1. About these Terms
These Terms of Service are an agreement between you and HomeLands Sourcing Nigeria Limited, a company registered in the Federal Republic of Nigeria with its registered office at 3B Obudu Street, Off Udi Hills, Aso Drive, Abuja, FCT, Nigeria ("HomeLands", "we", "us", "our").
They govern your use of the HomeLands mobile application, the HomeLands website, and the services we provide through them. By creating an account or using the service you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use HomeLands.
These Terms incorporate our Acceptable Use Policy, our Refund Policy, and our Privacy Policy. Where you have signed a Listing Representation Agreement for a listing, that agreement also applies, and if it conflicts with these Terms on a point specific to that listing, the Listing Representation Agreement prevails.
2. Definitions
- HomeLands, we, us, and our mean HomeLands Sourcing Nigeria Limited, the operator of the HomeLands marketplace.
- Client means a user who browses listings, books viewings, or buys or rents a property through HomeLands.
- Owner means a user who lists a property, whether as the legal owner of it or as an agent acting under a written mandate from the owner.
- Listing means a property published on HomeLands, together with its photographs, description, price, location, and uploaded documents.
- Membership means the one-off membership a client can buy, which lets them exchange numbers with owners in chat and book viewings with no viewing fee.
- Chat means the messaging feature a client and an owner use to discuss a listing in the app.
- Viewing fee means the fee a client pays to book a property viewing on an older version of the app. Viewings booked as a member carry no viewing fee.
- Property payment means the payment a client makes through HomeLands for the property itself, after inspecting it and agreeing terms with the owner.
3. Who can use HomeLands
You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter a legally binding contract under Nigerian law. The information you give us must be accurate and kept up to date, and you are responsible for keeping your account credentials safe.
4. Accounts
You are responsible for activity on your account. Do not share your credentials, and tell us promptly if you believe your account has been compromised. We may suspend or limit an account that appears to be compromised, fraudulent, or in breach of these Terms.
5. Identity verification
You can list a property without verifying your identity. Agents who complete identity verification get a "verified agent" mark on their listings. Verification is carried out by a licensed Nigerian identity verification provider, and we record the outcome against your account. We may ask you to verify, re-run verification, or ask for further information before paying you out, where we are required to do so, or where we have reason to doubt the information we hold.
6. Listings and ownership documents
You may list a property only if you are its legal owner or you hold a valid written mandate from the owner to market it. When you create a listing you confirm that you own the property or are allowed to list it, that the property exists and is as described, that the price, photographs, and location are accurate, that the property is available, and that every document you upload is genuine, current, and lawfully yours to share.
Each property type has its own title documents, which are listed in the app when you build the listing. They are optional, but a listing is shown to buyers as documents checked only when it carries all of them and our legal reviewers have reviewed them. Submitting forged, altered, or fraudulently obtained documents is a serious breach of these Terms and may be reported to the authorities.
7. Our review of listings
Listings are reviewed by our legal reviewers before they are published. We may approve a listing, ask you to correct it, or reject it. Review is a check on the documents and information you provide. It is not a legal opinion on title, a valuation, a survey, or a guarantee that a property is free of encumbrances, and it does not replace your own due diligence.
We may pause, unpublish, or remove any listing that breaches these Terms or that we reasonably believe is inaccurate, unlawful, or no longer available.
8. Chat, viewings and video calls
Clients and owners can chat about a listing in the app for free. Until both sides agree to exchange numbers, we hide phone numbers, email addresses, social media handles, and links to other messaging apps that are typed into a chat. Either side can ask to exchange numbers and the other can accept or decline. A client must be a member to exchange numbers, and both sides need a phone number on their profile. Once numbers are exchanged, each side can see the phone number on the other's profile. We store chat messages so that we can provide the service, and if a conversation is reported to us, our team may review it. You can block or report a conversation at any time.
Booking a viewing creates an arrangement between you and the other party. When the agent accepts a viewing, we share the agent's phone number and email with that buyer so they can arrange next steps. Attend on time, and cancel or reschedule as early as you can if your plans change. Video viewing calls are between the parties who booked them. We do not record calls, and you must not record or share one without the consent of everyone on it.
9. Fees
HomeLands does not charge commission. Listing a property is free, and we take no share of any property payment made through the platform, including on a listing whose Listing Representation Agreement provided for one.
We charge a one-off membership fee, which lets a client exchange numbers with owners in chat and book viewings with no viewing fee. We also charge fixed fees for unlocking the due diligence reports on a listing and for promoting a listing. A viewing booked on an older version of the app may still carry a viewing fee. Every fee is shown to you before you pay it, and the amount shown is the amount charged, including any tax that Nigerian law requires us to apply. We may change our fees, and changes take effect for transactions entered into after the change.
10. Payments and payouts
Payments made through HomeLands are processed by our payment provider, Paystack, whose own terms also apply to the transaction. When a client makes a property payment, it is transferred to the owner's verified bank account. HomeLands is a marketplace, not a bank and not an escrow service, and we do not hold funds as a step in the transaction.
Owners can only be paid into a Nigerian bank account in their own name. We confirm the account holder's name with the bank and check it against your verified identity, or your account name if you haven't verified. Only pay for a property once you have inspected it and agreed terms with the other party in person.
11. Refunds
Membership is a one-off payment and is not refundable, except where it was charged in error or where the law requires a refund. Where a viewing fee was paid, it is refunded automatically when the owner declines or cancels a booking, or when a confirmed video viewing in the app does not take place. If a confirmed viewing in person, by phone, on WhatsApp or on Google Meet does not take place, tell us and we will refund the fee. A client who cancels their own booking forfeits the fee. Property payments reach the owner as soon as they clear and cannot be reversed by us unilaterally. Full details, including how to request a refund and how disputed payments are handled, are in our Refund Policy.
12. Acceptable use
You agree not to misrepresent properties, spam other users, or use the service for anything illegal. Our Acceptable Use Policy sets out the full rules for listing, messaging, and paying on HomeLands, and how we enforce them.
13. Content you submit
You keep ownership of the content you upload. You grant HomeLands a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, display, and process that content as needed to operate the service, including showing your listing to prospective clients, producing your signed agreements, and retaining records we are required to keep. This licence ends when the content is removed, except for copies we must retain by law or that remain in routine backups until they are purged.
You must have the right to everything you upload. If you believe content on HomeLands infringes your rights, follow the procedure in our Acceptable Use Policy.
14. Our intellectual property
The HomeLands app, website, design, name, and logo, and the software behind them, belong to us and are protected by law. We grant you a limited, personal, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the service as intended. You may not copy, modify, reverse engineer, resell, scrape, or build a competing product from any part of it.
15. Third-party services
HomeLands relies on third parties for payments, identity verification, maps, video calls, and hosting. Their services are governed by their own terms, and we are not responsible for their acts or omissions beyond our own reasonable control. Our Privacy Policy lists the providers we use.
16. Service availability and changes
We work to keep HomeLands available and accurate, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free service. We may add, change, suspend, or withdraw features, and we may carry out maintenance. Where a change is material and affects you, we will give notice in the app.
17. Suspension, termination, and appeals
We may suspend or terminate your account if you breach these Terms, if we are required to by law, or if we reasonably believe your account poses a risk to other users. Where the breach is minor and can be put right, we will normally tell you what is wrong and give you a chance to fix it first. Where it involves fraud, forged documents, or a risk to another user, we may act immediately and without notice.
If you believe a suspension or removal was a mistake, email [email protected] and we will review the decision and respond within 10 business days. You can close your account at any time. See the Account and Data Deletion page.
18. Your responsibility to us
To the extent permitted by law, you are responsible for any loss, claim, or cost we suffer that arises from your breach of these Terms, from content or documents you submit, from your misrepresentation of a property, or from your dealings with another user. You agree to cooperate with us in dealing with any such claim.
19. Disclaimers
HomeLands is a marketplace. We are not a party to the sale, purchase, or letting of any property listed on the platform, we do not act as your agent, valuer, surveyor, or legal adviser, and the service is provided on an "as is" basis to the extent permitted by law. Listings and users are independent of us. Always carry out your own inspection and take your own legal advice before committing to a property.
20. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, HomeLands is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss arising from a transaction between users, the conduct of any user, or your reliance on a listing. Nothing in these Terms limits any liability that cannot be limited under Nigerian law, including liability for fraud.
21. Disputes between users
If a dispute arises between you and another user, raise it with us at [email protected]. We will review the records we hold, including any signed listing agreement, the reviewed documents, the booking history, the payment trail, and, where it has been reported to us, the chat between you, and we will tell both parties the outcome. Where we find fraud we act under our Acceptable Use Policy. We are not obliged to become a party to a dispute between users, and our decision does not affect either party's legal rights.
22. Disputes with us
If you have a complaint about HomeLands itself, contact us first at [email protected] so we can try to resolve it. If we cannot resolve it between us, the dispute is to be submitted to mediation in Nigeria before either party begins court action. This does not prevent either party from seeking urgent injunctive relief from a court.
23. Electronic communications and signatures
You agree that we may communicate with you electronically, and that notices, agreements, and disclosures we provide in the app, on the website, or by email satisfy any requirement that they be in writing. Where you sign an agreement in the app, including the Listing Representation Agreement, you agree that your electronic signature is binding, and that we may record the time, the device, and the network address used to sign as evidence of it.
24. Notices
We give notices through the app, by push notification, or by email to the address on your account. Keep that address current. You give notice to us at [email protected].
25. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will change the "last updated" date above and, for material changes, notify you in the app. Continuing to use HomeLands after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.
26. General
- Assignment. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms without our written consent. We may transfer ours to a successor in connection with a reorganisation or sale of the business, without reducing your rights.
- Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in force.
- No waiver. If we do not enforce a provision, that is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
- Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the policies and agreements they incorporate, are the entire agreement between you and us about the service.
- Survival. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination, including sections 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, and 27, continue to apply after your account is closed.
- Events outside our control. We are not liable for failure or delay caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including network or power failure, the acts of a third-party provider, or government action.
- No partnership. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, employment, or agency relationship between you and us.
27. Governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the courts of Nigeria have jurisdiction over any dispute.
28. Contact us
Questions about these Terms can be sent to [email protected]. For privacy questions, contact [email protected].
HomeLands Sourcing Nigeria Limited
3B Obudu Street, Off Udi Hills, Aso Drive, Abuja, FCT, Nigeria