Terms of Service

What a Lekua file is, and isn't

A Lekua file is a pre-design base drawn from public data: county parcel maps, USGS lidar, zoning codes and other public sources. From them Lekua derives estimates such as contours, building heights, tree positions, setback envelopes and areas, for site analysis and schematic design.

It is not a survey. Parcel lines are the county’s map (or the state’s statewide parcel layer), drawn for tax assessment, and can sit 5 to 15 feet or more from the surveyed line. Contours and building heights come from lidar flown on the date the file states, and the ground may have changed since. Setbacks are our reading of the code, drawn from the county’s line.

Lekua does not survey, set or verify any property line, easement or boundary. Lekua is not a licensed land surveyor, engineer or landscape architect, and using it creates no professional relationship.

The data can be wrong

Elevations, buildings, trees, zoning, setbacks and hazard zones come from public data that can be out of date, incomplete or wrong, and our processing can add error. The error ranges we print describe what we know of the source data; they are guides, not limits, and any figure can be off by more.

Plant palettes, fire-zone notes, water budgets, sun studies and rebate estimates are guidance. Check plant choices (including toxicity and fire behavior) yourself, defensible space with your fire authority, water budgets with your local agency, and rebates with your water supplier.

How you may use it

Use Lekua for site analysis, design, client discussion, and as an underlay or starting point for drawings you prepare and take responsibility for. The CAD and PDF files are made for design and construction professionals; if you own the property, use them to talk with your designer.

Don’t use Lekua’s parcel lines, setback lines, dimensions, areas or elevations:

• as a survey;
• to locate, mark or dispute a property line;
• to stake, or to build to a line or dimension;
• as the property-line, setback or area basis of a permit, plot plan, site plan, title, loan or sale.

Where a submittal needs those, take them from a survey or the recorded map.

Check before you rely on it

Before any boundary, dimension, area, grade or setback from Lekua is used to build, to apply for a permit or to sell or buy property, have a California licensed land surveyor survey the site (or another licensed professional where the law requires one), and confirm zoning and setbacks with your planning department. Call 811 before you dig.

If you are a design professional, you remain responsible for your own work, including anything you sign or stamp. Lekua is one input to your judgment, not a substitute for it.

While Lekua linework or figures are in a drawing or report you share, keep Lekua’s source note with them. Once you’ve replaced our linework with a survey, you don’t need it.

Surveys and other files you upload

Upload only a survey or plan you have the right to use for the project. You let us store it, read it and draw its contents into your Lekua files. A survey stays the surveyor’s work and the document of record: Lekua’s placement of it is not the survey, the surveyor hasn’t reviewed or sealed it, and where they differ the survey governs. We don’t copy a surveyor’s seal or signature into Lekua files.

If you believe a file uploaded to Lekua infringes your copyright, write to hello@lekua.design.

What you send through Lekua

When you send an availability request, the plant names, quantities and sizes you chose, the project county, and your name and firm are sent to the nurseries you selected; their replies are stored on your project and shown to you. Nursery prices appear on your screen only when the nursery has agreed to show them to buyers. You can delete a request, its replies and the project they belong to at any time from your projects list.

Some public data comes with its own license or attribution terms. Each file names its sources; follow those terms when you reuse the data. How we handle your data is in our Privacy Policy.

No warranty

LEKUA AND EVERYTHING IT PRODUCES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” TO THE EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, WE MAKE NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING OF ACCURACY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Limits on our liability

Lekua is offered for pre-design. It isn’t built or priced to carry the risk of construction, permit, boundary or sale decisions. So, to the extent the law allows: we aren’t liable for lost profits, rework, delay or other indirect losses; and our total liability for all claims is the greater of $100 or what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim.

This doesn’t limit liability for fraud, willful injury, gross negligence or violation of law, or anything else California law doesn’t let us limit. If you use Lekua for personal, family or household purposes, the limits in this section don’t apply to you; your rights under California consumer law do.

If Lekua is misused

If you use Lekua against the rules above — for example, as a survey, or with its source note removed — you agree to cover our reasonable costs, including legal fees, of claims by others that arise from that misuse. This doesn’t cover any part of a claim caused by an error in our data or by our negligence, fraud or willful misconduct.

The rest

Law and courts. California law governs these terms. Disputes go to the state or federal courts in California, and either of us may use small-claims court.

Changes. We may update these terms. For a change that matters, we’ll change the version and date above and show the new terms beside the sign-in and download buttons before they apply to you; until then the earlier version applies. A change never applies to a dispute that arose before it.

Ending. You can stop using Lekua and ask us to delete your account at any time. We may suspend accounts that use Lekua against these terms.

The whole agreement. These terms are the whole agreement about Lekua, alongside our Privacy Policy. If a court won’t enforce part of them, that part is limited only as far as needed and the rest stays in effect. They are between you and us; no one else, including your clients, gains rights under them. The sections on what a file is, how you may use it, checking before you rely on it, warranty, liability and misuse continue after your account ends.

Contact. LoveCRM, hello@lekua.design.