Groundhogs Lawn Care

Standard Terms & Conditions

Version 2026.1  |  Effective [03-01-2026]

1. Payment and billing

Pay-as-you-go customers authorize Groundhogs to charge the payment method on file up to 7 days before each scheduled service. Pay-in-full customers pay at acceptance. Approved add-ons may be charged when approved. Failed payments may pause service. Returned ACH payments or improper chargebacks may result in a $30 returned-payment fee.

You are responsible for keeping a valid, current payment method on file. If a card is declined or expires and we cannot collect, service may still continue and you remain responsible for all accrued charges until the balance is paid or the account is formally cancelled under Section 3.

Billing disputes. Any billing discrepancy must be reported within 30 days of the charge date. After that period the charge is considered final.

Past due accounts. Accounts carrying an unpaid balance may have service suspended until brought current. Accounts more than 60 days past due may be cancelled and referred to a third-party collection service, and you are responsible for reasonable collection costs and, where permitted by law, attorney fees actually incurred. If you are having trouble paying, call us. We would rather work something out than send an account to collections.

Price and program changes. Groundhogs periodically adjusts programs and pricing to reflect material, labor, and regulatory costs. We provide at least 30 days advance notice of any change to your program or pricing, sent to the contact information on file. Renewal pricing is handled under Section 4.

2. Access, scheduling, and rescheduling

You must provide safe access to the property, including unlocked gates, working gate codes, secured pets, and sprinklers turned off during service windows. If service cannot be completed because access is blocked or unsafe, a $30 trip and rescheduling fee may apply. You may reschedule without a fee by giving at least 3 days notice.

Areas we cannot reach. If part of the property is inaccessible at the time of service, that area is skipped and service continues on the accessible portion. No credit or discount is issued for an area we could not reach. We will return once per season at no charge to treat a missed area on request, within the service season.

Scheduling is not a fixed calendar. Visit timing is driven by weather, seasonal pest and disease pressure, label requirements, optimal treatment timing, and route efficiency. We give you a window, not a guaranteed hour. If we must reschedule for weather, equipment, or staffing, we aim to complete the visit within the same service week and will notify you when the schedule moves.

Irrigation timing. Unless we tell you otherwise for a specific product, irrigation must not run for at least 4 hours after a herbicide, fertilizer, or insecticide application. Groundhogs is not responsible for reduced effectiveness or turf injury caused by irrigation that runs too soon and washes product off or redistributes it unevenly.

Rainfall after application. We apply according to forecast and label. We cannot control the weather. Product applied correctly that is later affected by rainfall is not a service failure and does not automatically require free reapplication. If significant rain falls within 2 hours of an application, contact us within 48 hours and we will assess whether reapplication makes sense.

3. Cancellation

You may cancel by email or phone. Cancellation stops future services after Groundhogs receives the request, except for services already completed, already dispatched, or scheduled too close to reasonably remove from the route. You remain responsible for completed services, approved add-ons, applicable trip fees, and disclosed non-refundable special-order materials purchased specifically for the property. Pay-in-full refunds are prorated based on standard per-visit pricing for completed services.

If you move. Tell us. We can transfer service to a new property within our service area subject to inspection and program fit, apply a credit to your account, or prorate a refund under the rule above. If you neither cancel nor transfer, the original account holder remains responsible for continued service.

4. Annual renewal

Your service does not renew automatically. Groundhogs may send a renewal offer each year. No pesticide services or charges for a new season begin until you accept that season’s renewal summary. Renewal pricing may change and is disclosed to you before acceptance.

5. Safety and post-service instructions

You must follow all pre-service and post-service instructions, including re-entry directions, watering and mowing guidance, and label-based safety instructions. People and pets must stay off treated areas until allowed by the product label or by Groundhogs’ written instructions. Pesticide notification signs must not be removed for at least 24 hours. NYCRR requires pesticide markers to include “do not remove sign for 24 hours” and to remain posted at least 24 hours after application.

If anyone in your household has a sensitivity to a product class, or you keep bees, poultry, or grazing animals, tell us before service so we can note the account and adjust. Some products are not labeled for use in those situations.

6. Your responsibilities

6.1 Disclosure and marking

You must disclose, with confirmation, sensitive areas, hazards, irrigation issues, recent seeding or sod, prior chemical applications, vegetable gardens, wells, ponds, pollinator areas, beehives, invisible fences, irrigation lines, low-voltage lighting, drainage, septic components, and any other hidden or shallow items. You must clearly mark hidden items before service. Groundhogs is not responsible for damage to unmarked, mismarked, hidden, shallow, or undisclosed items, except to the extent caused by Groundhogs’ negligence or misconduct.

6.2 Mowing, watering, and cultural practices

Our treatments work with your maintenance, not instead of it. To get the results the program is designed to deliver, you agree to mow at the correct height and frequency for your grass type, keep mower blades sharp, water according to seasonal need, avoid mowing immediately before or after service unless we tell you otherwise, and follow post-treatment instructions.

Dull blades tear grass instead of cutting it, which opens entry points for disease and increases stress. Scalping and irregular mowing produce thin, weed-prone turf. Failure to follow these practices affects results and may void a guarantee re-treatment or a no-charge service call.

6.3 Tell us early

We are on your property a limited number of times each season. You see it every day. If you notice discoloration, thinning, unusual patches, insect activity, or anything that looks wrong, call us right away. Service calls between visits are free.

Problems caught early are usually fixable. The same problem caught eight weeks later may require sod repair or replacement, which is not covered by any Groundhogs guarantee. Waiting to report a visible problem may reduce or eliminate what we can do about it at no charge.

7. What we cannot control and what is not covered

Your Service Agreement lists the four guarantees Groundhogs makes. Outside those four, we make no guarantee of any result. The following are specific conditions and categories that are not covered by any program, add-on, or guarantee.

7.1 Weather, soil, and site conditions

Drought, flooding, extreme heat or cold, unusual seasonal timing, ice and prolonged snow cover, soil type, compaction, poor drainage, grade, shade, tree and shrub root competition, salt intrusion, pet urine damage, and foot or vehicle traffic.

7.2 Invasive and non-selectively controllable species

Annual bluegrass (poa annua), rough bluegrass (poa trivialis), creeping bentgrass, and other invasive grass species cannot be selectively removed from a lawn. No selective herbicide registered for residential turf will take them out without also killing the desirable grass around them. Anything we do to reduce them short of a full non-selective renovation is an attempt, not a guarantee. Some species are managed and lived with rather than eliminated.

7.3 Turf disease

We can suppress and reduce disease pressure with preventative and curative fungicide applications. We cannot eradicate disease. Disease outcomes depend on leaf wetness duration, irrigation timing, mowing height and sanitation, air circulation, nitrogen balance, and the work of third-party providers, most of which sit outside our control. Fungicide resistance also develops in pathogen populations over time.

7.4 Pest and herbicide resistance

Groundhogs uses integrated pest management and rotates modes of action to slow resistance. Even so, weed and insect populations develop reduced susceptibility to registered chemistries. That is a biological phenomenon across the industry, not a service failure. Where resistance is suspected or confirmed, control may require alternative chemistries, increased frequency, or application methods not included in your standard program. Those are quoted separately.

7.5 Normal temporary response to treatment

Some herbicides cause temporary yellowing, bronzing, whitening, or discoloration of turf, particularly during heat stress, cold stress, drought, or when turf is already under strain. This is a documented plant stress response, not misapplication or damage. Affected turf typically recovers within two to four weeks under normal growing conditions with proper watering. Treated weeds also curl, yellow, and brown before dying, which is the herbicide working.

7.6 Pressure from property we do not treat

Weed seed, insects, and disease move. Untreated neighboring lawns, vacant or foreclosed properties, rentals, association common areas, roadsides, drainage corridors, wooded lots, fields, and wetlands all act as reservoirs. Wind carries seed from blooming weeds hundreds of feet. Insects migrate from untreated habitat.

Groundhogs cannot prevent reinfestation from property we do not treat and does not guarantee elimination of problems originating outside your treated area. In neighborhoods with a high proportion of unmaintained property, or adjacent to natural areas, pressure may stay elevated indefinitely despite correct treatment.

7.7 Legal limits on where and how we can treat

Some parts of your property cannot be treated the way you might expect, because New York law says so. These limits are not optional and we will not apply outside them.

• Fertilizer may not be applied to lawn or turf between December 1 and April 1 (ECL 17-2103).
• Fertilizer may not be applied within 20 feet of any surface water, unless a continuous natural vegetative buffer at least 10 feet wide separates the turf from the water. Where a spreader guard, deflector shield, or drop spreader is used, no closer than 3 feet. This means waterfront lawns have a strip we legally cannot fertilize, and that strip may look different from the rest of the lawn.
• Phosphorus fertilizer may not be applied to established lawn unless a soil test shows phosphorus is needed. This is one reason we recommend soil testing.
• Fertilizer may not be applied to impervious surfaces. Any that lands on a driveway, walk, or road is swept up and contained, not hosed off.
• Product labels set maximum application rates and annual limits. If we reach a legal ceiling for a product on your property, we will tell you and give you a written plan for the following season rather than apply illegally.
• We do not apply insecticides to areas with visible pollinator activity, such as flowering plants or active bee foraging. Your applicator has final say on how close to water and pollinator habitat they are comfortable treating.

7.8 Seeding, overseeding, and turf establishment

Germination depends on moisture, soil temperature, seed-to-soil contact, and traffic after seeding, most of which happen after we leave. Groundhogs does not guarantee germination rate, establishment, fill-in of bare areas, or survival of new seedlings. We also do not guarantee sod or grass replacement, and turf repair or sod work is quoted separately when appropriate.

7.9 Animals and wildlife

Damage from voles, moles, skunks, raccoons, birds, deer, and other wildlife, including damage caused by animals digging for grubs outside a covered guarantee period.

7.10 Prior condition and third-party work

The condition of the turf when we start, prior treatments and prior providers, and work by mowing services, irrigation contractors, landscapers, and construction crews.

Mosquito, tick, weed, and insect services are reduction and suppression services. They are not total elimination services.

8. Service documentation and service disputes

Groundhogs documents each visit using technician notes, service photos, GPS route records, the service summary sent to you, and the notice left at the property. Together these records are used to confirm that service was performed at the correct property on the correct date.

If you believe a visit was missed or improperly performed, notify us within 48 hours of the scheduled service date so we can verify while the evidence is still fresh. After that window we may be unable to confirm or re-perform the visit without an additional charge. If our records and your account of events disagree, we will look at both and work it out with you.

Separately, and as stated in your Service Agreement, you must notify Groundhogs within 3 business days after discovering a suspected service issue or property damage, and must allow reasonable inspection before repairs or third-party work.

9. Communications and paperless service

Groundhogs operates paperless. Contracts, amendments, quotes, service notices, product information, label warnings, SDS and labels, and specific pesticide notices are delivered electronically, and signatures are captured electronically. Under New York State Technology Law § 304, an electronic signature has the same validity and effect as a signature affixed by hand.

It is your responsibility to keep a current and working email address and phone number on file, and to make sure messages from Groundhogs are not blocked or filtered. Missed messages do not exempt you from scheduled service, charges, or program responsibilities. If you opt out of marketing messages you will still receive service-related messages, and you remain responsible for reading and acting on them.

New York law reserves one exception we cannot contract around: under ECL 33-1001 the property owner or the owner’s agent decides whether pesticide information is provided in written, digital, or electronic format. If you request that information in writing, we will provide it in writing, in 12 point type, as required by 6 NYCRR 325.40(a)(4).

10. Photos and marketing

Groundhogs may photograph or record exterior service areas and content for marketing, social media, documentation, training, quality control, regulatory, and claim purposes. Non-identifying exterior photos and videos may be used for marketing unless you opt out in writing. We do not publish street names, house numbers, or customer names without permission.

11. Associations, deed restrictions, and municipal rules

You are responsible for making sure our services comply with any homeowners association rules, deed restrictions, or local ordinances beyond state and federal pesticide law. Some New York municipalities have adopted stricter fertilizer and pesticide rules than the state baseline. If restrictions apply to your property, provide them in writing when you enroll.

Groundhogs may decline service or charge additional fees where an association or local rule requires non-standard products or timing. Groundhogs is not liable for association fines, violations, or enforcement actions arising from services we performed properly and in accordance with the label and applicable law.

12. Your indemnification of Groundhogs

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Groundhogs Lawn Care, its employees, and its agents from claims, damages, and reasonable costs arising from:

• Your failure to disclose or mark hidden, shallow, or sensitive property features as required by Section 6.1.
• Malfunctioning, misdirected, or improperly scheduled irrigation that causes product runoff, off-target movement, or uneven application.
• Failure by you, your household, your guests, or anyone in your care to follow posted re-entry instructions or product label safety instructions.
• Claims by neighbors, associations, or municipalities relating to services Groundhogs performed properly and in accordance with the product label and applicable law.
• Your modification of treated areas, including digging, planting, seeding, or construction, within 48 hours of a service.

This section does not apply to the extent a claim arises from Groundhogs’ own negligence or misconduct, and nothing in it limits any right you have that cannot be waived under New York law.

13. Mutual respect and termination

Groundhogs will treat customers and properties with professionalism and respect. You agree to do the same. Groundhogs may suspend or terminate service for abusive, threatening, discriminatory, unsafe, or unreasonable conduct or site conditions, including conditions that put an applicator at risk. You remain responsible for amounts owed for services performed and unavoidable disclosed costs.

14. Events outside our control

Groundhogs is not liable for delay, cancellation, or inability to perform caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control. These include severe weather, ice storms, extended snow or frozen ground, flooding, government-mandated restrictions or advisories, regulatory action affecting a product, product recalls or manufacturer shortages, equipment or vehicle failure, illness or staffing emergencies, utility or systems outages, and similar events. In those cases service may be rescheduled without penalty or credit, and seasonal programs may be adjusted accordingly.

15. Governing law and venue

This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to conflict of laws principles. Any action arising out of or relating to this agreement shall be brought exclusively in the state courts located in Warren County, New York, or in a court of competent jurisdiction serving the county in which the service address is located. Both parties consent to that jurisdiction and venue.

16. Changes to these terms

Groundhogs may publish an updated version of these Standard Terms from time to time. An updated version does not change the terms of a season you have already accepted. The version named in your accepted Service Agreement governs your service for that season. A new version applies to you only when you accept it in writing or electronically, ordinarily at your next season’s renewal.

Every published version, including this one, remains permanently available at gogroundhogs.com/terms/.

17. General provisions

Entire agreement. Your Service Agreement, your quote and service description, and these Standard Terms together form the entire agreement between you and Groundhogs for the current season. Together they control over any statement made in advertising, on the Groundhogs website, on social media, in printed marketing, or verbally by any employee or representative. Changes must be accepted in writing or electronically. No employee or applicator may modify these terms without written authorization from Groundhogs management.

Severability. If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, that provision is limited or severed to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions stay in full force.

No waiver. Groundhogs’ failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of that provision or of any other right.

Assignment. Groundhogs may assign this agreement in connection with a sale or transfer of its business. You may not assign it without our written consent, though we are glad to discuss transferring service to a new property or account holder.

Subcontractors. Groundhogs may use qualified, licensed subcontractors for certain services such as aeration. Doing so does not reduce our obligations to you. Individual technicians and subcontractor personnel are not personally liable to you.

Survival. Sections addressing payment obligations, limits on liability, claims and remedies, disclosure responsibilities, indemnification, governing law and venue, and these general provisions survive the end or cancellation of your agreement.

18. Contact

Groundhogs Lawn Care, 71 Big Boom Road, Suite 1A, Queensbury, NY 12804. Phone 518-914-4120. Business Registration # 18129. Applicator certification C5832209.

Version 2026.1, effective [EFFECTIVE DATE]. This page is permanent and is not edited after publication. Earlier and later versions are listed in the terms archive at gogroundhogs.com/terms/.