How you may use Erfie.

1. What Erfie is

Erfie (the "Site") is a free, non-commercial tool that aggregates and displays South African residential property market data from public and freely available sources. It is not a valuation service, not an estate agency, and not a financial advisory service.

2. No financial or property advice

The data on Erfie is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice, property valuation, investment advice, or any other professional advice. You should not rely on the data to make property purchases, sales, investment decisions, or any other financial decisions. Always consult a registered valuer, estate agent, or financial professional before making property-related decisions.

3. Data accuracy and limitations

Erfie sources its data from public records, government publications, and freely available reports. While we strive for accuracy, we do not guarantee that the data is complete, current, or error-free. Data may lag behind the most recent official publications. Always verify against the original source cited on each chart, table, and page.

Municipal valuation roll data shown on Erfie is sourced from public datasets and may reflect a prior valuation cycle. It is not a substitute for the current official valuation roll published by the relevant municipality.

4. No automated valuation model (AVM)

Erfie does not produce or claim to produce automated valuations of individual properties. The suburb-level aggregate data we show (means, medians, counts) is not a prediction or estimate of any specific property's market value.

5. Intellectual property

Site content. The Erfie name, logo, site design, and original content are the project's own intellectual property.

Source code. The Erfie source code is open source under the MIT License, available on GitHub.

Third-party data. All data displayed on Erfie remains the property of its respective owners (Statistics South Africa, FNB, the Bank for International Settlements, the relevant municipalities, and others). Erfie republishes this data with attribution under the terms of the applicable public licenses or fair dealing. You may not republish the data without also attributing the original source.

6. Your use of the site

You agree not to:

• Scrape, crawl, or programmatically extract data from Erfie in a way that imposes an unreasonable load on the infrastructure.
• Use the data for any unlawful purpose or in a way that violates the rights of the original data owners.
• Misrepresent Erfie's data as your own, or as a formal valuation or financial recommendation.
• Attempt to access, interfere with, or disrupt the site's operation or underlying systems.

7. Third-party links

Erfie links to third-party websites and data portals (including municipal valuation portals, Stats SA, FRED, FNB). We are not responsible for the content, accuracy, or availability of those external sites. You use them at your own risk and subject to their terms.

8. Newsletter and personal information

If you subscribe to the Erfie newsletter, we collect your email address and store it in our database (Supabase) for the sole purpose of sending you the newsletter. We do not share, sell, or rent your email to third parties. You may unsubscribe at any time by replying to any newsletter email or contacting us. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

9. Disclaimer of warranties

Erfie is provided "as is" and "as available," without any warranty of any kind, whether express or implied. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim all warranties, including but not limited to merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

10. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by South African law, Erfie and its operators shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or special damages arising out of or in connection with your use of the site or reliance on the data presented. This includes any financial loss, property loss, or missed opportunity.

11. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms of Service from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last updated" date. Continued use of the site after changes constitutes acceptance of the new terms.

12. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Any disputes arising from these terms or your use of the site shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of South Africa.

13. Contact

For questions about these terms, to report a data inaccuracy, or to request removal of your information, contact us at hello@erfie.co.za.