Co-operty Platform Terms and Conditions

Welcome to Co-operty! We provide a cloud-based platform (Platform)where you can work with others to see the data and get access to the resources you may need to help you co-purchase a property (Property) and be connected to the various services you will need to undertake this process.

In these Terms, when we say you or your, we mean both you and any entity you are authorised to represent (such as your employer). When we say we, us, or our, we mean Co-operty Services Pty Ltd (ACN 671 437 657).

These Terms form our contract with you, and set out our obligations as a service provider and your obligations as a customer. You cannot use our Services unless you agree to these Terms.

Some capitalised words in these Terms have defined meanings, and each time that word is used in these Terms it has the same meaning. You can find a list of the defined words and their meaning at the end of these Terms.

For questions about these Terms, or to get in touch with us, please email: [email protected]

These Terms were last updated on 23 April 2024.

OUR DISCLOSURES

Please read these Terms carefully before you accept. We draw your attention to the fact that:

we will handle your personal information in accordance with our privacy policy, available on our website;
subject to your Consumer Law Rights:
- (where our Services are not ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use or consumption) in respect of any failure by us to comply with relevant Consumer Law Rights, our Liability is limited (at our discretion) to supplying the Services again or paying the cost of having the Services supplied again;
- our aggregate liability to you for any Liability arising from or in connection with these Terms will be limited to the amount of any Platform Fees paid by you to us in respect of the supply of the relevant Services to which the Liability relates, or if no Platform Fee has been paid, to AU$1,000;
- we will not be liable for Consequential Loss or delays or failures in performance caused, contributed to by an event or circumstance beyond our reasonable control, or any services provided by a third party promoted or otherwise published on our Platform and with whom you enter into an agreement for services;
we may amend these Terms at any time, by providing written notice to you, and by clicking “I accept” or continuing to use our Platform after the notice or 30 days after notification (whichever date is earlier), you agree to the amended Terms. If you do not agree to the amendment, you may close your Account;
where you engage third parties to operate alongside our Services (for example, any third-party software systems you wish to integrate with our Platform), those third parties are independent of us and you are responsible for (meaning we will not be liable for) the goods or services they provide, unless we expressly agree otherwise under clause 2.7; and
we may receive a benefit (which may include a referral fee or a commission) should you visit certain third party websites through a link on our Platform, or for featuring certain goods or services on our Platform.

These Terms do not intend to limit your rights and remedies at law, including any of your Consumer Law Rights.

1. Engagement and Term

1.1 These Terms apply from when you sign up for an Account, until the date on which your Account is terminated in accordance with these Terms. We grant you a right to use our Services for this period of time only (which may be suspended or revoked in accordance with these Terms).

1.2 You must be at least 18 years old to use our Platform.

1.3 Variations: We may amend these Terms at any time, by providing written notice to you. By clicking “I accept” or continuing to use our Platform after the notice or 30 days after notification (whichever date is earlier), you agree to the amended Terms. If you do not agree to the amendment, you may close your Account.

2. Our Services

2.1 We provide the following services to you:

access to our Platform;
where you proceed with a co-ownership arrangement, access to our pro forma co-ownership agreement (Co-ownership Agreement); and
access to our troubleshooting support (Support Services), (collectively, our Services).

2.2 If you require Support Services, you may request these by getting in touch with us through our Platform.

2.3 Unless we agree otherwise, Support Services cannot be used to support any other products or services, and does not include training, installation of software or hardware, software development or the modification, deletion or recovery of data or any on-site services.

2.4 Where we require access to your premises or computer systems in order to provide our Services, you agree to provide us with such access free from risk to the safety of our employees and contractors.

2.5 Our Services do not constitute, and are not a substitute for, financial, legal, taxation or risk management advice. The co-ownership agreement is a pro forma template and may not be appropriate for all situations. You should seek independent legal advice to assess its suitability for your particular needs and to discuss any amendments. We accept no liability, and you waive and release us from any liability and for any damage caused by your reliance on the co-ownership agreement.

2.6 We will not be responsible for any other services unless expressly set out in these Terms or on our Platform.

3. Account

3.1 You must sign up for an Account in order to access and use our Platform.

3.2 While you have an Account with us, you agree to:

keep your information up-to-date (and ensure it remains true, accurate and complete);
keep usernames and passwords secure and confidential, and protect them from misuse or being stolen; and
notify us if you become aware of, or have reason to suspect, any unauthorised access to your Account or any logins linked to your Account.

3.3 We may suspend your access to our Services where we reasonably believe there has been any unauthorised access to or use of our Services (such as the unauthorised sharing of login details for our Platform). If we suspend your access to our Services, we will let you know within a reasonable time of doing so, and we will work with you to resolve the matter, or if it cannot be resolved, then we may terminate your Account and your access to our Services will end.

3.4 Taxes: You are responsible for paying any levies or taxes associated with your use of our Services, for example sales taxes, value-added taxes or withholding taxes (unless we are required by law to collect these on your behalf).

4. Platform Licence

4.1 While you have an Account, we grant you a right to use our Platform (which may be suspended or revoked in accordance with these Terms).

4.2 You may invite third parties to join our Platform, as part of the co-ownership arrangement you may enter. Their usage of the Platform will be governed by these Terms. Other than in these circumstances, your right to access the Platform cannot be passed on or transferred to any other person.

4.3 You must not:

access or use our Platform in any way that is improper or breaches any laws, infringes any person’s rights (for example, intellectual property rights and privacy rights), or gives rise to any civil or criminal liability;
interfere with or interrupt the supply of our Platform, or any other person’s access to or use of our Platform;
introduce any viruses or other malicious software code into our Platform;
use any unauthorised or modified version of our Platform, including but not limited to for the purpose of building similar or competitive software or for the purpose of obtaining unauthorised access to our Platform;
attempt to access any data or log into any server or account that you are not expressly authorised to access;
use our Platform in any way that involves service bureau use, outsourcing, renting, reselling, sublicensing, concurrent use of a single user login, or time-sharing;
circumvent user authentication or security of any of our networks, accounts or hosts or those of any third party; or
access or use our Platform to transmit, publish or communicate material that is, defamatory, offensive, abusive, indecent, menacing, harassing or unwanted.

5. Co-ownership Agreement

5.1 If you choose to use the pro-forma Co-ownership Agreement we provide as part of the Services, it is your responsibility to assess its suitability for your particular needs. We recommend you seek independent legal advice to assess its suitability and whether you require any amendments. We accept no liability, and you waive and release us from any liability and for any damage caused by your reliance on the template Co-Ownership Agreement.

5.2 By using our Services, you agree to use our Platform as specified in the Co-Ownership Agreement to record or provide notice to us of:

all adjustments to the proportion of ownership held by any of the tenants in common;
any amount spent on improvements by any party subject to the Co-Ownership Agreement;
any hardship affecting a party subject to the Co-Ownership Agreement; and
any dealing in relation to the Property including a transfer, sale, disposal, lease, alienation, declaration of trust or other dealing with any legal or equitable interest in the Property.

5.3 You must comply with our reasonable requests to arrange for a valuation of the Property as set out in the Co-Ownership Agreement.

6. Price and Payment

6.1 You agree to pay us the Platform Fee, and any other amount payable to us under these Terms, upon settlement of the Property or as otherwise set out on the Platform or in your Account.

6.2 You irrevocably authorise your legal representative involved in the settlement of the Property transaction to collect the fees owed to us on your behalf at the time of settlement.

6.3 If any payment has not been made in accordance with the above, we may (at our absolute discretion):

after a period of 5 Business Days, revoke your Platform Licence, and recover, as a debt due and immediately payable from you, our additional costs of doing so (including legal fees, debt collector fees and mercantile agent fees); and/or
charge interest at a rate equal to [the Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate, from time to time, plus 2% per annum, calculated daily and compounding monthly, on any such amounts unpaid after the due date for payment.

7. Availability, Disruption and Downtime

7.1 While we strive to always make our Services available to you, we do not make any promises that these will be available 100% of the time. Our Services may be disrupted during certain periods, including, for example, as a result of scheduled or emergency maintenance.

7.2 Our Services (including our Platform) may interact with, or be reliant on, products or services provided by third parties, such as cloud hosting service providers. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for disruptions or downtime caused or contributed to by these third parties.

7.3 We will try to provide you with reasonable notice, where possible, of any disruptions to your access to our Services.

8. Plug-ins and Third Party Services

8.1 You acknowledge and agree that the Platform may be reliant on, or interface with third party systems (Third Party Services) or third party data (Third Party Data) that are not provided by us (for example, PEXA, ASIC or other property financing services). To the maximum extent permitted by law, we shall have no Liability for any Third Party Services, any unavailability of the Platform due to a failure of the Third Party Services or any Third Party Data turning out to be inaccurate or incomplete.

8.2 You acknowledge and agree that the performance of the Platform is reliant on the accuracy and completeness of Your Data. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we shall have no Liability for the provision by you of Your Data that is inaccurate or incomplete may affect the use, output and operation of the Platform.

8.3 Nothing in the Platform or its output (including any tools, information, insights, resources, material or work) (Content) constitutes legal, tax, financial, due diligence or risk management advice. If you choose to make use of our Content, you do so at your own risk. To the extent permitted by law, we do not assume any responsibility or liability, and you waive and release us from all responsibility or liability, arising from or connected with your use or reliance on the Content provided in our Platform. We do not guarantee that any information or content featured on our Platform is more suitable than options or businesses not featured on our Platform. It is your sole responsibility to determine the suitability, reliability and usefulness of our Platform and our Content. We recommend you seek advice from a licensed professional before acting on any of our Content.

9. Intellectual Property and Data

9.1 We own all intellectual property rights in our Services (including our Platform). This includes how our Platform looks and functions, as well as our copyrighted works, trademarks, inventions, designs and other intellectual property. You agree not to copy or otherwise misuse our intellectual property without our written permission (for example, to reverse engineer or discover the source code of our intellectual property), and you must not alter or remove any confidentiality, copyright or other ownership notice placed on our Platform.

9.2 We may use any feedback or suggestions that you give us in any manner which we see fit (for example, to develop new features), and no benefit will be owed to you as a result of any use by us of your feedback or suggestions.

Your Data

9.3 You own all data, information or content we upload on your behalf (and with your instructions) into the Platform (Your Data). Your Data includes:

your personal information;
your current personal circumstances;
your desired goals for co-ownership and the financing option you may have undertaken; and
your short-term or long-term property goals.

9.4 We do not own any of Your Data, but when you enter or upload any of Your Data into our Platform, you grant us the right to access, analyse, backup, copy, store, transmit, and otherwise use Your Data while you have an Account with us (and for a reasonable period of time afterwards). We may use Your Data (or disclose it to third party service providers) to:

supply our Services to you (for example, to enable you to access and use our Services), and otherwise perform our obligations under these Terms;
diagnose problems with our Services;
improve, develop and protect our Services;
send you information we think may be of interest to you based on your marketing preferences;
perform analytics for the purpose of remedying bugs or issues with our Platform; or
perform our obligations under these Terms (as reasonably required).

8.5 You acknowledge and agree that because of the nature of the internet, the processing and transmission of Your Data by us may occur over various networks, and may be transferred unencrypted.

9.6 You are responsible for (meaning we are not liable for):

the integrity of Your Data on your systems, networks or any device controlled by you; and
backing up Your Data.

9.7 When you use our Services, we may create anonymised statistical data from Your Data and usage of our Services (for example, through aggregation). Once anonymised, we own that data and may use it for our own purposes, such as to provide and improve our Services, to develop new services or product offerings, to identify business trends, and for other uses we communicate to you. This may include making such anonymised data publicly available, provided it is not compiled using a sample size small enough to make underlying portions of Your Data identifiable.

9.8 If you do not provide Your Data to us, it may impact your ability to receive our Services.

10. Confidential Information and Personal Information

10.1 While using our Services, you may share confidential information with us, and you may become aware of confidential information about us. You agree not to use our confidential information, and to take reasonable steps to protect our confidential information from being disclosed without our permission, and we agree to do the same for your confidential information. This also means making sure that any employees, contractors, professional advisors or agents of ours or yours only have access to confidential information on a ‘need-to-know basis’ (in other words, the disclosure is absolutely necessary), and that they also agree to not misuse or disclose such confidential information.

10.2 However, either you or we may share confidential information with legal or regulatory authorities if required by law to do so.

10.3 We collect, hold and disclose and use any Personal Information you provide to us in accordance with our privacy policy, available on our website, and applicable privacy laws.

10.4 You must only disclose Personal Information to us if you have the right to do so (such as having the individual’s express consent).

10.5 We may need to disclose Personal Information to third parties, such as our related companies or our service providers (for example, IT and administrative service providers and our professional advisors).

11. Consumer Law Rights

11.1 In some jurisdictions, you may have guarantees, rights or other remedies provided by law (Consumer Law Rights), and these Terms do not restrict your Consumer Law Rights. We will only be bound by your Consumer Law Rights and the express wording of these Terms. Our liability for a breach of your Consumer Law Rights is, unless the laws of your jurisdiction state otherwise, limited to either resupplying our Services, or paying the cost of having our Services resupplied.

11.2 Subject to your Consumer Law Rights, we do not provide a refund for a change of mind or change in circumstance.

11.3 If you accept these Terms in Australia, nothing in these Terms should be interpreted to exclude, restrict or modify the application of, or any rights or remedies you may have under, any part of the Australian Consumer Law (as set out in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)).

12. Liability

12.1 To the maximum extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for, and you release us from liability for, any Liability caused or contributed to by, arising from or in connection with:

your computing environment (for example, your hardware, software, information technology and telecommunications services and systems);
any services provided by a third party promoted or otherwise published on our Platform and with whom you enter into an agreement for services; or
any use of our Services by a person or entity other than you.

12.2 Regardless of whatever else is stated in these Terms, to the maximum extent permitted by law:

neither we or you are liable for any Consequential Loss;
a party’s liability for any Liability under these Terms will be reduced proportionately to the extent the relevant Liability was caused or contributed to by the actions (or inactions) of the other party, including any failure by the other party to mitigate its loss;
(where our Services are not ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use or consumption) in respect of any failure by us to comply with relevant Consumer Law Rights, our Liability is limited (at our discretion) to supplying the Services again or paying the cost of having the Services supplied again; and
our aggregate liability to you for any Liability arising from or in connection with these Terms will be limited to the amount of any Platform Fees paid by you to us in respect of the supply of the relevant Services to which the Liability relates, or if no Platform Fees have been paid, to AU$1,000.

13. Notice Regarding Apple

13.1 To the extent that you are using or accessing our Platform on an iOS device through a mobile application from the Apple App Store, you further acknowledge and agree to the terms of this clause. You acknowledge that these Terms are between you and us only, not with Apple Inc. (Apple), and Apple is not responsible for our Platform and any content available on our Platform.

13.2 Apple has no obligation to furnish you with any maintenance and support services with respect to our Platform.

13.3 If our mobile application fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price of the mobile application to you. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Apple will have no other warranty obligation whatsoever with respect to the mobile application and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses attributable to any failure to conform to any warranty will be our responsibility.

13.4 Apple is not responsible for addressing any claims by you or any third party relating to our mobile application or your use of our mobile application, including but not limited to: (1) product liability claims; (2) any claim that our mobile application fails to conform to any applicable legal or regulatory requirement; and (3) claims arising under consumer protection or similar legislation.

13.5 Apple is not responsible for the investigation, defence, settlement and discharge of any third-party claim that our mobile application infringes that third party’s intellectual property rights.

13.6 You agree to comply with any applicable third-party terms when using our mobile application.

13.7 Apple and Apple subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms, and upon your acceptance of these Terms, Apple will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these Terms against you as a third-party beneficiary of these Terms.

13.8 You hereby represent and warrant that: (1) you are not located in a country that is subject to a U.S. Government embargo, or that has been designated by the U.S. Government as a “terrorist supporting” country; and (2) you are not listed on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

14. Termination

14.1 We may terminate these Terms (meaning you will lose access to our Services, including access to your Account) if:

where relevant, you fail to pay your Platform Fees when they are due;
you breach these Terms and do not remedy that breach within 14 days of us notifying you of that breach;
you breach these Terms and that breach cannot be remedied; or
you experience an insolvency event (including but not limited to bankruptcy, receivership, voluntary administration, liquidation, or entering into creditors’ schemes of arrangement).

14.2 You may terminate these Terms if:

we breach these Terms and do not remedy that breach within 14 days of you notifying us of that breach; or
we breach these Terms and that breach cannot be remedied.

14.3 You may also terminate these Terms at any time by notifying us through your Account or to our email for notices (as set out in clause 14.8).

14.4 Upon termination of these Terms, we will retain Your Data (including copies) as required by law or regulatory requirements and we will charge you for any applicable Platform Fee.

14.5 Termination of these Terms will not affect any other rights or liabilities that we or you may have.

15. General

15.1 Assignment: You may not transfer or assign these Terms (including any benefits or obligations you have under these Terms) to any third party without our prior written consent. We may assign or transfer these Terms to a third party, or transfer any debt owed by you to us to a debt collector or other third party.

15.2 Disputes: Neither we or you may commence court proceedings relating to any dispute, controversy or claim arising from, or in connection with, these Terms (including any question regarding its existence, validity or termination) (Dispute) unless we and you first meet (in good faith) to resolve the Dispute. Nothing in this clause will operate to prevent us or you from seeking urgent injunctive or equitable relief from a court of appropriate jurisdiction.

If the Dispute is not resolved at that initial meeting:

where you are resident or incorporated in Australia, refer the matter to mediation, administered by the Australian Disputes Centre in accordance with Australian Disputes Centre Guidelines for Commercial Mediation; or
where you are not resident or incorporated in Australia, refer the matter to arbitration administered by the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, with such arbitration to be conducted in Sydney, New South Wales, before one arbitrator, in English and in accordance with the ACICA Arbitration Rules.

15.3 Events Outside Our Control: We will not be liable for any delay or failure to perform our obligations (including our Services), if such delay or failure is caused or contributed to by an event or circumstance beyond our reasonable control.

15.4 Governing law: These Terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, and any matter relating to these Terms is to be determined exclusively by the courts in New South Wales and any courts entitled to hear appeals from those courts.

15.5 Illegal Requests: We reserve the right to refuse any request for or in relation to our Services that we deem inappropriate, unethical, unreasonable, illegal or otherwise non-compliant with these Terms.

15.6 Marketing: You agree that we may send you electronic communications about our products and services. You may opt-out at any time by using the unsubscribe function in our electronic communications.

15.7 Nature of Legal Relationship: These Terms do not create, and should not be interpreted so as to create, a partnership, joint venture, employment or agency relationship between us and you.

15.8 Notices: Any notice you send to us must be sent to the email set out at the beginning of these Terms. Any notice we send to you will be sent to the email address registered against your Account.

15.9 Survival: Clauses 7 to 13 will survive the termination or expiry of these Terms.

15.10 Third Party Sites: Our Platform may contain links to websites operated by third parties. Unless we tell you otherwise, we do not control, endorse or approve, and are not responsible for, the content on those websites. We recommend that you make your own investigations in relation to the suitability of those websites. If you purchase goods or services from a third party website linked from our Platform, those goods or services are being provided by that third party, not us. We may receive a benefit (which may include a referral fee or a commission) should you visit certain third party websites through a link on our Platform, or for featuring certain goods or services on our Platform. We will make it clear by notice to you which (if any) goods or services, or website links, we receive a benefit from by featuring them on our Platform.

16. Definitions

16.1 In these Terms:

Account means an account accessible to the individual or entity who signed up to our Services.

Consequential Loss includes any consequential loss, special or indirect loss, real or anticipated loss of profit, loss of benefit, loss of revenue, loss of business, loss of goodwill, loss of opportunity, loss of savings, loss of reputation, loss of use and/or loss or corruption of data, whether under statute, contract, equity, tort (including negligence), indemnity or otherwise. However, your obligation to pay us any amounts for access to or use of our Services (including our Platform) will not constitute “Consequential Loss”.

Liability means any expense, cost, liability, loss, damage, claim, notice, entitlement, investigation, demand, proceeding or judgment (whether under statute, contract, equity, tort (including negligence), indemnity or otherwise), howsoever arising, whether direct or indirect and/or whether present, unascertained, future or contingent and whether involving a third party or us or you or otherwise.

Personal Information means any information or opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not, and whether the information or opinion is recorded in a tangible form or not.

Platform means our cloud-based platform that we provide you with access to as part of the Services.

Platform Fees means the amount payable to us for the provision of our Services, payable upon settlement of the Property, or as otherwise specified on the Platform or in your Account.

Property means the property, site or location that is subject to a co-ownership arrangement, as facilitated by the Platform.

Services means the services we provide to you, as detailed in clause 2.1.

Your Data means the information, materials, logos, documents, qualifications and other intellectual property or data supplied by you when receiving our Services or stored by or generated by your use of our Services, including any Personal Information collected, used, disclosed, stored or otherwise handled in connection with our Services. Your Data does not include any data or information that is generated as a result of your usage of our Services that is a back-end or internal output or an output otherwise generally not available to users of our Services.