Terms of Service

NebaPay is a software platform that helps residential communities track membership, collect monthly levies, manage finances, communicate with members, and maintain an auditable record of community administration.

NebaPay is not a bank, a payment processor, or a guarantor of community finances. Where money moves, it moves between the community's wallet and the resident's mobile money account through a regulated third-party provider (currently OneKhusa).

• Community — a residential estate or neighbourhood association that has subscribed to NebaPay.
• Plot — a single dwelling or business unit within a community, identified by a plot number.
• Resident — a person registered as a member of one or more plots.
• Plot mate — another resident on the same plot (e.g. spouse, family member, sub-tenant).
• Board — the elected leadership: Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, and other board roles.
• Levy — the recurring monthly fee owed by each plot to the community.
• Carried arrears — historical debt brought forward from prior periods, typically imported during onboarding.
• OneKhusa — the third-party provider that processes mobile money transactions on behalf of NebaPay communities.

You must be at least 18 years old, have legal capacity to enter into a contract, and possess a valid Malawi mobile phone number. During registration you must provide accurate information including your full name, email, mobile number, plot number, and property details. All registrations are subject to approval by your community's board. Until approved, your account is pending and access to most features is restricted.

Each community may publish its own rulebook covering conduct, fines, plot management, security arrangements, and payment deadlines. These rules are issued and enforced by your community's board, not by NebaPay. You must explicitly accept your community's rules to complete registration — acceptance is recorded with a timestamp. Where a community rule contradicts these Terms, these Terms govern the technical operation of the platform.

Important — please read carefully. NebaPay attaches outstanding levy debt to the plot, not to a specific person.

• Debt belongs to the plot — every active resident on a plot is jointly and severally liable for its outstanding balance until paid, waived, or resolved.
• Joining a plot with arrears — NebaPay displays the outstanding amount and existing residents before you complete registration. You must explicitly accept joint liability to proceed.
• No automatic transfer or reset — the balance does not split or reset when a new resident joins. The accepted amount is recorded in your membership record with a timestamp as evidence.
• When a resident leaves — plot debt stays with remaining active residents. When the last active resident moves out, the balance must be settled before clearance is granted.

Suspension blocks one resident's access while leaving the household and plot record intact. A suspended resident is signed out and cannot log in until reactivated. Suspension does not delete data, does not waive the plot's debt, and does not release joint liability.

Only the Chairperson and Secretary may suspend a resident; a reason is required and recorded. The last active member of a plot cannot be suspended — removing them is a move-out. Reactivation is performed by the Chairperson or Secretary; the plot's debt continues from where it stood.

A move-out is the exit of an entire household from a plot. The process: Initiation (Secretary or Chairperson records the request and outstanding balance) → Resident notice (resident is informed in the app) → Treasurer review (where a balance exists, the Treasurer confirms resolution — full payment, waiver, or partial settlement) → Final confirmation (status changed to moved out) → Clearance certificate (generated automatically, available for download in the app).

All stages are recorded in the audit log. If the plot was fully cleared at the previous move-out, a new resident joining starts with no inherited balance.

Levy and arrears payments are processed by OneKhusa. NebaPay is not the merchant of record, does not hold your funds, and does not have access to your mobile money credentials. OneKhusa applies a transaction fee that is disclosed in the app before you confirm. Once payment is confirmed, NebaPay marks it as paid and produces a receipt. NebaPay does not directly issue refunds — refunds must be handled through your community board, which may use a waiver to adjust your balance.

NebaPay's service fee. NebaPay charges your community a service fee for operating the platform. Depending on your community's agreement this is a percentage of amounts paid out from the community wallet, a fixed monthly amount, or an amount per active plot. The rate that applies to your community is shown in the app and on every payout record. This fee is charged to the community wallet when money is paid out — your own levy payment is not reduced by it.

• One levy per plot per month — based on usage type (residential or business). All residents on the plot share this levy.
• Billing cycle — billing starts from the month after you are approved. Joining mid-month means your first levy cycle begins the following month.
• Waivers — the Chairperson or Treasurer may waive part or all of an outstanding balance. Every waiver is recorded in the audit log with a reason.
• Credit months — advance payments are recorded as credit months and are consumed automatically by future billing cycles. If you move out with credit remaining, the unused balance is refundable: NebaPay values it against your levy rate, deducts any arrears you still carry, and records the net amount as owed to you. Your community must hold that amount — it is excluded from the funds the board is able to spend and appears on the board's Refunds Due report. Payment is made by your community board.
• Disbursement controls (four-eye rule) — payouts from the community wallet are initiated by the Treasurer. Where your community enables dual approval, the Chairperson must also approve before any money moves. Every disbursement records who initiated it and who approved it.

Onboarding & data migration (Excel import). When a community joins NebaPay with an existing financial history, the board may supply its previous records — a roster of plots, residents, balances owed, and months paid in advance. NebaPay loads this during onboarding so the community continues from its true financial position instead of starting from zero. What this means for you:

• Imported member records — each person on the roster gets a pre-created membership record. When you register with the phone number your board has on file, you claim that record — your plot, balance, and prepaid months are already attached.
• Carried arrears — money the plot owed under the previous system is imported as real debt. It attaches to the plot under the plot-based debt rules and appears in your balance from first login.
• Imported credit months — months paid ahead under the old system are honoured exactly like credit bought through the app: each billing cycle consumes one automatically until they run out. The money behind imported credit was collected by your community before NebaPay existed and is reflected in the community bank position, not in the NebaPay payment ledger.
• No billing before activation — an imported record that has not been claimed by a registered, board-approved resident is never billed.
• Verify your opening position — imported figures come from your community board, not from NebaPay. Check your balance and credit months at first login. If anything looks wrong, raise it with your board, which can correct the record with an audited waiver or adjustment.

Paying for another plot. You may pay a levy or arrears on behalf of another plot. The payment is recorded against that plot and appears in its records; you receive a receipt for the payment you made. Both you and the members of that plot are notified. The same amount is never counted twice.

• Chairperson — full visibility, including financial records and KYC submissions; principal authority for status changes, waivers, and KYC decisions.
• Treasurer — financial records, payments, expenses, disbursements, KYC; authority for waivers and disbursement approvals.
• Secretary — registry, member statuses, compliance; authority for approvals, suspensions, and move-out initiation.
• Board member — read-only or community-defined limited access.
• Resident — own data, own plot's payment status, names of plot mates, and community-public information.

By registering you consent to these visibility tiers. NebaPay applies row-level security to enforce them.

NebaPay records every action affecting member status, finances, or community state — registrations, approvals, suspensions, reactivations, move-outs, payments, waivers, disbursements, role changes, and configuration updates. Each entry includes the actor, timestamp, and relevant details. Audit logs are retained permanently and cannot be deleted through the app.

KYC (Know-Your-Customer) verification is required. Your community cannot disburse funds through NebaPay until its verification is complete, and you may be asked to upload an identity document as part of it. Uploads are stored in a restricted storage bucket accessible only via signed URLs to authorised board members for review. Approval or rejection is recorded in the audit log with a reason.

Status types: Pending (awaiting approval), Active (full access), Suspended (access blocked, data retained), Moved out (exited, data retained for audit).

You may request a data export through the in-app Data Privacy screen (profile, payment history, audit trail). You may also submit a data deletion request — where granted, personal data is erased and the email is permanently blocked from re-registering with the same community. Audit entries may be retained in pseudonymised form to preserve financial integrity.

NebaPay is provided "as is" and "as available". We make reasonable efforts to maintain availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted operation. Scheduled maintenance, infrastructure incidents, OneKhusa outages, and force majeure events may cause downtime. NebaPay is not liable for losses caused by unavailability.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, NebaPay's total liability is limited to the aggregate amount you have paid to NebaPay in the 12 months preceding the claim. NebaPay is not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages including loss of profits, data, or reputation. Nothing in these Terms excludes liability for fraud, gross negligence, or liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law.

These Terms are governed by the laws of Malawi. Any dispute will be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Malawi. You and we agree to attempt good-faith resolution before commencing formal proceedings.

We may update these Terms to reflect changes in the platform, applicable law, or community practice. When a new version is published, the version number and effective date are updated. You will be required to review and accept the updated Terms at your next login.

For questions about these Terms, contact your community board first. For platform-level concerns, contact NebaPay through the in-app support feature or at the contact address published on the NebaPay website.