Terms

These terms are the agreement between you and Terrain when you use the Terrain app or terrain.ng. Please read them. By creating an account or using Terrain, you agree to them.

1. What Terrain is

Terrain is a marketplace and records platform for land and homes in Nigeria. Real estate companies verified by Terrain list property. Buyers browse, save listings, and talk to companies in the Terrain chat, where offer letters and receipts are kept on record.

Terrain never holds your money. There is no escrow. When you buy, you pay the company directly, as agreed between you and them. Terrain will never ask you to send money to Terrain or to anyone else. If someone asks you to pay to a different account, stop and report it to us.

Terrain is not the seller, buyer, agent or lawyer in any deal. A sale is between the buyer and the company. We check companies and listings to reduce the risk of fraud, but a check is not a guarantee of title. Before you pay, we encourage you to do your own checks, including a search at the relevant land registry and advice from a lawyer and a surveyor.

2. Your account

• You must be at least 18 years old to use Terrain.
• You sign in with your phone number, which we verify with a code. You may also add and verify an email address, or sign in with Google.
• The details you give us must be true and your own. One person, one account.
• Keep your phone and sign-in codes to yourself. You are responsible for what happens on your account. Tell us at once if you think someone else has used it.

3. If you sell on Terrain

Only companies verified by Terrain can list property. To be verified, a company must be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and pass our checks. If you list or sell on Terrain, you agree that:

• The company details, CAC registration and documents you give us are genuine, current and yours to give.
• You have the right to sell, or to market for sale, every property you list, and the title documents you show are real.
• Your listings are accurate: location, boundaries, size, price, title and photos. You keep them up to date and take down what is no longer available.
• You own, or have permission to use, every photo, video and document you upload or import, including videos imported from social media accounts.
• You deal honestly with buyers, keep the conversation in the Terrain chat, and only ask buyers to pay into the company account named in your offer letter.
• You honour the offer letters you send, and you handle refunds and disputes with buyers fairly and promptly.

You let Terrain show, copy and adapt (for example, resize or crop) the content you upload, so we can display your listings in the app, on terrain.ng and in links people share. This lasts while the content is on Terrain, and afterwards where it forms part of a deal record.

4. Chats, calls and the record

Conversations between buyers and companies happen in the Terrain chat so there is a record both sides can rely on. Messages, voice notes, files and offer letters cannot be edited or deleted once sent, by you or by the other side. Calls happen in the app and are not recorded, but the chat notes that a call took place.

Our systems automatically check messages for signs of fraud, such as attempts to move a buyer off Terrain or to share outside payment details, and may show a safety reminder in the chat. Terrain staff may read a conversation when it is reported to us, when we are resolving a dispute, or when the law requires it.

5. Offer letters

A company can send an offer letter in the chat, and a buyer can sign it in the app. An offer letter is an agreement between the buyer and the company. Terrain is not a party to it. Terrain provides the tool, keeps the signed copy, and adds an audit page showing who signed, the email they verified, when, and from which device and IP address. Both sides can rely on that record.

6. What you must not do

• Commit or attempt fraud, including listing property you cannot sell, using fake documents, or asking for payment to an account that is not the company’s.
• Pretend to be someone else, or another company.
• Harass, threaten or abuse anyone, or send hateful, sexual or violent content.
• Spam people, or use Terrain to advertise anything other than real property you are able to sell.
• Copy listings or data from Terrain in bulk, or use bots or scrapers.
• Interfere with Terrain, try to get into accounts or systems that are not yours, or get around our verification, reports or blocks.
• Break any Nigerian law, or help anyone else do so.

7. Reports, blocks and what we may do

You can report a listing or a conversation from inside the app, and you can block a conversation. A company does not see who reported it. We review reports and may contact both sides.

If we believe someone has broken these terms, misled buyers, or put people at risk, we may, without notice where the risk is serious: remove or hide listings; remove a company’s verified status; suspend or close an account or a company; keep records needed for a dispute or investigation; and report the matter to the police or the relevant regulator. Where we can, we will tell you what we did and why, and you can ask us to look at it again.

8. Fees

Terrain does not take payments in the app. If we introduce a fee for any part of Terrain, we will tell you the amount and what it is for before it applies to you.

9. Terrain’s content

The Terrain name, logo, app, website and the way they look belong to Terrain. You may use Terrain for its purpose, and share links to listings and companies, but you may not copy or reuse our brand or software without our written permission.

10. Our responsibility to you

We work hard to keep Terrain accurate, safe and available, but we provide it as it is. We cannot promise it will always be available or free of errors.

Because Terrain is not a party to sales or offer letters and never holds your money, Terrain is not responsible for a company’s or a buyer’s acts, for the condition or title of a property, or for money paid between a buyer and a company. To the extent Nigerian law allows, Terrain is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit or opportunity, arising from your use of Terrain.

Nothing in these terms limits any right you have under Nigerian law that cannot be limited by agreement, including under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, or our liability for fraud or for death or injury caused by our negligence.

11. Closing your account

You can delete your account at any time in the app: Profile, then Delete account. Our Privacy policy explains what we keep, such as chats and signed offer letters, and why. We may suspend or close an account as described in section 7.

12. Disputes and governing law

If you have a problem with Terrain, please talk to us first through the in-app support chat or on WhatsApp at +234 814 774 6701, and we will try to put it right. These terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the courts of Nigeria have jurisdiction over any dispute about them.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as Terrain changes or the law requires. If a change matters to you, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect. If you keep using Terrain after that, the new terms apply. If you do not agree, you can delete your account.

14. Contact us

Talk to us in the app (Profile, then Help & safety) or on WhatsApp at +234 814 774 6701.

See also our Privacy policy and Terms.