Terms and Conditions

1. Introduction

These Terms and Conditions ("Terms") govern your access to and use of PropertyGate, a South African online rental property marketplace that helps prospective tenants discover rental listings and contact landlords or authorised property representatives directly.

PropertyGate provides a platform for publishing and browsing rental property listings. PropertyGate is not a landlord, tenant, rental agent, estate agent, property manager, payment provider, credit provider, insurer, or party to any lease, deposit, viewing, payment, or rental agreement between users.

These Terms are intended to comply with applicable South African law, including the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 ("CPA"), the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 ("ECTA"), and the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 ("POPIA") where applicable.

2. Acceptance of the Terms

By accessing or using PropertyGate, creating an account, submitting a listing, uploading content, contacting an advertiser, or reporting a listing, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you must not use the platform.

If you use PropertyGate on behalf of a company, agency, property owner, landlord, building manager, or other organisation, you confirm that you have authority to bind that person or organisation to these Terms.

3. Eligibility

• You must be at least 18 years old to create an account, list a property, or enter into rental-related transactions through contacts made on PropertyGate.
• You must have legal capacity to enter into these Terms and to perform any obligations that arise from your use of the platform.
• Landlords, agents, agencies, administrators, and building managers must have proper authority to advertise the properties they list.
• You may not use PropertyGate if you are prohibited from doing so by law or if your account has been suspended or terminated for serious misuse.

4. User Accounts

Tenants may browse public listings without creating an account. Landlords and property representatives must create an account to submit and manage listings.

• You must provide accurate, current, and complete registration and profile information.
• You are responsible for keeping your login details confidential and for all activity under your account.
• You must promptly update your account information if it changes.
• You must not share, sell, transfer, or allow unauthorised use of your account.
• You must notify us if you suspect unauthorised access or misuse of your account.

We may refuse registration, require email confirmation, request additional information, or restrict account access where reasonably necessary to protect users, verify account activity, or prevent misuse.

5. Identity and Property Verification

PropertyGate may require landlords or property representatives to verify their email address and, where applicable, submit supporting documents or information to help confirm that they appear authorised to advertise a property.

• Verification information must be genuine, accurate, current, and lawfully submitted.
• Submitting verification information does not guarantee approval, listing publication, tenant interest, or a successful rental.
• A verification status or badge means only that PropertyGate has completed an internal platform review based on information available at the time. It is not a warranty that a person owns a property, is legally entitled to rent it, or will act lawfully.
• We may approve, reject, re-check, suspend, or revoke verification where information is incomplete, inconsistent, expired, suspicious, disputed, or unlawful.

6. Landlord and Advertiser Responsibilities

A "landlord" in these Terms includes any property owner, landlord, agency, independent agent, property administrator, building manager, or other person who submits or manages a listing.

• You must have legal authority to advertise, show, manage, or rent the property you list.
• You are responsible for the accuracy, completeness, legality, and currency of each listing.
• You must disclose material facts that a reasonable tenant would need to know, including availability, pricing, deposit requirements, lease terms, shared accommodation arrangements, utilities, pet rules, and relevant property limitations.
• You must keep listings updated and promptly pause, mark as rented, edit, or remove listings that are unavailable or inaccurate.
• You must comply with applicable housing, rental, municipal, advertising, consumer protection, anti-discrimination, privacy, and other laws.
• You are responsible for all communication, viewings, negotiations, lease documents, deposit handling, inspections, keys, occupation, and disputes with tenants.
• You must not request unlawful fees, misrepresent deposit terms, use pressure tactics, or ask tenants to pay before they have had a reasonable opportunity to inspect and verify the property.

7. Property Listing Rules

PropertyGate may review listings before publication and may edit, reject, pause, remove, or require changes to listings that breach these Terms or appear unsafe, misleading, unlawful, low-quality, duplicated, or inconsistent with the platform's purpose.

Listings must not:

• Contain false, misleading, outdated, exaggerated, or bait advertising.
• Advertise a property that does not exist, is not available, or cannot lawfully be rented.
• Use photos that do not accurately represent the listed property or that infringe another person's rights.
• Misstate rent, deposit, utilities, lease term, location, room-sharing arrangement, occupancy, or availability.
• Include discriminatory, unlawful, offensive, abusive, defamatory, explicit, or unsafe content.
• Redirect users to scams, suspicious payment requests, unrelated services, or external listings that undermine platform safety.
• Duplicate active listings in a way that misleads users or manipulates search visibility.

Listings may expire, be renewed, paused, marked as rented, or removed according to platform rules and moderation decisions.

8. Tenant and Visitor Responsibilities

Tenants and visitors are responsible for making their own rental decisions and for conducting appropriate checks before paying money, signing documents, or moving into a property.

• Inspect the property in person where reasonably possible before making any payment.
• Verify the identity and authority of the landlord or representative you deal with.
• Review lease terms, deposit terms, and occupation conditions carefully before agreeing to them.
• Do not send unnecessary sensitive information to advertisers or other users.
• Report suspicious, fraudulent, inaccurate, offensive, or unsafe listings using the platform's reporting tools.

PropertyGate does not guarantee that any advertised property is suitable, available, lawful, safe, accurately described, or free from defects.

9. Direct Communications and Payments

PropertyGate displays the contact methods selected by the advertiser. Communications by phone, WhatsApp, email, or other external channels take place outside PropertyGate and are the responsibility of the parties involved.

PropertyGate does not currently process rent, deposits, subscription fees, card payments, bank transfers, or in-platform transactions. Any payment arrangement is made directly between the tenant and landlord or representative. Users should not rely on PropertyGate as confirmation that a payment request is legitimate.

10. Prohibited Activities

You must not use PropertyGate to:

• Break any law, regulation, court order, third-party right, or contractual obligation.
• Commit fraud, impersonation, phishing, harassment, intimidation, extortion, or unlawful discrimination.
• Post fake listings, fake reports, fake reviews, misleading documents, or manipulated property information.
• Upload malware, harmful code, automated scripts, scraping tools, spam, or content designed to disrupt the platform.
• Bypass security, rate limits, verification, moderation, access controls, or account restrictions.
• Collect, scrape, harvest, or misuse personal information from listings or users.
• Use the platform to advertise unrelated goods or services, pyramid schemes, unlawful rentals, or illegal accommodation arrangements.
• Interfere with the platform's operation, reputation, systems, or user safety.

11. User-Generated Content

User-generated content includes listings, descriptions, photos, contact details, verification submissions, reports, comments, messages sent to PropertyGate, and any other content submitted through the platform.

• You retain ownership of content you submit, subject to the rights granted to PropertyGate in these Terms.
• You grant PropertyGate a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display, publish, adapt for formatting, moderate, distribute, and use your content as needed to operate, promote, secure, and improve the platform.
• You confirm that you have all rights, permissions, and consents needed to submit the content and allow PropertyGate to use it.
• You must not submit content that infringes copyright, privacy, image rights, property rights, or any other third-party rights.

We may remove or restrict content without notice where we reasonably believe it breaches these Terms, applicable law, user safety standards, or platform quality requirements.

12. Intellectual Property

PropertyGate's name, logo, branding, interface, design, software, text, graphics, layout, and platform materials are owned by or licensed to PropertyGate and are protected by intellectual property laws.

• You may use PropertyGate only for its intended marketplace purpose and in accordance with these Terms.
• You may not copy, modify, reverse engineer, reproduce, distribute, frame, sell, or exploit any part of the platform without written permission.
• You may not use PropertyGate branding in a way that suggests endorsement, partnership, agency, or affiliation without written permission.

13. Privacy and Personal Information

We process personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy and POPIA where applicable. By using PropertyGate, you acknowledge that your personal information may be processed for account management, verification, listing publication, communication, security, moderation, analytics, legal compliance, and platform operations.

Users who publish contact details or property details in a listing understand that this information may be publicly visible while the listing is active.

14. Fraud Prevention and Moderation

PropertyGate may use manual and automated checks, user reports, document review, listing review, rate limiting, security monitoring, and other reasonable measures to protect users and the platform.

• Users may flag or formally report listings they believe are fraudulent, inaccurate, offensive, unsafe, or otherwise inappropriate.
• Listings may be paused automatically or manually when reports, flags, suspicious activity, duplicate concerns, safety concerns, or legal concerns arise.
• We may contact users, request additional information, reject documents, reject listings, restrict features, suspend accounts, or remove content where reasonably necessary.
• Moderation decisions are made to protect platform integrity and do not create a duty to monitor every listing or user continuously.

15. Account Suspension and Termination

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate an account, listing, or access to the platform where we reasonably believe that:

• You breached these Terms or applicable law.
• Your account, listing, document, or conduct is fraudulent, misleading, unsafe, abusive, or suspicious.
• You submitted false verification information or lack authority to advertise a property.
• Your listing receives credible reports, flags, legal complaints, or safety concerns.
• Restriction is necessary to protect users, PropertyGate, third parties, or the public.

Where appropriate, we may provide notice or an opportunity to respond. We may act immediately without prior notice where required by law or where delay may increase risk.

16. Availability and Platform Changes

We aim to keep PropertyGate available and useful, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted, error-free, or permanent access. We may change, suspend, withdraw, or limit any feature, listing workflow, verification workflow, account function, or part of the platform at any time where reasonably necessary for operational, legal, safety, security, or business reasons.

17. Disclaimer of Warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by South African law, PropertyGate is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We do not warrant that:

• Listings are accurate, complete, current, lawful, safe, or suitable.
• Any landlord, tenant, agent, representative, property, document, payment request, or communication is genuine or trustworthy.
• Any user will enter into or perform a lease or rental arrangement.
• The platform will always be uninterrupted, secure, error-free, or free from harmful components.

Nothing in these Terms excludes warranties or rights that may not be excluded under the CPA or other applicable law.

18. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, PropertyGate will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive loss or damage, including loss of profit, loss of data, loss of opportunity, reputational harm, or rental-related loss arising from your use of the platform.

PropertyGate is not liable for:

• The conduct, statements, omissions, documents, listings, or communications of users.
• Rental payments, deposits, refunds, lease disputes, inspections, keys, occupation, evictions, defects, damages, or tenant-landlord disagreements.
• Loss caused by external communication channels, third-party websites, payment arrangements, or services outside PropertyGate.
• Loss arising from your failure to inspect a property, verify an advertiser, read a lease, or take reasonable precautions.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under South African law, including liability for gross negligence, intentional misconduct, or statutory rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.

19. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold PropertyGate, its officers, employees, contractors, and service providers harmless from claims, losses, damages, liabilities, penalties, costs, and expenses arising from:

• Your breach of these Terms or applicable law.
• Your listing, content, documents, communications, or account activity.
• Your rental dealings, payment arrangements, viewings, leases, deposits, inspections, or disputes with another user.
• Your infringement of another person's rights, including privacy, intellectual property, property, or consumer rights.
• Fraud, misrepresentation, unlawful conduct, or negligence by you or anyone using your account.

20. Electronic Communications and Notices

You agree that PropertyGate may communicate with you electronically through the platform, email, or other contact details you provide. Electronic communications may include account notices, verification notices, listing review outcomes, moderation notices, support responses, and changes to these Terms.

You are responsible for keeping your contact details current. A notice sent to the email address linked to your account will be treated as received unless we receive a delivery failure notice.

21. Dispute Resolution

If a dispute arises between you and PropertyGate, please contact us first so we can try to resolve the matter informally. We may request details, documents, screenshots, account information, or other information needed to assess the issue.

Disputes between tenants and landlords are the responsibility of those parties. PropertyGate may, at its discretion, assist with platform records or moderation action, but we do not mediate lease disputes, enforce lease terms, recover deposits, compel occupation, or provide legal advice.

Nothing in these Terms prevents a consumer from approaching a court, regulator, consumer protection body, the Rental Housing Tribunal, or another competent authority where South African law allows.

22. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Subject to any rights you may have under consumer protection or other applicable law, you consent to the jurisdiction of the South African courts for disputes arising from or relating to these Terms or your use of PropertyGate.

23. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time to reflect changes in the platform, law, risk controls, business model, or operational requirements. The updated version will be published on this page with a revised "Last Updated" date.

If changes are material, we may provide additional notice through the platform or by email where appropriate. Continued use of PropertyGate after updated Terms are published means you accept the updated Terms.

24. Contact Information

If you have questions about these Terms, need support, or want to report suspected misuse of the platform, please contact PropertyGate:

Email: admin@propertygate.co.za

You may also use the contact page.