Kanesto Payments, Refunds & Cancellation Policy
This policy explains how payments, cancellations, and refunds work on Kanesto. It should be read together with our Terms of Use.
1. How Payments Work
All customer payments on Kanesto are processed through Flutterwave, a Nigerian-licensed payment service provider. When you pay for something on Kanesto — a rent/purchase payment, a caution deposit, a tenancy agreement fee, an escorted-viewing fee, a Kanesto Services booking, a temporary-stay booking, or a listing fee — you are directed to Flutterwave's secure checkout to complete the payment. Kanesto does not receive or store your card details.
Kanesto is not a bank and is not an escrow agent. Kanesto does not offer escrow, savings or custodial accounts. Payments are collected by Flutterwave, and amounts owed to the recipient are recorded on Kanesto's ledger and paid out to that person's own bank account. Depending on the transaction type, funds are directed according to the workflow shown to you at checkout before you pay (for example: rent to the landlord once the tenancy is formalised, commission to the agent where one applies, and Kanesto's own fee to Kanesto). [LEGAL REVIEW — see Legal & Regulatory Review Memorandum, Question 3]: confirm whether any current payment flow needs restructuring, additional disclosure, or a licence before this policy is published, and confirm the accurate, non-escrow description to use consistently across the Platform and this policy.
2. Payment Confirmation
A payment is only treated as successful once Kanesto's servers have independently re-verified it directly with Flutterwave using the transaction reference — a success message shown in your browser is not, by itself, treated as proof of payment. If independent verification fails, the payment is not recorded as successful and you should contact support with your transaction reference.
3. Transaction Records
Every verified payment is recorded on Kanesto's internal ledger with its amount, currency, purpose, status, and payment reference. You can view your own transaction history in the relevant section of your account (e.g. Wallet, Tenancy, Bookings).
4. Platform Fees
Kanesto charges fees for specific services — for example, an escrow/transaction fee on a rent or purchase payment, a tenancy agreement documentation fee, an escorted-viewing fee, a Kanesto Services or temporary-stay booking fee, and a payout processing fee on withdrawals. These fees are configurable and may change. The fee that applies to you is the one clearly shown and itemised to you before you complete a payment or withdrawal — that on-screen figure is the authoritative one, not any figure in this document, since fee rates are not fixed here.
4A. Property Purchases and Negotiated Prices
- Negotiated prices. Where a listing allows negotiation, the buyer/tenant and the property provider can make offers and counter-offers in Messages. Once the provider accepts an offer, that amount becomes the price the buyer/tenant is charged (plus the applicable fees shown at checkout). The property provider sets how long an agreed price stays payable on the listing (24 hours unless they choose otherwise); after that a new price must be agreed.
- Payments for property sales are held. When you buy a property through Kanesto, the seller's (and any agent's) share is not available to them for withdrawal straight away. It is held until you confirm the title documents and handover from your Wallet and Kanesto staff release it, or until a set number of days after payment (currently 3, and shown in your Wallet) if no refund or dispute has been raised, or until Kanesto staff release it after checking your confirmation or resolving a dispute. Kanesto may change this period, and it applies to payments made after the change. [LEGAL REVIEW] Confirm this hold period and mechanism, and how it should be described given the escrow/custody questions in the review memorandum.
- A property offered for sale must have been verified by Kanesto before it can be purchased online. Auction and joint-venture listings are agreed directly with the owner and are not paid for through the online purchase flow.
5. Cancellation
5.1. Whether a booking, application, or tenancy step can be cancelled, and by whom, depends on its current status and the terms already agreed (e.g. a tenancy agreement's own cancellation terms, a service booking's stage). The relevant in-product screen shows the cancellation options available for that specific item.
5.2. A withdrawal (payout) request can be cancelled by the user who submitted it only while it has not yet been approved for payout — see our Payout & Withdrawal Policy.
6. Refunds
6.1. Kanesto does not currently offer an automatic, self-service refund button for completed payments. Where a refund is warranted — for example, following a dispute or fraud report that Kanesto's team investigates and upholds — Kanesto's authorised staff review the case and, where appropriate, process the refund directly through Flutterwave back to your original payment method.
6.2. We do not state a fixed refund percentage or turnaround time in this policy because none is currently fixed in the product — per instruction, this policy will not invent one. [LEGAL REVIEW / BUSINESS DECISION] Confirm whether Kanesto should adopt and publish a specific refund timeframe/percentage policy, particularly to meet Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 expectations around clear, upfront terms.
7. Failed Payments
If a payment fails or is not completed at Flutterwave's checkout, no charge is recorded and you have not been billed. If you believe you were charged for a failed payment, contact support with your transaction reference so we can check directly with Flutterwave.
8. Duplicate Payments
If you believe you were charged twice for the same item, contact support immediately with both transaction references. Our team will investigate against Flutterwave's records before any refund is processed.
9. Payment Disputes and Chargebacks
If you dispute a charge directly with your bank or card issuer (a chargeback) instead of contacting Kanesto support first, this may delay resolution and can affect your account standing while the dispute is investigated. We encourage you to contact Kanesto support first so we can investigate directly.
10. Downstream Processing Failures
Occasionally, a payment is successfully verified but a downstream step (e.g. finalising a tenancy record) fails for an unrelated technical reason. In that case, your payment is not lost — it remains recorded on our ledger — and our support team will complete the missing step manually. You will see a clear on-screen message telling you if this has happened, and should keep your payment reference for support.
11. When Manual Review Applies
Certain situations are routed to manual staff review rather than being resolved automatically, including: disputed payments, suspected duplicate payments, fraud reports linked to a payment, and downstream processing failures described in Section 10.
12. Support Escalation
If you have an unresolved payment issue, contact support@kanesto.com with your transaction reference, the amount, and a description of the issue.
This document intentionally avoids stating specific refund percentages or timeframes that are not currently fixed in the product, and flags the "escrow" terminology question for lawyer and business review before publication. It is not legal advice.