Acceptable Use Policy

Generally

You are responsible for ensuring that any person you authorise to access or use the Services is made aware of, and complies with, this policy.

You are responsible for keeping your account login details, usernames, passwords and access credentials secure at all times.

You are responsible for all activity that occurs through your account or using your access credentials, whether authorised or unauthorised, including activity by your employees, contractors, agents, representatives and authorised users, except to the extent caused by Home Scene’s breach of this policy or applicable law.

You must comply with all applicable laws when accessing or using the Services, including laws relating to privacy, spam, intellectual property, consumer protection, misleading or deceptive conduct, real estate advertising, trade licensing and the use of online services by children.

You must not use the Services in a way that may cause Home Scene to breach any law, third-party rights, government data licence, platform integration requirement or obligation owed to a third party.

Prohibited use

Unless agreed in writing by Home Scene, and subject to any conditions imposed by Home Scene, you must not use the Services for:

• sending unsolicited commercial electronic messages, spam or unlawful marketing communications, including communications that breach the Spam Act 2003 (Cth), the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth) or applicable direct marketing laws.
• scraping, crawling, harvesting, copying, extracting, bulk downloading, caching, mirroring, framing, reselling, sublicensing or republishing any property data, map data, zoning data, R-Code data, planning data, listing data, agent profile, trade profile, directory information or other content available through the Services.
• using bots, spiders, crawlers, scrapers, automated scripts, AI training tools, generative AI tools, machine learning models, data mining tools or other automated means to access, monitor, copy, extract, index, analyse, train on or create derivative datasets from the Services or any content available through the Services.
• reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling, copying, adapting, modifying or attempting to derive the source code, structure, database, algorithms, layout, functionality or underlying ideas of the Services.
• accessing or using the Services in a way that interferes with, disrupts, damages, overloads or impairs the Services or any systems, networks, servers or infrastructure used to provide the Services.
• gaining or attempting to gain unauthorised access to any account, system, network, database, integration, API, CRM connection or part of the Services.
• transmitting, uploading or introducing viruses, malware, ransomware, spyware, harmful code or other malicious programs.
• phishing, impersonation, identity fraud, account takeover, credential harvesting or any other fraudulent or deceptive activity.
• publishing, promoting or facilitating illegal activity, crime, harassment, abuse, discrimination, threats, violence or conduct that is unlawful or harmful.
• uploading, publishing, transmitting or making available content that infringes Intellectual Property Rights, breaches confidentiality, violates privacy rights or is defamatory, misleading, deceptive, offensive or unlawful.
• using the Services to create, publish or promote fake listings, bait listings, unauthorised listings, misleading listings, false reviews, fake enquiries or fraudulent appraisal or quote requests.
• using the Services for any purpose that may cause Home Scene to breach any law, government data licence, third-party platform requirement, CRM integration requirement or obligation owed to a third party.
• using the Services for any purpose that Home Scene reasonably considers inappropriate, harmful to the Services, harmful to other users, inconsistent with the intended purpose of the Services or harmful to Home Scene’s business or reputation.

Prohibited content and material

You must not use the Services to upload, publish, transmit, distribute, display, link to or otherwise make available any content or material that:

• is unlawful, misleading, deceptive, fraudulent or otherwise breaches any applicable law.
• is false, inaccurate or likely to mislead users in relation to a property, listing, trade service, licence, qualification, review or endorsement.
• is defamatory, threatening, abusive, harassing, discriminatory, hateful, obscene, offensive or otherwise inappropriate.
• incites, promotes or encourages violence, criminal conduct, terrorism or any other unlawful activity.
• infringes or misappropriates any Intellectual Property Rights, moral rights, confidentiality obligations or other proprietary rights of any person.
• contains personal information, confidential information or sensitive information that you are not authorised to collect, use, disclose or publish, or for which you have not obtained all consents, notices and permissions required by applicable law.
• contains malware, ransomware, spyware, viruses, malicious code or any technology intended to disrupt, damage, interfere with or obtain unauthorised access to the Services or any third-party systems.
• contains fake reviews, manipulated ratings, false testimonials, impersonation, misleading endorsements or any other deceptive content.
• advertises or promotes properties, services or businesses that you are not authorised to represent or advertise.
• breaches the rights of any third party, including privacy rights, publicity rights or contractual rights.
• contravenes the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), the Australian Consumer Law, the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Spam Act 2003 (Cth), applicable real estate legislation, trade licensing requirements, advertising standards or any other applicable law.
• is otherwise considered by Home Scene, acting reasonably, to be harmful to the Services, other users or Home Scene’s reputation.

Excessive resource usage

You must not use the Services in a manner that unreasonably interferes with, disrupts, degrades or places an excessive burden on the Services or Home Scene’s systems, infrastructure or network, including by:

• using automated processes, bots, scripts or software that generate excessive requests, traffic or system load.
• conducting load testing, stress testing, vulnerability scanning or security testing without Home Scene’s prior written consent.
• uploading, transmitting or storing excessive volumes of data that are unrelated to your legitimate use of the Services.
• attempting to bypass, disable or interfere with any security measures, rate limits, access controls or technical protections implemented by Home Scene.
• using the Services in a manner that adversely affects the availability, stability, performance or security of the Services for other users.

If Home Scene reasonably believes that your use of the Services is causing excessive resource usage or adversely affecting the Services, Home Scene may, with or without prior notice, suspend, restrict or terminate your access to the Services, implement technical limitations on your use, throttle or block requests, or take any other action reasonably necessary to protect the integrity, security and availability of the Services.

Home Scene reserves the right to recover any reasonable costs, expenses, losses and liabilities incurred as a result of excessive, unlawful or unauthorised use of the Services to the extent permitted by law and the applicable Terms and Conditions.

Non-compliance and remedy

Home Scene may monitor, review, audit and investigate your use of the Services and Your Data to determine whether you are complying with this policy, to protect the Services and to comply with legal, regulatory, security and operational requirements. Any monitoring or investigation will be conducted in accordance with Home Scene’s Privacy Policy and applicable law.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Home Scene may determine, acting reasonably, whether you have breached this policy.

If Home Scene reasonably believes that you have breached this policy, or that action is required to protect the Services, users, third parties or Home Scene, Home Scene may, with or without prior notice:

• suspend, restrict or terminate your access to the Services.
• remove, disable or refuse to publish any listing, profile, review, enquiry, content or material.
• restrict or disable any CRM integration, account function, lead routing, directory placement or listing syndication.
• block or limit access from any user, account, device, IP address or network.
• report unlawful, fraudulent or harmful conduct to law enforcement, regulators, government agencies, affected third parties or relevant industry bodies.
• preserve evidence, records and data where Home Scene reasonably considers this necessary for legal, regulatory, security, enforcement or dispute resolution purposes.
• take any other action Home Scene reasonably considers necessary to protect the Services, other users, third parties, Home Scene’s business or Home Scene’s reputation, including seeking injunctive or equitable relief where monetary damages would not be an adequate remedy.

If your Services are suspended or terminated for breach of this policy, you will not be entitled to a refund, rebate, compensation or credit except to the extent required by law or expressly provided in the applicable Terms and Conditions.

Subject to applicable law and the applicable Terms and Conditions, Home Scene may retain, delete, de-identify, archive or restrict access to Your Data following suspension or termination, including where reasonably necessary for backup, audit, legal, regulatory, security, enforcement or dispute resolution purposes. Home Scene is not required to retain Your Data indefinitely and may permanently delete Your Data after any applicable retention period has expired.

Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Home Scene is not liable for any loss or damage arising from or in connection with:

• your breach of this policy.
• your misuse of the Services.
• any content, listing, profile, review, enquiry, data or material uploaded, published, transmitted or made available by you or on your behalf.
• any unauthorised, misleading, deceptive, unlawful or infringing use of the Services by you or on your behalf.
• any dispute, transaction, contract, quote, appraisal, listing, property dealing, trade service, workmanship issue, payment issue, property condition issue, licensing issue or other arrangement between users, subscribers, agents, trades, homeowners or other third parties.
• any reliance on property data, map data, zoning data, R-Code data, planning data, boundary data, development capacity information, trade information, profile information, reviews, ratings or other information available through the Services.

Nothing in this policy excludes, restricts or modifies any right, guarantee, warranty or liability that cannot be excluded, restricted or modified by law, including under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), and any limitation or exclusion in this policy applies only to the maximum extent permitted by law.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Home Scene’s total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with this policy is limited to the greater of AUD $500 and the amount paid by you to Home Scene for the Services in the six months before the event giving rise to the liability.

The liability cap does not limit your liability to Home Scene, or any indemnity owed to Home Scene, arising from:

• your breach of this policy.
• your breach of any law.
• your infringement of Intellectual Property Rights.
• your breach of confidentiality, privacy or data protection obligations.
• any content, listing, profile, review, enquiry, data or material uploaded, published, transmitted or made available by you or on your behalf.
• any unauthorised, misleading, deceptive, unlawful or infringing use of the Services by you or on your behalf.
• your fraud, wilful misconduct or unlawful conduct.

Consequential loss

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Home Scene will not be liable for any incidental, special, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss of data, business, business opportunity, goodwill, anticipated savings, profits or revenue, arising out of or in connection with this policy or the Services.

The exclusion of liability for consequential loss does not apply:

• to your liability for fraud, wilful misconduct, personal injury, death, loss of or damage to tangible property, breach of this policy, breach of law, infringement of Intellectual Property Rights, breach of confidentiality, privacy or data protection obligations, or misuse of the Services.
• to liability that cannot be excluded by law, including under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth).

Reporting a breach

To report misuse of the Services, a fake or misleading listing, a false review, spam, suspected unauthorised access or any other breach of this policy, contact us at support@homescene.com.au. For copyright complaints or to report a review, see our Disclaimer & Complaints page.

Definitions

In this policy, the following words and phrases have the following meaning:

Confidential Information

Means information of, or provided by, a party that is by its nature confidential, is designated as confidential, or that the recipient knows or ought reasonably to know is confidential, including commercial, technical, operational, user, subscriber, pricing, platform, integration and business information. Confidential Information does not include information that is, or becomes, public knowledge other than through a breach of confidentiality.

Intellectual Property Rights

Means all copyright, trade marks, business names, domain names, designs, patents, trade secrets, confidential information, database rights, software rights, moral rights and other proprietary rights, whether registered or unregistered, in Australia and anywhere in the world.

Services

Means the Home Scene website, platform, interactive property map, listing tools, trade directory, lead routing services, CRM integrations, subscription services, software, content, data, features and related services provided by Home Scene.

Your Data

Means any information, data, content, listings, images, text, reviews, enquiries, profile information, property information, business information or other materials uploaded, submitted, transmitted, generated or made available by you or on your behalf through the Services.