Terms and Conditions

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF WEBSITE USE

The www.hobanz.org.nz website (the “Site”) is an online information and education service provided by the Home Owners and Buyers Association of New Zealand Inc (HOBANZ).  HOBANZ is an incorporated society and not-for-profit organisation based in and governed by the laws of New Zealand. 

Your use of the Site is subject to these Terms and Conditions so please read them carefully. By accessing and using the Site you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.  If you do not wish to be bound by these terms and conditions you must not access the Site.

  1. Definitions:

    1. A “user” is someone who is a casual user or Member who accesses, browses, crawls, scrapes, or in any way uses the Site. The terms “you” and “your” refer to you, as a user of the Site. The terms “we”, “us”, “our” refer to HOBANZ and “Site” refers to HOBANZ’s website with the following domain name: www.hobanz.org.nz.

    2. “Content” means text, images, photos, video, material and all other forms of data or communication including downloadable guides.

    3. “Your Content” means Content that you submit or transmit to or through the Site from time to time, such as your experiences, reviews, questions, ideas, suggestions, documents or proposals and any other information that you post on the Site or send to HOBANZ via the “contact us” facility on the Site or directly via email.  This does not include any personal information such as your name, address or contact details which are otherwise subject to the HOBANZ Privacy and Information Security Policy.

    4. “Site Content” means all of the Content that is made available on the Site, including but not limited to Your Content and any Third Party Content.

    5. “Member” is person registered with HOBANZ as an Individual member or a Friend of HOBANZ, and also includes those Members who have been granted Guardian or Life Membership of HOBANZ, or any other category of membership created from time to time by the HOBANZ Board.

    6. “Registration Data” is the data required to be entered into the form when registering as a Member.

 

  1. Use of the Site

    1. We grant you permission to use the Site subject to your acceptance of these terms and conditions.

    2. You must take your own precautions to ensure that the process that you employ for accessing the Site does not expose you to the risk of viruses, malicious computer code or other forms of interference that may damage your computer system. HOBANZ does not accept responsibility or liability for any interference or damage to your computer system that arises in connection with your use of the Site or any linked website. 

    3. Due to technical difficulties that may arise from time to time, scheduled maintenance or any other issue outside of the control of HOBANZ the uninterrupted availability of the Site is not guaranteed.

    4. We reserve the right to modify, update, or discontinue the Site at our sole discretion, at any time, for any or no reason, and without notice or liability.

    5. All information provided on the Site is intended to be general in nature, and you should not rely solely on it in connection with the making of any decision. While we have no reason to believe that any information contained on the Site is inaccurate, incomplete or misleading, we do not warrant the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of such information. HOBANZ does not accept any responsibility or liability for any loss or damage suffered as a result of reliance by you upon the accuracy, completeness or currency of information contained on the Site.

    6. You are advised to seek professional advice specific to your particular issue or circumstances and any Content on this Site will not substitute or is intended to substitute for professional advice given on the subject matter covered.  Although HOBANZ has conducted thorough research to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information contained on the Site, neither HOBANZ or any of its officers, employees or contractors assume any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions or any other inconsistency contained on the Site.

    7. The Site does not intend nor infer to give any legal advice.  All information provided on the Site or through correspondence are suggestions and advice based on information and experience built up by HOBANZ over the years.  Whilst HOBANZ can provide guidance and advice to enable you to adequately instruct legal counsel, you should address your questions and/or concerns that are of a legal nature to a lawyer specialising in the area of concern.

    8. HOBANZ does not endorse the use of any product, manufacturer, builder, contractor, tradesman, or professional or service provider related or otherwise to the construction industry that may be featured from time to time on the Site as a contributor, supporter, sponsor or donor.  Accordingly you are advised to undertake your own due diligence.

    9. Although HOBANZ will attempt to delete objectionable messages posted on the Site from time to time, it operates in real time and does not necessarily review material before it is posted.  We reserve the right to modify or delete messages that contain content that is objectionable or has personally identifiable information. 

    10. All messages express the views of the Member’s, and neither HOBANZ, its officers, employees or contractors, nor its affiliates, partners, sponsors or supporters will be responsible for any content, any posting or any message posted by Member’s.

    11. We reserve the right to exercise whatever lawful means we deem necessary to prevent unauthorized access to or use of the Site, including, but not limited to, technological barriers, IP mapping, and contacting your Internet Service Provider (ISP) regarding such unauthorized use.

 

  1. Registering as a Member

    1. Some features and certain areas of this Site may be restricted to Members only. In order to obtain full access to the Site you must register as a Member.

    2. In registering as a Member you agree to abide by the Rules of HOBANZ as amended from time to time. You are also required to provide your real name, email address and complete and accurate information about yourself as required to be entered into all fields of the registration form.  You must not impersonate anyone, create an account using a false name or pseudonym, or for anyone other than yourself, or provide an email address, address or telephone contact details other than your own.

    3. If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, or HOBANZ has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, HOBANZ has the right to suspend or terminate your membership and refuse any and all current or future use of the Site.

    4. We may periodically undertake any steps at our discretion to verify and validate the accuracy of User information including information submitted during registration.  If we are unable to verify the accuracy of User information to our satisfaction, we may take precautionary measures, including, but not limited to blocking User access without need for substantiation to the User concerned. 

    5. You must maintain and promptly update the Registration Data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete.

    6. Unless you expressly opt out when registering as a Member you unreservedly grant us permission to use your email address to send you correspondence, information bulletins, alerts or offers from our affiliates, partners, sponsors or supporters.  You are able to opt out by emailing us at admin@hobanz.org.nz.

    7. Members must not use their membership of HOBANZ to promote their own business activities in any way unless expressly provided for in a sponsorship or supporters agreement as between the relevant parties, or as a member of the HOBANZ Trusted Provider Network if their particular service, trade or product offering is covered by the HOBANZ Trusted Provider Network.

    8. Personal information gathered during the process of registering to become a Member of HOBANZ is held securely as per the HOBANZ Privacy and Information Security Policy.

    9. You acknowledge that the role of HOBANZ Consulting Limited is one of support, guidance, and facilitation.  While HOBANZ has amassed a significant level of industry knowledge and experience, its directors, employees, and contractors do not hold themselves out to be industry professionals such as (but not limited to) Quantity Surveyors, Building Consultants,  Builders, Architects, or Lawyers.  Such professionals will need to be engaged by you as appropriate either upon the recommendation of HOBANZ or otherwise.


 

  1. Restrictions on Use of the Site

    1. You agree that you will not, and will not assist or enable others to:

      1. remove or modify any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notice on the Site or on any materials printed or copied off of the Site, or;

      2. use the Site to violate any third-party right, including any breach of confidence, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral right, privacy right, right of publicity, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right, or;

      3. use the Site to post any Content that contains in part or whole, any virus or malware code, or is false, defamatory, unlawful, tortuous, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, impersonal, profane, ethnically and/or sexually objectionable or threatening, or to post any advertisement, material harmful to minors, chain letters, solicitation or other commercial message, or to post material that is illegally invasive of another person’s privacy, or;

      4. use the Site in a manner that may create a conflict of interest, such as trading reviews with other business owners or writing or soliciting shill reviews, or;

      5. use the Site in violation of these terms and conditions or any applicable law.

    2. If you wish to provide a hypertext or other link to the Site on any other website, you must contact HOBANZ to obtain our written permission. We may or may not consent to you linking another website to the Site, and the decision is at our sole and absolute discretion.


 

  1. Your Content

    1. You warrant that Your Content does not contain the confidential or proprietary information of third parties and you accept that we are under no obligation of confidentiality, express or implied, with respect to Your Content.

    2. With reference to any ideas, suggestions, documents or proposals in Your Content you agree that we may have something similar already under consideration or in development.

    3. You agree to irrevocably give HOBANZ permission to use Your Content for any purpose and grant a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual license, with the right to sub-license, to reproduce, distribute, transmit, create derivative works of, publicly display and publicly perform any materials and other information (including, without limitation, ideas contained therein for new or improved products and services) you submit to any areas of the Site (such as bulletin boards, forums and newsgroups) or by the “contact us” facility or e-mail to HOBANZ by all means and in any media now known or hereafter developed. You agree that you shall have no recourse against HOBANZ for any alleged or actual infringement or misappropriation of any proprietary right in your communications to HOBANZ.

    4. You also irrevocably grant the Site’s users the right to access Your Content in connection with their use of the Site.

    5. The Site may display advertisements and other information adjacent to or included with Your Content on the Site and you are not entitled to any compensation for such advertisements.


 

  1. Responsibility for Your Content

    1. You alone are responsible for Your Content. You assume all risks associated with Your Content, including anyone’s reliance on its accuracy, completeness or usefulness, or any disclosure by you of information in Your Content that makes you personally identifiable.

    2. You represent that you own, or have the necessary permissions to use, and authorise the use of, Your Content as described herein.  You may not imply that Your Content is in any way sponsored or endorsed by HOBANZ.

    3. You may expose yourself to liability if, for example, Your Content violates any third-party right, including any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral right, privacy right, right of publicity, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right; contains material that is false, intentionally misleading, or defamatory; contains material that is unlawful, including illegal hate speech or pornography; exploits or otherwise harms minors; or violates or advocates the violation of any law or regulation.


 

  1. Intellectual Property Rights

    1. Copyright of all text, graphics, logos and designs used in this website is owned or licensed by HOBANZ. You may not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, or distribute, in any manner, the material on the site, including text, graphics, code and/or software. 

    2. We own the Site Content, including but not limited to text, visual interfaces, interactive features, graphics, design, compilation, computer code, products, software, aggregate user review ratings, and all other elements and components of the Site excluding User Content and Third Party Content. 

    3. You are not permitted to modify, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works or adaptations of, publicly display or in any way exploit any of the Site Content in whole or in part without express written consent from HOBANZ.  Except as expressly and unambiguously provided herein, we do not grant you any express or implied rights, and all rights in and to the Site and the Site Content are retained by us.

    4. Any content or materials used with permission, in part or in whole, shall give proper credit to the Site and HOBANZ News articles posted and/or links provided to articles on the Site are property of the originating site and protected by copyright laws.  Links to the originating site, publisher, and/or owner that article was obtained from shall be included. These articles are provided for informational purposes only and it is not the intention of HOBANZ to infer or imply any ownership or rights to them or an endorsement of the content.  We also own the copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade names, and other intellectual and proprietary rights throughout the world (the “IP Rights”) associated with the Site Content and the Site, which are protected by copyright, trade dress, patent, trademark laws and all other applicable intellectual and proprietary rights and laws.  As such, you may not modify, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works or adaptations of, publicly display or in any way exploit any of the Site Content in whole or in part except as expressly authorized by us.  Except as expressly and unambiguously provided herein, we do not grant you any express or implied rights, and all rights in and to the Site and the Site Content are retained by us.

    5. You may print and download portions of material from the different areas of the Site solely for your own non-commercial use provided that you agree not to change or delete any copyright or proprietary notices from the materials. 

    6. Any word or device to which is attached the ® or TM symbol is a registered trademark. If you use any of our trademarks in reference to our activities, products or services, you must include a statement attributing that trademark to us.

You must not use any of our trademarks:

  1. in or as the whole or part of your own trademarks

  2. in connection with activities, products or services that are not ours

  3. in a manner that may be confusing, misleading or deceptive

  4. in a manner that disparages us or our information, products or services (including this website).


 

  1. Privacy and Information Security

    1. For information about how we handle your personal information, including registration data, cookies and credit card details please read our Privacy and Information Security Policy.


 

  1. Disclaimers

    1. HOBANZ disclaims all liability for any loss or damage arising out of your use of the Site and Site content.  Your use of the Site and Site content is at your own discretion and risk, and you will be solely responsible for any resulting loss or damage, including but not limited to any loss of data or damage to your computer from viruses that may be downloaded to your computer in the course of using the site.

    2. HOBANZ also disclaims all liability for any loss or damage arising out of your communications or dealings with any of the providers, advertisers, or users on the site.  Your communications or dealings with such providers, advertisers, and users are solely between you and them.

    3. HOBANZ does not accept any responsibility or liability for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary or punitive damage, or for any loss of profit, income or any intangible losses or any claims, costs expenses, or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), equity or otherwise, arising directly or indirectly from, or connected with, your use of the Site of Site Content or any linked website, or your reliance on information contained in or accessed through the Site, or the online purchase of goods, including the failure of any order to be processed or any goods to be delivered.

    4. To the extent permitted by law, any condition or warranty, whether express or otherwise implied in these terms and conditions, including fitness for purpose, is hereby excluded. However, nothing in these terms and conditions is intended to have the effect of contracting out of the provisions of the New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 except to the extent permitted by that Act, and these terms and conditions are to be modified to the extent necessary to give effect to that intention.

    5. If you are using this website or purchasing goods for business purposes, you agree that the New Zealand Consumers Guarantees Act 1993 does not apply.

 

  1. Indemnity

    1. You agree to indemnify and hold the Site, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, any related companies, suppliers, licensors and partners, and the officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents and representatives of each of them harmless, including costs, liabilities and legal fees, from any claim or demand made by any third party due to or arising out of your access to or use of the Site, your violation of the Terms & Conditions of Use, or the infringement by you, or any third party using your account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity.

    2. Where the law does not recognize a cap on liability and/or indemnity obligations, you agree to hold the Site and HOBANZ harmless and be fully responsible for any loss, liability and/or legal fees that arise from the violation of these Terms & Conditions of Use.


 

  1. Links to Third Party Sites

    1. The Site may include links to other websites (each, a “Third Party Site”).  We do not control any Third Party Site, and you agree that we are not responsible for the availability of such Sites.  Links to websites outside of the Site are provided as a courtesy only and does not mean that HOBANZ has looked at, viewed, or researched all these sites, included content, or endorses the site, products, and/or services related to the site.  In the event the sites referenced herein contain material offensive to you in any manner we apologise and disclaim any responsibility of such material. 

    2. Links to legal, professional, and governmental agencies are for reference only and does not imply or infer that this site is providing any type of legal or professional advice, information or consultation on any matters contained in the Site.  No warranty express or implied is given by HOBANZ in respect to the accuracy or completeness of any information or content on any Third Party Site.


 

  1. Notice of Objection to Site Content

    1. Any content posted on the Site has been created by HOBANZ or extracted from the public domain, provider or user content or has been legally obtained from any Third Party site. 

    2. Any objection to Site Content should be notified in writing to HOBANZ. HOBANZ will make commercially reasonable efforts to redress valid objections.


 

  1. Miscellaneous

    1. If there is any dispute about or involving the Site, you agree that any such dispute will be governed by the laws of New Zealand.  Any controversy or claim arising out of or relating to these terms and conditions, or the breach thereof, shall be settled by arbitration administered by the Auckland District Law Society and judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator(s) may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof.

    2. Any failure on our part to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these terms and conditions shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.  The failure of either party to exercise in any respect any right provided for herein shall not be deemed a waiver of any further rights hereunder.

  2. Termination

    1. We may terminate or suspend your ability to use the Site, in whole or in part, at our sole discretion, for any or no reason, and without notice or liability of any kind. For example, we may terminate or suspend your ability to use the Site if you misuse the Site, are considered to be in breach of these Terms and Conditions or your Membership of HOBANZ is terminated in accordance with the Rules of the Association.

    2. You may terminate by discontinuing your use of any and all parts of the Site and resigning your membership in accordance with the Rules of the Association. You acknowledge and agree that even if you discontinue your use of the site or Membership, we may continue to display Your Content on the Site.

    3. In the event of any termination, whether by you or us, Sections 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 13 of the Terms of Use will continue in full force and effect, including our right to use Your Content as detailed in Section 5.


 

  1. Severability
    The illegality, invalidity or unenforceability of any part of these Terms and Conditions will not affect the legality, validity or enforceability of the remainder.

 

  1. Changes to these Terms and Conditions

    1. HOBANZ may modify these terms and conditions at any time without notice, and such modifications shall be effective immediately upon posting of the modified terms and conditions in this space. You agree to review the terms and conditions periodically to be aware of such modifications and your continued access or use of the site shall be deemed your conclusive acceptance of the modified terms and conditions.

These Terms and Conditions were last updated: 31 October 2014