked report within 24 hours of submission (12 hours on Retainer).
  2. Process all data in accordance with the Privacy notice.
  3. Provide deterministic, reproducible scores with citation evidence per criterion. Where the engine returns "uncertain" for a signal, this is surfaced explicitly rather than defaulted to a fabricated score.
  4. Maintain audit-trail records for 18 months supporting defensibility under EU AI Act Article 22 / UK ICO ADM guidance.

6. Intellectual property

The Mermoid platform (scoring methodology, source code, sector packs, weighting algorithm) is my intellectual property. The audit reports I deliver to you are licensed for your internal recruitment-decision use; you may share excerpts with the candidates being scored, hiring managers, and your professional advisers (e.g. employment lawyers). Onward publication, resale, or use to train other AI models requires separate written agreement.

7. Limitations & warranties

The service is provided "as is". I warrant that the scoring is deterministic, reproducible, and citation-backed. I do NOT warrant that any specific candidate is suitable for any specific role — that judgement remains yours. My maximum liability for any claim under these terms is capped at twelve months of fees actually paid by you to me in the period preceding the claim.

8. Termination

Either party may terminate the engagement at any time. On termination I will delete your active CVs and JDs immediately; historical audit reports will be retained per the privacy notice or deleted on your written request.

9. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Disputes will be heard in the County Court at Lincoln.