Terms of Service
1. Acceptance of Terms
By accessing or using the Housal platform, you accept and agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree, do not use the platform.
These Terms apply to everyone who uses Housal — visitors browsing without an account, registered users, buyers, tenants, property owners, agents, salespersons, brokers, brokerage firms, developers and advertisers.
Where you subscribe to a paid Housal service, the Housal Subscription Agreement additionally applies and governs all commercial matters relating to that subscription. Where these Terms and the Subscription Agreement differ on a commercial matter, the Subscription Agreement prevails for that subscription.
Your use of the platform is also subject to the Housal Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.
2. What Housal is, and what Housal is not
Housal is a property information platform and marketplace. We provide technology that allows property information to be published, discovered and searched, and that allows interested buyers and tenants to contact the party advertising a property.
Housal is not, and does not act as: the owner or seller of any property advertised; a landlord or lessor; a real estate broker or salesperson acting for you; a developer; a property manager; an appraiser; a building inspector; a lawyer; a tax adviser; a lender; or an insurer. Housal is not a party to any sale, lease, reservation or other transaction between users, unless Housal expressly agrees otherwise in writing.
Property information published on Housal is supplied by property owners, agents, salespersons, brokers, brokerage firms, developers and advertisers. Housal does not independently verify that information except where a specific verification is expressly stated, and the meaning of any such statement is set out in section 6.
The appearance of a property, an advertiser or any content on Housal is not an endorsement, recommendation, approval or certification by Housal.
3. Accounts
You may browse parts of Housal without an account. To list a property, contact an advertiser, or use certain features, you must register.
You agree to provide accurate and current registration information and to keep it up to date. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your credentials and for all activity under your account. Use Contact Housal if you believe your account has been accessed without your authority.
Accounts are personal and non-transferable. You may not sell, rent, share or otherwise make your account available to another person, and you may not operate an account on behalf of another person except as an authorised representative disclosed to Housal.
Housal may require verification of your identity, business registration or professional credentials before enabling certain features.
4. Acceptable use and prohibited activities
You agree to use Housal only for lawful purposes. You must not:
- publish false, misleading, fraudulent or deceptive information;
- advertise a property you have no authority to advertise;
- advertise a property that does not exist, is not available, or has already been sold or leased;
- impersonate any person, or misrepresent your identity, licence, accreditation or affiliation;
- publish duplicate listings of the same property in a manner that distorts search results;
- upload content you do not have the right to use, including photographs, floor plans and descriptions;
- publish another person's personal data without a lawful basis;
- harvest, scrape or systematically extract data from the platform;
- interfere with, disrupt, probe or attempt to gain unauthorised access to the platform or its systems;
- use the platform to send unsolicited commercial communications;
- solicit users to transact outside the platform in order to evade these Terms; or
- use the platform in any way that breaches Philippine law.
5. Advertiser responsibilities
This section applies to every person or business that publishes a property listing on Housal — property owner, agent, salesperson, broker, brokerage firm, developer, advertiser or authorised representative (each, an Advertiser).
By publishing a listing, you represent and warrant that:
- You have authority to advertise the property, whether as owner or under a valid authority, engagement or instruction from the person entitled to grant it;
- The information is accurate, complete and current to the best of your knowledge — including price, availability, ownership, floor area, dimensions, location, condition, furnishing, inclusions, fees and any terms of sale or lease;
- You hold the rights to all photographs, videos, floor plans, text and other content you upload, and their use on Housal infringes no third party's rights;
- You hold any licence, accreditation or registration required by Philippine law to advertise or transact in respect of the property, and the details you provide about it are true;
- You will update the listing whenever a material fact changes, and will remove it or mark it unavailable promptly once the property is sold, leased, reserved or otherwise withdrawn;
- You are responsible for every representation you make to a prospective buyer or tenant, whether on the platform or in any communication arising from it; and
- Your listing complies with all applicable Philippine law.
You keep ownership of your content. Housal does not claim ownership of the photographs, videos, floor plans, descriptions or other material you upload.
By publishing a listing, you grant Housal a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, sub-licensable licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt for display and formatting, translate, publish, distribute and display your listing content — on Housal, in Housal's search results and recommendations, in Housal's own marketing of the platform, and through the channels and partners Housal uses to distribute listings. This licence exists so that Housal can provide the service you have asked for.
How long the licence lasts. For active display, the licence runs while the listing is published and ends when the listing is removed or unpublished, save that Housal may continue to display it for a short period while removal propagates through search engines, caches and distribution partners, which Housal does not control.
What Housal keeps afterwards. Housal retains a copy of the listing as it appeared, together with its history of changes, for the purposes of: keeping a record of what was published and when; responding to a complaint, report, dispute or claim about the listing; complying with law or a lawful request; detecting fraud, duplicate listings and repeat misuse; and internal analysis in aggregated or anonymised form. These copies are retained for as long as necessary for those purposes and are not displayed publicly once the listing is removed.
You may ask Housal to remove a listing at any time, and Housal will do so. Removal ends publication; it does not erase the record that the listing existed, and Housal may decline a request to destroy records it needs for the purposes above.
What Housal owns. The platform itself, its software, design and databases, the structure and compilation of listings within it, and any content Housal creates — including descriptions, summaries and other material Housal generates — belong to Housal. Your licence to Housal does not transfer ownership of your content, and Housal's ownership of the platform does not give you any right in it.
Housal may edit the presentation or formatting of a listing to fit the platform, and does not guarantee the position, prominence or search ranking of any listing.
6. Property information, verification and generated content
Information about a property on Housal falls into one of the following categories, and Housal will indicate which applies where it is not otherwise clear:
- Supplied by the Advertiser — the majority of listing information. Housal publishes it as received.
- Verified by Housal — a specific, stated check that Housal has actually performed. Housal will state what was checked and when. A verification statement means only that the stated check was performed; it is not a warranty of the property, the transaction or the Advertiser.
- Generated by Housal — information produced by Housal's own tools, including automatically written descriptions and summaries. Generated content is derived from information supplied by the Advertiser and may contain errors; it is not an independent statement of fact about the property.
- Sourced from third parties — including public records, mapping data and published reference values. Housal identifies the source where practicable and is not responsible for its accuracy or currency.
7. Buyer and tenant responsibilities
If you are considering buying, leasing or reserving a property you found on Housal, you are responsible for satisfying yourself about it before you act.
Independently verify every material fact — price, availability, ownership, authority to sell or lease, title and encumbrances, permits and approvals, floor area and boundaries, condition, and any fees, taxes or charges. Inspect the property, obtain your own professional, legal and tax advice, and confirm the identity and authority of anyone you deal with.
Never make a payment, deposit, reservation fee or transfer to any person on the basis of a Housal listing alone. Housal does not collect, hold, escrow or process any payment relating to a property transaction, and will never ask you to pay a property deposit to Housal.
Housal is not responsible for any viewing, site visit, inspection or meeting arranged between users, or for anything that occurs during it.
8. Inquiries and lead handling
When you submit an inquiry about a property, Housal transmits your inquiry — including the contact details you provide — to the Advertiser responsible for that listing so they can respond. This is explained in the Privacy Policy and is necessary for the service you have requested.
Once transmitted, the Advertiser is independently responsible for the personal data they receive and for their own compliance with the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173), including how they contact you, how long they keep your details, and how they answer any request you make to them.
Advertisers must respond in good faith, must not use inquiry data for any purpose other than responding unless they have a lawful basis, and must honour any request to stop contacting a person.
Housal does not guarantee that an Advertiser will respond, or the timeliness or quality of any response.
9. Intellectual property
The platform itself — its software, design, layout, databases, trademarks and the compilation of content within it — is owned by Housal or its licensors and protected by Philippine and international law. You may not copy, modify, distribute, reproduce, scrape, reverse engineer or create derivative works from the platform without our prior written consent.
Content published by users remains theirs, subject to the licence in section 5.
If you believe content on Housal infringes your intellectual property rights, use Contact Housal with enough detail to identify the content and your right. Housal will review and may remove content under section 11.
10. Fraud, misuse and reporting
Housal provides a way to report a listing, advertiser, account or message that appears fraudulent, misleading, unlawful or in breach of these Terms. Reporting is available to anyone, including people without a Housal account.
Reports are reviewed and may result in content being removed and enforcement action taken under section 11. Housal may retain records of reports, the content concerned and the action taken.
Housal may remove or restrict content it reasonably considers fraudulent, unlawful, misleading or in breach of these Terms, and may report matters to the relevant authorities.
11. Enforcement, suspension and termination
Where these Terms are breached, Housal may take action proportionate to the breach:
| Level | What happens |
|---|---|
| Warning | Content may be removed or hidden, with notice of the rule concerned |
| Restriction | Specific features may be limited — for example publishing or messaging — for a stated period |
| Suspension | Access to the account is suspended temporarily |
| Termination | The account is closed permanently |
Housal will notify you of the action and the reason, and — other than for the most serious or repeated breaches — you may appeal using Contact Housal. Housal will consider an appeal in good faith.
Housal may suspend or terminate immediately, without prior notice, where it reasonably considers there is fraud, a risk to other users, a serious breach of law, or a serious or repeated breach of these Terms.
You may close your account at any time. Closing an account does not by itself cancel a paid subscription — cancellation is governed by the Subscription Agreement.
Suspension or termination does not entitle you to a refund. Refunds are governed by the Subscription Agreement.
12. Disclaimer of warranties
Housal provides the platform "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by Philippine law, Housal does not warrant that the platform will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure; that defects will be corrected; that any content, including any listing, is accurate, complete, current or lawful; or that use of the platform will result in any inquiry, viewing, lease, sale or other outcome.
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any warranty, right or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited under Philippine law.
13. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by Philippine law, Housal is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, goodwill, data, business or opportunity, arising from or in connection with your use of the platform.
Housal is not liable for the acts, omissions, representations or conduct of any user, Advertiser, buyer, tenant or third party, or for any transaction entered into between them.
Nothing in this section excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited under Philippine law.
14. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold Housal harmless from claims, damages, losses, liabilities and reasonable expenses arising from your use of the platform, your content, your listings, your representations to other users, or your breach of these Terms or of applicable law.
15. Changes, updates, and your responsibility to stay informed
Housal may at any time update, amend, modify, replace, supplement or otherwise change this document, the Housal services, subscription plans, features, prices, requirements, policies and procedures, and any other terms applicable to your use of Housal.
Housal may make a change for any reason — including changes to its business, its services, technology, security, operations, legal or regulatory requirements, pricing, subscription plans, features, or the way Housal operates.
The current version of this document is always available on Housal.
You are responsible for keeping yourself informed of the current version of Housal's documents, policies, services, subscription plans and requirements. Review them from time to time, and before you continue using a service, renew a subscription, or enter into a new transaction with Housal.
Each document carries a version number and effective date. Housal keeps previous versions for its records.
Where applicable law requires notice of a change, or requires your acceptance of it, Housal will give that notice or obtain that acceptance. Except where the law requires otherwise, Housal is not required to obtain a fresh individual acceptance every time a document is updated.
Your continued use of Housal after the effective date of an updated document constitutes your acceptance of it, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
If you do not agree with an updated document, you are responsible for discontinuing the relevant use of Housal, or cancelling the relevant service or subscription where a cancellation method is available.
The version you accepted, and the date you accepted it, is recorded and available to you.
16. General
Governing law. These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of the Philippines.
Jurisdiction. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Republic of the Philippines.
Disputes. Before commencing any proceeding, please use Contact Housal so we can try to resolve the matter. Nothing in these Terms limits any right you have to raise a complaint with a competent authority.
Severability. If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in force.
Waiver. A failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it.
Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, the Cookie Policy and — where applicable — the Subscription Agreement, form the entire agreement between you and Housal in respect of the platform.
Notices. Notices to Housal are given using Contact Housal. Notices to you are given through the platform or to the email address on your account.
Electronic acceptance. You agree that clicking I Accept constitutes your acceptance of these Terms and has the same effect as a signature, in accordance with the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000 (Republic Act No. 8792).