Terms of Use of the Property Manager Portal
Applicability of these Terms
These Terms apply to your use of the Property Manager Portal. We may change these Terms at any time by posting changes online.
We use the phrase "these Terms" to cover all of these Terms of Use of the Property Manager Portal and any changes to them.
Please read these Terms carefully before you start using the Property Manager Portal. By using the Property Manager Portal you agree to be bound by these Terms, and as such, these Terms will form an agreement between you and us. If you do not accept them, you should not use the Property Manager Portal.
If we post changes to these Terms online, your continued use of the Property Manager Portal will indicate your acceptance of those changes.
In these Terms:
"You" means the person (includes a corporation sole, and also a body of persons, whether incorporated or unincorporated) accessing or using the Property Manager Portal and "your" has a corresponding meaning. For the avoidance of doubt, in the case of an organisation (such as a law firm) that permits multiple staff members to use the organisation’s login user name and password, “you” and “your” includes reference to the organisation as a legal entity itself and/or each individual staff member the organisation allows to use its login details as the context requires.
"We" means Tauranga City Council. "Our" and "us" has a corresponding meaning.
“Property Manager Portal” means the Tauranga City Council Property Manager Portal which is a website providing online services relating to rates.
Your responsibilities
Use of the Property Manager Portal is restricted to users who have registered with us. You must keep your registration codes (including the customer number and organisation name we provide to you), your user name and passwords confidential and must not disclose them to any third party. When your user name and password have been successfully used to log in to the Property Manager Portal, we may assume that any searches, transaction requests or other instructions we receive during that login session are authorised by you, and we will hold you responsible for any actions performed on the Property Manager Portal during that session.
You may only search and inspect the rates records for a rating unit if you are one of the persons specified in section 38(1) of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002, which includes:
- the ratepayer
- a person who is authorised by the ratepayer to do so;
- a person who has become liable to pay the rates in respect of the unit under section 61 or section 62 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002;
- a solicitor, a person (not being a lawyer) who provides conveyancing services, a real estate agent, or any other person, who:
- is a party to (or acting as an agent for a party to) a transaction relating to the rating unit; and
- reasonably requires the information in the rates record for the purposes of the transaction.
You may only make a request for a transaction (such as to book a final water meter reading or cancel a direct debit) on the Property Manager Portal if you are the ratepayer or the ratepayer is your client and the ratepayer has authorised you to make the request on his/her behalf.
Prior to each search of the Property Manager Portal, you will be required to declare accordingly that your search and any related transactions is for legitimate purposes and you are either the ratepayer or have the ratepayer’s permission.
You agree to use the Property Manager Portal in a responsible manner that:
- complies with all applicable laws and regulations;
- complies with these Terms, and any policies and instructions for use of the Property Manager Portal provided by us;
- does not infringe the rights of anyone else, nor restrict or inhibit their use and enjoyment of the Property Manager Portal.
In particular, you agree not to:
- knowingly or recklessly use, or attempt to use, any of our services provided on the Property Manager Portal for a purpose for which it was not intended, including any unlawful purpose;
- damage or harm the Property Manager Portal, or any underlying or connected network or system;
- introduce any content or code to the Property Manager Portal which is technologically harmful;
- upload or post any content on the Property Manager Portal (or use the Property Manager Portal to transmit any communication) which is illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, infringing of intellectual property rights, invasive of privacy or otherwise objectionable.
In addition, when posting or uploading content to the Property Manager Portal:
- you must make sure all information you provide to us is correct, complete and kept current; and
- you agree that any such content may be used, copied, distributed or disclosed by us.
You must notify our Revenue team immediately if you know, or have reason to believe, that there has been, or is about to be, fraudulent or other unlawful use of any of our services provided on the Property Manager Portal.
Security
Information transmitted over the internet is inherently insecure. However, we have physical, electronic and managerial processes in place to protect the information we collect via the Property Manager Portal. Any information sent through the Property Manager Portal is passed through a secure server using encryption technology. All stored customer data is protected with secure passwords, user log-ons and other security procedures.
While we make every reasonable effort to keep information and materials on the Property Manager Portal secure and confidential, if appropriate, we are not responsible for any breach of security that is out of our control.
You are responsible for taking all reasonable steps to:
- prevent someone misusing or getting unauthorised access to your computer system or to any codes or passwords you have to access the Property Manager Portal, and
- ensure your computer system and data are free of viruses and other forms of corruption.
Links to external sites
For your convenience the Property Manager Portal contains links to other sites that are external to us and are not under our control. While we take reasonable care in selecting linked sites, the inclusion of any such link does not imply endorsement, investigation or verification by us of the linked sites
We are not responsible for, and make no representations, warranties or conditions concerning, the contents or operation of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site. It is your responsibility to make your own decisions about the accuracy, currency, reliability and correctness of information contained in linked external sites
Suspension or cancellation of your access
We may suspend or cancel your access to the Property Manager Portal without notice to you if we consider that:
- disabling your access is necessary to maintain the integrity or security of the Property Manager Portal, our other services or any organisation or person; or
- the access is being misused or has otherwise been compromised; or
- you breach these Terms.
Where appropriate, we will notify you of any suspension or cancellation of your access as soon as practicable after doing so.
Your liability
You indemnify us for all claims, damages and liabilities (including our liability to a third party), losses and expenses (including costs as between lawyer and client) arising directly or indirectly as a result of your breach of these Terms.
In addition, if you knowingly access or use, or attempt to access or use (or allow an unauthorised person to access or use), any of our services on the Property Manager Portal for an unlawful purpose (including but not limited to fraud or attempted fraud or hacking or attempted hacking), you will be liable to pay any party (or us on a party’s behalf) the amount of the loss suffered by them caused directly or indirectly by your unlawful actions. For the avoidance of doubt, this clause is not intended to confer benefits enforceable by third parties under the Contracts (Privity) Act 1982.
If you breach these Terms, without prejudice to the other remedies available to us, we may make a complaint to the New Zealand Law Society or other appropriate professional body requesting they investigate and take disciplinary action relating to your conduct.
Disclaimer
We have made every reasonable effort to provide accurate and current information on this Property Manager Portal. However, we do not present this information as advice and do not accept responsibility for actions taken based on reading it.
The Property Manager Portal is under constant review, and the content may change without notice.
The Property Manager Portal (and its content) is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We reserve the right to withdraw or amend the Property Manager Portal at any time.
We do not guarantee that:
- Property Manager Portal visitors will have uninterrupted or error-free access to, and use of, the Property Manager Portal;
- the Property Manager Portal or any files available for downloading will be error-free or free from viruses, faults or defects;
- the content of the Property Manager Portal is accurate, complete, or suitable for a particular purpose. Property Manager Portal visitors must rely on their own judgement in relation to any matter of that type.
We will not be liable for any loss or damage (direct or otherwise) you suffer in connection with your use of the Property Manager Portal or of any linked website or your use of, or reliance on, content contained on or accessed through the Property Manager Portal or any linked website. We also exclude any condition or warranty that could be implied into these terms (but only to the extent that this is allowed by law).
Privacy Statement
The collection and use of personal information by us is regulated by the Privacy Act 1993. Under this Act, personal information may be collected only for a lawful purpose connected with one of our functions or activities and only if necessary for that purpose. Such information must, as a general rule, be collected directly from the individual concerned and that person must be told why the information is needed.
We may collect personal information about you in relation to the Property Manager Portal when:
- you are registering or logging in to use the Property Manager Portal;
- you are posting any content or transmitting any messages on or through the Property Manager Portal;
- you communicate with us (verbally or in writing) in relation to the Property Manager Portal.
In each case, we will only use this personal information for the purpose for which it was collected. This includes the administration and evaluation of the Property Manager Portal, improving our services and provision of them to you, and verification of identity. It may also include specific purposes notified to you on the Property Manager Portal for specific services. We may also collect personal information for a purpose required or permitted by the Privacy Act 1993 or otherwise required or permitted by law. We may use your information to provide you with information about our services that we think might be of interest to you. If you ask us not to provide you with this information, we will comply with your request. We will keep any personal information you provide secure and will not disclose it to any other parties without your prior consent or as required or permitted by the Privacy Act 1993 or otherwise required or permitted by law.
If we consider that you have breached these Terms or any applicable law, we may provide your personal details as we see fit to enable us or any third party to investigate, take court or disciplinary proceedings, enforce or apply these Terms, or to protect any party's rights, property or safety.
You may seek access to personal information held about you by us in accordance with your rights under the Privacy Act 1993. You have the right to ask to have information corrected or deleted. To protect your privacy, and that of others, we may ask you to verify your identity as part of actioning an access or correction request.
All enquiries about or formal requests for information in terms of the Privacy Act 1993 (or the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987) should be made in writing to:
Tauranga City Council
Private Bag 12022
Tauranga 3143
For more detailed information about the Privacy Act you can refer to the Privacy Commissioner's website.
Summary of the Privacy Act 1993 - Privacy Commissioner's website
If you are concerned that we may have breached the Privacy Act or if you unsure of our obligations, you can call the Privacy Commissioner's Privacy Hotline: 0800 803 909.
Copyright
© Tauranga City Council 2018.
This Property Manager Portal and the content on this Property Manager Portal is owned or otherwise provided by Tauranga City Council. All rights reserved ®. All material on this Property Manager Portal, including without limitation, text, images, graphics, layout, look-and-feel and any other information contained on or in this Property Manager Portal (collectively, "Content") is subject to copyright and other proprietary rights. All images are, unless otherwise stated, Copyright © Tauranga City Council 2018.
Externally sourced content or material is copyright to the respective provider.
Property Manager Portal visitors may reproduce, store and use the content of this Property Manager Portal for legitimate purposes only as explained under “Your responsibilities” above. Any reproduction must include a prominent acknowledgement of Tauranga City Council’s rights in the relevant content.
Except as stated in the above paragraphs, no portion of the content of the Property Manager Portal, or the Council logo(s), may be copied or used without the written permission of the Council.
Disputes
If you have a dispute with us in connection with these Terms or any of our services you must first call our Team Leader: Revenue. Both you and our Team Leader: Revenue will use all reasonable efforts in good faith to resolve the dispute. If you and our Team Leader: Revenue are unable to resolve the dispute to your satisfaction, you may ask the Team Leader: Revenue to escalate the dispute to his/her manager (the Financial Controller), or general manager (the Chief Financial Officer), or the Chief Executive.
We will promptly contact you and will endeavour to resolve the dispute with you. If, following escalation, the dispute is still not resolved to your satisfaction, you agree to attempt in good faith to settle the dispute with us by mediation before commencing legal proceedings or making a complaint to the Ombudsman.
Invalidity or unenforceability
If any of these Terms or their application to any person or circumstances is, to any extent, held to be invalid or unenforceable:
- the remainder of these Terms or the application of such Terms to any other person or circumstances shall not be affected;
- each term shall be valid and enforceable to the extent permitted by law; and
- the invalid or unenforceable term will be deemed to be amended to reflect, as nearly as possible, the original intention (as determined from this Property Manager Portal).
Governing law
The Property Manager Portal is governed by the laws of New Zealand. When you access the Property Manager Portal, you submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the New Zealand courts.
Last updated July 2018