Terms of Service

1. Who we are

NeighbourhoodIQ ("we", "us", "the platform") provides neighbourhood and residential complex intelligence for South Africa, including suburb scoring, complex reviews, crime and amenity data, an AI concierge, comparison tools and report exports. By creating an account or using the site, you agree to these terms.

2. Information service, not advice

NeighbourhoodIQ is an information service. Scores, crime statistics, affordability estimates, AI-generated answers and other content are intended to help you research an area — they are not legal, financial, investment or safety advice, and do not replace your own due diligence, a qualified professional, or an official source. Where a figure is modelled or estimated rather than drawn from an official dataset, we label it as such; treat estimates as directional, not exact.

3. Accounts

You must provide accurate information when registering and keep your login credentials secure. You're responsible for activity under your account. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms, abuse the platform, or post fraudulent reviews or content.

4. Subscriptions and billing

Paid plans are billed in advance via PayFast — either as a recurring monthly subscription, or as a single once-off payment for the Family/Relocation plan. We do not store your card details — payment processing, including any card you enter, is handled entirely by our payment provider, PayFast. You can update the card on a recurring subscription at any time from your account dashboard, which redirects you to PayFast's own secure page to do so.

5. Delivery of service

NeighbourhoodIQ is a digital information service, not a physical product. There is nothing to ship. Access to your purchased plan's features is granted automatically and immediately once PayFast confirms your payment — typically within a few seconds, and almost always within a few minutes. If access doesn't activate within 30 minutes of a successful payment, contact support@neighbourhoodiq.co.za with your payment reference and we'll resolve it promptly.

6. Cancellation and refunds

Recurring plans (Individual Pro, Organisation Starter/Pro): you can cancel at any time from your account dashboard. We immediately request PayFast to stop future billing on cancellation, and you keep full access to paid features until the end of the period you've already paid for, after which your account reverts to the Free plan. There are no cancellation fees and no minimum commitment period.

Once-off plans (Family/Relocation): this is a single payment for ongoing access tied to your account, not a subscription, so there's nothing to "cancel" — there's no recurring charge to stop.

Refunds: because access is granted instantly upon payment, we don't offer refunds once a payment has been processed and the corresponding plan features have been activated on your account, except where required by South African consumer law or where we've made a billing error on our side. If you believe you were charged incorrectly (duplicate charge, wrong plan, a technical fault that prevented you from using the service), email support@neighbourhoodiq.co.za within 7 days of the charge with your payment reference, and we'll investigate and refund where warranted.

7. User-submitted content

Reviews, ratings, comments and submitted complex/area listings must be honest, first-hand, and not defamatory, fraudulent or abusive. We moderate submitted content and may reject, hide, or remove anything that violates this policy or the law. You retain ownership of content you submit, but grant us a licence to display it on the platform.

8. Organisation & agency accounts

Organisation accounts (estate agencies, property managers, relocation companies) may claim suburb or complex pages, generate branded reports, and receive enquiry leads. Claims are subject to verification and may be revoked if found to be inaccurate or misleading.

9. Data sources & accuracy

We combine data from sources including the South African Police Service (SAPS), Statistics South Africa (Census, GHS, RPPI), the Department of Basic Education, OpenStreetMap contributors, and resident-submitted reviews. We label data vintage and source on each page where practical. We make reasonable efforts to keep data current and accurate but cannot guarantee completeness, and underlying official datasets may themselves contain errors or lag real-world changes.

10. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, NeighbourhoodIQ is not liable for decisions made based on information on the platform, including property purchases, lease signings, relocation decisions, or business decisions made by organisation accounts.

11. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. Continued use of the platform after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated terms. Material changes will be reflected by updating the "last updated" date above.

12. Contact

Questions about these terms? Reach us at support@neighbourhoodiq.co.za or via our contact page.