Question 1

What is Mastendi?

Accepted Answer

Mastendi is a cloud-based property-management workspace built for South African landlords and letting agencies. It is where the whole tenancy is run: properties and units, tenants and leases (signed online, renewed by addendum), rent tracking and arrears, statements and invoices, deposits with bank-rate interest, TPN screening, maintenance, owner statements and SARS-ready tax reports — with a tenant portal and an owner portal on top. WhatsApp is one of the channels tenants can reach it through, not the product.

Question 2

Who is Mastendi designed for?

Accepted Answer

Mastendi is designed for South African residential landlords — from individuals managing a single property to agencies overseeing large portfolios. It works equally well for self-managing landlords and for agencies that need multi-user access and owner-portal reporting.

Question 3

Is there a free trial?

Accepted Answer

Yes — every new account gets a 30-day free trial with full access to all features. No credit card or payment information is required to start. If you don't upgrade before the trial ends, your account moves to a read-only state; your data is never deleted.

Question 4

Do I need to install anything?

Accepted Answer

No. Mastendi is a web application — it runs entirely in your browser. There is nothing to download or install. It works on any modern browser on desktop, tablet, or mobile.

Question 5

How quickly can I get up and running?

Accepted Answer

Most landlords are fully set up within 30 minutes. Sign up, add your properties and units, import or create your tenant records, and start tracking rent. The onboarding wizard walks you through each step, and our support team is available to help.

Question 6

How much does Mastendi cost?

Accepted Answer

There are two pricing models. If you own your properties, you pay a flat monthly or annual subscription from R 499,00/month (exc. VAT), with a discount for paying annually. If you manage properties on behalf of landlords, the Agency plan is billed per active lease against a monthly minimum — you pay for the tenancies you are actively managing, so a vacant unit costs you nothing while you re-let it. Agency plans carry a once-off onboarding fee; the flat landlord plans have no setup fee. Neither has a long-term contract. Full pricing is in the Pricing section of the home page.

Question 7

What payment methods does Mastendi accept?

Accepted Answer

Mastendi accepts all major South African debit and credit cards (Visa, Mastercard), as well as instant EFT via PayFast. Payments are processed securely by PayFast — Mastendi does not store your card details.

Question 8

Can I cancel at any time?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can cancel your subscription at any time from the Billing section of your dashboard. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you keep full access until then. See our Refund & Cancellation Policy for full details.

Question 9

What happens when my trial ends?

Accepted Answer

When the 30-day free trial ends your account moves to a read-only state — you can still view your data but cannot add new records or send communications. Upgrade to a paid plan at any time to restore full access. Your data is never deleted.

Question 10

Does Mastendi take a percentage of my rental income?

Accepted Answer

No. Mastendi charges a flat monthly or annual subscription fee for software access only. We do not take a commission, transaction fee, or percentage of your rental income. We do not handle, process, or hold rental payments or deposits on your behalf.

Question 11

How does the tenant portal work?

Accepted Answer

Each tenant gets a personal portal at my.mastendi.com where they can view their rent balance and payment history, download their statement of account and monthly invoices as PDFs, submit maintenance requests, view and sign lease documents, respond to renewal offers, and accept or decline property inspections. Tenants log in with the email you registered for them — no app download required.

Question 12

How does the owner (landlord) portal work?

Accepted Answer

Property owners (given a Landlord login) get a dedicated portal at app.mastendi.com/property-portfolio showing their rental portfolio performance, income and expense summaries, vacancy status, and maintenance history — all in real time. This is ideal for investors who want visibility without needing full admin access.

Question 13

How does the WhatsApp bot work?

Accepted Answer

With the WhatsApp integration enabled, tenants can message your dedicated Mastendi number to check their balance, submit maintenance requests, and receive automated payment reminders and receipts — without logging into the portal. It runs on WhatsApp Business and needs your Meta Business account connected. Tenants must opt in before receiving messages.

Question 14

Can tenants sign leases electronically?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Generate the lease from your own template (the tenant's details are filled in) or upload the PDF your attorney drafted, and send it. The tenant gets a link, confirms who they are, reads the lease on their phone and signs. Then you sign in the app as the landlord or as the agent under mandate — or the landlord client signs in the owner portal. The signed PDF carries a certificate of completion recording who signed and when, and becomes the tenant's contract in the tenant and owner portals. It is an ordinary electronic signature under section 13 of the ECT Act; leases signed on paper can be attached instead.

Question 15

Can each property have its own rent escalation and late fees?

Accepted Answer

Yes. One account often holds buildings for different owners whose leases differ, so each property can set its own yearly escalation (a rate, and 1 January, each tenant’s anniversary, or no automatic escalation) and its own late fee (none, a flat amount or a percentage of what is owed) with its own grace days. Anything a property leaves blank uses the account’s setting. A change to a property’s late-fee terms applies from the day it is made and never reaches back to a month that was already late.

Question 16

Can Mastendi match deposits that carry another agent’s reference?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A book taken over from another agent often keeps paying with that agent’s references. Set each tenant’s bank reference once, on the tenant or in the import, and bank reconciliation matches every deposit carrying it to that tenant. Lines it is not sure of wait for a person under Open bank lines rather than being guessed.

Question 17

Can I import my existing tenant and property data?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Mastendi includes a CSV import wizard under Admin → Import. You can upload a CSV file of your properties and tenants; the wizard previews each row, flags any errors, and lets you confirm before committing. A downloadable template is provided so you know exactly which columns are expected.

Question 18

Does Mastendi support SARS tax reporting?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Mastendi generates a SARS-ready rental income summary for each tax year, itemising gross rental income, allowable deductions (repairs, maintenance, insurance, bond interest, levies), and net taxable rental income per property. You can also export a generic double-entry journal CSV compatible with Xero, Sage, and QuickBooks.

Question 19

Can multiple team members access the same account?

Accepted Answer

Yes. There are three roles: Principal (full access, including billing and user management), Agent (your staff), and Landlord (a read-only owner portal). On a landlord account these read as Admin, Staff and Owner. Agents are not simply read-only — you choose their capabilities individually (properties, tenants, maintenance, finances, documents and more), so a finance clerk and a leasing agent can share one account and still see different controls. The number of users permitted depends on your plan.

Question 20

Can I stop agents from seeing each other's properties?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Each agent can be given their own "book" of properties. On their user record, set Property access to "Only assigned properties" and choose the buildings they work on. That agent then sees only those properties and everything derived from them — tenants, payments, maintenance, documents, reports and search results. Properties outside their book are not just hidden from the screen; they do not exist for that login, so an agent cannot reach one even with a direct link. This is optional and set per person, so staff who work across the whole portfolio — a bookkeeper or maintenance coordinator — can stay portfolio-wide.

Question 21

Is Mastendi POPIA compliant?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Mastendi is built with South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) in mind. Each account's data is kept separate from every other account's. You can export a complete POPIA data package for any tenant, anonymise their record, and manage consent for electronic communications. You remain the responsible party (operator) for your tenants' personal information.

Question 22

Where is my data stored?

Accepted Answer

All data is stored in our cloud infrastructure in a secure data centre. Each account's data is kept separate from every other account's, backed up regularly and encrypted in transit and at rest.

Question 23

Does Mastendi process or hold rental payments?

Accepted Answer

No. Mastendi is a software platform only. We do not accept, hold, process, or disburse rental payments or security deposits on behalf of any landlord or tenant. All financial transactions between you and your tenants occur entirely outside of Mastendi — directly between the parties. Mastendi only provides tools to record and track these transactions.

Question 24

How do I request deletion of my data?

Accepted Answer

You can close your account at any time from Account Settings. On closure you can first export your data. Personal data is then deleted or anonymised in accordance with our retention policy and applicable law (certain financial records must be retained for five years under South African law). See our Data Deletion page for full instructions.

Frequently Asked Questions

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