Terms of Service

1. Who we are and what this agreement covers

SolarZA.co.za ("SolarZA", "we", "us") operates a South African solar information site, a directory of solar installation businesses, and a quote-matching service that connects homeowners and businesses with those installers. These terms govern your use of the website and every service offered through it, whether you visit as a reader, submit a quote request, or register as an installer.

By using the site you agree to these terms. If you do not agree with them, stop using the site. We may change these terms as the service changes; the date at the top of this page shows when they were last revised, and continued use after a revision constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa, and the courts of South Africa have jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them.

2. What SolarZA is, and what it is not

We publish information about solar equipment, costs and installers, and we introduce people who want quotes to businesses that provide them. We are not a solar installer, an electrical contractor, an engineer, or a financial adviser. We do not design, supply, install, commission, inspect or maintain solar systems, and we do not employ or supervise the businesses listed on this site.

Any contract for solar work is between you and the installer. We are not a party to it. We do not set their prices, review their designs, guarantee their workmanship, hold their warranties, or accept liability for their conduct. If a job goes wrong, your recourse is against the installer and, where applicable, the bodies that regulate them.

Nothing on this site is professional advice. Our cost estimates, payback figures, system-sizing guidance and irradiance data are general information based on stated assumptions and regional averages. They are not a quotation, a design, or a promise of performance for your property. Always have a qualified person assess your specific roof, electrical installation and consumption before you commit money.

3. Directory listings and their accuracy

Installer listings are compiled from public business records, the businesses' own published material, and information submitted by business owners who claim their listing. We check listings for internal consistency and we mark on each profile whether it has been claimed and verified, but we do not independently audit qualifications, certifications, insurance, financial standing or work quality.

A "verified" badge means only that the business has confirmed it controls the contact details shown. It is not an endorsement, an accreditation, or a statement that the business is competent, solvent or currently trading. Certifications displayed on a listing are as stated by the business. Verify any certification with its issuing body before relying on it.

Listings may be out of date. Businesses close, move, change hands and change what they offer without telling us. If you find an error, tell us and we will correct it. If you own a listed business, you may claim your listing free of charge to correct and control what appears, or ask us to remove it.

4. Quote requests and how your details are shared

When you submit a quote request, you are asking us to pass your enquiry to solar installers so they can contact you. That is the point of the service, and it cannot work without sharing your details. By submitting a request you consent to us disclosing the information you provide to installers we consider relevant to your enquiry, and to those installers contacting you by phone, SMS, WhatsApp or email about it.

We do not control what an installer does with your details after we pass them on. Each installer is a separate responsible party under the Protection of Personal Information Act and answerable for its own processing. If an installer contacts you in a way you did not agree to, tell them to stop and tell us, and we will stop sending them enquiries if the problem continues.

Submitting a quote request does not oblige you to buy anything, and it does not oblige any installer to quote. We do not guarantee that you will receive a quote, that you will receive a particular number of quotes, or that any quote will be competitive.

Do not submit false information or another person's details without their permission. We may refuse, delete or decline to distribute any enquiry that appears fraudulent, abusive, automated, or made for a purpose other than obtaining a genuine quote.

5. Installer accounts, credits and payments

Solar businesses may register an account to receive and unlock homeowner enquiries. Registration requires accurate business details, and you warrant that you are authorised to act for the business you register.

Enquiries are unlocked using account credits. Credits are purchased in advance through our payment provider, are denominated in rand, and are consumed when you choose to unlock an enquiry. Credits have no cash value, are not a deposit, do not earn interest, and are not transferable between accounts. Promotional or free credits may be issued, varied or withdrawn at our discretion and expire on the terms stated when they are granted.

Unlocking an enquiry buys you the contact details and stated requirements of a person who asked for a quote. It does not buy a sale, an appointment, a qualified prospect, or a guarantee that the person will answer the phone. Lead quality varies, and we do not warrant it. We will, at our discretion, credit an account where an enquiry is demonstrably invalid, for example where the contact details are fabricated or the enquiry is a duplicate of one already unlocked by the same account. Requests for such credits must be made within seven days of the unlock.

Purchases of credits are otherwise final and non-refundable. Unused credits remain available on the account while the account is open. If we close an account for a breach of these terms, unused credits are forfeited. If we withdraw the service entirely, we will refund unused credits purchased within the preceding twelve months.

You are responsible for the security of your account credentials and for everything done through your account. Tell us immediately if you believe your account has been accessed by someone else.

6. Advertising, affiliate links and how the site is funded

This site carries third-party advertising and affiliate links, and earns commission on some purchases made after clicking through to a retailer. It also earns revenue from installers who pay to unlock enquiries. Our full disclosure of these arrangements is on the affiliate disclosure page.

Advertising is served by third parties, including Google, and we do not control which specific adverts appear. Adverts are labelled as advertising. Editorial content, rankings and directory ordering are not sold: a business cannot pay to be rated higher, described more favourably, or placed above another business in a listing.

7. Acceptable use

You may read, link to and quote from this site with attribution. You may not scrape, harvest or bulk-copy the directory, the listings, or the underlying data, whether by automated means or otherwise; republish substantial parts of the site; use contact details obtained here to send unsolicited marketing; attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the service; or interfere with its operation.

The compiled directory, our written content, our data on local solar conditions, and the arrangement and presentation of all of it are our property or licensed to us, and are protected by copyright. Business names, trade marks and logos belong to their respective owners and appear here for identification.

8. Limitation of liability

The site and its content are provided as they are, without warranty of any kind, express or implied. We do not warrant that the site will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure, or that the information on it is complete, current or accurate.

To the fullest extent permitted by South African law, we exclude liability for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, and for any loss of profit, revenue, data, business or goodwill, arising from your use of the site or from any dealing with a business found through it. Where liability cannot lawfully be excluded, our total liability to you is limited to the amount you have paid us in the twelve months preceding the claim, or one thousand rand, whichever is greater.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for fraud, for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited under the Consumer Protection Act or other applicable law.

9. Privacy and your personal information

How we collect, use, share and retain personal information is set out in our privacy policy, and our use of cookies and analytics is set out in the cookie policy. Both form part of these terms. Our processing of personal information is subject to the Protection of Personal Information Act, and the rights that Act gives you, including access, correction, objection and deletion, are described in the privacy policy along with how to exercise them.

10. Suspension, termination and changes to the service

We may suspend or close any account, remove any listing, and refuse service to anyone, where we reasonably believe these terms have been breached or where continuing would expose us or our users to legal or reputational risk. Where the breach is not serious we will normally give notice and an opportunity to correct it first.

We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of the site at any time. We will give reasonable notice before withdrawing a paid feature that accounts are currently relying on.

11. Contacting us and resolving complaints

Raise any complaint with us first, through the contact page. We will acknowledge it and respond substantively as soon as we reasonably can. If a complaint concerns an installer's work rather than our service, we will pass it on and, where a pattern emerges, act on it, but we cannot arbitrate or compel an outcome between you and a separate business.

If a provision of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. Our not enforcing a term on one occasion does not waive it.