Terms of use and subscription terms

• Give accurate information, and keep it up to date.
• An account is for one person. Keep your password safe - you're responsible for what happens on your account. Tell us straight away if you think someone else has used it.
• You need to confirm your email address before you can post, comment, list a property or send an enquiry.
• You must be 18 or older.

• The Free plan costs nothing. Paid plans are described, with their prices, on the membership page.
• Paid plans are paid in advance through PayFast.
• Monthly plans renew automatically every month until you cancel.
• Annual plans are a fixed term of 12 months, paid once, and don't renew by themselves. 40 to 80 business days before the 12 months end we email you your options: renew for another year, switch to monthly, or do nothing - then your account moves to the Free plan when the year ends and nothing more is charged (Consumer Protection Act s14).
• You can cancel at any time on the Billing page. No further payments are taken, and you keep your paid features until the end of the period you've already paid for.
• Payments are not refunded. The only exceptions are an annual plan cancelled early (you get the unused months back, less a cancellation fee - Consumer Protection Act s14), a charge made in error or twice, a service we couldn't provide or that wasn't of the quality the Consumer Protection Act requires (s54). Our cancellation and refund policy has the details.
• Minimum period: a monthly plan runs a month at a time; an annual plan is a fixed term of 12 months.
• Your record of each payment: every payment gets an invoice on the Billing page, which you can view, print or save there at any time; we keep them for 5 years.
• VAT: Not registered for VAT. Prices shown are the full amount you pay.
• If we change a plan's price, we'll tell you at least 30 days before it applies to your next renewal, so you can cancel first.

New members can get one free trial of a paid plan. It's one per person (not per account), starts when you confirm your email address, needs no card, and simply ends - nothing is charged automatically when it does. You then carry on on the Free plan unless you choose to subscribe.

A paid plan starts as soon as your payment goes through, and at checkout you ask for it to start straight away. Because the service begins within 7 days with your consent, the 7-day cooling-off period in section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECTA) does not apply (section 42(2)(d)). You can still try paid features first with the free trial.

• Calculations. Our calculators work out results from the figures you enter and from published rates and tables - for example SARS's transfer duty and tax tables and the SARB's prime rate, updated as they change. We take care that they calculate correctly, and fix any mistake as soon as we find it or you tell us.
• Estimates. Some results depend on assumptions or market data rather than a fixed table - for example what a bank may lend you, capital gains tax, attorneys' fees, suburb prices and rents, growth and yields. These are marked as estimates where they appear. Treat them as a guide, not a fact.
• Not advice. Nothing on Property HQ is financial, tax, legal, valuation or investment advice, a bank's approval or a quote. Your bank, conveyancer, SARS and the market decide the final figures for your own case - please confirm them with them, or with a registered adviser, before you sign, pay, borrow or invest.
• Decisions are yours. We aren't responsible for a decision you make on a figure marked as an estimate, or on figures you entered yourself.

• Property HQ is an online platform, not an estate agent, broker, conveyancer, lender or valuer. We show listings that private sellers, landlords and estate agents place. We don't own, inspect, value or market the properties ourselves.
• Each listing is the responsibility of the person or agent who placed it: the description, price, photos, availability, condition, their right to sell or let it, and how they behave. We don't check every detail and don't guarantee any of it.
• Our badges mean only what they say: PPRA-verified means we saw the agent's Fidelity Fund Certificate on the PPRA register when we checked; Owner verified means a document the lister gave us matched the address. Neither is a guarantee of the person or the property.
• We are not a party to any sale, lease, mandate, offer or other agreement between you and a seller, landlord, agent, buyer or tenant, and we never handle deposits, rent or purchase money. Any dispute about a deal - including deposits, commission, defects, misrepresentation, a deal that falls through, or an agent's conduct - is between you and them. Complaints about an estate agent go to the Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority (theppra.org.za).
• Protect yourself: view the property, check who you're dealing with, and only pay a deposit into a registered agent's trust account or an attorney's account after a written agreement. Never pay anyone who asks for money before you've seen the property.
• We aren't responsible for a deal, or for what a lister, agent, buyer, tenant or other member says or does, on or off Property HQ. If a listing looks wrong or dishonest, report it on the listing and we'll look at it.
• Estate agents who list must be registered with the Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority (PPRA) and hold a valid Fidelity Fund Certificate. An agent can list once we have checked their certificate on the PPRA register and approved it; if it lapses or is withdrawn, new listings stop until it is valid again. We do this for security: to keep fake agents and scam listings off Property HQ and to protect the people who use it. It applies to every plan, trial and invite alike.
• A private seller's or landlord's listing goes live once we have checked a document showing they may sell or let the property (such as a municipal account or title deed). We ask for it for security, to stop listings for homes nobody has the right to sell or let and to protect real owners. We use the document only for that check and delete it afterwards; we keep the decision.
• Listers must only list properties they are entitled to market, with truthful descriptions and photos, videos and 3D tours they have the right to use - their own, or someone else's with permission or under a licence (such as Creative Commons) whose conditions, like crediting the creator, they follow. A video or tour link may only be one that the person who made or published it allows to be shared.
• Videos and 3D tours are shown by the service that hosts them (YouTube, Vimeo, Matterport, Kuula or Sketchfab). They only load when you press the button, and that service's own terms and privacy notice apply to what it shows you (see our privacy notice).

• Follow the community guidelines.
• You keep ownership of what you post, and give us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to show it on Property HQ while it's up - including after you delete your account, when posts and comments stay up as "Deleted member" so conversations still make sense (see the privacy notice). You can delete your own posts before you go.
• You're responsible for what you post: it must be true, lawful and yours (or allowed) to share.
• Members can report content that is unlawful, infringing (including a photo, video or tour that breaks someone's copyright) or breaks our rules at report content, and anyone else can send the same details to our support email address (section 14). Tell us what it is, where it is (the link), who you are and, for copyright, why it is yours or why you may act for the owner. We review reports promptly, may remove content or suspend accounts, and follow the take-down notice process in section 77 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.

Don't use Property HQ to:

• send spam, or post misleading, defamatory, discriminatory or unlawful content;
• impersonate anyone, or misrepresent your connection to a property, agency or person;
• scrape, copy or harvest listings or members' details, or use bots to access the site;
• try to break into accounts or our systems, or interfere with the site working normally.

The site, its design, calculators, text and the Property HQ name belong to us or our licensors. You may use them for your own, non-commercial property decisions, but not copy or resell them.

Some material on the site belongs to other people and is used with their permission or under a licence, with the credit the licence asks for next to it - for example the map data from OpenStreetMap contributors. Those stay theirs; the licence gives you only the rights it says.

• What we take responsibility for. We run Property HQ with care and skill: calculations that work correctly, your information kept safe, the plan you paid for, and fixing our mistakes promptly when we find them or you tell us. If we act with gross negligence or deliberately cause harm, that's on us. Your rights under the Consumer Protection Act always apply.
• What we aren't responsible for: a decision you make on a figure marked as an estimate (section 6); any deal, or what a lister, agent or other member says or does (section 7); other members' posts and listings; websites and partners we link to; interruptions we can't control, such as load-shedding, an internet outage or a problem at one of our service providers; and indirect losses such as lost profit, savings or opportunities.
• Our limit. If we do owe you for a loss, the most we pay is what you paid us in the 12 months before it happened. If you paid us nothing, we'll correct the mistake and help put it right, but no money is payable.
• You're responsible for what you put on Property HQ. If someone claims against us because of your listing, post or message - for example a listing you had no right to place, a misleading description, someone else's photos, or a defamatory post - you cover that claim and our reasonable costs of dealing with it.

Some links take you to partners, such as bond originators. If you apply with a partner, they may pay us a referral fee; it doesn't change what you pay. Your agreement is with the partner, under their terms, and we don't send them anything you typed on Property HQ.

You can delete your account at any time on your profile (cancel any paid plan first in Billing). We may suspend or close an account that seriously or repeatedly breaks these terms; where it's fair to, we'll warn you first and refund any unused paid period.

We may update these terms. For material changes we'll email you at least 30 days before they take effect, and a change never applies to a period you've already paid for. If you don't agree, you can cancel before the change starts (an annual plan on the early-cancellation terms in section 3) and delete your account. Minor corrections that don't affect your rights may take effect straight away.

• Contact us in writing by email at [email protected], or through the contact form (it reaches the same inbox). Please use this for everything: questions and support, complaints, cancellation and refund requests, requests about your personal information (including to our Information Officer), take-down notices, and any notice under these terms. Every message gets a reference number, and we reply by email, normally within 5 working days.
• Messages about a calculation must include its reference - the code shown under the result (for example C-7K3M4Q9A). We keep a record of every calculation for 3 years, and the reference is how we find what you entered and what the calculator showed. The contact form asks for it when you choose "A calculation".
• We don't give support by phone. The phone number on our legal & contact page is there because the law requires it.
• Notices from us to you go to the email address on your account, so please keep it up to date.
• Legal proceedings are served at the physical address on our legal & contact page - our address for service of legal documents, as the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act requires.
• Nothing in this section limits your right to approach the National Consumer Commission, the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud, the Information Regulator or a court.

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa. If something goes wrong, please email us first (section 14) so we can try to resolve it. If we can't, either of us may refer the dispute to alternative dispute resolution - such as the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud or mediation - before going to court. This doesn't limit your right to approach the National Consumer Commission, an ombud or a court under the CPA.