Terms of use

Folio is a software platform that helps people discover, list, sell, manage and invest in New Zealand property, and provides educational content and analytical tools (including the Folio Score, cashflow calculator, portfolio dashboard, scenario planner and deal matching). Folio is a tool and marketplace intermediary.

Folio is not a licensed real estate agent, salesperson, broker, financial adviser, valuer, lawyer or accountant, and nothing on the platform constitutes real estate agency work, financial advice, legal advice, tax advice or a valuation, unless expressly stated otherwise in writing. Folio does not act on your behalf to bring about a transaction.

Where Folio enables private or “agent-free” sales, Folio provides the software, listing tools and buyer-management tools only. The seller is solely responsible for complying with all applicable law relating to the sale of property, including the Real Estate Agents Act 2008, the Fair Trading Act 1986, the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 (where relevant), the Overseas Investment Act 2005, and any disclosure obligations to buyers. Folio does not review listings for legal compliance and does not act as an agent for either party to a transaction.

Full detail on the scope of guidance Folio provides is set out at How Folio gives guidance, which forms part of these terms.

By creating an account, ticking to accept these terms, or using Folio, you agree to these terms (electronic acceptance under the Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017). You must be at least 18 years old and capable of forming a binding contract under New Zealand law. If you use Folio on behalf of a company, trust or other entity, you confirm you are authorised to bind that entity, and “you” includes that entity.

You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide when registering, for keeping your login credentials confidential, and for all activity that occurs under your account. Please tell us promptly at info@folionz.com if you suspect unauthorised use of your account.

Information, figures, estimates, scores and tools on Folio are general property information only. They are not financial, tax, or legal advice and do not take account of your personal circumstances. See How Folio gives guidance. For decisions about borrowing, insurance, investment products, tax, or your legal position, obtain advice from a licensed professional.

The Folio Score, cashflow calculator, portfolio dashboard, scenario planner, development feasibility tool and similar features (together, Tools) produce indicative, general estimates based on the data and assumptions displayed at the time. They:

• do not account for your personal financial situation, objectives, or needs;
• are not a recommendation to buy, sell, hold, or finance any property; and
• may be based on third-party or user-supplied data that Folio has not independently verified (for example CoreLogic or MBIE bond data).

Yields, returns, equity, valuations and cashflow figures are not forecasts or guarantees. You should independently verify figures, and obtain advice from a licensed real estate professional, financial adviser, lawyer or accountant, as appropriate, before making any property or investment decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Folio disclaims responsibility for decisions made in reliance on the Tools or any content on the platform.

User Contentmeans any listing, description, photo, floor plan, data, review, message or other material you submit to Folio, including AI-assisted listing copy you generate and publish through Folio’s tools. You warrant that:

• you own or have all necessary rights to submit the User Content;
• the User Content is accurate, current, and not misleading, and complies with the Fair Trading Act 1986 and any other applicable law; and
• you have the right to sell, lease or otherwise deal with any property you list, or are authorised to act on the owner’s behalf.

You retain ownership of your User Content. You grant Folio a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, reproduce, display, adapt and distribute it for the purposes of operating, promoting and improving the platform (for example, displaying your listing on the marketplace and in search results), and to provide the AI processing described in clause 12.

Folio may remove or suspend any listing or User Content that it reasonably believes is inaccurate, unlawful, misleading, or in breach of these terms, without liability to you. Where Folio’s AI tools generate listing copy or suburb insights, you are responsible for reviewing the output for accuracy before publishing. Folio does not warrant that AI-generated content is error-free or complete.

You are responsible for your account and the accuracy of information you enter. You must not:

• list a property you do not own or are not authorised to deal with;
• post false, misleading, or discriminatory content, including content that would breach the Human Rights Act 1993;
• use Folio unlawfully, or to infringe others’ rights or privacy;
• scrape, harvest or systematically extract data from the platform other than through any API we make available;
• reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive source code from the platform;
• upload malicious code, overload the platform, or interfere with its operation or security;
• impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation with any person; or
• resell or provide the service to third parties except as permitted.

Folio is an actively developed platform, provided “as is” and “as available”: features may change, be added or removed, or be temporarily unavailable, and data or results may contain errors. We may use your feedback to improve Folio. This does not reduce the guarantees you have under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.

Members admitted during the founding period (“founding members”) may hold access on an arrangement we offered them personally, free lifetime access granted by invitation, or a one-time “Founding” lifetime purchase, as set out in the specific offer we sent them. Those arrangements are described in clause 8.

Folio is a paid subscription service. The plan is $69 per month, including GST, for full access to the platform, and begins with a 30-day free trial for which no credit card is required. All prices on Folio are in New Zealand dollars and include GST. The trial gives you the same access as a paid subscription. At the end of the trial your access ends unless you choose to subscribe. We do not charge you automatically at the end of a trial you did not add a payment method to.

Subscriptions renew monthly until you cancel. You may cancel at any time through your account settings or by contacting us, effective at the end of the period you have already paid for; you keep access until then. We do not refund part-months except where required by law, and this does not affect any remedy you are entitled to under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993. We may change subscription pricing on at least 30 days’ notice; continued use after a price change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the new price, and you may cancel before it does.

Listing a property on the Folio marketplace is free. Folio does not charge a commission or success fee on private sales concluded through the platform. This does not affect any separate fees for optional third-party services (for example conveyancing or photography) that you choose to engage through or alongside the platform.

Some members hold access on other terms by our invitation, a one-time lifetime purchase, or a grant made at no charge. Where you hold access on those terms, that arrangement is what governs your access and the monthly subscription terms above do not apply to you. A lifetime arrangement does not expire and is not ended by any subscription-billing event.

Payments are processed by Stripe. Folio does not receive or store your card details. Nothing in this clause limits your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.

Where Folio connects you with a third-party provider (for example building inspectors, valuers, insurers, mortgage advisers or lawyers), those services are provided by the independent provider, not Folio. Folio may receive a referral fee. Mortgage and insurance services are provided by licensed financial advisers.

Folio may also link to, or integrate with, other third-party services (for example valuation data providers or mapping services). Folio does not control and is not responsible for third-party services, and your use of them is subject to their own terms.

You may connect third-party services (for example Gmail, Outlook, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, or Akahu for bank data). These connections are optional, made under your authorisation, and can be revoked by you at any time. Folio accesses that data only to provide the feature you enabled, and use is also governed by the third party’s own terms. See our Privacy policy.

All rights in the platform, including software, design, the Folio Score methodology and Folio-authored content, are owned by or licensed to us. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use Folio for your own property purposes while these terms apply. Nothing in these terms transfers any of those rights to you. You keep ownership of your own data and content.

“Folio” and associated logos are trade marks of BWATER LIMITED. You may not use them without our prior written consent.

Some features use AI to generate summaries, drafts, extractions and answers. AI output is general information only, can be incomplete or wrong, and is not advice, review it before relying on or acting on it. To provide these features, your inputs and relevant context (which may include portfolio, financial or document data) are processed by our AI sub-processors as described in the Privacy policy.

The platform is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Folio excludes all warranties, express or implied, including as to accuracy, completeness, reliability, availability, or fitness for a particular purpose.

Folio does not warrant that property listed on the platform is accurately described, that any transaction will complete, or that any user (buyer, seller or otherwise) will perform their obligations.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any right or remedy you have under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or the Fair Trading Act 1986 that cannot lawfully be excluded. Where the platform is acquired for business purposes, you agree that the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 does not apply.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Folio’s total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the platform, whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, is limited to the amount you paid to Folio in subscription fees in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

Folio is not liable for any indirect, consequential or special loss, including loss of profit, loss of a bargain, or loss arising from a property transaction between users. These limitations do not apply to liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law.

You agree to indemnify Folio and hold it harmless against any claims, losses or costs (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your breach of these terms, your User Content, your misuse of the platform, or your conduct in a property transaction facilitated through the platform.

You may stop using Folio and close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate access if you breach these terms, or on reasonable notice for any other reason, including discontinuation of the platform. On termination, your right to use the platform ends, and the treatment, export and deletion of your data are handled as described in the Privacy policy. Clauses that by their nature should survive (including clauses 11 and 13 to 15, and clause 17) continue to apply.

These terms are governed by the laws of New Zealand, and you submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the New Zealand courts. Before commencing formal proceedings, the parties will use reasonable efforts to resolve any dispute through good-faith negotiation, so please contact us first and we will work with you in good faith.

We may update these terms from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by posting an updated version on the platform or by email, and the “Last updated” date and version above will change. Continued use after changes take effect means you accept them.

Entire agreement — these terms, together with the Privacy policy and How Folio gives guidance, constitute the entire agreement between you and Folio regarding the platform.

Severability — if any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force. Assignment — you may not assign your rights under these terms without our consent; we may assign these terms in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets. No waiver — a failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of that provision.

Notices — notices to Folio should be sent to info@folionz.com. Notices to you will be sent to the email address on your account.

Folio is operated by BWATER LIMITED (NZBN 9429053409638), trading as Bridgewater Partners. Folio is a Bridgewater Partners product, so you may see either name at the payment step or on your bank statement. Questions about these terms: info@folionz.com.

Registered office: 24 Annandale Drive, Pyes Pa, Tauranga 3112, New Zealand. Formal notices may be sent to that address or to info@folionz.com.