Privacy policy
What personal information Rentlink Students and Rentlink Residential collect, why, who can see it and what your rights are. Last updated 2 October 2026.
1. Who we are
Rentlink Students and Rentlink Residential are run by Notha Property (Pty) Ltd. We are the “responsible party” for your personal information under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).
This policy covers our two apps, Rentlink Students (student accommodation) and Rentlink Residential (residential tenants), on phones, in the browser and on Windows; the Security Desk used by security guards; and this website. The two apps keep their information separately. Where this policy says “resident” it means a student in Rentlink Students or a tenant in Rentlink Residential, and “property” includes a student residence.
2. What we collect, and why
We collect only what is needed to run rented accommodation: giving residents their rooms or units, collecting rent, fixing problems, controlling access to a property and responding to emergencies.
| Information | Who it is about | Why we need it |
|---|---|---|
| Name, username, phone number, e-mail address, role; student or tenant number | Everyone with an account | To create your account, let you sign in, and let the property contact you |
| Password | Everyone with an account | To sign in. It is stored only in a scrambled (hashed) form that we cannot read |
| Property, room or unit, and the dates you moved in and out | Residents | To manage rooms, units and who lives in them |
| Enrollment details: whether the enrollment fee is paid and the lease signed. In Rentlink Students also whether you pay cash or have a bursary, and the bursary's provider, reference, contact, amount and dates | Residents | To enrol you |
| Name, relationship, ID number, phone number and e-mail address of the person responsible for the rent | The resident, or a parent, guardian, sponsor or other person who pays for them | For the lease and for collecting rent |
| Rent instalments and the payments recorded against them | Residents | To keep the rent account |
| In Rentlink Residential: the deposit, the payments made on it, and the refund when you move out, with any amount kept and the reason | Tenants | To keep the deposit account and show you where it stands |
| Tickets: what you reported, comments, who fixed it and what it cost | Residents, staff, property managers, contractors | To get problems fixed and keep a record |
| Messages, chat rooms, polls and votes | Everyone who uses chat | To let you communicate |
| The photo on your student or tenant card, and a record of each time the card is checked | Residents | So security can confirm that a card belongs to its holder |
| Visitor passes: the visitor's name and, if given, phone number and vehicle registration; the date and time of the visit; when they came in and left | Visitors and the residents they visit | To control who enters a property |
| Emergency alerts and requests for security support: when you sent it, what a support request was about, the type of device, who responded and what happened; for an emergency alert, your location while it is open (see section 3) | Residents; responding security guards | To get help to you quickly |
| Name, phone number, e-mail address and message | People who ask about an advertised room or unit | So the property manager or caretaker can contact you |
| Company, properties, subscription and payments; for a property owner, the property manager they are linked to | Property managers, property owners and estate agents | To provide and bill the service |
| Trade, quotes, jobs and payments | Contractors | To give you work and pay you |
| Technical records: the internet address (IP) of each request, the time, and the kind of device and browser | Everyone who uses the apps | To keep the service secure and find faults |
We collect this information from you, from the office when it registers you, and (for the person responsible for the rent) from the resident. If you give us someone else's information, please make sure they know.
3. Your location
- Where a property is linked to an armed response service, residents have an Emergency (SOS) button, and the app asks permission to use the phone's location when a resident opens it. Until an emergency, we record only whether the phone allows location, never where it is.
- While an emergency alert is open, the phone sends its position so that security can find you. A responding guard's phone shares its position in the same way so that the command centre can guide them.
- Every position is deleted when the alert is closed, whether it is resolved by security or cancelled by you.
- A request for security support (at a property that has security guards but no armed response service) shares no location.
4. Who can see your information
People see only what their role needs:
- The back office (administrators, operations managers and maintenance managers of Notha Property (Pty) Ltd) can see the information needed to run the service.
- Property managers and caretakers see the residents, rooms or units, rent, deposits and tickets at their own properties.
- Property owners see the properties of the property manager they are linked to: occupancy, the performance figures, which tickets are open, and the names of the residents in each room or unit, without their contact details.
- Contractors see the jobs given to them, including the room or unit and the name and contact details of the person who reported the problem.
- Security guards see student and tenant cards, visitor passes, emergency alerts and requests for security support at the property they are posted to. Property managers, property owners and caretakers do not see these cards, alerts or requests.
- Other residents can see your name (in chat rooms, when adding people to a chat room, or as someone who shares your room or unit), and nothing else.
We do not sell personal information and we do not use it for advertising.
5. Who we share it with
- Our hosting provider, Vultr, in Johannesburg, South Africa, which stores the data on our behalf under a written agreement and may not use it for anything else.
- Google Maps, only when security opens the map for an emergency alert: the position on the alert is sent to Google to draw the map.
- The armed response service linked to your property, only when you press the Emergency (SOS) button: our command centre calls it and tells it who needs help and where.
- The authorities, when the law requires it, or the police and emergency services when that is needed to protect someone's life or safety.
6. How long we keep it
- Account, room or unit, enrollment, ticket and message information: for as long as you have an account, and afterwards only as long as we need it to deal with queries, disputes and legal obligations.
- Rent, deposit and payment records: for as long as the law requires financial records to be kept.
- Locations from emergency alerts: deleted when the alert is closed.
- Enquiries from people who did not become residents: deleted or made anonymous once they are no longer needed.
- Technical records: kept for a limited time and then overwritten.
7. How we protect it
Connections to the apps are encrypted (HTTPS). Passwords are stored in a form that cannot be read. Each person sees only what their role allows. The data is backed up, and access to the servers is restricted. If a security breach affects your information we will tell you and the Information Regulator as the law requires.
8. Cookies and tracking
This website uses no cookies and no tracking or advertising tools. Each app keeps you signed in by storing a sign-in key on your device; it is removed when you sign out. It also remembers the last username used on the device, a random number that identifies the device for the Emergency button, and a few preferences. None of this is used to track you across other websites.
9. Your rights
Under POPIA you may ask us:
- whether we hold personal information about you, and for a copy of it;
- to correct information that is wrong or out of date (you can change your own phone number and e-mail address under My Account);
- to delete information we no longer have a reason to keep — see Delete your account;
- to stop using your information for a purpose you object to.
To use these rights, contact us. We may ask you to confirm who you are. We answer within a reasonable time, normally 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our answer you may complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa: inforegulator.org.za.
10. Children
Rentlink Students is meant for students at universities and colleges and the people who house them; Rentlink Residential is meant for adults who rent a home and the people who let to them. If a resident is under 18, their parent or guardian must agree to their use of the service.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will publish the new version here with its date, and tell you in the app if the change is important.