Terms of Service

1. Parties and acceptance

These Terms of Service form an agreement between Hozit Domain Hosting (Pty) Ltd (“Hozit”, “we”, “us” or “our”) and the person or entity purchasing or using a service (“Customer”, “you” or “your”).

You accept these terms by signing or approving a quotation, submitting an order, paying an invoice, activating a service or continuing to use a service after being given reasonable notice of these terms.

2. Hozit company information

Hozit Domain Hosting (Pty) Ltd
Registration number: 2020/001667/07
VAT number: 4820276410
145 Second Street, Sandton, Johannesburg, 2196
South Africa

3. Order of documents

If documents conflict, the following order generally applies, unless expressly agreed otherwise:

1. a signed custom agreement or statement of work;
2. an accepted quotation or order form;
3. a service-specific schedule or service level agreement;
4. these Terms of Service;
5. the Acceptable Use Policy and other incorporated policies.

4. Services covered

These terms may apply to services including:

• domain registration, transfer and management;
• website, email, cloud, VPS and server hosting;
• website, e-commerce, application and software development;
• managed IT support and consulting;
• Microsoft 365 and other third-party subscriptions;
• cybersecurity, firewall and monitoring services;
• VoIP, PBX and contact-centre solutions;
• network design, installation and maintenance;
• hardware, software and licence supply;
• backup, recovery and business-continuity services; and
• other technology services described in an accepted order.

5. Quotations and orders

A quotation remains valid for the period stated in it. Where no validity period is stated, it will ordinarily remain open for 14 calendar days, subject to supplier pricing, exchange-rate changes and availability.

An order becomes binding when accepted by Hozit. We may require identity, credit, technical or compliance information before accepting or activating an order.

6. Prices, VAT and changes

Prices are expressed in South African rand unless stated otherwise. VAT will be applied where required and according to whether a price is quoted as VAT-inclusive or VAT-exclusive.

Third-party licence, domain, supplier, cloud and telecommunications costs may change. We will provide reasonable notice of recurring price changes where practicable.

7. Invoicing and payment

Payment is due by the date stated on the quotation, invoice or agreement. If no date is stated, payment is due within seven calendar days of invoice.

Deposits, setup fees, domain fees, licences, hardware orders and third-party costs may be payable before work or provisioning begins.

The Customer must raise a genuine invoice dispute promptly and provide sufficient details. Undisputed portions remain payable.

8. Overdue amounts

Where legally permissible, Hozit may charge reasonable interest and recovery costs on overdue amounts. Before suspending an essential ongoing service for ordinary non-payment, we will ordinarily provide reasonable notice, except in urgent fraud, security, abuse or legal-compliance situations.

Suspension does not cancel amounts already due or committed third-party charges.

9. Customer responsibilities

The Customer must:

• provide accurate and timely information, access and decisions;
• maintain lawful rights to all supplied data and content;
• protect credentials and use multi-factor authentication where available;
• maintain appropriate internal controls and endpoint security;
• use services lawfully and according to applicable policies;
• notify Hozit promptly of suspected compromise or misuse;
• maintain independent backups where the order does not expressly include managed backups; and
• cooperate reasonably with support and incident-response procedures.

10. Domain services

Domain registrations are subject to registry, registrar and naming-authority rules. Availability is not guaranteed until registration is confirmed.

Unless agreed otherwise, the Customer should be recorded as the registrant and must keep registrant information accurate.

Domain fees and renewals may be non-refundable once submitted to the relevant registry. Failure to renew on time may result in suspension, expiry, redemption charges or loss of the domain.

11. Hosting and infrastructure

Hosting resources are subject to the limits of the selected package, reasonable and lawful use, technical capacity and our Acceptable Use Policy.

We may take proportionate steps to protect shared infrastructure, including restricting processes or traffic that materially threaten security, stability or other customers.

Any stated uptime commitment applies only where included in a service-specific Service Level Agreement and is subject to its exclusions and remedy provisions.

12. Development and project services

Project scope, deliverables, assumptions, milestones and pricing will be described in a quotation, proposal or statement of work.

Requests outside the agreed scope may require a written change request, revised delivery date and additional fee.

The Customer must review deliverables and provide consolidated feedback within the agreed review period. A deliverable may be regarded as accepted when approved in writing, used in production or not rejected with specific material reasons within the agreed period.

13. Intellectual property

Each party retains ownership of intellectual property it owned before the engagement.

Unless the applicable order states otherwise, ownership of specifically commissioned final deliverables transfers to the Customer only after full payment. Hozit retains ownership of its pre-existing tools, frameworks, libraries, templates, methods and general know-how.

Third-party and open-source components remain subject to their respective licence terms.

14. Support and managed services

Support hours, channels, inclusions, exclusions and response targets are determined by the selected package or service schedule. Response time is not necessarily resolution time.

Work outside scope, after-hours work, travel, replacement parts and third-party support may be separately chargeable.

15. Third-party services

Some services depend on third-party providers such as registries, software vendors, cloud platforms, payment processors, network operators and telecommunications carriers.

Their licence terms, availability, usage rules and service changes may apply in addition to these terms. Hozit is not responsible for third-party failures beyond its reasonable control, but will provide reasonable assistance where included in the service.

16. Cybersecurity services

Cybersecurity services reduce and manage risk but cannot guarantee that every threat, vulnerability, attack, data loss or compromise will be prevented.

Security testing, scanning or access will be performed only within the authorised scope. The Customer remains responsible for decisions, risks and systems outside that scope.

17. Personal information and data protection

Each party must comply with applicable data-protection obligations, including the Protection of Personal Information Act, where relevant.

Where Hozit processes personal information for a Customer in providing services, the parties may enter into additional processing, security or confidentiality terms where appropriate.

The Customer is responsible for ensuring that it has a lawful basis and any required notices or permissions for information it instructs Hozit to process.

18. Confidentiality

Each party must protect the other party’s non-public business, technical and commercial information using reasonable safeguards and use it only for the agreement.

This obligation does not apply to information that is lawfully public, independently developed, already lawfully known or required to be disclosed by law.

19. Backups and data recovery

Backup frequency, retention and restoration obligations apply only where expressly included in the purchased service.

Unless a managed backup service expressly states otherwise, the Customer should maintain current, tested and independent copies of important information.

20. Maintenance and service changes

Hozit may perform scheduled or emergency maintenance to preserve security, stability and performance. We will provide reasonable notice of material planned maintenance where practicable.

21. Suspension

Hozit may suspend all or part of a service where reasonably necessary to:

• address overdue payment after applicable notice;
• prevent or contain a security threat;
• respond to unlawful, abusive or prohibited use;
• comply with law, a court order or provider requirement;
• prevent material harm to Hozit, the Customer or third parties; or
• address a serious breach of the agreement.

Where circumstances permit, Hozit will give notice and an opportunity to remedy the issue.

22. Term and termination

The applicable service term and renewal arrangement will be stated in the order. Recurring services continue for the agreed term and may renew as stated in the order.

Either party may terminate for a material breach that is not remedied within a reasonable written notice period, where remedy is possible.

Cancellation does not remove liability for services delivered, work performed, non-cancellable commitments or amounts accrued before termination.

23. Customer data on termination

The Customer should request and download required data before a service ends. Subject to the service, law and payment of applicable fees, Hozit may provide reasonable migration or export assistance.

Data may be deleted after termination according to operational, contractual and legal retention periods. Hozit is not required to retain data indefinitely.

24. Service warranties

Hozit will perform its services with reasonable skill and care, subject to the agreed scope, Customer cooperation, technical limitations and applicable law.

Except for express written commitments and rights that cannot be excluded by law, no additional warranty is given that services will be error-free, uninterrupted or suitable for every purpose.

25. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, neither party will be liable to the other for indirect, special or consequential loss, loss of anticipated profit or loss caused by matters outside its reasonable control.

Subject to rights and liabilities that may not lawfully be limited, Hozit’s aggregate liability arising from a particular service will ordinarily not exceed the fees paid for that service during the six months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

This limitation does not apply to fraud, wilful misconduct or any liability that applicable law prohibits the parties from limiting.

26. Customer indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, the Customer indemnifies Hozit against third-party claims arising from Customer content, unlawful instructions, infringement of third-party rights or prohibited use of the services, except to the extent caused by Hozit’s own wrongful conduct.

27. Events beyond reasonable control

Neither party will be responsible for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including natural disaster, widespread network failure, civil unrest, governmental action, labour disruption, utility failure or major third-party platform outage.

28. Notices

Operational notices may be sent to the email address or contact details associated with the Customer’s account. The Customer must keep those details current.

29. Changes to these terms

Hozit may update these terms to reflect service, security, legal or operational changes. Material changes affecting an active recurring service will be communicated with reasonable notice where practicable.

30. Mandatory rights

Nothing in these terms is intended to waive or restrict any mandatory right or remedy available under applicable South African law.

31. Governing law and disputes

The agreement is governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

The parties should first attempt in good faith to resolve a dispute through written escalation and negotiation. Either party may approach a competent court, regulator, ombud or tribunal where legally entitled to do so.

32. General

If a provision is unlawful or unenforceable, it will be limited or removed only to the extent required, and the remaining terms will continue.

A failure to enforce a right immediately does not waive that right. The Customer may not transfer the agreement without Hozit’s written consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld.

33. Contact