Terms of listing

Last updated 8 September 2026. Draft for legal review before the first paid claim.

1. What the register is

Attest publishes, for each trades business it has checked, the outcome of a check against the public register of that trade's licensing or conformance body, the date of the check, and the business's public contact details. An outcome describes what the source register showed on the date stated. It is not a recommendation, a guarantee of workmanship, or legal advice, and it can change: registrations lapse, renew and move between entities.

2. Public listings

A public listing is created for every business we check, whether or not the outcome is favourable, because the register is only useful if it is complete. Unclaimed listings show only the outcome of our check, the date, and business details drawn from public sources. They never show practitioner names, registration numbers or register record fields. If you own a business that is listed and believe an outcome is wrong, tell us at hello@attest.africa and we will re-check at source within five working days and publish the corrected outcome, keeping the history of both checks. If you would rather not be listed at all, say so and we will remove the public listing.

3. Claimed listings

The owner or an authorised representative of a listed business may claim its listing. A claimed listing:

• carries an "owner confirmed" marker and shows the contact details, service areas and hours you supply, in place of those drawn from public sources;
• may, with your consent, show your registration numbers, designations or categories and renewal dates, as recorded at the source register (practitioner names are never published);
• is re-checked at source before each renewal date we hold, and you are told the result;
• appears before unclaimed listings within the same outcome group in our directory and search API.

Claiming does not change an outcome. A claimed listing whose registration has lapsed says so; a claimed listing we could not verify says so. What you buy is control over your details, visibility of your credential, and a re-check service, not a badge.

4. "Certification being renewed"

A business whose registration has lapsed may claim its listing and tell us it is renewing. We then show "certification being renewed" for six months in place of "lapsed", re-check the source register during and at the end of that period, and change the badge to verified when the register shows the renewal or back to lapsed if it does not. The fee for this option is the same as for a claimed listing and is payable up front.

5. Fees, term and renewal

A claimed listing costs R299 for twelve months, payable in advance by card or EFT through PayFast, or by invoice where we agree. Prices include VAT if and when we are registered for it. We will remind you before the twelve months end. If you do not renew, the listing reverts to an unclaimed listing showing the outcome of our most recent check; nothing is deleted from our ledger.

6. Refunds

If we cannot activate a claimed listing within five working days of payment, we refund in full. If you cancel within fourteen days of payment and the listing has not yet been published as claimed, we refund in full. Otherwise fees are not refundable, because the check and the listing have been delivered.

7. Your undertakings

By claiming a listing you confirm that you are entitled to act for the business, that the details you supply are accurate, and that you will tell us when they change. You may not use a claimed listing to imply a registration you do not hold. We may suspend a claimed listing, without refund, if we find that a registration number supplied to us does not belong to the business.

8. Our undertakings and limits

We check registers ourselves, one business at a time, and record what we find. We do not republish any register. We take reasonable care, but source registers can contain errors and we cannot warrant them. Our liability to you for any claim arising from a listing is limited to the fees you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited under South African law, including the Consumer Protection Act where it applies.

9. Use of the register and API

You may read the public register and query the search API for the purpose of finding or checking a trades business. Anonymous use is rate-limited; higher limits are available with an API key on request. You may not copy the register wholesale, resell it, or present it as your own. Registration outcomes remain attributed to Attest and dated.

10. Personal information

Our privacy notice explains what we process and your rights, including how to opt out of email and how to ask for removal.

11. Changes and law

We may update these terms; the date at the top tells you when. Material changes to claimed-listing terms will be emailed to claimants before they take effect. South African law governs these terms and the courts of South Africa have jurisdiction.

hello@attest.africa · Attest Africa (Pty) Ltd, Cape Town.