Terms of service.

1 Parties, agreement and interpretation

1.1 These terms apply between NZBP Limited, NZBN 9429053933454 ("we", "us", "our"), and the person who submits an application through our website ("you").

1.2 The agreement between you and us comprises these terms, your application, the fee presented in it, any estimate you accept and any invoice we issue for the work (the "agreement"). The agreement is the entire agreement between you and us about the services and supersedes any earlier statement or understanding, except that nothing in this clause limits a right you have as a consumer under the Fair Trading Act 1986 or the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.

1.3 The agreement is formed when you accept these terms and submit your application. You agree that we may give you notices and other information electronically, by email to the latest email address you have given us or through our website. A notice sent by email is given when it is sent to that address. You may give us notice by email to the contact address published on our website.

1.4 In these terms, "owner" means the person for the time being recorded on the New Zealand Vessel Register as the owner of the vessel. We do not verify legal title. "Record" means the information we hold about the vessel under the agreement, including its plate record and its entry on the New Zealand Vessel Register, and "public record" means the part of the record open to the public. "Consumer" and "in trade" have the meanings given in the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, and "including" means including without limitation.

2 The services

2.1 We assess recreational vessels for conformance with the standards we state, or recognise existing certification, supply a New Zealand Builders Plate, and enter each vessel so plated on the New Zealand Vessel Register (the "services").

2.2 We are a private company. A New Zealand Builders Plate, its record and an entry on the New Zealand Vessel Register are not issued under any enactment and are not an approval by any government agency or regulator. Entry on the New Zealand Vessel Register is not registration under the Ship Registration Act 1992.

2.3 We determine the manner in which the services are performed, including who performs them and the evidence required, so that each assessment is sound and proportionate to the vessel. Where another person performs part of the services on our behalf, we remain responsible to you for that part.

2.4 We may, acting reasonably, decline to accept a vessel for assessment, or determine at any time before a New Zealand Builders Plate is issued that a vessel is not suitable to be assessed, having regard to its type, construction, condition, the evidence available and the scope of the services. If we do so, the services end and we will refund the fee in accordance with clause 4.2.

2.5 No New Zealand Builders Plate is supplied, and no record is published, until the work on which it depends is complete. Payment alone does not entitle you to either.

2.6 A hull identification number we assign is allocated to the vessel permanently and is not released or reassigned to another vessel if the services end. Its assignment is work performed under clause 4.2. Where you choose registration of the hull identification number with an international registration body, that body acts under its own rules and not on our behalf.

3 Price and payment

3.1 The price of the services is the fee presented in your application and, for work charged under clause 3.2, the amount invoiced for the work performed. Prices include GST unless stated otherwise.

3.2 Work performed as part of an assessment is charged on a time and materials basis. Before that work begins, we will provide an estimate, being our assessment of its likely cost, and the work begins when you accept the estimate. An estimate is not a fixed price. If we expect the work to cost materially more than the estimate, we will inform you of this before we invoice the additional cost.

3.3 An invoice is payable by the due date stated on it.

3.4 Payments are processed by our payment provider. We do not receive or hold card details. A refund is made to the method used to pay, unless we agree otherwise.

3.5 We may withhold the work, the New Zealand Builders Plate and the record until all amounts due for them are paid, so that no plate or record is issued for unpaid work.

4 Refunds and reversed payments

4.1 A fee is payment for the work performed and any plate supplied, not for a particular outcome. A fee is not refundable because the outcome is not the outcome you sought, except where the law gives you a remedy.

4.2 If the agreement ends before all the work is performed, we will refund that part of the fee which relates to work not performed. Work performed includes the assignment of a hull identification number and any registration of it.

4.3 If a payment is reversed by a chargeback or payment dispute and is not repaid, we may end the services and mark the vessel's entire record, including work under any other application for the same vessel, as invalid, so that no record or plate stands on payment that has been withdrawn. The public record will then state that it is no longer valid. The reversal does not discharge any amount owing for work performed.

4.4 If we cannot provide all or part of the services, we may at our discretion refund all or part of the fee for them, whether or not the agreement ends. This clause gives you no right to a refund beyond clause 4.2 and any remedy the law gives you, and a refund made under it in one case does not oblige us to make one in another.

5 The record

5.1 A New Zealand Builders Plate and its record certify the vessel as assessed, against the standards stated, at the date stated and subject to the conditions stated. They do not extend to the vessel's condition after that date or to any modification made to it since.

5.2 A plate record or entry on the New Zealand Vessel Register is not evidence of ownership or of any security interest in the vessel, and does not replace a survey.

5.3 You must supply the photographs your application requires, including a photograph for publication on the public record. Subject to clause 5.8, the photograph you nominate for publication will be published on the public record. Other photographs and documents you supply as evidence are used for the services and are not published on the public record, but may be included in an assessment report or other document we provide in connection with the services.

5.4 You grant us a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free and transferable licence to use, reproduce, adapt and publish the photographs and documents you supply, for the purposes of the services and the record. You warrant that you are entitled to grant that licence.

5.5 We may correct a record by adding a correction or replacement entry, so that its history remains clear.

5.6 To the extent permitted by law, we do not warrant that the website, the New Zealand Vessel Register or any record will be available at any particular time or for any particular period, or that they will be uninterrupted or free from error. We may suspend, change or discontinue any of them where reasonably required to maintain, secure or develop the services, or where we cease to provide them, subject to clause 13.1.

5.7 The owner may request that we withdraw the vessel's history from the New Zealand Vessel Register. Withdrawal does not affect the vessel's identity, its status or its plate record, and does not entitle anyone to a refund for work performed.

5.8 We may, acting reasonably, refuse to include in, or redact or remove from, the public record or a certificate anything you supply that we consider inappropriate for others to see. We may publish the record without it, and you may supply a replacement. We do not undertake to review or monitor what you supply for this purpose, even where we review your application, and leaving something in place is not our approval of it. Using this right does not itself refuse or invalidate the vessel's entry on the New Zealand Vessel Register or its plate, or end the agreement, and clause 4 governs fees and refunds.

6 The plate

6.1 A New Zealand Builders Plate is supplied for the vessel described in its record only. You must not alter it or fit it to any other vessel, or permit another person to do so.

6.2 Risk in a plate passes to you when it is dispatched to you or fitted to the vessel, whichever is earlier.

6.3 You are responsible for fitting the plates. A person you engage to fit them acts for you and not on our behalf. The fitting instructions we supply are general guidance, not prepared for your particular vessel, and we do not warrant that the method they describe suits it.

6.4 We are not liable for any damage to the vessel, its trailer or other property caused by fitting the plates, even if our negligence caused or contributed to the damage. This clause is subject to clause 10.4.

6.5 A New Zealand Builders Plate certifies the vessel's conformance under clause 5.1 only while the plate remains fitted to the vessel and displayed. We publish the record after you confirm the plate is fitted.

7 Your obligations

7.1 You warrant that the information in your application is true and complete, that you are entitled to provide it, and that each person whose personal information you provide has authorised you to provide it.

7.2 We may decline, or invalidate once issued, a plate or record obtained on materially false or incomplete information, or a plate that has been altered or fitted to another vessel, so that no plate or record stands on false information or misuse. In that case no refund is payable for work performed.

8 Ending the agreement

8.1 You may end the agreement by notice to us at any time before the services are complete. Clause 4.2 then applies.

8.2 We may end the agreement by notice to you if you materially breach it and, where the breach can be remedied, you do not remedy it by the date stated in our notice requiring you to do so.

8.3 Clauses 1, 2.6, 4 to 7, 9 to 11, 13 and this clause continue after the agreement ends.

9 Disagreements

9.1 If you are dissatisfied with any part of the services, notify us in writing. We will consider the matter and respond to you.

9.2 A disagreement with the outcome of an assessment is not of itself a defect in the services. On request, we will explain the basis of the outcome and correct any demonstrated error.

9.3 Nothing in this clause prevents either party from applying to the Disputes Tribunal or a New Zealand court.

10 Liability

10.1 If you acquire the services in trade, you and we agree that the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 does not apply, that sections 9, 12A, 13 and 14(1) of the Fair Trading Act 1986 do not apply to the extent permitted by section 5D of that Act, and that it is fair and reasonable that you are bound by this clause.

10.2 To the extent permitted by law, and because the services assess a vessel at a point in time, our total liability arising out of or in connection with the agreement, whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, is limited to the fees you have paid under the agreement, and we are not liable for any loss of profit, revenue, opportunity or use, or for any indirect or consequential loss.

10.3 We are not liable for any delay or failure to perform caused by an event beyond our reasonable control.

10.4 Nothing in these terms limits any right or remedy under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or the Fair Trading Act 1986 that cannot lawfully be limited.

11 Privacy

11.1 We handle personal information in accordance with our privacy policy and the Privacy Act 2020.

12 Amendment

12.1 We may amend these terms where reasonably required by law or a regulator, by a change to the services, or for the security of the services or their records.

12.2 We will give you notice of an amendment under clause 1.3 before it takes effect, stating the date on which it takes effect. An amendment applies from that date and not to anything done before it.

12.3 If you do not accept an amendment, you may end the agreement by notice to us before that date. We will then refund that part of any fee which relates to work not performed. The record remains, and the owner may also request withdrawal under clause 5.7.

12.4 We will keep each version of these terms available with its date.

13 General

13.1 If we cease to provide the services, we may transfer the records to a successor that agrees to handle them in accordance with these terms and our privacy policy, or otherwise deal with them as the law requires. We may assign or novate the agreement to that successor or as part of a transfer of our business. You may not assign the agreement without our consent.

13.2 No person other than you and us may enforce the agreement, and Subpart 1 of Part 2 of the Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017 does not apply.

13.3 A failure or delay in exercising a right under the agreement is not a waiver of it.

13.4 If any provision of these terms is unenforceable, it is read down to the extent necessary, or severed, and the remaining provisions continue in effect.

13.5 These terms are governed by New Zealand law, and the New Zealand courts have exclusive jurisdiction.