Terms of use

1. About these terms

Rentlink Students (for student accommodation) and Rentlink Residential (for residential tenants) are provided by Notha Property (Pty) Ltd (“we”, “us”). These terms apply to both; “the app” means whichever of them you use, “resident” means a student in Rentlink Students or a tenant in Rentlink Residential, and “property” includes a student residence. By signing in to the app or sending your details from an advert, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.

These terms are about the app. Your lease, your rent, your deposit and the rules of your property are agreed between you and the owner or property manager who lets it to you, not in these terms.

2. Your account

• Residents' accounts are created by the office; property manager, property owner, caretaker, contractor, estate agent and security accounts are created or approved by us.
• Keep your password to yourself and choose your own password when you first sign in. You are responsible for what is done with your account. Tell the office at once if you think someone else has used it.
• Give accurate information, and keep your phone number and e-mail address up to date.
• We may suspend or close an account that is used to break these terms or the law, or when a resident has left the property.

3. Using the app properly

You agree not to:

• use another person's account, or let someone else use yours;
• post anything unlawful, threatening, abusive, hateful or sexually explicit, or harass other people, in chat rooms, messages, tickets or polls;
• report false problems, create visitor passes for people you do not intend to receive, or lend your student or tenant card to someone else;
• try to get at other people's information, interfere with the service, or use it to send spam.

Messages and chat rooms are for running the property and for residents to talk to each other. The office and caretakers can remove content and people that break these rules.

4. The Emergency (SOS) button and Security Support

• Whether your app has the Emergency (SOS) button depends on the security linked to your property. Where the property is linked to an armed response service, you have the button. Where it has security guards only, the app offers Security Support instead: a request to those guards about a security matter in the house, which is not an emergency service. Where no security is linked, the app has neither. This can change when the security at your property changes.
• The Emergency button alerts our command centre and the security guards at your property; the command centre sends the armed response service linked to the property. It does not contact the police, an ambulance or the fire brigade. In a life-threatening emergency also call 10111 (police), 10177 (ambulance) or 112 from any mobile phone.
• The armed response service is a separate company. We cannot promise how quickly it or the guards will reach you.
• It depends on your phone having power, signal and data, on the app being open, and on location being allowed. We cannot promise that an alert will always get through or that your location will be exact.
• Use it only when you need help. Deliberate false alarms may lead to your account being suspended.

5. Student and tenant cards, and visitors

Your card is personal. A visitor pass lets the guard at your property admit your visitor at the time you chose; the guard may still refuse entry under the property's rules. You are responsible for the visitors you invite.

6. Rent, deposits, fees and payments

• The app records rent, the enrollment fee and other payments; it does not take payments itself. Payments are made by EFT or as your property manager or the office tells you, and are recorded by the office, your property manager or your caretaker.
• In Rentlink Residential the app also records a tenant's deposit, the payments made on it and its refund. It does not hold the deposit. How much the deposit is, who holds it and how, and when and how it is refunded are set by your lease and by the law, not by these terms.
• If a payment or refund is not shown correctly, tell the office and keep your proof of payment.

7. Property managers, property owners, estate agents and contractors

• Property managers pay a subscription for each app they use, after a free trial of 14 days: R249 a month or R2 490 a year, paid in advance by EFT. When a subscription runs out, access is paused until it is renewed; your information is kept.
• Property owners do not pay. An owner is linked to one property manager and sees that property manager's properties: occupancy, performance figures and who lives where. They cannot change anything.
• Estate agents pay R600 a month for every 5 houses listed.
• Company contractors quote their own prices. The property manager pays the contractor's price plus a service fee of 10%; we pay the contractor their price once the property manager has paid and the job is confirmed as done.
• We may change these prices by giving at least 30 days' notice in the app. A subscription already paid for is not affected until it is renewed.
• Property managers, property owners and caretakers must use the information they see about residents only to manage or oversee their properties, and must keep it confidential.

8. Your information

How we collect and use personal information is explained in our privacy policy, which is part of these terms.

9. Availability and changes

We work to keep the apps available and correct, but they may be interrupted for maintenance or by faults outside our control, and we may add, change or remove features. We will give notice of planned interruptions where we can.

10. Our responsibility

We provide the apps with reasonable care and skill. To the extent the law allows, we are not responsible for loss that was not reasonably foreseeable, for loss caused by events outside our control, or for the acts of other users, property managers, contractors or visitors. Nothing in these terms takes away rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act, 2008, or any other law that cannot be excluded by agreement.

11. Ending your use

You may stop using the app at any time and ask us to delete your account: see Delete your account. Residents who still live in a property that uses the app may need their account for rent, repairs and access.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The new version will be published here with its date, and we will tell you in the app about important changes. If you carry on using the app after a change, the new terms apply.

13. Law

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa.

14. Contact

Questions about these terms: see Contact us.