Terms of Service

Last updated: 23 October 2026

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your use of the Hausen mobile applications for Android and iOS and thehausen.com (together, “Hausen”, “we”, “us”). Before using your Hausen account, you must select “Agree and continue” to agree to these Terms and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. Acknowledging that policy is not blanket consent to personal-information processing or marketing.

If you do not agree, do not use Hausen. If you use Hausen for an organisation, you confirm that you have authority to bind that organisation.

1. Who we are

Hausen is operated by Northstar Selected (Pty) Ltd, a private company registered in South Africa with registration number 2025/253502/07. Our registered office is 1000 Timbavati Street, Moreleta Park, Pretoria, Gauteng, 0044, South Africa, which is also our address for service of legal notices. You can contact us at support@thehausen.com.

Hausen is a technology marketplace. We help people list and discover properties, book short stays, enter long-term leases, pay rent or stay charges, message other users, verify identity, promote listings, and (where available) request maintenance. We are not a landlord, tenant, estate agent, attorney, insurer, or bank unless we say so in writing for a specific product.

2. Where Hausen operates

Hausen currently lists properties in South Africa only. We plan to open Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire later (each country is a “market”). Every listing belongs to one market, and prices, fees, and payouts for that listing are in that market’s currency.

• These Terms apply in every market. Section 25 sets out market-specific terms that apply in addition, including terms for markets that will apply once we open there.
• Some features may not be available in every market, role, or verification status.
• You must follow the law that applies to the property and to you, including local rental, tenancy, short-term letting, tax, and zoning rules.

3. Eligibility

• You must be at least 18 years old.
• You must be able to form a binding contract under the law that applies to you.
• You must provide accurate information and keep it up to date.
• You may not use Hausen if we have previously suspended or closed your account for breach of these Terms.

4. Your account

You may sign up with email and password, Google, or Apple. You are responsible for activity on your account and for keeping sign-in details secure. Tell us promptly if you think someone else has used your account.

You may hold more than one role (for example guest, host/owner, tenant, or service provider). These Terms apply to every role you use.

We may require identity verification before you list, book, sign a lease, receive payouts, or use other features. See section 13.

5. The Hausen platform and our role in payments

Agreements for stays, leases, and maintenance work are between the users involved (for example host and guest, owner and tenant, or owner and service provider). Hausen is not a party to those agreements.

When a guest or tenant pays through Hausen, we (through our payment processor, Paystack) collect that payment as the limited payment collection agent of the host or owner. A payment you make to Hausen for a stay or lease counts as payment to the host or owner, and the host or owner may not ask you to pay that amount again. Hausen then pays the host or owner as described in section 11.

We do not guarantee that a listing, user, stay, lease, or job is accurate, lawful, available, or fit for your purpose. You must do your own checks, including viewing a property where that is reasonable.

Hausen is not a substitute for legal, tax, or professional advice. Lease templates, AI-assisted wording, and in-app guidance are tools. You remain responsible for complying with the law that applies to you. In South Africa this includes the Rental Housing Act, 1999, the Consumer Protection Act, 2008, and local by-laws, where they apply.

6. Roles

Guests

If you book a short stay, you agree to:

• Pay the total shown at checkout, including applicable fees, by the due date shown in the app
• Occupy only the dates and guest count you booked
• Follow house rules, check-in instructions, and applicable law
• Treat the property and neighbours with care and leave it in a reasonable condition
• Not copy or share access codes, manuals, or entry instructions except as needed for your stay

Hosts and owners

If you list or manage a property, you agree that:

• You have the legal right to list it and to accept bookings or tenants
• Listing details, photos, location, availability, pricing, fees, and house rules are accurate
• You will honour confirmed stays and signed leases, except where law or these Terms allow otherwise
• You are responsible for taxes, levies, insurance, and any licence or zoning rules that apply to your listing
• You will not collect extra undisclosed charges that contradict the listing or lease
• You have told any person whose details you add (for example an emergency contact in a house manual) that you are sharing them, and you are allowed to do so

Tenants

If you sign a lease through Hausen, the signed lease (and any addenda) is the contract between you and the owner. You agree to pay rent, deposits, and fees as shown in that lease and at checkout, and to use the property as the lease allows.

Service providers

Maintenance and service-provider features are not available in every market or at all times. Where they are available and you offer services, you are an independent contractor, not a Hausen employee. You are responsible for your workmanship, licences, insurance, and invoices. A job awarded on Hausen is an agreement between you and the owner (or other hiring user), unless we say otherwise in writing.

7. Listings and user content

You keep ownership of content you upload (photos, descriptions, messages, reviews, documents). You grant Hausen a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, display, and share that content as needed to operate, promote, and improve the service — for example showing a listing to guests or a public profile to other users. This licence ends when the content is deleted, except for copies other users still hold (such as a signed lease) or records we must keep.

You must not upload content that is unlawful, misleading, infringing, or discriminatory, or that violates another person’s privacy or rights.

Location. For short-stay listings, the owner chooses whether guests see the exact street address and map pin on the public listing. This setting is on by default; the owner can switch it off, in which case guests see an approximate area until a booking is confirmed. Long-term listings never show the street address publicly; it is shared once a viewing is confirmed.

We may remove content, unpublish a listing, or limit distribution if we believe it breaks these Terms, our policies, or the law, or if it creates risk for users or Hausen.

8. Search results, sponsored listings, and boosts

Listings in search and Explore are shown for the market you choose, filtered by what you search for, and ordered by the sort option you select (for example newest or price). Hosts cannot pay to change that order. The only paid placement is the separate Sponsored card described below.

Owners can buy a boost for a live listing. A boost shows the listing in the Sponsored card on Explore, for people browsing in the listing’s market, for the number of days in the package you buy. Sponsored listings are labelled “Sponsored”.

• The price, duration, and currency of each boost package are shown before you pay. A listing can hold only one boost at a time.
• A boost buys placement only. We do not guarantee views, enquiries, bookings, or tenants.
• If the listing goes off the marketplace (for example you unpublish it), the boost pauses and the remaining days are saved. It resumes when the listing is live again.
• We may pause, extend, or end a boost early if the listing breaks these Terms or the law.
• Boosts are non-refundable. If a payment cannot become a boost (for example the listing was deleted, or another boost is already running), it is refunded automatically. This does not affect any refund right under applicable law.

9. Short-term stays

Booking and payment

A short-stay booking is confirmed when the host accepts your request, or immediately for listings with instant book. Payment is due as shown in the app:

• If you book before the listing’s free-cancellation window starts, you may pay any time up to the start of that window.
• If you book inside the free-cancellation window, you must pay promptly after confirmation.
• We send payment reminders. If a confirmed booking is not paid by its due date, it is cancelled automatically and the dates are released.

The street address is shared with you once the booking is confirmed (or earlier, on the listing, if the owner shows the exact location — see section 7). Entry instructions, Wi-Fi details, and the house manual are provided once the stay is paid. Unpaid bookings can be cancelled by the guest or host at any time with nothing to refund.

Cancellation by the guest

Each listing shows one of the cancellation policies below. The refund percentage applies to the total you paid for the stay, including the guest service fee.

• Flexible: full refund if you cancel at least 24 hours before check-in; no refund after that.
• Moderate: full refund if you cancel at least 5 days before check-in; 50% refund if you cancel at least 24 hours before check-in; no refund after that.
• Strict: full refund if you cancel at least 7 days before check-in; 50% refund if you cancel at least 48 hours before check-in; no refund after that.

Times are measured to the check-in time of the booking. Refunds are returned to the original payment method; how long they take to reach you depends on your bank and Paystack.

Cancellation by the host

If a host cancels a confirmed stay, the guest receives a full refund. Host cancellations without a valid legal or safety reason may lead to limits on the host account.

10. Long-term leases

Any lease document generated through Hausen is a template and general guideline only, not legal advice. Our standard lease templates are prepared for South African law. If the property is in another market, the parties must adapt the lease to the law of that country. It may not cover every term, circumstance, or legal requirement relevant to an owner or tenant. Hausen does not claim that a generated lease is complete or suitable for every situation. Before signing, both parties must carefully review it, make any changes needed for their circumstances and applicable law, and seek independent legal advice if they are unsure. The owner and tenant are responsible for ensuring the signed lease reflects their agreement.

AI-assisted clauses. If an owner uses the lease wizard to draft additional clauses, that wording is generated with an artificial-intelligence service (Google Gemini) from the answers the owner gives. AI-generated text can be wrong, incomplete, or unsuitable. The owner must review and edit it before sending it, and is responsible for it as if they had written it.

Details printed on the lease. A lease generated through Hausen includes each party’s verified legal name and ID or passport number, email address, and, for owners, the notice address the owner provides. Each party receives a copy of the signed lease.

Offers, e-signing, and move-in payments on Hausen are intended to form a written lease between owner and tenant. Electronic signatures are used so that the parties can conclude the lease in the app.

Ending, renewing, or varying a lease, and any deposit deductions, follow the signed lease and applicable law. Short-stay cancellation policies do not apply to long-term leases.

11. Payments, fees, and payouts

Payments on Hausen are processed by Paystack. We do not store full card numbers. Saved cards and owner payout or bank details are handled by Paystack on our instructions or under Paystack’s terms.

Before you pay, Hausen shows the amounts due. Those may include the stay or rent, cleaning or other listing charges, a guest service fee, an owner hosting fee, a lease onboarding admin fee, a boost package price, VAT or other taxes where they apply, and payment-processor charges. The amount displayed at checkout is the amount you agree to pay. Fee rates may change; new rates apply only to future transactions, once shown to you.

Owner payouts are made to the payout account the owner has verified, after Hausen fees, applicable VAT treatment, refunds, chargebacks, and processor fees. Payout timing depends on Paystack and on whether a payment has cleared.

Rent auto-pay

Tenants can switch on auto-pay for a lease. While it is on, you authorise us and Paystack to charge your saved payment method for each rent instalment on the due date shown in the lease and in the app, for the amount shown there. You can switch auto-pay off at any time in the lease’s payment settings; this stops future charges but does not change what you owe under the lease. If a charge fails, we may retry it, the instalment may show as late in the app, and the owner may use their remedies under the lease.

Other authorised charges

You authorise us and Paystack to charge your selected payment method for confirmed bookings, lease move-in amounts, boosts, and amounts you otherwise confirm in the app. Hausen may notify parties and keep payment records; we do not run court or eviction processes for you.

Chargebacks, payment disputes, and suspected fraud may lead us to pause payouts, reverse a transaction where the processor requires it, or suspend accounts while we review.

12. Refunds and disputes between users

Refunds are not guaranteed except as set out in the listing cancellation policy (section 9), the signed lease, these Terms, Paystack’s rules, or applicable law (including the Consumer Protection Act, 2008, where it applies).

If users disagree about a stay, lease, deposit, or job, they should try to resolve it directly. Hausen may, at its discretion, help with communication or review a payment issue. We are not a court or arbitrator and do not guarantee an outcome. Nothing in this section stops you from taking a dispute to a court, tribunal (such as a Rental Housing Tribunal in South Africa), or consumer body.

13. Identity verification

We may ask you to verify your identity with Didit. That can include a government identity document, a selfie or liveness check, and device permissions described in the Privacy Policy. When verification is approved, we keep your verified legal name and ID or passport number so they can be used on leases you sign.

The verification decision is made automatically by Didit’s checks. If you think a decision is wrong, contact support@thehausen.com and a person at Hausen will review it.

We may decline, limit, or reverse access if verification fails, is incomplete, looks fraudulent, or later changes. A verification badge is not a warranty about a person or listing.

14. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Break the law, including housing, consumer, tax, sanctions, or anti-discrimination law
• List a property you do not have the right to offer
• Post false, scraped, or misleading listings, reviews, or profiles
• Use Hausen to discriminate unlawfully against another person
• Interfere with payments, KYC, App Check, or other security measures
• Scrape, overload, reverse engineer, or probe the service except as allowed by law
• Create accounts to evade a suspension, or share an account in a way that hides who is transacting
• Take payments for a Hausen booking or lease outside Hausen to avoid fees or protections
• Use Hausen to send spam or to harvest personal information

We may investigate, involve authorities, withhold payouts, cancel bookings, or close accounts where we reasonably believe this section has been broken.

15. Messages, reviews, and support

In-app chat, reviews, and support requests must be lawful and respectful. Reviews must reflect a genuine stay or experience. Your name, rating, and comment are shown publicly on the listing you review. We may review reports and may remove content or limit messaging.

Transactional email and, if you allow it, push notifications are part of the service (bookings, payments, leases, security, and support). You can manage some notification preferences in the app. You cannot opt out of messages we must send to operate an account or complete a transaction. We will only send you marketing messages if you opt in, and you can opt out at any time.

16. Intellectual property

Hausen’s name, logos, app, website, and software are owned by us or our licensors. You may not copy, lease, or create derivative works from them except as needed to use the official app or website.

17. Third-party services

Hausen uses third parties such as Google (including Firebase and Gemini), Apple, Didit, Paystack, and email providers. Their terms and privacy policies apply to their services. We are not responsible for a third-party service we do not control.

18. Privacy

How we collect and use personal information is explained in our Privacy Policy. Hausen is the responsible party (data controller) for personal information processed through the app and website.

To request deletion of your account, follow thehausen.com/delete-account.

19. Availability and changes to the service

We aim to keep Hausen available but do not promise uninterrupted or error-free service. Features may change, and some features may be limited by market, verification status, or role.

20. Disclaimers

To the extent permitted by applicable law, Hausen is provided “as is” and “as available”. We disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

We do not warrant that a stay, tenant, host, property, or service provider will meet your expectations, or that user content is complete or current.

21. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law, including liability for gross negligence, wilful misconduct, or rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 or other consumer law that cannot be excluded.

Subject to that, Hausen is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive loss, or for lost profits, data, goodwill, or business interruption, arising from your use of the platform or from agreements between users.

Subject to the same reservation, our total liability to you for claims arising out of these Terms or the service is limited to the greater of (a) the Hausen fees you paid to us in the 12 months before the claim, and (b) ZAR 2 000, or the equivalent in the currency of your market.

22. Indemnity

You will indemnify Hausen and our officers, employees, and contractors against claims, damages, and reasonable costs arising from your content, your listings or stays, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of law or of another person’s rights, except to the extent we caused the loss by our own negligence or wilful misconduct. This section does not apply to the extent consumer law that applies to you prohibits it.

23. Suspension and termination

You may stop using Hausen at any time and may request account deletion as described on the delete-account page. Outstanding stays, leases, payments, or legal duties may survive deletion as explained there.

We may suspend or close an account, unpublish listings, or refuse a transaction if we reasonably believe it is needed to protect users, to comply with law, to prevent fraud, or because these Terms were broken. We will give notice and our reasons where it is practical and lawful to do so, and you may ask us to review the decision.

24. Changes

We may update these Terms. The “Last updated” date will change, and the current version will always be at https://thehausen.com/terms.

We will request a new agreement in the app for material changes to these Terms. We may also notify you by email. You can read the updated documents before deciding whether to agree or stop using your account.

25. Market-specific terms

The following apply in addition to the rest of these Terms. If they conflict, this section wins for users or properties in that market.

South Africa

• The Consumer Protection Act, 2008 and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 apply where relevant. Accommodation bookings are not subject to the electronic-transaction cooling-off period (section 42(2) of that Act).
• Residential leases must comply with the Rental Housing Act, 1999 and, where it applies, the Consumer Protection Act, 2008.

The terms for Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire below apply only once Hausen opens in that country.

Kenya

• Consumer rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2012 that cannot be excluded continue to apply.
• Leases must comply with Kenyan law that applies to the tenancy. Our South African lease templates must be adapted before use.

Ghana

• Leases must comply with the Rent Act, 1963 (Act 220) and other Ghanaian law that applies to the tenancy. Our South African lease templates must be adapted before use.

Nigeria

• Consumer rights under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2018 that cannot be excluded continue to apply.
• Leases must comply with the tenancy law of the state where the property is located. Our South African lease templates must be adapted before use.

Côte d’Ivoire

• Leases must comply with Ivorian law that applies to residential and commercial leases. Our South African lease templates must be adapted before use.
• [TO CONFIRM: whether a French version of these Terms is required for users in Côte d’Ivoire, and which version prevails.]

26. General

These Terms are the agreement between you and Hausen about the service. If a court finds a part unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a right, we do not waive it. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a reorganisation or sale of the service.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, and the courts of South Africa have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer living in another market, this does not take away the protection of mandatory consumer law of your country, or your right to bring a claim in your local courts where that law allows it.

These Terms are intended to be concluded electronically, including by selecting “Agree and continue” in the app. We record the document versions and the time of your agreement.

27. Contact

Northstar Selected (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2025/253502/07)
1000 Timbavati Street, Moreleta Park, Pretoria, Gauteng, 0044, South Africa
Email: support@thehausen.com
Website: https://thehausen.com
Privacy: https://thehausen.com/privacy
Delete account: https://thehausen.com/delete-account