Pacto – Legal Notice
Last Update: 23-June-2023
What is Pacto?
Pacto application (“Pacto app”) is an online platform that enables persons with registered profiles (“User(s)”) to let or lease properties with a specific focus on the low-income and informal segments of the private real estate rental market. By using the Pacto application, you are bound by this Legal Notice.
The services and functionalities provided through the Pacto App aim to provide both Users who seek to rent/rents a property (commonly referred to as “Tenants”) and Users who seek to rent out/rents out their property (commonly referred to as “Property Owners”) with the tools needed to safely and securely negotiate and enter into formalized lease agreements. Once a rental relationship has been established between the Parties, the Pacto app provides Users with features to allow for the healthy and transparent management their relationship during the period of tenancy.
The rights and responsibilities of the Tenants and the Property Owners in relations to any tenancy agreement created through the use of the Pacto app are governed by the terms of the signed lease agreements which they enter into with each other and any local, regional and/or national legislation governing tenancy rights between the parties to a lease agreement.
The Pacto application is owned and operated by Verent Solutions, PBC (“Verent”) a Delaware public benefit corporation. The Pacto application is only available for use in the countries designated within the Pacto application. As of now, Verent provides the Pacto application to the Sponsoring Organization/s, as mentioned below, to serve as a tool enabling the Sponsoring Organization/s to improve tenure security for populations who experience unstable and insecure housing in the designated rental markets. Verent does not own, create, sell, resell, provide, manage, offer, lease, deliver or supply any of the rental properties offered by Property Owners to Tenants through the application. When registered Users enter into a lease agreement based on one of the provided mandatory Pacto lease agreement templates (“Lease Agreement”), Verent does not become a party to that agreement.
Who can sign up to Pacto?
As of now, using the Pacto application is by invitation only. If you have not been invited to the Pacto Platform, you will be blocked from proceeding to the registration process but you may submit an expression of interest form. If, and when, the Pacto App becomes open for usage by unsupported Users, those that have submitted an expression of interest will receive communication via the communication channel indicated in the form submitted.
2.1 Sponsoring Organizations – responsible party for the relations with the Users
In order to register and use the Pacto application, you must be invited to the platform by a Sponsoring Organization. Verent has no control over the individuals invited to the platform by Sponsoring Organizations nor the Sponsoring Organizations’ selection process for identifying those it invites to utilize the platform. Users invited to the platform by these Sponsoring Organizations are considered to be Sponsored Users (“Sponsored Users”). Sponsored Users will be granted 12-month license to use the platform during the sponsorship period (hereinafter also referred as the “Sponsorship Period”). Following the conclusion of the Sponsorship Period, the Sponsoring Organization may elect to grant the Sponsored User an additional license, thereby extending the Sponsorship Period. During the Sponsorship Period, a Sponsoring Organization shall be solely responsible towards their invited Sponsored Users. The Sponsoring Organization will seek to provide their Sponsored Users with the support necessary – through Pacto app features and other means as determined by the Sponsoring Organization – to enable Sponsored Users to maintain healthy rental relationships before, during and after the tenancy period. The Sponsoring Organization shall be also responsible for the data processing as a data controller of the Users’ data except for Users’ data being processed for analytical/statistical purposes as well as with respect to complaints and feedback submitted either directly to Verent or through the Sponsoring Organization to Verent as mentioned in the Verent Policy Notice available here. If a Sponsoring Organization declines to extend the Sponsorship Period, the Sponsored User may elect to continue to utilize the platform at their own expense and subject to an User agreement with Verent. The direct business to customer business model and subscription rates – if applicable - for this continued usage of the platform will be communicated by Verent prior to such continued usage.
2.2 User requirements
In order to use the Pacto application, you must be an individual of at least 18 years of age. You confirm that you have read and understood this Legal Notice and the Privacy Policy of Verent by clicking on the respective button in the Pacto application. Furthermore, you must accept the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy of the Sponsoring Organization in order to register and utilize the platform. For Tenants under the age of 18 wishing to lease a property, a parent or legal guardian must register as the primary account holder and invite the minor as a co-signatory of the agreement in accordance with local, regional or national legislation.
Conditions of use
You must provide accurate, current and complete information during the registration process and keep your profile information up to date at all times. As a Sponsored Users, you may be requested by the Sponsoring Organization or a service provider (e.g. Verent) acting on behalf of the Sponsoring Organization to provide additional information or carry out additional actions to validate the information provided in your profile and verify your identity in order to ensure that it is up to date.
You may not register for more than one Pacto account and you may not transfer your account to another party at any time. Users found to have more than one account or to have transferred their account will be banned from usage of the Pacto application. This termination does not affect any Lease Agreement entered into on the Pacto application.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your Pacto credentials and may not disclose your credentials to another party. You must notify the Sponsoring Organization if you suspect that your account has been compromised.
You are liable for any and all activities carried out on your account unless such activities are not authorized by you and you are not otherwise negligent (such as failing to report unauthorized use or loss of your credentials).
The Pacto application shall be used solely for the purpose of connecting Tenants and Property Owners, establishing a contractual relationship between the parties and as a tool for the parties to manage their relationship during the period of tenancy. Any User that uses or seeks to use the features and functions of the Pacto app for other purposes may be banned or deleted. If any such activities are detected which are illegal in nature or jeopardize the health, safety and security of other users, may be reported to the appropriate authorities.
At present, the Sponsored usage of the Pacto application is free of charge to Sponsored Users. All Sponsored Users will be notified in advance of the conclusion or extension of any Sponsorship Period. Users will also be notified and alerted to any changes to the free of charge policy and the date at which any new policy would come into effect. If a User decides to end their use of the application due to any change in the Sponsorship Period, any Lease Agreements that they have entered into will remain valid.
On the relationship between you and Verent – Verent’s SOLE role as a platform provider to the Sponsoring Organization
At present, the Pacto application only functions as a mechanism to enable Sponsoring Organization to 1) facilitate the establishment of relationships between Tenants and Property Owners and 2) to support these Sponsored Users in maintaining healthy rental relationship before, during and after the tenancy period.
This means that when you make or accept an offer to rent a home through the Pacto application, you enter into a contract directly with the other User party. Under no circumstances does Verent become a party to or other participant in any contractual relationship between the Tenant and a Property Owner, and Verent cannot guarantee that the information on the Pacto application submitted by other Users is correct. Claims regarding the Lease Agreement, including e.g. claims towards Tenants as to lack of rent or utility bills payment or towards Property Owners as to defects on the property, cannot be directed to Verent.
On the relationship between the Tenant and the Property Owner
Any lease agreement that is entered into between Users of the Pacto application shall be based on one of the Lease Agreement templates provided in the Pacto Application and shall be electronically signed through the e-signature service provider utilized by the Pacto application. These templates are in-line with local and national legislation and have been validated by legal counsel in the country for which they are specified.
Verent takes no legal responsibility for any amendments to the template, any customized fields completed by Users, or any customized annexes on e.g., housing rules or other clauses entered into between the Tenant and the Property Owner. Any customizations must not conflict with the base terms of the template nor violate any local, regional or national legislation concerning tenancy law.
The Pacto application enables Users to access language translations of content generated by the other Party across the application’s feature set through the integration of the 3rd party machine learning translation services. If the Users have different language preferences, the Users will be able to see the content in both the original language and the targeted translation language. In these instances, the translations ARE NOT official legally recognized translations. In situations where translated content is included in a contract, the original language is the binding language, and the auto-translated language is for reference only. The Pacto application stores both the original text and the original translated value in order to ensure that if there is a misunderstanding that is a result of inaccurate translations, the Parties have both the original text in the original language as well as the translated value that may have contributed to the misunderstanding.
Disagreements and disputes between Tenant and Property Owner shall be handled in accordance with the principles in section 11.
On the Pacto payment logging & confirmation feature
The Pacto application does NOT include payment services to directly carry-out and manage financial transactions between Parties to Lease Agreements within The Pacto application.
The Pacto application includes a payment logging and tracking functionality for Users to record transactions that have occurred outside of The Pacto application in relation to the financial obligations of the Parties to a Lease Agreement. This payment tracking system requires that a User describe payment type, amount of payment and payment date and submit the payment information to the receiving party in app. The receiving party will then confirm receipt of payment which will be timestamped and recorded as completed in app. This payment-receipt confirmation can be utilized by either party as a receipt of payments.
Additionally, in cases where a Sponsored User is receiving financial support from a Sponsoring Organization, the Sponsoring Organization can log a payment on behalf of a party to a Lease Agreement which will become a part of the recorded transactions and displayed to the Sponsored Users in app.
RECOMMENDATION: Although there is no obligation to use this feature it is recommended to log and track payments via Pacto application as this may considerably reduce risk of conflict and thus increase security of the transaction for both parties.
Specific terms if you are a Tenant
When renting a property, you are responsible for understanding and complying with the terms of the entered-into Lease Agreement. By entering your information into the Lease Agreement, you certify that all personal information about you is valid and correct.
You are responsible for reading and understanding the information related to the property itself, the terms of the agreement (i.e. payment terms, rental price, start date) and house rules included by the Property Owner in the Lease Agreement before entering into the Lease Agreement. If you have questions or concerns in relation to the terms of the Lease Agreement, property or house rules, you must raise these issues directly with the Property Owner.
You are not allowed to sublet the property to another party unless you have explicit consent from the Property Owner to do so. This permission must be included by the Property Owner as an additional term within the signed Lease Agreement.
Specific terms if you are a Property Owner
When listing your property on the Pacto application, you must ensure that the information you provide in the home listing is correct and accurate. This includes, but is not limited to, information about the property and yourself. By listing your property, you certify that you have the legal right to lease the property. You may be requested by a Sponsoring Organization to provide proof of your legal right to rent the property. If you are uncertain of your rights to rent, you can find an FAQ here on the local legal requirements which are required to validate your rights to rent your property. Home listings found or reported to contain false, intentionally misleading or fraudulent information can be suspended immediately. Failure to rectify the identified issue/s may result in permanent removal of the listing and other actions as appropriate.
You are not allowed to make more than one listing of the same property, except in cases where the property is divided into separate Tenant living spaces, with private or shared bathrooms and/or kitchen and other shared common areas. This division of the property into living spaces must be explicitly stated in the property description and the selected lease agreement template must be aligned with this type of rental arrangement.
Your property must comply with the relevant property law and any other applicable regulation where the property is situated including but not limited to planning permissions, quality of construction, compliance with restrictions on the title, and certification of occupancy.
Prices must be real and reasonable and must comply with any limitations on the maximum periodic rental price increases allowed by local, regional and/or national legislation or policy.
You must comply with the terms of the entered-into Lease Agreement. If you are found to have materially breached the terms of any Lease Agreement entered into via the Pacto application, you and your properties may be banned from any future use of the Pacto application and its associated services. In such cases, you will remain legally bound to fulfil the terms of any previously entered into Lease Agreement/s.
You may not decline to rent to a prospective tenant nor impose any discriminatory terms and conditions for the rental because of the tenant's race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, or marital status. It is not a discrimination for you (Property Owner) to take special measures in good faith to alleviate demonstrable disadvantage/s suffered by a group of people with a particular attribute, for example, reducing rent for refugees facing humanitarian needs.
You may not post or make any statement in your property listing or Lease Agreement proposal that discourages or makes a preference for or against any potential tenant based upon race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age or marital status. Anyone found to be engaging in discriminatory practices will be banned from use of the Pacto application and its services.
We expect you to respect other people’s rights when making a house listing. This means inter alia that in such a listing, you warrant that you have the right to use the photos, text or other elements in the listing.
You are responsible for validating the information included by the Tenant in the Lease Agreement before entering into the Lease Agreement. If you have questions or concerns in relation to the information provided by the Tenants, you must raise these issues directly with the Tenant.
You are responsible for ensuring that you and/or your property are insured against damage, injury, accidents, and theft and that your coverage meets or exceeds the minimum requirements as set forth in any local, regional and/or national legislation (if any). Verent will not be liable for damage, injury, accident, or theft and does not provide any type of insurance for property owners, tenants, properties or third parties.
Governing law of the Lease Agreements
Lease Agreements made within the Pacto application are governed by the local, regional and national legislation of the location in which the property is located. The Support section of the Pacto application includes FAQs on the rights and obligations of both tenants and property owners under national law.
Communication between Tenants and Property Owners
For communication between Users of the Pacto application (Tenant and Property Owner) concerning the property or the agreement, it is feasible that all communication is done through the communication/issue reporting features included in the Pacto application. If communication occurs outside the Pacto application, the parties can document or replicate that communication in The Pacto application so that a record can be maintained. This makes it easier for all parties to document incidents where there have been any issues or misunderstandings.
RECOMMENDATION: Although there is no obligation to use this feature, it is recommended to conduct or replicate all and any communication with respect to the tenancy relationship via Pacto application as by doing so parties may considerably reduce the risk of conflict and thus increase security of the transaction for both of them.
Neither Verent nor Sponsoring Organizations have access to the details of specific communication between you and other Users, unless: i) all of the parties who are communicating with each other consent, ii) either of Party flags an important issue with the communication (i.e. abusive language, threats, spam etc.) iii) we have a justified reason to suspect that our application is being misused, or iv) if we receive a formal legal request by competent authorities/court, (v) there is a specific obligation stemming from applicable law provisions. With respect to prerequisites mentioned under points ii) and iii) there shall be performed a test on weighing rights of the data subjects and other parties’ rights. The details of communication between you and other User shall be accessed only if the outcome of the test justifies such access. Both Verent and your Sponsoring Organization do maintain access to the Subject and metadata in relation to complaints and issues that have been tagged as belonging to a pre-defined category of issue.
Disputes between Tenants and Property Owners and policy on information concerning abusive/inappropriate behavior
Users are strongly encouraged to seek to resolve disagreements or disputes which may arise in relation to the Lease Agreement – either during the lease period or following its conclusion - amicably between themselves.
For those that are unable to resolve their disputes and whom submit a request to a Sponsoring Organization for specific support in its resolution, the Sponsoring Organization will seek to provide advice on a case by case basis, or – with the Users’ permission – refer the case to a third party for supporting the successful resolution of the dispute. In such cases, Users agree to cooperate with and assist a Sponsoring Organization and/or the third party in good faith, and to provide the reasonably requested information. Verent does not guarantee that a Sponsoring Organization will be able to offer support to all cases raised nor that it will be able to successfully resolve the disagreement.
If you find yourself in a situation where you fear for your personal well-being or are being threatened with violence or harm, it is STRONGLY recommended that you contact the appropriate local authorities. Contact information to the appropriate local authorities is provided in the Pacto application. However, such information is publicly available, and the provided information is not meant to take the place of the original source of information. Verent is not liable for any harm that may come to an individual or property as a result of the information not being accurate.
If the Sponsoring Organization receives any information concerning any abuse of the Pacto application or abusive/inappropriate behavior directed towards other Users, and the Sponsoring Organization deems the information likely to be truthful, the reported User may lose access to The Pacto application and risk his/her behavior being reported to the relevant local authorities. This information may be transferred from the Sponsoring Organization to Verent following lapse of the Sponsorship Period mentioned in section 2.1. The reported User may also be listed for exclusion for later re-registration. For cases of serious abuse, the Sponsoring Organization (or Verent – following the Sponsorship Period) can also provide referral services to competent professionals with the training and expertise to appropriately handle the case.
Feedback and Complaints
12.1 Suggestions, Feedback and Complaints concerning the Pacto Application and/or Verent or its staff.
Any suggestions, feedback or complaints regarding the Pacto application or on Verent’s performance in its delivery of the Pacto Application shall be handled in a professional, safe and responsive manner. Verent will seek to ensure that the mechanism for providing such information is accessible and transparent. You may submit feedback and complaints by emailing us, through the “About Pacto” section of the Pacto application, or by other means of communication.
Verent cannot guarantee a follow up on all types of feedback, but any sensitive complaints will be carefully handled in a confidential way that considers the safety of the complainant and the affected persons, as well as avoiding unwarranted consequences for any accused person(s). Sensitive complaints might include a formal process of investigation.
When providing suggestions, feedback or complaints concerning the Pacto application, you are granting Verent a royalty-free, worldwide, transferable, sublicensable, irrevocable, perpetual license to use or incorporate into the Pacto application any suggestions, enhancement requests, recommendations or other feedback relating to the features, functionalities and operation of the service.
12.2 Suggestions, Feedback and Complaints concerning a Sponsoring Organization or its staff
Any suggestions, feedback or complaints concerning or directed to a Sponsoring Organization shall be handled in accordance with the Sponsoring Organizations Complaints and Feedback Policy. The specifics of a Sponsoring Organizations policy shall be included in the “My Sponsoring Organization” page in the Sponsoring Organization Terms and Conditions.
Technical help desk / support
In the case of any technical problems with the Pacto application, you must make reasonable efforts to investigate and diagnose problems before contacting the Pacto team. A Frequently Asked Questions page which covers common problems, and their solution is available via the Pacto application.
If you still need technical help, our support team is available through the support module. The customer support hours are between the hours of: 09:00 to 16:00 Monday through Friday.
All inquiries will be responded to and the order in which they will be handled by our team will be based upon i) the order in which they were received and ii) the criticality of the issue.
While we intend that the Pacto application should be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it is possible that on occasion it may be unavailable to permit maintenance or other development activity to take place, or because of unforeseen errors. If for any reason, we must interrupt your access to the Pacto application for a longer period of time, the Sponsoring Organization will let you know of the foregoing or the details of such activity will be published directly in the Pacto app in advance.
Intellectual Property Rights
All intellectual property rights related to the Pacto application remain vested in Verent. This includes all copyright, register or unregistered trademarks, patents and/or trade secrets related to the Pacto application and means that no one is entitled to copy, modify, distribute, sell, or reverse engineer the Pacto application in itself or content published in the Pacto application.
All intellectual property rights you share with Verent or a Sponsoring Organization through the Pacto application remain yours. By uploading your listing or information on your personal profile, you agree that the given listing and all the information/data that you have provided shall be accessed and seen by indefinite group of people via the Pacto application.
User Data and Data protection
Verent shall be a data controller of the Users’ data processed for analytical/statistical purposes as well as with respect to User Feedback and Suggestions concerning the technical performance, design, functions and features of the Pacto app submitted either directly to Verent or through the Sponsoring Organization to Verent as well as Complaints addressed to Verent concerning the Pacto app and Verent. The Sponsoring Organization remains the data controller for Complaints and Feedback as they pertain to the Sponsoring Organization, its staff and/or representative, its assistance programs, its usage of the Pacto app as part of its service provision to the benefit of Sponsored Users or anything else not directly pertaining to the Pacto platform.
Please refer to our Data Privacy Notice, found here, for more information. The Data Privacy Notice of the Sponsoring Organization connected to the remaining data processing operations may be found through the links included in the app or other locations as defined by the Sponsoring Organization.
Disabling or deletion of the account
You may disable your account on Pacto or delete the Pacto application at any time during the Sponsorship Period. However, you must take into account that after such disabling or deletion of the account you shall loose direct access to the communication concerning any Lease Agreement. Thus, it is recommended that such termination is not done as long as you are part of any Pacto Lease Agreements.
Your account may be terminated due to reasons set out in this Legal Notice or Sponsoring Organization’s Terms and Conditions. The Sponsoring Organization will notify you of the planned termination by sending an email to the email address you have provided and provide you with a respective period to rectify the violation, if feasible.
Termination does not affect any Lease Agreement entered through the Pacto application. Those wishing to terminate their Lease Agreement must do so in accordance with the terms specified in the Lease Agreement and relevant local, regional or national legislation concerning tenancy law.
Should you choose to continue usage of the Pacto application following Sponsorship Period you shall be prompted to review and accept Terms and Conditions presented to you by Verent who would then substitute the role of the Sponsoring Organization and would provide the Pacto application directly to the Users.
Our right to change this Legal Notice
We reserve the right to periodically review and modify this legal notice. Such modifications will most often be introduced for safety reasons, due to legal and regulatory requirements, modification of the scope of the Pacto app features or introduction of new features to the Pacto application. They shall be effective after a set effective date calculated from the date of publication of the notice in The Pacto application or sending the appropriate information to your e-mail address assigned to your account in the system.
Although we do not anticipate such possibility, if the proposed modifications limit the features provided via The Pacto application, or in other way worsen your position, you will be notified at least 2 months in advance, if possible.
If you do not agree to the modifications, your remedy is to disable or delete your account with the Pacto app.