Terms of use

1. Operator and electronic contact details

Operator

RentSignal operator - legal entity name to be confirmed

Legal status

South African private business - legal form to be confirmed

Registration number

To be confirmed

Physical and service address

To be confirmed before public paid launch

Telephone

To be confirmed

Website

https://rentsignal.co.za

Support

support@rentsignal.co.za

Legal notices

legal@rentsignal.co.za

2. Acceptance and eligibility

By creating an account, selecting the acceptance checkbox, or continuing to use RentSignal, you agree to these terms, the Privacy policy, Acceptable use policy, and the policies applicable to consent and tenant assessments. You must be at least 18 and legally capable of entering contracts. A person acting for a business confirms that they have authority to bind it.

3. What RentSignal provides

RentSignal is an online technology platform for rental listings, applications, profile-sharing requests, viewing invitations, lease records, structured tenant assessments, disputes, moderation, and landlord package administration. Features may be introduced, changed, suspended, or withdrawn where reasonably necessary for security, compliance, product improvement, or operational reasons.

4. RentSignal is not the contracting landlord, tenant, agent or adviser

Unless expressly stated in writing, RentSignal is not an estate agent, letting agent, property practitioner, landlord, tenant, credit bureau, attorney, financial adviser, insurer, guarantor, arbitrator, or Rental Housing Tribunal. RentSignal does not conclude leases for users and does not guarantee a listing, applicant, landlord, tenant, property, assessment, payment, viewing, or transaction.

Users remain responsible for inspections, identity and authority checks, affordability checks conducted lawfully, negotiations, leases, deposits, payments, statutory disclosures, tribunal or court processes, and independent professional advice. Platform indicators and assessments must not be treated as the sole basis for a housing decision.

5. Accounts and security

• Provide accurate, current and complete information and keep it updated.
• Keep passwords and access links confidential and notify us promptly of suspected compromise.
• Use one genuine account per person or authorised business unless RentSignal approves otherwise.
• You are responsible for activity performed through your account, except where caused by RentSignal's fault.
• RentSignal may verify identity, authority, property ownership or a rental relationship where reasonably required.

6. Listings and landlord obligations

A landlord publishing a listing confirms that they own the property or have lawful authority to advertise it, and that the listing is accurate, current, lawful, not misleading, and does not infringe another person's rights. The stated rent, deposit, availability, property facts, fees, restrictions and material conditions must be clear.

Landlords must comply with the Rental Housing Act, Consumer Protection Act where applicable, applicable property laws, municipal rules, and the prohibition on unfair discrimination. Listings may not unlawfully discriminate on grounds such as race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, ethnic or social origin, colour, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language or birth.

7. Applications, screening and tenant passports

Applications and profile requests must relate to a genuine available rental. A landlord may use tenant information only for the stated rental purpose, only to the extent authorised, and only for as long as access remains valid. Users may not scrape, build private blacklists, publicly expose tenant information, sell profile data, or reuse it for unrelated marketing or screening.

RentSignal does not make final rental decisions and does not intend to subject users to a decision based solely on automated processing. Landlords must make their own fair, lawful and contextual decision and must not use protected characteristics or proxies for those characteristics.

8. Tenant assessments and disputes

Assessments must relate to a genuine verified rental relationship and must reflect honestly observed tenancy conduct. They may not contain retaliation, harassment, discrimination, speculation, irrelevant allegations, or information that the reviewer has no lawful basis to disclose. Tenants may dispute assessments. RentSignal may restrict visibility while a dispute is reviewed and may keep audit records after content is hidden.

9. User content and licence

You retain ownership of content you submit. You grant RentSignal a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, resize, format, display and transmit that content only as reasonably necessary to operate, secure, moderate, promote the relevant listing, and improve the service. This licence ends when content is deleted, except for backups, legal records, audit records, disputes, and content already lawfully shared.

You warrant that you have the rights and permissions needed for submitted photographs, descriptions, documents and other content. Do not upload third-party identity documents or confidential material without authority and a lawful purpose.

10. Landlord subscriptions, trial and annual billing

Landlord packages are annual subscriptions with the active-listing limit and price shown when selected. The package includes a three-month free trial. After the trial, the selected annual package fee becomes due. During beta, RentSignal may use manual billing or PayFast payment authorisation and will not debit a card or bank account without separate payment authorisation.

Package limits apply during the trial. The Portfolio package includes up to 20 active listings and additional active listing slots may be requested at R50 per slot. Prices are stated in South African rand and will be presented with any applicable taxes or additional fees before payment.

A landlord may cancel before the annual fee becomes due by contacting support. If PayFast recurring payment is enabled, RentSignal will provide the renewal date, payment method, cancellation process and legally required renewal notices before activating it. Refund rights, cooling-off rights and cancellation charges will be applied as required by the Consumer Protection Act and Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.

11. Moderation, suspension and termination

RentSignal may investigate, edit visibility, pause, remove, preserve or disclose content, and may restrict or terminate an account where reasonably necessary to enforce these terms, protect users, respond to fraud or security risk, comply with law, or protect the platform. Where appropriate, we will give notice and a reasonable opportunity to respond. Serious, repeated or unlawful conduct may lead to immediate action.

12. Intellectual property and prohibited extraction

RentSignal's software, branding, interfaces, databases, selection and arrangement of content, and original materials are protected by intellectual property laws. You receive a limited, revocable, non-transferable right to use the service for its intended purpose. You may not copy the platform, reverse engineer it, bypass access controls, harvest data, republish listings at scale, or use automated systems to extract content without written permission.

13. Third-party services and links

RentSignal relies on service providers for hosting, databases, authentication, file storage and email. Third-party sites and services have their own terms and privacy practices. A link or integration does not mean RentSignal endorses or guarantees that third party.

14. Availability, warranties and liability

RentSignal will use reasonable care to operate the service, but cannot promise uninterrupted, error-free or completely secure availability. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the service is provided without warranties not expressly stated in these terms. Nothing excludes rights or remedies that cannot lawfully be excluded under the Consumer Protection Act or other applicable law.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, RentSignal is not liable for indirect, special or consequential loss; loss caused by a user, property, lease, payment, viewing, inaccurate content, unlawful screening, or external service; or events outside reasonable control. Any limitation will be interpreted fairly and will not apply to fraud, gross negligence, wilful misconduct, or liability that law does not permit us to limit.

15. Complaints and disputes

First send a complaint through the process described in the Complaints policy. We aim to acknowledge complaints within five business days and work toward a response within 15 business days. This does not prevent urgent court relief, a complaint to the Information Regulator or National Consumer Commission, or use of a Rental Housing Tribunal or other body with jurisdiction.

16. Governing law and notices

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Subject to mandatory consumer rights and the jurisdiction of statutory bodies, South African courts have jurisdiction. Electronic notices may be sent to the email address linked to an account. Legal notices to RentSignal must be sent to the legal contact above and, once confirmed, the published service address.

17. Changes, severability and entire agreement

We may update these terms for legal, security, operational or product reasons. Material changes will be notified through the platform or email and will state an effective date. If a provision is invalid, the remaining provisions continue to apply. These terms and linked policies are the agreement about use of the platform, unless a separate written commercial agreement expressly overrides them.