Terms of service

These terms are an agreement between you and VALLO SPACES LTD, a private company limited by shares registered in Nigeria, which operates the Vallo website, apps and services. Where these terms say "Vallo", "we" or "us", they mean that company. By creating an account or using the platform you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, please do not use the platform.

Vallo is a marketplace for property in Nigeria. People list homes to rent, property for sale, land, shops and offices, and shortlets, hotels and rooms let by their owners. We verify the people who list, host their listings, carry messages between them and you, and process payments.

Everything on Vallo was listed on Vallo by a real person who applied and was approved. Nothing is imported from an outside feed. That is the point of the platform and it is why there is always somebody to message and somebody accountable for what a listing says.

The property itself is provided by the person who listed it, not by Vallo. The tenancy, sale or stay is between you and them. We are not a party to it, not an agent for either side, and not a landlord.

• You must be at least 18 years old to use Vallo.
• The information on your account must be accurate and kept up to date, and you may hold only one personal account.
• You are responsible for keeping your sign-in details secret and for activity on your account. Tell us immediately if you believe it has been compromised.
• Browsing is open to anybody. Saving, messaging, requesting an inspection, paying and listing need an account.

• All payments must go through the platform. The full price, in naira, is shown before you confirm anything.
• We do not hold your money in escrow, and you should not treat a payment made here as protected by us holding it. When you pay, the money reaches the person you are paying. We keep the record of what was paid, to whom, for what and when, and that record is what we can act on if something goes wrong. It is not the same thing as holding the money, and we will not describe it as though it were.
• Renting is message, inspect, then pay. Message the person who listed the property, see the property in person, and pay after that. There is no reserve button on a rental and that is deliberate.
• Paying in cash or by direct bank transfer outside the platform leaves no record we can act on at all, and we cannot help recover money paid that way. If anybody asks you to do it, report them to us.
• If a property is materially not as listed, report it to us. We investigate, and we can suspend a listing, stop the person who posted it from trading and withhold any payout we still control. We cannot reverse a payment that has already reached them.

• This schedule governs stays booked and paid for on Vallo, which is a shortlet, a hotel room or anything else let by the night. One schedule covers all of them, rather than a different one for each agent: everything back until 72 hours before check-in, half back inside that window, and nothing back once check-in day has started.
• A tenancy, a sale, a lease or a purchase of land is not governed by it, because no money for one of those passes through Vallo. What is payable, what is returnable and on what notice are terms of the agreement you sign with the landlord, the vendor or their agent, and you should read that agreement before you pay anybody anything. We carry the messages and we hold no part of that money.
• A stay nobody has paid for is only a hold on the calendar and can be called off at any time for nothing.
• If the agent cancels, the property was not what was listed, or you could not get in, you get everything back whenever it happens. Report it rather than cancelling it yourself.
• Refunds go to your Vallo wallet in naira, and you move money from there to your bank.

• Listing is free and Vallo charges no fee of any kind today, to anybody, for anything. Not to look, not to save, not to message, not to enquire, not to list and not to complete a transaction.
• If that ever changes, the rate will be shown before the action that incurs it, on the same screen and at the same weight as the amount. We will give thirty days' notice by email and in the product first, and anything listed or booked under one rate completes under that rate.
• You are responsible for the accuracy of what you list. Listings must be lawful, must be yours to offer, and must carry photographs of the actual property. Every listing is reviewed by a person before it is published.
• Where a listing states a title, such as a certificate of occupancy or a deed of assignment, that is what the seller claims. It is not a statement that anybody has checked it. Have a lawyer verify title at the land registry before money moves.
• Earnings are paid to a nominated Nigerian bank account. We may remove listings, withhold payouts connected to fraud, or stop accounts that break these terms.

Trust on Vallo is deliberately not a single tick, because a single tick is a promise we would have to keep about things we cannot know.

• The verified badge means an administrator approved the listing and the person who posted it has passed identity checks. It means those two things and nothing else.
• The person who lists climbs a ladder: phone, then identity document, then address, then a physical inspection. Where a rung is shown with a date, that is a record of something that happened on that date. Where it is absent, nobody has done it. An absence is not a negative and does not mean anything is wrong.
• Verification is not a guarantee against fraud, not a valuation, not a survey, not a structural inspection and not legal advice about title. A verified person can still behave badly, and the checks tell you who somebody is rather than how they will behave.
• Badges are earned and are never for sale. Where a paid inspection is offered as a service, what you pay for is the inspection; the outcome depends on what the inspector finds and never on the payment.

Keep every conversation on the platform. The record is what protects you when a deal goes wrong, and a conversation that moved to another app is one we cannot see, cannot verify and cannot act on.

You should know that messages are screened automatically. An automated check flags messages containing things like bank account numbers and payment requests, and a flagged message is put in front of our staff to review. It exists because asking somebody to pay outside the platform is the most common way people are defrauded in this market.

We do not give staff casual access to private conversations. Staff read a conversation when a check has flagged it, when somebody reports it, or where the law requires it. You can block and report any other member.

You can request an inspection through the platform and the person who listed the property arranges it with you. Vallo is not present at an inspection and does not conduct it unless the listing explicitly says the property was physically inspected by us and gives the date. Take somebody with you, meet in daylight, and never pay before you have seen the property.

Vallo includes an assistant and other automated features that generate text. Anything they produce is assistance, not advice. It is not a valuation, not legal advice and never a substitute for viewing a property in person. Generated answers can be wrong. Check anything that matters against the listing itself and against the person who posted it, and take professional advice before you commit money.

Reviews must reflect a genuine stay or visit, and you can only review a stay you actually had. You keep ownership of the content you post, and you grant Vallo a non-exclusive licence to host and display it on the platform and in connection with the service. We may remove content that is unlawful, abusive or misleading. The platform itself, its design, its software and its name remain ours.

You agree not to:

• Post false, misleading or unlawful listings, reviews, posts or messages.
• Take a transaction or a payment off the platform, or ask anybody else to.
• Impersonate any person, or use another person's identity documents.
• Harass, threaten or discriminate against anybody, including our staff.
• Scrape the platform, interfere with its security, or use it to send spam.
• Hold more than one personal account, or try to claim a reserved handle.

We work hard to keep listings honest, but Vallo is a marketplace: we do not own, occupy, inspect daily or control the properties people list. To the extent Nigerian law allows:

• The platform is provided "as is", and we do not guarantee it will always be uninterrupted or error free.
• We are not liable for losses caused by another user breaking their agreement with you, beyond the specific commitments in sections 5 and 6.
• Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

You may close your account at any time from settings or by contacting support. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms. Where we do, we tell you why and, where the breach can be fixed, give you the chance to fix it. Serious harm, fraud or a legal requirement may mean immediate suspension.

You can appeal any suspension or closure. Reply to the notice or contact support, and a person who was not involved in the original decision reviews it. Money owed to you that is not connected to fraud is still paid out.

Your Vallo wallet is a record, in naira, of money you have funded or been refunded, and what you have spent on the platform. You can move it out to a Nigerian bank account in your own name.

A wallet balance is not a bank deposit. It is not a savings account, it earns no interest, it is not insured by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Vallo is not a bank or a licensed financial institution. Keep in it only what you intend to spend here.

How we handle personal data is described in our Privacy policy, which is written for the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 and forms part of these terms.

We may update these terms as the platform grows. The date at the top of this page always shows the current version, and we will notify you through the product or by email before significant changes take effect. Continuing to use Vallo after a change means you accept the updated terms.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the Nigerian courts have jurisdiction over disputes arising from them. We would always rather resolve a problem directly first, so please contact support before anything else; most issues are settled that way.

Questions about these terms go to the contact form. We reply within one business day.