Terms & Conditions Simplified!

Last revised January 25, 2019.

Terms & Conditions Simplified!

Registration

By completing the user registration process you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions below. We know it’s a pain, but these terms and conditions are for your benefit and ours, we’ve done our best to make this stuff super clear, and easy to understand.

So here goes…

Terms of use

By using the Balo website and Balo service (the “Service”) you are agreeing to be bound by the following terms and conditions (“Terms”). As mentioned, we’ve done our best to make this stuff super clear, and simple to understand.

Acceptance of Terms

  1. You must be of legal age to enter into a binding agreement in order to accept the Terms. If you do not agree to the General Terms, do not use any of our Services. If you agree to the General Terms and do not agree to any Service Specific Terms, do not use the corresponding Service. You can accept the Terms by checking a checkbox or clicking on a button indicating your acceptance of the terms or by actually using the Services.

Description of Service

  1. We provide an array of services for online collaboration and management of real estate assets, tenancies including online rental applications, online payments, maintenance and listings (“Service” or “Services”). You may use the Services for your personal and business use or for internal business purpose in the organisation that you represent. You can create and edit content with your user account and if you choose to do so, you can publish and share such content. You may connect to the Services using any Internet browser supported by the Services, and its is your responsibility for obtaining any equipment to access such Services. In future, Balo will offer you so much more.

Subscription to Beta Service

  1. We may offer certain Services as beta services (“Beta”) for the purpose of user testing and acceptability. You agree that we have the sole authority and discretion to determine the period of time for testing and evaluation of Beta Services. We will be the sole judge of the success of such testing and the decision, if any, to offer the Beta Services as commercial services. You will be under no obligation to acquire a subscription to use any paid Service as a result of your subscription to any Beta Service. We reserve the right to fully or partially discontinue, at any time and from time to time, temporarily or permanently, any of the Beta Services with or without notice to you. You agree that Balo will not be liable to you or to any third party for any harm related to, arising out of, or caused by the modification, suspension or discontinuance of any of the Beta Services for any reason.

Payments & Fees

  1. Paying your rent via Direct Debit with Balo from your checking or savings account is free for tenants in accordance with the payment schedule stipulated in your lease. Payments by credit/debit card involves a processing fee of 2.75% of the total amount being paid, which will be added to the amount of your payment. Balo is currently free for property managers, landlords and tenants: there is no charge to receive rent payments or manage properties. Contractors receive maintenance requests using the Service free of charge however, a 7.5% commission is payable for every successful job completed through the Service. If we ever change our fees or introduce new features that have additional fees, we’ll let you know first via email or the site. If you don’t want to pay the new fees, you can cancel the service anytime. We don’t offer refunds for fees you’ve already paid.
  2. Balo uses MoneyTech to execute online payment transactions. By using this feature of the Service, you agree to be bound by MoneyTech’s Terms of Service, available at https://www.moneytech.com.au/terms/. This may be updated from time to time. For avoidance of doubt, if any payment you initiate using the Service does not successfully complete, the payee reserves the right to seek payment from you via or outside the Service. Any authorisation you provide to make repeating automatic payments using the Service will remain in effect until cancelled.
  3. By providing us with your banking, credit/debt card, or other payment information, you authorise us to use it and disclose it to Merchant Warrior, Stripe or other payment gateway providers for the purpose of processing the payments you authorise on the Service. Payment gateway providers may also aggregate your information for other purposes, but only in ways that don’t identify you personally or disclose any personal information about you, and may disclose your personal information when necessary to comply with the law.
  4. We never take custody of money you transfer using the Service and we’re not responsible for what recipients do with the payments you make. For example, we’re not responsible for your property manager or landlord returning your deposit. If a payor or payor’s bank or card issuer initiates a reversal, chargeback, or dispute of a payment made to you, you authorise us and our third-party payment providers to reverse or otherwise debit funds from your account in accordance with applicable financial institution and network policies and procedures. In the event we are unable to reverse or otherwise debit funds from your account, you agree promptly to deposit such funds upon our request. We may also initiate a reversal or other debit, or take other actions we determine to be appropriate, if we believe fraud or other abuse of the Service has occurred.
  5. Payments by Agents, property managers or landlords for value added services including but not limited to Applicant Placements by Balo, Letting and re-letting fees, and rent yields above advertised amounts may be charged, as a result of using services provided in addition to your Balo subscription, at a rate of 50% of the cost of such services facilitated by Balo. (e.g: Advertised rent is $300pw, and an offer is received and accepted of $350pw through the Balo platform, Balo will charge 50% of the value added $50 equating to a $25 recurring fee for the life of the lease)
  6. Payments regarding rent collection are included in the the agency management authority and strictly stipulated as a ‘Disbursement Fee’. Any additional payments regarding meeting rental payments stipulated in the lease, are subject to an additional $2.50 fee* per additional transaction to cover merchant gateway fees (excluding credit card payment fees of 2.75% if credit cards are used). (e.g. Tenant agrees to pay rent monthly as per the lease agreement, but elects to make multiple payments throughout the month, each payment will strictly attract a surcharge by the tenant of $2.50*). *Please note: this fee is subject to change.
  7. In the event that the tenant has insufficient funds to meet the rent payment obligations as stipulated in the rental agreement – a dishonour fee of $25 will be payable in addition to the outstanding rent amount.
  8. From time to time, we may change the price of any Service or charge for use of Services that are currently available free of charge. Any increase in charges will not apply until the expiry of your then current billing cycle. You will not be charged for using any Service unless you have opted for paid services.

Modification of Terms of Service

  1. We may modify the Terms upon notice to you at any time through a service announcement or by sending email to your primary email address. If we make significant changes to the Terms that affect your rights, you will be provided with at least 30 days advance notice of the changes by email to your primary email address. You may terminate your use of the Services by providing Balo notice by email within 30 days of being notified of the availability of the modified Terms if the Terms are modified in a manner that substantially affects your rights in connection with use of the Services. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of any change to the Terms will be deemed to be your agreement to the modified Terms.

Organisation Accounts and Administrators

  1. When you sign up for an account for your organisation you may specify one or more administrators. The administrators will have the right to configure the Services based on your requirements and manage end users in your organisation account. If your organisation account is created and configured on your behalf by a third party, it is likely that such third party has assumed administrator role for your organisation. Make sure that you enter into a suitable agreement with such third party specifying such party’s roles and restrictions as an administrator of your organisation account.
  2. You are responsible for i) ensuring confidentiality of your organisation account password, ii) appointing competent individuals as administrators for managing your organisation account, and iii) ensuring that all activities that occur in connection with your organisation account comply with this Agreement. You understand that Balo is not responsible for account administration and internal management of the Services for you.
  3. You are responsible for taking necessary steps for ensuring that your organisation does not lose control of the administrator accounts. You may specify a process to be followed for recovering control in the event of such loss of control of the administrator accounts by sending an email to legal@balo.property, provided that the process is acceptable to Balo. In the absence of any specified administrator account recovery process, Balo may provide control of an administrator account to an individual providing proof satisfactory to Balo demonstrating authorisation to act on behalf of the organisation. You agree not to hold Balo liable for the consequences of any action taken by Balo in good faith in this regard.

Communications from Balo

  1. The Service may include certain communications from Balo, such as service announcements, administrative messages and newsletters. You understand that these communications shall be considered part of using the Services. As part of our policy to provide you total privacy, we also provide you the option of opting out from receiving newsletters from us. However, you will not be able to opt-out from receiving service announcements and administrative messages.

Restrictions on Use

  1. We are not a real estate agent or broker. We don’t screen properties or listings or offer any guarantee or advice regarding the suitability of properties, landlords, or potential tenants. Nothing we say should be construed as such advice, and you agree not to rely on us in making decisions on, well, anything at all.
  2. You must be 18 years old to use Balo. Banks require that.
  3. For right now, you must be an Australian resident.
  4. You must be a human. Accounts registered by “bots” or automated methods of access are not permitted. No screen-scraping, reproducing, or aggregating the information or other content on our site. We’ve pretty much made all that impossible, but still, we’re saying it here too.
  5. Use of the Service does not give you ownership of any intellectual property rights in the Service or any content posted on the Service. You own what you post on the Service (unless you copied it from someone else) but you grant us a license to copy, host, display, create derivative works from, publish, publicly perform, display, and distribute, and otherwise make use of in connection with providing the Service, all information and content you post so long as you have an active account. If you are a landlord and authorise us (by checking the appropriate box or boxes on our site) to syndicate your rental listing on third-party sites, you further agree that we may grant sub-licences to applicable third parties as necessary to facilitate such syndication.
  6. You must provide your full legal name, a valid email address, and any other information requested in order to complete the signup process. You are also responsible for keeping your email address up to date, so we can send you important notices.
  7. Your account may only be used by one person. A single account shared by more than one person is not permitted.
  8. You are responsible for keeping your password and account secure.
  9. You are responsible for the accuracy of everything that is posted or submitted under your account.
  10. We are not responsible for the accuracy of anything another user posts or submits to our site.
  11. We are not responsible for the conduct of users on or off the site. Use common sense when doing business with other users.
  12. You may not use the Service for any illegal purpose. You may not, in using the Service, violate any laws in your jurisdiction or ours, or infringe the rights of anyone (ours or third parties). We’d like to think this goes without saying, but you may not use the Service as part of any fraudulent scheme or transaction. If we have reason to suspect your account has been used for an unauthorised or illegal purpose, you agree that we may share information about you, your account, and any of your transactions with law enforcement.
  13. If you are a Real Estate Agent or landlord, you agree in particular that you are familiar with all applicable fair-housing and antidiscrimination laws and that you will adhere to them including the relevant tenancy act in your State. You also agree that the contents of any listings you post on or link to from Balo will be accurate and not misleading.
  14. You may not abuse, harass, threaten, impersonate, or intimidate other Balo customers. Don’t be creepy.
  15. You also may not post anything on Balo that contains or links to sweepstakes (yes, that’s a thing, apparently), viruses, or malware.
  16. If you violate any of the Terms of Use, we may terminate your account without notice.
  17. You and Balo are independent Agents and contractors, and no agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchisee-franchisor relationship is created or intended by this Terms and Conditions agreement or your use of the website or Balo services.

Inactive User Account Policy

  1. We reserve the right to terminate unpaid user accounts that are inactive for a continuous period of 120 days. In the event of such termination, all data associated with such user account will be deleted. We will provide you prior notice of such termination and option to back-up your data. The data deletion policy may be implemented with respect to any or all of the Services. Each Service will be considered an independent and separate service for the purpose of calculating the period of inactivity. In other words, activity in one of the Services is not sufficient to keep your user account in another Service active. In case of accounts with more than one user, if at least one of the users is active, the account will not be considered inactive.
  2. We reserve the right to modify or terminate the Service for any reason, without notice, at any time.
  3. We reserve the right to alter these Terms of Use at any time. We’ll notify you on the site or via email of important changes, but you should also check back here from time to time if you care about such things. You’re free to cancel or discontinue using the Service at any time without penalty. Your continued use of the Service following a change to these Terms of Use constitutes acceptance of the change.
  4. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason (or no reason), and likewise to suspend or discontinue your use of the Service at any time for any reason or no reason. In particular (and just by way of example), we may terminate or suspend your account if you engage in fraudulent or illegal conduct, provide inaccurate, incomplete, false, or misleading information, or otherwise violate these Terms of Use or any of our policies, or if we determine, in our sole discretion, that your use of the Services poses an unacceptable credit or fraud risk to us.
  5. If you wish to cancel your account, you must do so via the Service web site or by sending us a letter in the mail. An email or phone request to cancel your account will not be processed.
  6. If you cancel your account, any or all of your information may be immediately (or at some point in the future) irrevocably deleted. You should save a copy of anything important before cancelling your account.
  7. Conversely, information you post or otherwise furnish to us, including personal information, may remain on our servers indefinitely (for example, as backups) after you delete it from public areas of the Services or request cancellation of your account.
  8. If you are a Real Estate Agent or landlord, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless us and our affiliates, agents, officers, employees, and vendors (including without limitation our third-party credit reporting agencies and their respective affiliates, agents, officers, and employees) from any claim, suit, action, or loss arising from or relating to your use of the Service or your violation of these Terms of Use (collectively, any “Claim”), including any liability or expense arising from claims, losses, damages, suits, judgments, civil or criminal fines or other penalties, litigation costs, and attorneys’ fees.
  9. THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS-IS” WITHOUT PROMISES OF ANY KIND. NEITHER WE NOR OUR SUPPLIERS WARRANT OR GUARANTEE UPTIME OR AVAILABILITY OF THE SERVICE, THAT THE SERVICE WILL MEET OR CONTINUE IN THE FUTURE TO MEET YOUR NEEDS, OR THAT WE WILL CONTINUE TO PROVIDE THE SERVICE OR ANY ASPECT OF THE SERVICE IN THE FUTURE. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES FOR THE SERVICE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, SEAWORTHINESS, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
  10. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE RESPONSIBLE FOR LOST PROFITS, REVENUES, OR DATA, FINANCIAL LOSSES, OR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM RELATING TO THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS OF USE, INCLUDING ANY CLAIM FOR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY, IS LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO US TO USE THE SERVICES.
  11. If you violate any of these Terms of Use and we don’t take action right away, that doesn’t mean we are waiving any of our rights. If you want to sue us, you must do so in the state or Magistrates Court located in Melbourne, Victoria, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts. Victorian State Law will apply to any such disputes between you and Balo. If any part of these Terms of Use are held to be invalid or enforceable, the rest of the Terms of Use will still apply.
  12. If you need to send us any legal notice (including notice that you believe another user is infringing your intellectual property or other rights), please do so via email to the following email address:

terms@balo.property

Thanks for making it through all this. We try hard to be reasonable and clear. If you have any questions, contact us at terms@balo.property