Summary: VarsityStay collects your details and documents only to verify your student status and process your accommodation registration. One application fee — the amount shown on the Pay Fee page — covers your entire journey — registration is free thereafter, until you are placed.
1. Acceptance of These Terms
These Terms govern your use of VarsityStay. You accept them when you tick the agreement box at signup, and you will be asked to confirm this current version the next time you sign in whenever it is updated. Your acceptance is timestamped and versioned in your account record. If you do not agree, do not register or use the platform.
2. Who May Use VarsityStay
You must be a student of one of the South African universities listed on this platform. At signup you must declare whether you are a First Year or a Senior and — if a Senior — select your home university. Your selected gender (Male/Female) determines which gender-specific rooms you may be offered. Accounts are automatically recognised as Seniors 365 days after registration.
3. Your Account & Correct Contact Details
You must register with your real name and a valid, working email address. During signup you are asked to enter your email address and password twice each — please take care, because password-reset emails are delivered to the email address you register, and an incorrectly typed address means you will be unable to recover your account. On registration the system assigns you a student number (format VS-YEAR-XXXXXX). One account per person. You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for all activity under your account; you can reset a forgotten password securely from the sign-in page at any time.
4. Fees — One Payment, Full Coverage
(a) Application Fee — once-off, non-refundable. A single application fee — the amount shown on the Pay Fee page before you pay — covers your entire application journey. Once paid, registration is completely free: you may complete, submit, and update your registration — and remain registered — until you are successfully placed in accommodation. No repeat charges, no hidden fees.
(b) Other payments. Where a selected property requires a deposit, the amount is shown on the property and must be paid before that registration can be submitted. Deposits are held by, and payable to, the accommodation provider under their own lease terms.
(c) Payments launching soon. During the platform's launch phase, online payments may not yet be active — the Pay Fee page will clearly indicate this. Registration features unlocked by payment will only become available once payments go live, and this page will be updated before any fee is charged. Paying any fee does not, by itself, guarantee you a bed.
(d) Non-refundability. All fees are strictly non-refundable, including where an application is rejected, where beds fill up, or where you choose not to continue.
5. Documents You Must Upload
To submit a registration you must upload: (1) NSFAS / bursary proof (or funding confirmation) — required for all students; and (2) for First Years, your Proof of University Registration; for Seniors, your latest Academic Record. Files must be PDF, JPG or PNG, maximum 10MB, and are stored on a secure third-party cloud service. You must also supply your university student number and year of study, and select a preferred residence and room type.
6. Honesty Declaration (Strict)
By submitting a registration you declare that you are officially registered at the selected university and have secure funding. Providing false information is an offence under these Terms: your application will be rejected, and the property owner reserves every right to evict you if you are found to be in breach of this declaration.
7. Verification & Sharing of Your Information (POPIA Consent)
You consent to VarsityStay verifying your uploaded documents with your university and sharing your application details with the accommodation provider you select, strictly to process your registration. What we collect: your name, email, gender, candidate type, university, assigned student number, room preferences, uploaded documents, and your application, payment and messaging activity. We never sell your data.
8. Bed Availability & Application Status
Bed counts shown are indicative and can change at any moment as other students register. Submitting a registration does not instantly reserve a bed — your chosen room type is checked when you submit and finally when an administrator approves you. Applications move through four statuses: Red = received; Yellow = in process; Green = successful (a room number is assigned and shown on your dashboard); Orange = unsuccessful, with a stated reason. After an Orange status you may register again for free, unless administration has blocked further actions on your account.
9. Registration Windows
Registrations open and close per university and per level (First Year / Senior) at the administrator's discretion. When closed for your university, accommodation listings become view-only. Current openings are announced on the sign-in page.
10. Re-registration & New Applications
After a successful placement, you may — when administration permits — re-register at your current residence or apply for different accommodation. Applying anew resets your application, including uploaded documents. Administration may block or allow these actions per student, per level, per university, or per residence; blocks are shown on your dashboard.
11. Ratings & Comments
Where enabled, you may rate an accommodation from 1 to 10 stars and leave one informative written comment (max 500 characters). Reviews must genuinely help fellow students choose. Administrators may pin (feature) reviews, limit how many comments are shown, or disable ratings and comments entirely. Your name appears on your review.
12. Messaging Administration
You may send queries to administration from your dashboard; replies appear there. Messages must be respectful and relevant. Flooding, spam, abuse, or repeated misuse will result in messaging being blocked for your account.
13. Agent Referral Programme
Administrators may appoint Agents, who each receive a referral code (format AG-XXXXXX). A referral code may be submitted once per account, never your own, and referral counts are recorded automatically and visible to administrators. Agents may not spam, buy, trade, or fabricate referrals.
14. Website Rules (Acceptable Use)
You agree NOT to:
- Provide false, misleading, or stolen information, or upload forged, altered, or third-party documents (including someone else's NSFAS proof, registration proof, or academic record);
- Create more than one account or use another person's account;
- Hog, fake, or manipulate bed selections to deny beds to others, or resell or transfer any placement;
- Use bots, scripts, scrapers, or any automated means to access or interact with the platform;
- Attempt to bypass security controls, rate limits, the admin console, or access other users' data;
- Interfere with, overload, or disrupt the platform's operation, or exploit bugs (report them to administration instead);
- Harass, threaten, discriminate against, or defame other students, agents, landlords, or staff;
- Upload unlawful, hateful, violent, or explicit content anywhere on the platform;
- Misrepresent your university, gender, funding status, or student registration.
Violations may result in rejection of applications, blocked registrations or messaging, account suspension — and, in serious cases, reporting to your university or the relevant authorities.
15. Privacy & Your POPIA Rights
Your information is processed under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013. It is shared only with: your university (for verification), the accommodation provider you select, our secure payment processor (once payments are active), and authorities where legally required. Documents are retained only as long as needed to process your application and meet legal obligations, then securely deleted. You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information at any time via the messaging feature.
16. Administration & Enforcement
Administrators may verify documents, set application statuses, assign rooms, block or allow re-registrations, new applications and messaging, publish announcements, control when registrations open (per level or per university), and suspend accounts. You may appeal any administrative action through dashboard messaging.
17. No Guarantee & Limitation of Liability
VarsityStay is a registration portal — it does not own or operate the listed properties and gives no warranty as to their condition, pricing accuracy, or bed availability. The platform is provided "as is". To the maximum extent permitted by law, VarsityStay is not liable for indirect or consequential losses, or for disputes between you and accommodation providers.
18. Changes & Governing Law
We may update these Terms; the version number will change and you will be asked to accept the updated version at your next sign-in. These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. By clicking "I Agree", you confirm you have read, understood, and accepted every section above — including the fee policy, the honesty declaration, the Website Rules, and the POPIA consent.