What we promise, in the same words.

What the Circle is

You introduce someone who is looking for a home in Bengaluru. If we take them on and they pay us a brokerage fee, two things happen. Ten per cent comes off the fee they pay, and we pay you ten per cent of that same fee. There is nothing to buy, nothing to subscribe to, and no minimum number of introductions.

It is a referral arrangement between you and us. You are not our agent, employee or partner, you may not represent Sthãna to anyone, and you must not describe yourself as working with us. Introduce people and say what you honestly think of us.

Who can refer

Anyone over eighteen with a WhatsApp number, with four exceptions.

• Not the person moving in. You cannot refer yourself, your spouse, or anyone whose fee you are paying.
• Not a Sthãna employee, contractor or anyone working on the practice, including the people on the About page. Their work is already paid.
• Not another broker or agent, and not anyone who is paid by an owner on the same transaction. The whole point of the practice is that we take one side, and a reward passing to the other side breaks it.
• Not an owner referring a tenant to their own home.

A client of ours can refer while we are working for them

If we are searching for you now, you can still introduce someone, and the person you introduce gets their ten per cent off in the ordinary way. Yours is held until your own fee is settled. We are being paid to help you rent a home, and a reward landing in the middle of that work puts a second interest in the room.

Held means recorded and waiting, not forfeited. Your ledger shows it against the introduction. Once your own fee is settled we pay it, or we take it off that fee instead, whichever you prefer. We will not ask you for introductions while your search is open.

When a reward is earned

A reward is earned when all four of these are true. The person you introduced came to us through your link or named you when they first contacted us. We took them on. They signed a tenancy. Their brokerage fee reached our account.

Until the fee has actually reached us, nothing is earned. A signed agreement is not payment, and an invoice is not payment. This is the clause that the sentence "you earn only when we've been paid" refers to.

If we do not charge a fee on a transaction, there is no reward and there is nothing to discount. That happens: we sometimes waive a fee, and we act for people we do not charge. The ledger shows those as no reward and says why, rather than leaving you to wonder.

Their ten per cent does not depend on yours. It comes off the invoice we raise them whether or not you are eligible, whether or not your link had expired on the day they signed, and whether or not a second person also claims the introduction.

How much, and on what

Ten per cent of the brokerage fee we collect, in full. Our fee is inclusive of all taxes, so ten per cent means ten per cent of the whole amount we receive and not of some smaller figure net of tax. The fee varies with the rent, so the reward varies with it. We calculate on the fee actually received, not on the fee invoiced: if we settle for less, ten per cent of the lower figure is what is due.

Their discount is ten per cent of the same fee, worked before the discount rather than on top of it. Twenty per cent of our brokerage leaves the practice on a referred tenancy. We have published that arithmetic on the Circle page so nobody has to ask.

One reward per tenancy. If two people separately introduce the same person, clause seven decides. If one person introduces several, each tenancy earns its own reward.

When and how you are paid

We settle within a fortnight of receiving the brokerage, and we cannot settle before we have your bank details. Both halves of that sentence are conditions: the fortnight runs from the later of the payment reaching us and your details reaching us.

Payment is by bank transfer in Indian rupees to an account in your own name. We do not pay to a third party's account, we do not pay in cash, and we do not hold a balance for you beyond a settlement we are waiting on.

If you have a fee coming to us, we can take the reward off it instead. That is your choice and we will ask. It is the same money and one fewer transfer each way.

A referral reward is income in your hands and declaring it is yours to do.

Two people claiming one introduction

The link decides. Where the person arrived through a referral link, that link's holder is credited, and where nobody used a link, the name the person gave us when they first wrote to us is credited. First contact, not the loudest claim.

Where both of those are missing or contradictory, we ask the person who moved in who introduced them, and their answer settles it. We will tell both claimants what we decided and why. We do not split a reward, because a half reward satisfies nobody and invites the argument again next time.

Links expire

Every link carries an expiry date, shown on the link and in your ledger. An introduction made through an expired link earns nothing, and the ledger marks it as expired rather than as pending. The date is on the link so that nobody has to remember a rule.

The clock runs from when the link is issued, not from when it is used. Ask us and we will issue a fresh one, which starts a new period.

What disqualifies a referral

We will not pay on an introduction obtained in a way we would not want to be associated with, and the list is short and specific.

• The person did not agree to be introduced, or did not know their details were being passed on.
• Details were harvested from a listing site, a building group or anywhere else the person did not hand them to you.
• The introduction was bought: paid advertising against our name, spam, or a link posted at scale to people you do not know.
• The person was already in contact with us before your introduction, and the ledger shows the earlier contact.
• The tenancy falls through, or the fee is refunded. A reward already paid on a refunded fee is repayable, and a discount already given against a refunded fee is refunded with it.

Changing or ending the programme

We can change the rate or close the Circle, and we will say so on this page and message everyone holding a live link. A link already issued keeps the rate it was issued under until it expires, and an introduction already made is paid on the old terms. We do not reprice work that is done.

We can also end your participation, for the reasons in clause nine or because you have misrepresented us. Anything genuinely earned before that is still paid.

What we do with the details you pass us

When you introduce someone you are giving us their name and number, so tell them first. We will say who introduced them, because a stranger with your number is worse than an introduction with a name on it. Whether they see your first name is your choice, set by the checkbox on the Circle form and changeable at any time.

What we hold about you and about them, how long, and how to have it deleted are in the privacy notice.

Law and jurisdiction

These terms are governed by the laws of India, and the courts at Bengaluru, Karnataka have exclusive jurisdiction. They sit alongside the site terms; where the two differ on the Circle, this page governs.