Terms of Service

Criba is a platform that lets tenants in Ghana share their place before they move out, and lets people looking for a home (“watchers”) find it first and get in touch. These terms are the agreement between you and Criba (“we”, “us”) for using our website and services.

By creating an account, or by using Criba, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you don’t agree, please don’t use Criba.

Criba is a place to connect. We are not a landlord, estate agent or party to any tenancy, sub-letting, hand-over or payment between members. Any arrangement you make is between you and the other person (and the landlord, where they are involved).

• We do not handle rent, deposits or any money that passes between members. Never pay anyone before you have seen the place and are satisfied it is real.
• Verification (see section 4) confirms who a member is. It is not a guarantee that a listing is accurate, that a landlord has agreed to a hand-over, or that a member will behave well.
• You are responsible for checking your own tenancy agreement and for making sure you are allowed to advertise or hand over your place.

• You must be at least 18 and able to enter a binding agreement.
• Give us true, current information, and keep your password secure. You are responsible for what happens under your account.
• One person, one account. Don’t sign up on someone else’s behalf or pretend to be someone else.
• You can sign in with email and password or with Google. If you use Google, we receive your name and email from Google to set up your account.

To keep Criba trustworthy, we check members before they can use certain features:

• Everyone verifies a Ghana mobile number with a one-time code sent by SMS.
• To publish a listing you must also pass identity verification: your Ghana Card number, a photo of the card and a selfie, reviewed by our team.

We may approve, reject or ask you to resubmit, and we may remove verification if we believe the information was false. How we handle these documents is explained in our Privacy Policy.

You own what you post (photos, descriptions, your profile), and you give us permission to store it, display it to other members and use it to run Criba. That permission ends when you delete the content or your account, apart from copies we must keep by law or that sit in routine backups for a short time.

You promise that your listing and profile:

• describe a real place that you have the right to advertise, with an honest rent, area and move-out date;
• use photos you took or have permission to use, that show the actual place;
• do not discriminate against or demean anyone, and do not include anyone else’s personal details without their permission;
• are not misleading, fraudulent, illegal or offensive.

A tenant can have one listing of their own at a time. Landlords and caretakers can list several vacancies (see the next section). We may edit, take down or refuse any listing that breaks these terms or that we reasonably believe puts others at risk.

A landlord, or a caretaker acting for one, can list a vacant place. Because these listings are not a tenant handing over their own home, they carry extra rules:

• You must own the property or have the owner’s authority to let it, and say honestly whether you are the landlord or a caretaker.
• You send us a photo of proof for each property (for example ownership or management papers, or a letter from the owner). Our team checks it, and the vacancy cannot go live until it is approved. If you change the address or replace the document, it is checked again.
• You do not charge viewing fees, commission or any agent fee to people who contact you through Criba. Agents and brokers who charge for introductions may not list here.
• You can have up to 20 vacancies listed at once.
• If you misrepresent who you are or the property, we may remove your listings and suspend your account.

We do not handle rent or deposits, and approval of your proof is not a guarantee about the property or a tenancy. That stays between you and the person renting.

Members who list a place show a trust level: New member, Verified, Established or Trusted. It is worked out from our checks (phone number, ID and, for landlords and caretakers, proof they can let the property), how long they have been a member and whether they reply to messages, and from feedback given by people they have dealt with.

• After a conversation we may ask the person who got in touch how it went. Their answer is seen only by them and our team. Other members see counts (for example, how many people said it went well), never what someone wrote.
• A reported problem is looked at by our team. It only affects a trust level if we agree there was a problem. If we do, that member stays at Verified for a year and we tell them. Members can contact us if they think we got it wrong.
• Please answer honestly. Making up a report about someone may lead us to suspend your account.

A trust level is a guide, not a guarantee. It does not mean a listing is accurate or that a member will behave well. See the place in person, and never pay before you have.

Every member with a verified phone number gets a personal invite link. When someone joins through it, you are told first when they list a place. That part is free and needs nothing else from you.

You can also choose to earn from your circle. Nothing is added until you have read the rates and rules on the Earn page and turned it on, and it only counts once your ID (Ghana Card) is verified.

• When someone you invited pays for a plan, you earn a percentage of each payment, for up to 12 months from their first payment. The rates are shown on the Earn page and can change for payments made after the change.
• Earnings come only from payments that go through. A payment is held as pending for a short period. If it is refunded, or the person cancels before then, nothing is earned on it.
• You earn only from people you invited yourself, never from the people they invite, and never from your own accounts or anyone using the same identity as you.
• We may hold, review, reverse or refuse earnings where something does not look genuine, for example when two people in a circle share a payment method or a browser, or a circle grows unusually fast. A person at Criba looks at each case, and we may end earning for anyone who abuses it.
• Earnings can be paid out as cash by mobile money once they reach a minimum amount, or taken as points. Points stay on your Criba account and cannot be turned back into cash.
• Earnings may be taxable income. Declaring them is your responsibility, and we cannot give tax advice.
• Founding members may also have milestone bonuses and take part in time-limited contests. Each milestone is checked personally before anything is paid, and contest prizes come from a share of the revenue the contest brings in, not a fixed amount.

We can change or end Build Your Circle, and its rates and rules, at any time. Changes apply to future payments, except where a member has locked their rates, in which case those rates stay as agreed.

Members can message each other about listings. When you use Criba you agree not to:

• harass, threaten, scam or pressure anyone, or ask for money or deposits before a viewing;
• post fake, duplicate or spam listings or messages;
• collect other members’ information, or copy listings in bulk, by scraping or any automated means;
• try to break, overload or get around our security, limits or paid features;
• use Criba for anything unlawful.

Community is a shared space: what you post there is visible to other signed-in members, with your first name and photo. Keep it helpful and honest, don’t advertise or ask for money, and don’t share other people’s details. We may remove posts and replies that break these terms, and members can report them.

Messages between members are stored so both people can read them, and our team may review them if there is a report or a safety concern. Keep conversations respectful, and remember that Criba does not handle rent or deposits between members.

Criba is free to join and to list a place. Starting new conversations with tenants needs a paid plan. Current plans (prices in Ghana cedis, GH₵) are:

• Free – browse and list; no new conversations. Replying to people who message you about your own listing is always free.
• Standard – up to 10 new conversations a month. GH₵15 per month or GH₵150 per year.
• Premium – unlimited new conversations. GH₵35 per month or GH₵350 per year.

The current plans and prices are always shown on our pricing section and at checkout. If we change a price, the change applies from your next billing period, and we will tell you first.

• Paying online through Paystack: the plan renews automatically at the end of each period until you cancel. You can cancel any time from Plans & billing; you keep access until the end of the period you have paid for.
• Paying manually by mobile money: you send the amount to the number shown, using your plan name as the reference, and tell us you have paid. Access starts when we confirm the payment. Manual plans do not renew automatically.
• A conversation counts once you start it with a listing. Monthly quotas reset each month.
• Payments are not refundable once a billing period has started, except where the law requires it or we made a mistake (for example, you were charged twice). If you think you were charged in error, contact us within 7 days at hello@getcriba.app.

If you tell us what kind of place you’re looking for, we may send alerts (in the app and by email) when a matching listing appears. You can turn off listing-match emails in your profile settings. We will always send messages that are part of running your account, such as verification, payment and security notices.

We may warn, limit, suspend or close an account, and remove content, if we believe these terms have been broken, if someone may be at risk, or if the law requires it. Where we reasonably can, we will tell you why.

You can stop using Criba at any time. To close your account and have your data deleted, email us at hello@getcriba.app from the address on your account. We will act on it as described in our Privacy Policy. Cancelling a paid plan is separate and is done from Plans & billing.

We work hard to keep Criba running and accurate, but we provide it “as is”. We don’t promise it will always be available or error-free, or that any listing or member is genuine, safe or right for you. Members are responsible for their own listings, messages and dealings with each other.

To the fullest extent the law allows, Criba is not liable for losses that come from dealings between members, from content members post, or from things we could not reasonably control. Our total responsibility to you for any claim about the service is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or your rights under Ghanaian consumer protection law.

We may update these terms as Criba grows. When we make a meaningful change we will update the date at the top and ask you to agree again the next time you sign in. If you keep using Criba after that, you accept the updated terms.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Ghana, and the courts of Ghana can hear any dispute about them. We would always rather fix a problem directly first, so please contact us before taking it further.

Questions about these terms: hello@getcriba.app.