These terms form the agreement between The Growth Box (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2014/113470/07), trading as CommunityDesk (“CommunityDesk”, “we”, “us”) and the organisation that signs up for CommunityDesk (“you”): a body corporate, homeowners’ association, managing agent or other community scheme. By starting a trial, subscribing or using CommunityDesk, the person signing up confirms that they are authorised to bind that organisation, and the organisation accepts these terms.

Our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Disclaimer and Legal Notices form part of these terms. Please read them, and save or print a copy for your records.

CommunityDesk is online software for running community schemes: levies and billing, statements and payments, debit orders, arrears, maintenance and suppliers, meetings and voting, budgets and accounting, documents, communication, and portals for owners, tenants and suppliers. Features may improve over time; we will not remove a core feature you rely on without reasonable notice.

• Keep sign-in links and codes private, and turn on two-step login where it is offered.
• Only invite people (trustees, your management team, owners, tenants, residents, suppliers) who are entitled to the access you give them, and remove access when they no longer need it.
• You are responsible for what is done through your account, and for making sure the information you load is accurate and lawfully obtained.
• Tell us immediately at enquiry@communitydesk.co.za if you suspect unauthorised use.

New customers get one free trial of 60 days. Everything works except SMS and WhatsApp messages, which switch on when your subscription starts; online payments and debit orders run through your scheme’s own payment provider account. Nothing is charged during the trial and no card is needed.

If the trial ends without you authorising billing, your account becomes read-only: nothing is deleted, and you can authorise billing at any time to carry on. If you don’t, we treat the account as ended and section 15 applies.

• Plans are a rate for each unit you administer, occupied or vacant, with lower rates as the number of units grows and a monthly minimum, as shown on our pricing page when you subscribe. We are not registered for VAT, so no VAT is added. If we register, we will tell you at least 30 days before VAT is added to your invoices.
• We only bill after you authorise billing in Settings → Billing.
• We invoice in advance on your billing day each month (or once a year for annual billing, which includes the free months shown when you choose it). Invoices are payable within 7 days.
• Email, SMS and WhatsApp messages sent through CommunityDesk are included. Payment providers charge their own transaction fees under your scheme’s agreement with them. Extra services we agree with you in writing, such as a custom data migration, are quoted separately.
• We may change prices with at least 30 days’ written notice; the change applies from your next invoice after that. If you don’t accept a change, you may cancel before it applies.
• If an invoice remains unpaid after a reminder and 14 days’ notice, we may restrict the account to read-only until it is paid. We never delete your records for non-payment without the notice in section 15.

Your scheme’s records belong to you. You are the responsible party for the personal information you load, and we act as your operator under POPIA: we process it only to provide CommunityDesk and on your instructions, keep it confidential, protect it with appropriate safeguards, use only operators bound by equivalent obligations, and notify you without undue delay of any security compromise affecting it. Our Privacy Policy explains more.

You may export your records at any time while your subscription is active and for 30 days after it ends.

CommunityDesk helps you run your scheme, but the trustees, HOA directors and, where there is one, the managing agent remain responsible for the scheme’s governance and compliance, including with the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act, the Sectional Titles Act, the Community Schemes Ombud Service Act, the scheme’s rules or constitution, tax and financial reporting obligations, and the duties a managing agent has under the Property Practitioners Act. Check levies, statements, notices and other output before relying on them, and take professional advice where needed.

Levies and other payments are made into the scheme’s own bank account or through the scheme’s own account with a payment provider. Levy money does not pass through CommunityDesk. We record payments and match them to units. Payment providers, banks and messaging services act on their own terms, and we are not responsible for their services, though we will help you resolve problems where we can.

You may use CommunityDesk to send notices, statements and messages to the people connected to your scheme. You are responsible for having a lawful basis to contact them and for honouring opt-outs. Marketing messages must comply with POPIA section 69 and section 45 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act; CommunityDesk adds unsubscribe options and keeps opt-out records to help.

Some features use artificial intelligence to suggest or draft content (for example minutes, notices or replies) or to read meter photos. AI output can be incomplete or wrong: review it before you use it. You remain responsible for what you send or decide.

You may not use CommunityDesk to:

• break any law or anyone’s rights, including privacy and intellectual property rights;
• send unsolicited or misleading messages, or impersonate anyone;
• upload malware or harmful content;
• try to access another customer’s information, test our security without written permission, or interfere with or overload the service;
• copy, resell or reverse engineer the software, except as the law allows.

We may suspend access that breaches this section to protect you, other customers or the service, and will tell you why.

We own CommunityDesk, its software, design and content, and the CommunityDesk name and logo. During your subscription we give you a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use it for your schemes. You own your data and grant us the rights we need to host and process it to provide the service. If you send us suggestions, we may use them without obligation.

We work to keep CommunityDesk available and secure, and back up the database daily (backups are kept for seven days), and we support you through the Help Centre and support requests in the app. We aim to reply to every support request within one working day. Planned maintenance is announced in advance where possible. The service depends on the internet and third parties, so we cannot promise it will never be interrupted.

Each of us will keep the other’s confidential information confidential, use it only for this agreement, and protect it with reasonable care. This does not apply to information that is public, already known, independently developed, or that the law requires to be disclosed.

• Monthly plans: cancel at any time in Settings → Billing or by email to enquiry@communitydesk.co.za, with one calendar month’s notice. You pay up to the end of the notice period.
• Annual plans: run to the end of the paid year and then end, unless renewed; the annual price reflects that commitment, so unused months are not refunded unless the law requires it.
• Cooling-off: if section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act applies to you, you may cancel within 7 days after you subscribe without reason or penalty, and we will refund what you paid within 30 days.
• By us: we may end the agreement on 30 days’ notice, or sooner if you seriously breach these terms and don’t remedy the breach within 14 days of notice, or if invoices remain unpaid after the notice in section 5.
• After the end: you can export your records for 30 days. After that we delete or anonymise them, except where the law requires us to keep them.

We will provide CommunityDesk with reasonable skill and care. Except as stated in these terms, and to the extent the law allows, CommunityDesk is provided as is, and we do not promise that it will meet every requirement or be free of every error. We will fix confirmed faults within a reasonable time.

To the extent the law allows:

• neither of us is liable for indirect or consequential loss, or loss of profit, income or goodwill;
• our total liability arising from this agreement in any 12 months is limited to the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose;
• these limits do not apply to fraud, gross negligence, wilful misconduct, or anything that cannot be limited by law.

Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act where it applies to you.

You indemnify us against third-party claims arising from information you load without a lawful basis, messages you send in breach of section 9, or your breach of section 11.

If a dispute arises, please write to us at enquiry@communitydesk.co.za; senior people from both sides will try in good faith to resolve it within 20 business days. If that fails, either of us may refer it to mediation, and if mediation fails, to a competent South African court. You may also approach any regulator or ombud that has jurisdiction. You consent to the jurisdiction of the Magistrates’ Court, even if the amount exceeds its ordinary limit.

• These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa.
• We choose 25 Ormonde View, Corwen Street, Ormonde Extension 26, Johannesburg, 2091 as our address for legal notices (domicilium citandi et executandi); yours is the address in your account. Notices by email to the addresses on record are valid.
• If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in force. A failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of it.
• Neither of us may transfer this agreement without the other’s consent, except that we may do so to a successor of our business that takes on these obligations.
• Neither of us is liable for a delay caused by events beyond reasonable control.
• These terms, with the documents listed in section 1 and any written agreement we sign with you, are the whole agreement between us about CommunityDesk. If a signed agreement conflicts with these terms, the signed agreement applies.
• This agreement is concluded electronically when you sign up or authorise billing, as the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act allows. You can save or print these terms at any time.

We may update these terms. We will tell you about material changes at least 30 days before they apply; if you don’t accept them, you may cancel before they take effect. The date of the current version is shown at the top.