Terms of Use

CouC is operated by Stephan Oosthuizen, trading as CouC, a sole proprietor in South Africa. A sole proprietor has no separate company registration number, so there is none to publish.

• Physical address: Unit 220, The Vineyards, Nooitgedacht Village, Koelpark, Stellenbosch, South Africa
• Email: stephan@couc.co.za
• Telephone: 076 633 9953
• Website: couc.co.za

This information is provided in accordance with section 43 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.

CouC is an introduction service. We list contractors who issue property compliance certificates, and we pass your request to the ones you choose.

We do not carry out inspections, we do not issue certificates, and we are not a party to the agreement between you and the contractor. That agreement - what work is done, what it costs, when it happens, and what happens if something goes wrong - is between you and them directly.

We never handle the money for the inspection work. You pay the contractor directly. The only payment CouC ever charges is the monthly listing fee, and only contractors pay that.

These five certificate types work differently under South African law, and we want you to know which is which before you request one:

• Electrical Certificate of Compliance - a national legal requirement for every residential property sale in South Africa, under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
• Gas Certificate of Compliance - required by law only where the property has a gas installation, and commonly required by sale agreements even where not strictly compulsory.
• Electric Fence Certificate of Compliance - required by law only where the property has an electric fence.
• Water / Plumbing Compliance Certificate - a municipal requirement, not a national one. It currently applies in the City of Cape Town. Requirements differ by municipality, so confirm what applies to your property before assuming this certificate is needed.
• Beetle / Woodborer Certificate - not a legal requirement anywhere in South Africa. It is customary in many sale agreements, particularly in coastal areas, but it is a contractual matter between buyer and seller, not a statutory one.

Always check what your specific sale agreement, conveyancer or municipality requires - this list is general information, not a legal opinion on your transaction.

Submitting the request form is a request, not a booking. The contractor contacts you to arrange a time, and either of you may decide not to go ahead.

Several certificate types have different regulators, and one business often cannot issue them all. You choose one contractor for a request, and we only offer you contractors registered for every certificate you have ticked. If nobody covers the whole list in your area, the form tells you so rather than sending part of the job to somebody who cannot finish it - untick a certificate to see who can help, and submit a second request for the rest.

Please give accurate details, and only enter another person's details - a seller, purchaser, or the person giving access - if you may share them for this purpose. Our privacy notice explains how we handle those details and what those people can ask of us directly.

Listing costs R250 a month. You appear in search only for the certificate types we have approved, and only while your registration for that type is current.

You confirm, and must keep true, that:

• the business details and documents you give us are yours, genuine and current;
• you are lawfully registered to issue every certificate type you apply for, with the relevant regulator;
• you will tell us immediately if a registration lapses, is suspended or is withdrawn - customers rely on our check, so a stale registration is the most serious thing that can go wrong here;
• you will respond to requests we pass you, or tell us you cannot cover an area so we stop sending them;
• you will hold your own appropriate insurance for the work you do (public liability and/or professional indemnity, as relevant to your trade); and
• you indemnify CouC against any claim, loss or cost arising from the work you carry out, or from a registration, document or statement you gave us that was not true or current.

Approval means we checked the documents you sent - your trade registration for the certificate type applied for, and one document proving your business exists - at the time you applied. It is a document check at a point in time, not an ongoing check, an inspection of your work, or a warranty that your registration remains current or that any certificate you issue is valid. We do not supervise your work and do not verify it after listing, other than acting on what you or others tell us.

We may hide or remove a listing - including without notice where a registration appears to have lapsed or a document appears not to be genuine. Where we remove a listing for something less urgent, we will tell you why and give you a chance to put it right.

R250 a month keeps a contractor's profile visible in search. It is the only charge CouC makes, to anyone.

Card billing is not switched on yet. Until it is, listing is free and nothing is owed; we will tell you clearly, in advance, before any charge is ever made. When it does start:

• You can cancel at any time.
• Your listing will simply stop at the end of the month you have paid for.
• We do not refund part months.

There is no minimum term and no lock-in - you can stop paying at any time by cancelling, and nothing is owed beyond the month already paid for.

Please read this section - it limits CouC's liability to you.

We will take reasonable care to keep the site working and the listings accurate, and to check every contractor's registration documents before listing them for a certificate type, as described above.

We cannot promise the site is never unavailable. We are not responsible for the work a contractor does, what they charge, whether they arrive, or the outcome of an inspection - that responsibility sits with the contractor, and any claim about their work is against them, not us. If a contractor lets you down, please tell us; it affects whether they stay listed, even though the claim itself is theirs to answer for.

Nothing in this section limits our liability for gross negligence, fraud, or anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded under South African law, including the Consumer Protection Act.

Nothing in these terms limits any right you have under South African law that cannot lawfully be limited.

How we handle personal information is set out in our privacy notice, which forms part of these terms.

If you have a complaint about CouC itself (not about a contractor's work), email stephan@couc.co.za first so we can try to resolve it. If we can't resolve it, you may also have the right to refer a complaint to the National Consumer Commission or, where applicable, an accredited industry ombud, or to approach the South African courts.

We may change these terms. When we change them materially we publish a new version and record which version applied to each request and each contractor application. This is version 2026-09-05.

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa, and the South African courts have jurisdiction.