Kiwi Services terms of use

Last updated: 1 October 2026

Kiwi Services (kiwiservices.co.nz) is part of the marketcity network and is run by marketcity. One account works on marketcity.co.nz, kiwiservices.co.nz and quoteseeker.co.nz. When you sign in on kiwiservices.co.nz you are sent to marketcity.co.nz to sign in and then brought straight back.

A. Extra rules for services on Kiwi Services

These rules apply on top of the marketcity terms below. If anything conflicts, the stricter rule applies.

Licences and registrations

You may only advertise work you are legally allowed to do. In particular:

• Restricted building work (the structure and weathertightness of homes, and fire safety design) must be done or supervised by a Licensed Building Practitioner under the Building Act 2004. Check a licence at lbp.govt.nz.
• Electrical work must be done by a worker registered and licensed by the Electrical Workers Registration Board, apart from the limited work a homeowner may do on their own home. Check at ewrb.govt.nz.
• Plumbing, gasfitting and drainlaying must be done by a person authorised under the Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Act 2006. Check at pgdb.co.nz.
• Other trades and services have their own rules, for example real estate agents, immigration advisers, lawyers, builders of swimming pools, food businesses and anyone working with children. If the law needs you to hold a licence, registration or certificate for the work you offer, you must hold it before you advertise.

Show licence and registration numbers truthfully. We do not check them, so customers should check them on the public registers above before work starts.

Honest listings

• Advertise only services that you or your business provide, under your real name or trading name, with the areas you actually cover.
• Prices must be genuine. Say whether a price is fixed, hourly, a starting price or an estimate, and whether it includes GST.
• Photos must be of your own work, or clearly marked as examples.
• Reviews must come from real customers. Paying for reviews, reviewing yourself or pressuring customers to change a review is not allowed.

Services that are not allowed

• Work you are not licensed or qualified for, or claims to qualifications you do not hold.
• Adult services, gambling, weapons, debt collection by threat, and any service that is illegal in New Zealand.
• Cash jobs offered to avoid tax, or offers to sign off work you did not do or supervise.

The law that protects your customers

• The Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 applies when a provider supplies a service to a consumer: the work must be done with reasonable care and skill, be fit for any purpose the customer made known, be finished within a reasonable time and, where no price was agreed, cost a reasonable price. A business cannot contract out of these guarantees with a consumer.
• The Fair Trading Act 1986 bans misleading claims about prices, qualifications, licences, experience, reviews and the work itself.
• For residential building work of $30,000 or more (including GST) the builder must give the client a written contract and, before the contract is signed, the prescribed disclosure statement and checklist (Building Act 2004 and the Building (Residential Consumer Rights and Remedies) Regulations 2014). Every residential building job also carries the implied warranties in the Building Act 2004.
• Payment claims and retention money in construction work are covered by the Construction Contracts Act 2002.
• Providers are responsible for health and safety on their jobs under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

For customers

• Get the price and the scope of the work in writing before work starts. A quote is a fixed price for the work described; an estimate is a best guess that can change.
• Check licences on the public registers, ask for references and photos of past work, and be careful about paying large deposits before work begins.
• Any agreement is between you and the provider. Kiwi Services is not a party to it and does not guarantee the work.

B. marketcity terms of use

These terms of use are a legal agreement between you and marketcity ("marketcity", "we", "us", "our"), the operator of marketcity.co.nz (the "Site"). By visiting the Site, creating an account, placing a listing, bidding, buying, selling or messaging another member you agree to these terms and to our privacy policy, which forms part of them. If you do not agree, please do not use the Site.

1. What marketcity is, and what it is not

• marketcity is an online venue. It lets people place advertisements for goods, property, vehicles, jobs and services and lets other people find them and contact the advertiser.
• marketcity is not a party to any transaction between members. We do not own, hold, inspect, store, deliver or sell the items listed. We do not act as agent, broker, auctioneer, escrow agent, payment provider, insurer or guarantor for anyone.
• Every sale, purchase, rental, job offer, booking or service is a contract directly between the buyer and the seller (or the advertiser and the enquirer). Its terms, its performance and any dispute about it are matters between those two people only.
• We do not verify the identity of members, the accuracy of listings, the quality, safety or legality of items, the truth of feedback, or the ability of any member to complete a deal. Anything we do check is done to protect the Site and is not a promise to you.

2. Definitions

"Member" means anyone with an account. "Listing" means any advertisement placed on the Site, including its text, photos, price and details. "Content" means anything you post or send through the Site, including listings, messages, feedback, forum posts, profile details and files. "Seller in trade" means a member who lists in the course of a trade or business. "Private seller" means any other member.

3. Who can use the Site

• You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a binding contract.
• You must use the Site in New Zealand or be able to trade lawfully with people in New Zealand.
• We may refuse, limit or withdraw access to anyone at our discretion, including where an account was opened from outside the country, through an anonymising service, or breaks these terms.
• Accounts opened from outside New Zealand may be held for review before they can be used.

4. Your account

• Give true, current and complete details and keep them up to date. One person, one account, unless we agree otherwise in writing.
• You are responsible for everything done through your account and for keeping your password and devices secure. Tell us straight away if you think your account has been used by someone else.
• If you sign in with Google or Facebook, those services confirm who you are and send us your name and email address. Your relationship with them is governed by their terms, not ours.
• Sellers in trade must say that they are in trade, show a trading name and a contact address, and comply with every law that applies to their trade, including the Fair Trading Act 1986, the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and the Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017.

5. Listings

• You may only list what you own or are lawfully entitled to sell, let, offer or advertise.
• Describe items honestly and completely: condition, faults, size, age, the full price and all delivery costs. Misleading or deceptive listings breach the Fair Trading Act 1986 and are not allowed.
• Place each listing in the right category, once. Do not repeat the same listing, keyword stuff, or use another member's photos or text.
• Property: real estate agents must hold a current licence under the Real Estate Agents Act 2008 and show it. Rental listings must state the rent. Under the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 landlords and agents must not invite or accept rental bids, may not charge letting fees to tenants, bonds are capped at four weeks' rent, and discriminatory conditions are not allowed.
• Vehicles: motor vehicle traders must be registered under the Motor Vehicle Sales Act 2003 and show their trader number. State the odometer reading, WOF and registration status honestly, describe known faults and hold the right to sell.
• Jobs: adverts must describe a genuine vacancy, comply with the Human Rights Act 1993 and the Employment Relations Act 2000, say whether the applicant needs the right to work in New Zealand, and must never charge a candidate to apply. Agencies must say they are an agency.
• Services and regulated activities: anything that needs a licence, registration or authorisation (for example restricted building work, electrical or gas work, lending, insurance, immigration, legal or financial advice, real estate work) may only be advertised by a person or firm that holds it.
• We may edit, move, hide or remove any listing at any time, with or without telling you, if we think it breaks these terms, the law or the spirit of the Site.

6. Prohibited items and adverts

The following may not be listed or offered, whatever the price: anything illegal to sell, own or supply in New Zealand; stolen, counterfeit or unlawfully copied goods; firearms, parts, ammunition, airguns and prohibited weapons under the Arms Act 1983, knives and other weapons sold to under 18s, pepper spray and stun guns; fireworks and explosives outside the legal window; drugs, drug utensils, prescription medicines, unapproved medicines and supplements making therapeutic claims; tobacco, vapes and nicotine products sold to under 18s; alcohol sold without the required licence; recalled or unsafe products and products that breach product safety standards; animals sold in breach of the Animal Welfare Act 1999, protected wildlife and their parts under the Wildlife Act 1953; human remains and body parts; personal data, account credentials, hacked or unlocked devices and tools designed to circumvent security; adult services and pornography; gambling and lottery tickets; financial products offered without the required licence or registration; get-rich-quick, pyramid, multi-level marketing and other schemes; anything that promotes hatred, violence, terrorism, or discrimination against a protected group; anything else we consider unsuitable for a family marketplace.

7. Buying and selling between members

• When a buyer wins an auction, uses Buy Now, has an offer accepted or otherwise agrees a deal with a seller, a contract is formed between those two members. marketcity is not part of that contract.
• Buyers should inspect items before paying, ask questions, meet in safe public places, and never pay in advance to someone they have not verified. Sellers should not hand over goods until payment has cleared in their account.
• If you buy from a seller in trade you have the rights the law gives you against that seller, including under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and the Fair Trading Act 1986. Those rights are enforceable against the seller, not against marketcity.
• If you buy from a private seller, the Consumer Guarantees Act does not apply, but the item must match its description and the seller must not mislead you.
• Bids and offers are binding on the person who makes them. Bidding on your own listing, or arranging for someone else to, is prohibited.

8. Payments, delivery and collection

• Payment is arranged and made directly between buyer and seller by whatever method they agree, such as bank transfer, cash on collection or a third party payment service. marketcity does not take, hold, process or refund payments and does not offer buyer or seller protection.
• Delivery, collection, packaging, insurance in transit and customs are the responsibility of the buyer and seller as they agree between themselves.
• Any payment or courier "protection" message that claims to come from marketcity is a scam. We never ask a seller to pay a fee to release funds and we never send payment confirmations.

9. Fees

Placing a standard listing is free. Any optional paid feature is shown with its price before you confirm it. Prices are in New Zealand dollars and include GST where GST applies. Fees for optional features are not refundable once the feature has been provided, unless the law requires otherwise.

10. Disputes between members

• Disputes about an item, a payment, a delivery, a property, a job or a service are between the members involved. We encourage members to resolve them directly and in good faith through the Site's messaging.
• marketcity does not adjudicate disputes, does not compel a member to refund, return, pay or perform, and is not liable for the outcome. Where we choose to help, for example by passing on information or removing a listing, we do so voluntarily and without accepting any responsibility.
• Members may use the Disputes Tribunal, the courts, the Commerce Commission, the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal, the Tenancy Tribunal or any other lawful route against the other member. Where the law requires it we will disclose a member's details to a court or competent authority.

11. Feedback and reviews

Feedback must be honest, about a real transaction, and free of abuse, personal data and threats. We may remove feedback that breaks these terms or the law, and we may keep feedback after a listing or account has ended. Buying, selling, trading or manipulating feedback is prohibited and may breach the Fair Trading Act 1986.

12. Messages and contact between members

Use messages only for the listing in question. No spam, no offers to take a deal off the Site to avoid its rules, no harvesting of contact details and no abusive, threatening or discriminatory content, which may also breach the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 and the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007. We may review messages that are reported or that our systems flag, to keep the Site safe.

13. Your content

• You keep ownership of your content. You grant marketcity a worldwide, royalty free, non-exclusive licence to host, store, copy, adapt, display and distribute it for the purposes of running, promoting and improving the Site, including in search results, emails, notifications, social media previews and marketing. The licence ends when the content is deleted, except for copies already received by other members, copies we must keep by law, and backups that roll off in the normal course.
• You confirm that you have every right needed to post your content, that it is accurate, and that it does not infringe anyone's rights or the law. You must not post other people's personal information without their permission.
• We host content posted by members. We do not pre-check it and we are not its author or publisher. Where we are told that content is unlawful we act promptly, and we rely on the protections available to hosts under New Zealand law, including the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 safe harbour.

14. Intellectual property

The Site, its name, logo, design, software, databases and all content we create are owned by or licensed to marketcity and protected by copyright and trade mark law. You may not copy, scrape, crawl, frame, mirror, reproduce or create derivative works from the Site or its content except as these terms allow. Search engines and AI crawlers may index public pages in line with our robots.txt. If you believe content on the Site infringes your rights, tell us through Support with details and we will act promptly.

15. Prohibited conduct

You must not: break any law or these terms; use the Site to defraud, mislead, harass, threaten, stalk or discriminate; impersonate anyone or misrepresent your affiliation; use bots, scrapers or automated tools without our written consent; interfere with the Site's operation or security, probe or test its vulnerabilities, or overload it; bypass any block, ban, rate limit or country check, including through VPNs, proxies or fresh accounts; collect other members' data; post malware or malicious links; use the Site for money laundering, sanctions evasion or any criminal purpose.

16. Reporting, moderation and enforcement

• Every listing, message, feedback and member can be reported. We review reports, remove illegal content quickly and act on other reports as we see fit.
• We may warn, restrict, suspend or permanently close any account, remove any content, and block any device, IP address or network, at any time, with or without notice, for any breach or suspected breach of these terms or the law, or to protect the Site or its members. Our decision is final. If we remove your content or restrict your account you may ask us to review the decision through Support.
• We may share information about serious wrongdoing with the Police, the Commerce Commission, Netsafe, other authorities and, where lawful, with affected members.

17. Third party links and services

The Site may link to or integrate other websites and services, including Google and Facebook sign-in, payment providers, couriers and social networks. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content, availability, policies or actions. Your use of them is at your own risk and subject to their terms.

18. Privacy

Our privacy policy explains what personal information we collect, why, how long we keep it and your rights. When you deal with another member you receive that member's personal information for the purpose of the deal only; you must not use it for anything else, share it, or add it to a marketing list.

19. Featured and paid listings

Standard listings are free. Optional paid features, such as featuring a listing at the top of a category or refreshing it, are shown with their price and duration before you confirm. A featured listing is shown above standard listings for the period bought, and above other featured listings in the order they were bought, with the newest first. Paid features are non-transferable, are not refunded if a listing sells early, is withdrawn, is edited into a different item, or is removed for breaking these terms, and are not refunded for a change of mind. Where the law gives you a right to a refund, that right is not affected.

20. No spam

You must not send unsolicited commercial messages through the Site, to addresses you obtained from the Site, or that claim to come from marketcity. This includes bulk messages, chain letters, referral schemes and repeated identical listings. Doing so breaches the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 and these terms, and results in the account being closed.

21. Disclosure of information

We may disclose your content and your personal information where the law requires or allows it: to comply with a court order, warrant, subpoena or lawful request from the police, a regulator or a government body; to investigate suspected fraud, illegal activity or a breach of these terms; to protect the rights, property or safety of marketcity, our members or the public; to identify the source of infringing content; and, if the Site is sold or merged, to the buyer, who will be bound by our privacy policy. Details are in the privacy policy.

22. Cookies

The Site uses only the cookies it needs to work: keeping you signed in, remembering your session and your choices, and security. We use no advertising or tracking cookies. Blocking cookies in your browser may stop you signing in. Our privacy policy lists each cookie.

23. Accessing and changing your information

You can update your name, contact details, location, addresses and listings at any time in your account. Your login email can be changed from Account, then Email, after confirming your password. You can download everything we hold about you, or delete your account and personal information, from Account, then Data and privacy. Records we must keep by law, such as completed order records, are kept without your personal details.

24. Security of your information and your account

All traffic to the Site is encrypted, passwords are stored only as salted one way hashes, and access to member data is limited to the people who need it. No system is perfectly secure, and we are not liable for loss caused by unauthorised access that results from your own password being shared, guessed or reused, or from malware on your device. You are responsible for everything done through your account until you tell us it has been compromised.

25. Availability and events outside our control

We aim to keep the Site available at all times but do not guarantee it. We may take the Site or any feature offline for maintenance, updates, security or any other reason. We are not responsible for any failure or delay caused by events outside our reasonable control, including network or hosting failures, attacks on the Site, power or telecommunications outages, strikes, natural disasters, epidemics or the acts of authorities.

26. Notices

We may give you notices by email to the address on your account, by a notice on the Site or in your account. You may contact us through Support or the email addresses at the end of these terms. Notices are treated as received the day they are sent.

27. No warranty

The Site and everything on it are provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows we give no warranty, guarantee or representation of any kind, express or implied, including as to availability, accuracy, completeness, fitness for purpose, quality, security, freedom from viruses, or the conduct of members. We do not promise that any listing is genuine, that any item exists or is as described, that any seller will deliver or any buyer will pay, or that any job or service is real. If you use the Site for the purposes of a business you agree that the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 does not apply to the service we provide.

28. Limitation of liability

• Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any right you have under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or the Fair Trading Act 1986 that cannot lawfully be excluded, or any liability that cannot lawfully be limited.
• Subject to that, marketcity is not liable to you or anyone else for any loss or damage arising from: any transaction, dispute or dealing between members; the conduct, statements or content of any member; any item, property, vehicle, job or service listed or supplied; any payment made or not made; any delivery, collection, meeting or inspection; any unauthorised access to your account; any third party service; any interruption, error, virus, data loss or unavailability of the Site; or any reliance you place on the Site or its content.
• We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, revenue, business, opportunity, goodwill or data, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), equity, statute or otherwise, even if foreseeable.
• Where liability cannot be excluded, our total liability to you for all claims in any twelve month period is limited to the greater of the fees you paid us in that period and NZ$100.

29. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless marketcity, its owners, directors, staff and contractors from and against every claim, demand, loss, liability, damage, cost and expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or connected with your content, your listings, your transactions and dealings with other members, your use of the Site, or your breach of these terms or the law.

30. Release

If you have a dispute with one or more members, you release marketcity and its owners, directors, staff and contractors from every claim, demand and damage of every kind, known or unknown, arising out of or connected with that dispute.

31. Suspension, termination and closing your account

You can close your account, or delete your account and personal information, at any time from Account, then Data and privacy. We may suspend or end your access as described in section 16. The sections on your content, intellectual property, no warranty, limitation of liability, indemnity, release, general terms and governing law survive termination.

32. Changes to the Site and these terms

We may change, suspend or withdraw any part of the Site at any time. We may update these terms; if a change is important we will tell you by email or with a notice on the Site at least 14 days before it takes effect, or sooner where the law requires. Continued use after that date means you accept the new terms.

33. General

If any part of these terms is found invalid, the rest continues in force. Our failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of it. You may not transfer your rights under these terms; we may transfer ours to a successor of the Site. These terms and the privacy policy are the entire agreement between you and marketcity about the Site. Nothing in these terms creates a partnership, employment, agency or joint venture between you and marketcity or between marketcity and any member.

34. Governing law and disputes with marketcity

These terms are governed by New Zealand law and the New Zealand courts have exclusive jurisdiction, without limiting your right to use the Disputes Tribunal. Please contact us first through Support; most concerns are sorted out quickly.

35. Contact

Support: marketcity.co.nz/support. Email: [email protected]. Privacy: [email protected].