This website http://flatmates.com.au (Website) (including all subsidiaries), is owned, operated and maintained by Flatmates.com.au Pty Ltd (Flatmates.com.au). Flatmates.com.au provides an online community that enables:
People with accommodation looking for a tenant or co-tenant to
:
a. Create a Listing for their rental properties by uploading Content; and
b. Search Listings for people who are seeking to rent accommodation as a tenant or co-tenant; and
People seeking to rent accommodation to:
a. create a Listing for themselves by uploading Content; and
b. search for rental properties and to get in contact with people who have accommodation to rent;
(the Services).
By accessing, registering on and/or using the Website, or using the Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions of Use.
Flatmates.com.au may, in its sole discretion, modify, vary, amend or revise these Terms and Conditions of Use (including, without limitation, any Services provided under these Terms and Conditions of Use) at any time, and you agree to be bound by those varied Terms and Conditions of Use. While Flatmates.com.au will endeavour to notify you of any major changes to these Terms and Conditions of Use from time to time, you agree that you will periodically review the most up-to-date version of these Terms and Conditions of Use.
In these Terms and Conditions of Use:
a. If you upload Content and/or create a Listing:
b. If you use the Services in a way that breaches these Terms and Conditions of Use or we deem any Content or Listing on the Website to be unacceptable, Flatmates may take action remedy this, including but not limited to, amending or deleting the Content or Listing, adjusting access to your Account, terminating your Account or any other action that we determine appropriate in our sole and absolute discretion.
c. If Flatmates.com.au determines that any Content or Listing has been inactive for 7 days or longer, it may remove that Content or Listing in its sole and absolute discretion.
d.Discretion is granted to Flatmates.com.au to delete, deactivate or edit any Content or Listings that are duplicated, breach our Terms and Conditions or are found to be inappropriate.
e.Flatmates.com.au does not make any representation or provide any warranty in respect of any user of the Website including, without limitation, any representation or warranty in respect of the suitability, behavioural characteristics of or creditworthiness of a user as a tenant or prospective tenant of any accommodation the subject of a Listing.
a. If you use the Website to browse or search Listings seeking accommodation or a prospective tenant to fill vacant accommodation:
b. Flatmates.com.au does not make any representation or provide any warranty in respect of the Content of any Listing, of any user of the Website or any accommodation or users the subject of a Listing including, without limitation, any representation or warranty in respect of the suitability or behavioural characteristics of a user as a landlord, co-tenant or prospective landlord or co-tenant of any accommodation the subject of a Listing or the condition of any such accommodation.
c.Flatmates.com.au does not inspect any accommodation that is the subject of a Listing.
d. Flatmates.com.au does not vet, question, or check any person who creates an Account on the Website. Flatmates.com.au does not conduct any identity or personal checks on any person who creates an Account on the Website.
e. Flatmates.com.au does not vet, question, or check any person who is the subject of a Listing. Flatmates.com.au does not conduct any identity or personal checks on any person who is the subject of a Listing.
f.Flatmates.com.au does not vet, question, or check any person who creates a Listing offering accommodation, or any person who uploads Content for offering accommodation. Flatmates.com.au does not conduct any identity or personal checks on any person who creates a Listing offering accommodation, or any person who uploads Content for offering accommodation.
g. Flatmates.com.au does not check, either by itself or through an independent third party, the truth, accuracy or completeness of any Content or the accuracy of any location details available in respect of a Listing including, without limitation, location details provided by use of Google’s Google Maps service. Your use of Google Maps is subject to the Google Maps Terms of Service and Google Privacy Policy.
a. To publish Content, you must register with Flatmates.com.au by providing certain information to Flatmates.com.au including your name, email address and your mobile telephone number (Account).
b. After creating an Account but before publishing Content, you must enter an activation code sent by Flatmates.com.au to your mobile telephone number.
c. You represent and warrant that you are the account holder for the mobile telephone number provided to Flatmates.com.au when registering your Account.
d. You must:
e. You represent and warrant that the information you provide to Flatmates.com.au to open an Account is true and correct. If, at any time during the term of your Account, any of that information ceases to be true and correct, you undertake to notify Flatmates.com.au of the change to that information as soon as is reasonably practicable.
f. Any personal information you provide to Flatmates.com.au will be treated in accordance Flatmates.com.au’s Privacy Policy available here: info.flatmates.com.au/privacy.
g. You may not use another user’s Account, or allow anyone else to use your Account, without Flatmates.com.au’s express prior written permission.
h. You are solely responsible for any activity which occurs on your Account.
i. You must keep your Account details, including your password, Facebook login details and other other verification details, secure at all time and must immediately notify Flatmates.com.au of any breach, or any suspected breach, of the security of or unauthorised access to your Account.
Flatmates.com.au may, in its absolute discretion, suspend or terminate your Account if:
a. you breach or violate any term or condition of these Terms and Conditions of Use; or
b. in Flatmates.com.au’s sole opinion, your ongoing use of the Service will bring, or may bring, the reputation of Flatmates.com.au into disrepute or cause Flatmates to be in breach of an applicable law.
You must not, and must not attempt to:
a. use the Website for any purpose other than for the purpose of offering to rent accommodation or seeking to rent accommodation;
b. use the Website or the Services in any way that causes, or is likely to cause the Website or access to it to be interrupted, damaged, rendered less efficient or in a way that impairs the effectiveness or functionality of the Website;
c.authorise any other person to do any act which would, if that act were to be done by you, infringe any Intellectual Property Rights or us, our licensors or third parties;
d. reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, modify, translate, or otherwise uncover the source code of any software forming part of the Website;
e.capture or copy any software on the Website for any reason whatsoever (temporary copies for facilitating a technical computing process excepted);
f. hack, infiltrate or otherwise do anything which may compromise the Website;
g. cause Flatmates.com.au to lose (in whole or in part) the services of Flatmates.com.au’s internet service providers (ISPs) or other suppliers;
h. introduce any computer viruses, macro viruses, trojan horses, worms or anything else designed to interfere with, interrupt or disrupt the normal operating procedures of a computer or to surreptitiously intercept, access without authority or expropriate any system, data or personal information;
i. prevent or restrict us from complying with any applicable law, industry code or court order;
j. use the Website or any of the Services for any improper or unlawful purpose, causing a nuisance or causing the operation of any of the Services to be jeopardised or impaired;
k. use the Website or any of the Services to provide, to aid, abet, procure, counsel or assist another person to provide, or to encourage, solicit or entice the provision of, any services of a sexual nature for monetary or non-monetary consideration;
l. use the Website or any of the Services to create, host or transmit any defamatory, offensive or obscene material or engage in activities which would cause offence to, insult, humiliate or intimidate others on the grounds of race, religion, creed, sex or gender, or sexual preference;
m. use the Website or any of the Services to harm, or attempt to harm, persons (including persons under the age of 18 years) in any way;
n. use the Website or any of the Services to create, host or transmit any material that threatens or encourages bodily harm or the destruction of property or would constitute a criminal offence or give rise to civil liability;
o.use the Website or any of the Services to create, host or transmit material which infringes the Intellectual Property Rights (including without restriction copyright, trade mark, patent, trade secret or other intellectual property rights) of any other party;
p. use the Website or any of the Services to create, host or transmit unsolicited advertising material to other users;
q. use the Website or any of the Services to collect, or attempt to collect, personal information about third parties without their knowledge or consent or to engage in screen scraping, database scraping or any other activity with the purpose of obtaining lists of users or other data;
r. use the Website or any of the Services for any activity which adversely affects the ability of other people or systems to use the Website or any of the Services, or the Internet generally, including the uploading of files that contain viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another’s computer; or
s. at any time while you are using the Website or any of the Services, impersonate any person or entity or use or provide a false name or a name that you are not authorised to use.
Flatmates.com.au will attempt to make the Website and Services available for use 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, it will be necessary for Flatmates.com.au to take-down the Website and cease providing the Services for a period of time for regular maintenance and to make improvements and if circumstances beyond Flatmates.com.au’s control exist, such as problems preventing access to internet or webhosting services. In such circumstances Flatmates.com.au will incur no liability to you for such interruption or cessation of Services no matter how such liability would otherwise arise.
From time to time, Flatmates.com.au will make available on the Website articles and other material setting out information relevant to seeking accommodation or renting accommodation, such as articles relating to tenants’ rights as tenants (Informative Content). Any Informative Content on the Website is of a general nature only and does not consider your personal objectives, financial situation or particular needs. You should not regard Informative Content as advice and you should seek professional legal, property, accounting or other advice for your specific circumstances. You should not rely on any Informative Content as the basis for taking any legal action, negotiating or entering any agreement, or incurring any financial liabilities.
a. In addition to the free Services, Flatmates.com.au provides Upgraded Services which allow users to contact other users who have Listings within the “early-bird period” (the first 14 days from activation). Users of the Upgraded Service (provided they are mobile verified) can also access mobile numbers where available.
b. Flatmates.com.au provides the following packages for free and Upgraded Services:
c. If you upgrade to a full Upgraded Service and you do not find suitable accommodation from a Listing or a suitable tenant from a Listing for available accommodation, provide that your account is active you will automatically receive a further 30 days of use of the Upgraded Service provided that you:
d. All payments for access to Upgraded Services are processed by Stripe or Braintree (a PayPal company). Flatmates.com.au does not store credit card details.
e. Once a payment for access to Upgraded Services is complete, you will get immediate access to the Upgraded Services and Flatmates.com.au will not refund any such payment under any circumstances including, without limitation, if Flatmates.com.au terminates your Access to the Website or the Services for breaching these Terms and Conditions of Use. However, a user may be eligible for a discount on any future Upgrade Service in accordance with clause 3.4(h).
f. Flatmates.com.au does not guarantee that you will find accommodation to live in if you are searching for accommodation, or find a tenant or co-tenant if you are offering accommodation, by virtue of access to an Upgraded Service.
g. Flatmates will notify a user 48 hours before an Upgrade Service is due to expire. If the user does not purchase a new Upgrade Service by the expiry date, the user will only be able to list the most recently activated Listing on Flatmates.
h. If a user upgrades to another plan during their original service, Flatmates will apply a “pay the difference” feature. For example if a user moves from a Basic Upgraded Service to a Pro-30 day Upgraded Service the remaining value of the Basic Upgraded Service will be applied as a discount to the new Pro-30 day Upgraded Service.
a. In addition to the free and Upgraded Services, Flatmates.com.au offers Boost Services which rank a user’s boosted property listing in one of the top eight spots of its suburb room search results for seven days from and including the date of registration for the boost for a fee (Boost Services).
b. Only members listing a property with an Upgraded Service are eligible to purchase Boost Services. Boost Services are limited to eight listings per suburb at any one time.
c. A boosted listing is available for a total of eight listings per suburb. If all eight boosted listings have been exhausted for a particular suburb, you will not be able to purchase a Boost Listing until there is a position available.
d. All payments for access to Boost Services are processed by Stripe or Braintree (a PayPal company). Flatmates.com.au does not store credit card details.
e. Once a payment for access to Boost Services is complete, your boosted listing will be ranked in one of the top eight spots for its suburb room search results for seven days from and including the date of registration. The ranking within boosted listings for a suburb is based upon the most recently boosted listing for that suburb. Flatmates.com.au will not refund a Boost Listings payment under any circumstances including, without limitation, if Flatmates.com.au terminates your Access to the Website or the Services for breaching these Terms and Conditions of Use.
f. If your listing is undergoing a Flatmates security check the listing may temporarily be unavailable on our site. If this is the case, your Boost Service will be paused for the time it was not available and the expiry date of your Boost Service will be extended to cover this period of delay.
a. As part of the Services, the Website allows you to upload Content for viewing by other users of the Website as part of a Listing. Each time you upload Content to the Website, you confirm your acceptance of, and your agreement to be bound by, all the terms and conditions set out in these Terms and Conditions of Use.
b. Flatmates.com.au will not review, vet or approve, and is not responsible for reviewing, vetting or approving, the Content or any part of the Content, or any material appearing in the Content, and it is the sole responsibility of the user uploading the Content to ensure that the Content or any part of the Content, or any material appearing in the Content, complies with these Terms and Conditions of Use.
At the time you upload Content, you represent and warrant that:
a. you are the owner of all Content and all Intellectual Property Rights in and to the Content and all material appearing in the Content, or you otherwise have the authorisation, permission or consent of the owner of, or any other relevant person to, the Content or any part of it or any material appearing in the Content;
b. you have the authorisation, permission or consent of each person appearing in the Content for them to appear in the Content and for you to submit that Content, make the Content available on the Website and otherwise grant the rights to Flatmates.com.au you grant under these Terms and Conditions of Use;
c. the Content or any part of it, or any material appearing in the Content, does no infringe the rights, including any Intellectual Property Rights, of any third party; and
d. the Content does not contain any material which is offensive, defamatory, discriminatory, pornographic, abusive, obscene, or otherwise illegal in any jurisdiction anywhere in the world.
Flatmates.com.au does not endorse any Content or Listing uploaded to the Website by you or any user, or any opinion, recommendation or advice expressed in the Content or Listing.
Flatmates.com.au acknowledges and agrees that no right, title and interest in and to the Content you submit to the Website is transferred to Flatmates.com.au and that it has no rights in respect of that Content except those rights granted to it under these Terms and Conditions of Use or otherwise in writing by you.
At the time you upload Content, you grant to Flatmates.com.au a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual licence to host, cache, store, maintain, use, reproduce, communicate, distribute, display, exhibit, perform, publish, broadcast, transmit, modify, prepare derivative works of, adapt, reformat, translate or otherwise exploit all or any part of the Content on the Website and any other Website which is associated with, connected to, or otherwise operated by Flatmates.com.au including, without limitation, websites owned and/or operated by persons other than Flatmates.com.au.
Flatmates.com.au, in its sole and absolute discretion, may edit, modify, block or delete any Content or any Listing, or any comments or messages made on the Website in respect of a Listing, if Flatmates.com.au determines that any of the preceding material contravenes or is likely to contravene these Terms and Conditions of Use.
You forever release Flatmates.com.au, and its directors, officers, employees, agents and contractors, for any and all claims, rights, demands, actions or suits which you have, may have or would have had, in connection with Flatmates.com.au’s exploitation of the Content or the exploitation of the Content by any of Flatmates.com.au or its directors, officers, employees, agents or contractors and whether that claim arose or arises in contract, tort (including, without limitation, negligence), under statute or otherwise.
You hereby consent to all acts or omissions by Flatmates.com.au, its licensees or others authorised by it, or its successors in title, which would otherwise constitute an infringement of any moral rights you have, or may have, in the Content or any part of it, or any material appearing in the Content, whatsoever and wheresoever subsisting throughout the world. You acknowledge that such consent is provided genuinely and includes consent for Flatmates.com.au, or any other person authorised by Flatmates.com.au, to materially alter, modify, add to and in any way change the Content or any part of it, or any material appearing in the Content, and deal with the Content or any part of it, or any material appearing in the Content, without identifying you or any third person as the author of the Content or any part of the Content, or any material appearing in the Content. You warrant that any third party who has acquired any moral rights in the Content or any part of it, or any material appearing in the Content, has also waived his or her moral rights or consented to all acts or omissions (as applicable) on terms similar to the terms set out in these Terms and Conditions of Use.
a. Flatmates.com.au may access, read, and permanently store any messages sent by you to another user of the Website using the Website’s messaging function, or sent to Flatmates.com.au using the Website’s messaging function, for the purposes of protecting the safety and security of the Website and its users. The messages sent by you may be used as the basis for removing your Content from the Website, terminating your Account, or reporting behaviour to any government law enforcement authorities.
b.Flatmates.com.au may access, read, and permanently store any Content uploaded to the Website by you for the purposes of protecting the safety and security of the website and its users. The Content uploaded by you may be used as the basis for removing your Content from the Website, terminating your Account, or reporting behaviour to any government law enforcement authorities.
c. Flatmates.com.au may access, read, and permanently store any correspondence made by you to Flatmates.com.au, including by email, post, or other messaging service, for the purposes of protecting the safety and security of the website and its users. The correspondence made by you to Flatmates.com.au may be used as the basis for removing your Content from the Website, terminating your Account, or reporting behaviour to any government law enforcement authorities.
Flatmates.com.au:
a. is not a party to any contract, arrangement or understanding between users relating to the renting of accommodation by one user to another user or users;
b. does not act, or purport to act, for or on behalf of, and is not the agent for, any user of the Website;
c.will not get involved in any dispute between users in relation to the content of any Listing or any contract, arrangement or understanding between users relating to the renting of accommodation by one user to another user or users;
d. does not collect rent or bond or facilitate the payment of rent or bond between users; or
e. may make available data relating to accommodation rental prices based on historical data collected from Listings but does not set, or provide any parameters within which to set, the price at which accommodation if offered for rent in any Listing.
a. You acknowledge and agree that all rights in the Website and all material comprised in the Website (including, but not limited to, Intellectual Property Rights, text, images, web pages, sound, software (including, code, interface and website structure) and video, and the look and feel, design and compilation thereof) (Website Content), excluding the Content, are owned by Flatmates.com.au or the supplier of the relevant material.
b. You acknowledge and agree that you are permitted to use the Website Content only as set out in these Terms and Conditions of Use or as otherwise expressly authorised in writing by Flatmates.com.au, and that you may not otherwise copy, reproduce, transmit, publicly perform, distribute, commercially exploit, adapt, translate, modify, bundle, merge, share or make available to any person, or create derivative works of the Website Content.
b.Subject to your compliance with these Terms and Conditions of Use, you may reproduce or communicate any Website Content appearing in any articles or blog posts appearing on the Website that have been posted by Flatemates.com.au as long as you credit Flatmates.com.au as the source of any such content and provide a link to the Website when reproducing or communicating such content.
Flatmates.com.au operates on a “notice and takedown basis”. If you have any objections or complaints to any content or material appearing on the Website, or if you believe that content or material posted on the Website infringes your copyright, please contact us immediately at support@flatmates.com.au.
Use of the Website and the Service is at your own risk. Both are provided on an “as is” basis, and Flatmates.com.au makes no representation, and gives no warranty or guarantee (to the extent permitted by law), as to its function or operation, or that it is free from any defects.
If the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) or any other Act (including, without limitation, equivalent country, state or territory legislation) implies into these Terms and Conditions of Use any term, or otherwise provides that any guarantee applies in relation to the services supplied under or in connection with these Terms and Conditions of Use, which, or the effect of which, cannot be excluded or modified, and if we breach such term, condition, warranty or guarantee, then Flatmates.com.au’s liability (if permitted by the relevant Act) is limited, at Flatmates.com.au’s election, to the re-supplying of the relevant services, a refund of the cost of having those services supplied or payment of the cost of having the services re-supplied.
Subject to clause 8.1 above, and to the extent permitted by law, Flatmates.com.au shall not have any liability whatsoever (whether in contract, tort including negligence, pursuant to statute or otherwise) to you for any direct or indirect loss or damage of whatsoever kind you suffer or incur as a result of, or in any way in connection with, your use of the Website or the Services, or which otherwise arises in connection with your dealings with Flatmates.com.au.
You indemnify Flatmates.com.au and its directors, officers, employees, agents and contractors, and agree to keep each of them fully indemnified, from and against any loss, claim or damages (including, without limitation, any costs (including legal costs) on a full indemnity basis) suffered, incurred or brought against any one or more of them by a third party as a result of any breach by you of these Terms and Conditions of Use or arising out of any use by you of the Website or the Services, including but not limited to the following circumstances:
a. any loss, claim or damages suffered or made by any third party arising out of or in relation to any information, material or Content that you post or communicate to the Website or us whether via a social networking site or otherwise;
b. any loss, claim or damages suffered by a third party as a result of any infringement of any rights of a third party including, without limitation, Intellectual Property Rights in any information, material or Content that you upload to the Website or provide to Flatmates.com.au;
c. any loss, claim or damages suffered by a third party as a result of any act or default committed by you and which is directly or indirectly related to any information, material or Content that you or another person upload to the Website or provide to Flatmates.com.au or your use of the Website; or
d. any loss, claim or damages suffered or alleged by a third party as a result (direct, indirect or otherwise) of any act, omission, failure or default by you or by anyone for whom you are legally responsible (vicariously or otherwise) in any way connected with your access to the Website or your Account for or use of any of the Services.
This Website may contain links to other web sites or resources operated by parties other than Flatmates.com.au. References to any products, services, processes, trade names, trade marks, or other information of third parties does not imply or constitute an endorsement, sponsorship, association with or recommendation by Flatmates.com.au. Links to third party sites not operated by Flatmates.com.au are provided to you for your convenience and/or reference only. You acknowledge and agree that Flatmates.com.au does not control such sites and Flatmates.com.au is not responsible for the content on those sites or the privacy of other practices of such sites. You further acknowledge and agree that Flatmates.com.au shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage, loss or cost whatsoever caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such sites or the contents, goods or services available on or through any such site.
Neither these Terms and Conditions nor use of the Website and/or the Services create any partnership, joint venture or agency relationship between Flatmates.com.au and users or between users. You must not enter into any agreements or incur any liabilities on behalf of Flatmates.com.au or any other user without that party’s prior written consent and must not represent that it has any authority to do so.
These Terms and Conditions of Use constitute the entire agreement and understanding between the parties with respect to its subject matter and supersede all prior or contemporaneous oral or written agreements, undertakings, or representations between the parties concerning such subject matter.
If any provision of these Terms and Conditions of Use is void, voidable, unenforceable or illegal, that provision will be read down so as to be valid and enforceable or, alternatively, will be severed from these Terms and Conditions of Use. The severance of any provision in accordance with this clause will not affect the validity or effectiveness of the remaining provisions of these Terms and Conditions of Use.
The interpretation, construction and effect of these Terms and Conditions of Use shall be governed and construed in all respects in accordance with the laws of the State of New South Wales, Australia and the parties submit to the jurisdiction of the Courts exercising jurisdiction in that State.