Billing terms

1. What you are paying for

A fee buys advertising on SokoEstate for the term shown at checkout: the right to use the seller tools and to publish the listing or listings that the plan covers, subject to these terms, the Terms of use, and any review we still have to complete. A fee does not buy the property, does not reserve a buyer, and does not verify a professional licence.

Buyers do not pay to search, to save a home, or to send an enquiry.

2. Who pays

An individual property owner pays for one listing term. An agent pays for an agency plan. The person who completes checkout is the customer for that fee, even where the listing names a different colleague, and is responsible for the accuracy of the billing contact on the account.

The seller dashboard and the publishing tools covered by the fee stay closed until our payment provider confirms the payment. Opening a checkout page, returning to SokoEstate in the browser, or showing us a screenshot does not open those tools.

3. Currency, terms and VAT

Prices are in Kenyan shillings. Checkout shows three figures: the net amount, VAT, and the total to pay. VAT is charged at 16%. Where a term discount applies, it is taken off the fee before VAT is calculated. The figures on the confirmed checkout are the figures that matter, not a number remembered from an earlier visit.

An individual listing can be bought for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months. An agency plan can be bought for 1, 3 or 6 months. A term that is not offered at checkout cannot be created by agreement in a message. There is no automatic renewal for an individual listing. If a card schedule is offered for an agency plan, the schedule is shown before you confirm it, and you can turn renewal off from billing settings before the next charge.

4. How payment is taken

Payment is collected by Paystack. SokoEstate does not store your full card number. A payment counts only when Paystack’s confirmed result matches the quote we stored: the same amount, the same currency, and the same payment reference. If those do not match, the fee is not treated as paid and the seller tools stay closed.

You authorise the charge when you confirm checkout. Keep the reference shown to you. It is how we find the payment if you write to us.

5. Invoices and tax records

We keep a record of the quote, the payment reference and the invoice. That record is available in the seller account while the account is open, and we retain it after the account closes for as long as Kenyan tax law requires. The catalogue VAT line is the tax shown for the advertising fee. It is not, by itself, a fiscal receipt unless we have told you that fiscal invoicing is switched on for that charge.

6. What a fee does not do

Paying does not:

• guarantee that a listing will be approved, or that it will stay published if it breaks the Terms of use;
• create a verified agent mark — an agent may upload a licence, a super admin reviews it, and the mark appears only after approval;
• guarantee enquiries, viewings, or a completed sale or tenancy;
• buy a sponsored placement, unless that placement was a separate product on the same checkout and was confirmed as paid.

7. Refunds and failed payments

If a payment fails or is abandoned, nothing is due beyond the attempt, and no advertising term starts. If money left your account but the seller tools did not open, write through Help with the payment reference and the phone number on the account. We will match it to the provider’s confirmed result.

A term that has started is a purchase of advertising time. We do not refund unused days because a property found a buyer, because you changed your mind, or because a listing received fewer enquiries than you hoped. We reserve the right to take a listing down, to hide every listing on an account, and to suspend that account when the Terms of use are broken, when a report is upheld, or when the advertiser does not comply. No advertising fee is refunded in that case, including unused days of a term that has already started. Where we are unable to supply the advertising you paid for because of a failure on our side, we will extend the term or refund the unused portion of that fee. A refund, when one is made, goes back through the same payment provider.

8. Changes to prices

We may change prices and discounts for future checkouts. A change does not alter a term you have already paid. The price you accept is the price on the checkout you confirm.

9. Contact

Billing questions go through the Help page to the SokoEstate team. Include the account phone number and the payment reference. These billing terms are governed by the laws of Kenya, on the same basis as the Terms of use.