Website Terms of Use

1. About us and these Terms

The website at https://therentalhome.co.nz and The Rental Home property management platform (together, the Platform) are operated by The Rental Home Limited, trading as The Rental Home, NZ company number 8177468 (The Rental Home, we, us or our).

These Website Terms of Use (Terms) apply to everyone who visits or uses the Platform, including real estate agency staff, property owners, tenants, applicants, contractors and other authorised users (you). By accessing or using the Platform, you agree to these Terms. Please read them carefully. If you do not agree with them, please do not use the Platform.

If you use the Platform on behalf of an organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to act for it and that the organisation is also bound by these Terms. If a Services Agreement applies, it will take priority if there is any inconsistency with these Terms.

2. How the Platform can help

The Platform brings together tools designed to help authorised users manage rental properties, tenancies, communications, documents, tasks, inspections, maintenance and related workflows. We may update or improve the available features over time.

We provide the software that supports these activities, but we do not provide property management, real estate, legal, financial, tax or tenancy advice. We are not a landlord, tenant, property manager or real estate agent, and we are not a party to arrangements between users. You remain responsible for your decisions, records, notices, statutory timeframes and compliance with applicable law.

If you access the Platform through an agency, that agency controls your access to its records and remains responsible for its property-management and tenancy decisions. Questions about a property, application, tenancy, payment or agency decision should generally be directed to the agency.

3. Your account and keeping it secure

If you subscribe to a service available through the Platform, or are invited to use that service by an organisation that has subscribed, you will be asked to set up an account so you can access and use the relevant Platform feature.

Please provide accurate information, keep it up to date and only use an account you are authorised to access. You are responsible for activity under your account and for taking reasonable steps to keep your login details and authentication methods secure.

Please let us know promptly at hello@therentalhome.co.nz if you suspect unauthorised access, lose your login credentials or become aware of a security incident. Agencies are responsible for setting appropriate user permissions, removing access when it is no longer needed and helping their users comply with these Terms.

4. Children and young people

The Platform is intended for people aged 18 or over. A person under 18 may only create or use an account where we have expressly made the relevant feature available to them, they have been invited by an authorised agency, and any consent required from a parent or legal guardian has been obtained.

A person under 18 may not subscribe to the Platform or create an account on behalf of a business.

If an agency invites a person under 18 to use the Platform or provides us with personal information about a child or young person, the agency must ensure that this is lawful, appropriate and reasonably necessary. This includes providing any required privacy information and obtaining any consent required by law.

Please contact us at hello@therentalhome.co.nz if you believe that a child or young person is using the Platform without appropriate authority.

5. Using the Platform responsibly

When using the Platform, please make sure that you:

• comply with New Zealand law and any other law that applies to you, including tenancy, privacy, anti-discrimination, record-keeping and real estate professional obligations;
• have a lawful basis and all necessary authority, notices and consents to collect, upload, use, share and instruct us to process personal information and other content;
• ensure information and instructions you enter are accurate, current and not misleading, and independently check important dates, calculations, notices and decisions;
• respect each person's role and access rights and only view or use information for legitimate rental-management purposes; and
• keep your own copies or exports of information you are legally or operationally required to retain, subject to the Services Agreement.

6. Keeping the Platform safe and fair

To help keep the Platform safe and useful for everyone, you must not, and must not help anyone else to:

• use the Platform unlawfully, fraudulently, deceptively, discriminatorily, abusively or to harass or harm anyone;
• upload content that is unlawful, defamatory, infringing, malicious or that breaches another person's privacy, confidentiality or rights;
• access data, accounts or parts of the Platform without permission, impersonate another person, or misrepresent your authority;
• introduce malware, bypass security or access controls, probe or disrupt the Platform, or impose an unreasonable load on it;
• scrape, harvest or bulk-extract data, or use bots, except through an interface or integration we expressly authorise;
• copy, resell, sublicense, frame, reverse engineer or create derivative works from the Platform, except to the extent the law does not allow us to prohibit that activity; or
• use Platform content or data to develop or train a competing product or artificial-intelligence model without our written permission.

7. Content and data you provide

User Content means the information, documents, images, messages and other material that is uploaded to the Platform, by Platform users. If you upload User Content to the Platform it will continue to be owned by you, or your relevant rights holder.

You grant us and our service providers a non-exclusive licence to host, copy, transmit, display, back up and otherwise process your User Content as reasonably needed to provide, secure, support and improve the Platform, comply with law, and exercise our rights under these Terms and any Services Agreement, and otherwise as permitted in our Privacy Policy. This licence ends when the content is deleted from our systems, subject to lawful retention and routine backup cycles.

Please only submit User Content that you have the right and authority to provide. We may remove or restrict access to content where this is reasonably necessary to address illegality, security concerns, infringement, harm or a breach of these Terms.

8. Looking after personal information

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, store and protect personal information, and how people can request access or correction or make a privacy complaint. Please read it alongside these Terms.

Personal information may be stored or processed in New Zealand and Australia and, where necessary, in other countries used by our service providers, as described in our Privacy Policy.

Where an agency supplies personal information about tenants, applicants, owners or other people, the agency must comply with its own privacy obligations. This includes providing any required privacy notices and complying with all applicable privacy laws when it collects personal information indirectly, unless a lawful exception applies.

You must not upload or otherwise provide sensitive information through the Platform unless the relevant Platform feature expressly permits it or we have expressly agreed to it in writing beforehand. If permitted, you must ensure that providing the information is lawful, reasonably necessary for the authorised purpose and supported by any required consent or other lawful basis.

9. How we communicate with you

We may send you operational, security and legal notices electronically, including by email, through your account or, where appropriate, by publishing a notice on the Platform.

We may send you marketing communications with your consent or as permitted by law. You can unsubscribe from marketing messages at any time, although we may still need to send essential service or security communications.

The Platform may provide messages, templates, reminders, calculations and status updates to help you manage your activities. Where a matter involves a legal requirement, payment or deadline, please check that the relevant action has been successfully completed and that any information generated by the Platform is accurate.

10. Links and third-party services

To make the Platform more useful, it may connect to third-party products, payment providers, websites or integrations. Those providers may have their own terms and privacy practices. We do not control third-party services and are not responsible for them, except to the extent required by law or expressly stated in a Services Agreement.

An integration may allow information to pass between services. You are responsible for authorising the integration and checking that its settings and use are appropriate.

11. Our content and intellectual property

We and our licensors own the Platform, its software, design, branding, documentation and website content, excluding User Content. Subject to these Terms and any Services Agreement, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable right to use the Platform for its intended purpose.

We always welcome feedback. If you share feedback with us, you allow us to use it to develop and improve our business. We will not identify you publicly without your permission.

12. Platform availability and improvements

We work to provide a reliable and secure Platform. From time to time, however, it may be unavailable or contain errors. Access can also be affected by maintenance, third-party failures, internet conditions, emergencies or other events beyond our reasonable control.

We may improve, change or withdraw features as the Platform develops. For subscribing agencies, material service commitments, support, planned maintenance and data-export or exit arrangements are governed by the Services Agreement.

Features labelled beta, preview or trial are still being tested and may change or be withdrawn. Use them with appropriate care and do not rely on them for critical decisions unless we agree otherwise in writing.

13. Pausing or ending access

We hope we will not need to do so, but we may suspend or restrict access where reasonably necessary to protect users or the Platform, investigate suspected misuse, comply with law, prevent harm or respond to a material breach. Where practicable, we will let you know and give you a reasonable opportunity to address the issue. We will limit any suspension or restriction to what we consider to be reasonably necessary in the circumstances.

You are welcome to stop using the Platform at any time. Please note that ending access does not by itself end an agency's Services Agreement or change any rights relating to payment, retention, export or deletion under that agreement.

Clauses that by their nature are intended to continue — including intellectual property, liability, disputes and accrued rights — survive termination.

14. A few important limitations

We take reasonable care in operating the Platform. Like any online service, however, the Platform may not always be uninterrupted, error-free, completely secure or suitable for every purpose. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Platform is provided on an "as is and as available" basis.

Some information on the Platform comes from users or third parties, and we cannot independently verify everything. Please check important information before relying on it, particularly legal notices, rent or bond records, compliance dates, property decisions and payments.

15. Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable under these Terms for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, revenue, business, goodwill, opportunity or anticipated savings, or loss or corruption of data, arising from use of the public website or free or trial access.

Our total liability under these Terms for all events in any 12-month period is limited to NZ$100. This limit does not apply to liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded. Liability connected with paid platform services is governed by the Services Agreement.

You are responsible for loss we reasonably suffer resulting from your material breach of these Terms, but only to the extent that our loss was caused by your breach.

Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies a right or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded. Any service warranties and remedies for a subscribing agency are addressed in the Services Agreement.

16. Your consumer and fair-trading rights

Nothing in these Terms limits the Fair Trading Act 1986 or Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 where those laws apply and cannot be contracted out of. If you acquire paid services in trade for business purposes, any agreed contracting-out provisions will be set out in the written Services Agreement and will apply only where lawful and fair and reasonable.

If you access the Platform from Australia, Australian laws, including the Australian Consumer Law, may give you rights that cannot be excluded. These Terms do not exclude those rights.

17. If we update these Terms

We may update these Terms to reflect changes to the Platform, our practices or the law. We will publish the current version and effective date on the website. Changes will apply from their stated effective date and will not affect rights or obligations that arose before that date. If a change materially reduces a registered user's rights, we will give reasonable advance notice where practicable. If you continue to use the Platform after the effective date, the updated Terms will apply. If you do not agree with an update, please stop using the Platform.

Changes to a Services Agreement must be made in accordance with that agreement.

18. General

These Terms, the Privacy Policy and any terms expressly incorporated into them are the entire agreement about use of The Rental Home public website and any Platform access not governed by a Services Agreement.

If a provision is unlawful or unenforceable, it will be modified to the minimum extent needed or severed, and the remaining provisions continue. A delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms without our written consent. We may transfer ours as part of a genuine restructure, financing or sale of our business, provided this does not reduce any non-excludable rights.

New Zealand law governs these Terms. You and we submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the New Zealand courts for all matters relating to these Terms and your use of the Platform.

19. We are here to help

If you have a question, concern or complaint about these Terms, please contact us: