Terms and Conditions

1. Introduction

Welcome to the website of Foenix Limited (NZBN 9429053187772), trading as Foenix Foundation Solutions (“Foenix”, “we”, “us” or “our”).

By accessing this website, creating an account, or engaging our services, you are deemed to have read, understood and agreed to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. If you do not accept them, please do not use this website or engage our services.

Where you engage us on behalf of a company or other organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to bind that organisation, and “you” means both you and that organisation.

2. About Foenix

Foenix is a structural engineering design service based in New Zealand. We undertake the design, drafting and preparation of building consent documentation for residential foundations and retaining walls, supplied for lodgement with your Building Consent Authority.

Our services are provided by or under the supervision of suitably qualified engineers, in accordance with the New Zealand Building Code and the relevant New Zealand Standards.

3. Website use and content

The information on this website is for general information purposes only. While we use all reasonable efforts to ensure it is accurate and current, we make no representation or warranty as to its accuracy, completeness or fitness for any particular purpose. Nothing on this website constitutes engineering advice for your specific site or project.

Example deliverables, typical details and drawings published on this website are illustrative only. They must not be used for construction. They are not site-specific, have not been prepared for your project, and no liability is accepted for any reliance placed on them.

You may view, download and print content from this website for your personal, non-commercial use only. You must not modify, reproduce, republish or redistribute any part of it for commercial purposes without our prior written permission.

4. Intellectual property

All content on this website — including text, graphics, logos, images, designs, drawings, technical details and software — is the property of Foenix or its licensors and is protected by New Zealand and international intellectual property law.

The Foenix name, logo and phoenix device are trademarks of Foenix. You must not use them without our express prior written permission.

We retain all intellectual property rights in the designs, calculations, reports and drawings we produce for you. On payment in full of the relevant fee, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use those deliverables for the specific project and purpose for which they were prepared, including lodging them with your Building Consent Authority and providing them to your builder. That licence does not extend to any other site, project, stage or dwelling.

5. Accounts and organisations

To submit a project you must create an account. You are responsible for keeping your username and password confidential and for all activity that occurs under your account. Tell us immediately if you believe your account has been accessed without your authority.

Every account belongs to an organisation. Everyone in your organisation can see, download and act on every project belonging to that organisation — including its documents, comments and history. Only share your organisation’s join code with people you are content to give that access.

You must provide accurate registration details and keep them up to date. We may suspend or close an account that is used in breach of these terms.

6. Professional services

Services purchased through this website are provided on the published scope for the service you select. The scope, inclusions, exclusions and limitations for each service are set out on its page under Pricing and form part of the agreement between us. Please read them before you submit a project.

Where Foenix determines that a project falls outside the published scope or limitations, we will let you know and refund the fee paid in full. Whether a project falls within the published scope is for Foenix to determine.

Our designs, advice and deliverables are prepared solely for the client named in the project and for the specific site and purpose described. They may not be relied upon by any other party, or used for any other site, project or purpose, without our prior written consent. We accept no liability to any third party who relies on them.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, our services do not include:

• geotechnical investigation, testing, or the preparation of a geotechnical report;
• site surveys, contour plans or set-out surveys;
• architectural design, superstructure, bracing or roof structure design;
• lodgement of the building consent application, or payment of council fees and charges;
• site inspections, construction monitoring, or the issue of a producer statement for construction review (PS4).

7. Information you supply

Our design depends entirely on the information you give us. You are responsible for ensuring that everything you upload or enter — site address or coordinates, geotechnical reports, architectural plans, truss and loading plans, site surveys, and the foundation system, brand, pod depth and slab thickness you select — is complete, current and correct.

We are entitled to rely on that information without independent verification. We do not check the accuracy of third-party reports, plans or survey data supplied to us. If information is incomplete, superseded or incorrect, the design may need to be revised and additional fees may apply.

You confirm that you have the right to provide us with everything you upload, and that doing so does not breach any third party’s intellectual property or confidentiality rights.

8. Declarations you make

Where you are not supplying a document, our submission process asks you to make a declaration instead. These declarations change what we are asked to assume, and you should not make them lightly.

No geotechnical report — adopt good ground. If you declare this, we will design on the basis that the site is “good ground” as defined in NZS 3604. You accept that if the site does not in fact qualify as good ground, the design will be inadequate and will need to be redone once a geotechnical report is available, at additional cost. Your Building Consent Authority may also decline the application.

No truss plan required. If you declare this, we will design to the loads shown on the architectural plans supplied. You accept that if truss or floor point loads are later confirmed and differ from those assumed, the design will need revising at additional cost.

Each declaration is recorded against your project with the date and the account that made it, and is included in the documentation issued to our engineers.

9. Fees and payment

Fees for each service are published on the Pricing page and are fixed for work within the published scope. All prices are in New Zealand dollars and exclude GST.

Payment is required in full at the time you submit a project for engineering. No design work begins until payment has been received. A project remains a draft, at no charge, until you choose to submit it.

Card payments are processed by our payment provider. We do not receive or store your full card details. Where you ask for a change to the design, or for a response to a request for information that is not included in the service, we will tell you the additional fee, which is payable before that work begins.

For projects with a turnaround of two working days or less, fees are non-refundable once you submit the project. For projects with a turnaround of more than two working days, if you cancel before the work is completed we will refund the fee paid, less the value of work already properly performed. These rules are subject to clauses 6 and 17 and to any refund required by law, including under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 where it applies.

10. Turnaround times

Our turnaround of 24 hours (one business day) is measured from the point at which we hold a complete submission — that is, payment has been received and every required document has either been supplied or validly declared as not applicable.

Turnaround times are estimates given in good faith and are not guaranteed. They exclude weekends and New Zealand public holidays, and any period during which we are waiting on information from you, from your consultants, or from a Building Consent Authority. Projects that fall outside a published scope, or that raise matters requiring further investigation, will take longer and we will tell you as soon as we know.

11. Limitation of liability

We hold both public liability insurance and professional indemnity insurance.

To the fullest extent permitted by New Zealand law:

• the maximum aggregate amount payable by us, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), equity or otherwise, in relation to all claims, damages, liabilities, losses or expenses arising out of or in connection with a project, shall be five times the fee for that project (exclusive of GST and disbursements);
• we are not liable for any indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, opportunity, production, contract, data or anticipated savings, however arising;
• we are not liable for any loss arising from information supplied to us that is incomplete, superseded or incorrect, or from a declaration made under clause 8 that proves not to be correct;
• we are not liable for any loss arising from the use of our deliverables on a site, project or purpose other than the one for which they were prepared, or from their amendment by any person other than us;
• any claim must be brought within six years of the date the relevant deliverable was issued.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes any liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law, including under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and the Fair Trading Act 1986. Where you acquire our services for the purposes of a business, the Consumer Guarantees Act does not apply and you agree that it is fair and reasonable for the parties to contract out of it.

12. No warranty

We perform all engineering services with the reasonable care, skill and diligence to be expected of a competent professional engineer in New Zealand. We do not warrant that a building consent will be granted, that a Building Consent Authority will not raise questions, or that a consent will be granted within any particular timeframe — those decisions are made by the authority, not by us.

This website is provided “as is” and “as available”. We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of harmful components, and we may suspend or withdraw it at any time.

13. Privacy

We collect, use and store personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. How we do that — including what we collect, who we share it with, and how you can access or correct it — is set out in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms.

14. Third-party links and services

This website may contain links to external websites. These are provided for convenience only and do not constitute endorsement. We are not responsible for their content, and you access them at your own risk.

We use third-party providers to operate parts of this service, including payment processing and document storage. Your use of the service is also subject to those providers’ terms where they apply to you.

15. Health and safety

Foenix is committed to maintaining a safe and healthy working environment and complies with the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. Where our personnel attend a site, you must ensure the site is safe and that they are informed of any known hazards and site rules.

You remain responsible for health and safety during construction. Nothing in our deliverables constitutes a construction methodology, temporary works design, or an assessment of construction safety.

16. Confidentiality

Each party agrees to keep confidential all information of the other that is marked confidential or that by its nature should reasonably be treated as confidential, and to use it only for the purposes of the engagement.

This does not apply to information that is or becomes public through no breach of these terms, was already lawfully known, is independently developed, or must be disclosed by law or by a regulatory or consenting authority. We may identify you as a client and describe a project in general terms for the purposes of our own records, insurance and professional registration.

17. Termination

You may delete or abandon a draft project at any time before you submit it, at no charge.

Once you click submit, work on your project is scheduled and begins straight away. You may ask us to stop work on a submitted project at any time. Because our turnaround times are short, a project with a turnaround of two working days or less is non-refundable once submitted. For a project with a longer turnaround, we will refund the fee less the value of work already properly performed, as set out in clause 9.

We may stop work on a project by notifying you in writing if you materially breach these terms, if you become insolvent or a receiver or liquidator is appointed, or if continuing would place us in breach of a professional or legal obligation. If we stop work for any reason other than your breach, or we are unable to complete the work, we will refund the fee paid in full to the original payment method.

Clauses that by their nature should survive termination — including intellectual property, limitation of liability, confidentiality and indemnity — continue to apply.

18. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Foenix, its directors, employees and agents from any claim, loss, damage or expense (including reasonable legal costs) arising from:

• your breach of these terms;
• information you supplied to us that was incomplete, superseded or incorrect;
• a declaration you made under clause 8 that proved not to be correct;
• use of our deliverables for a site, project or purpose other than the one for which they were prepared, or after amendment by anyone other than us;
• your use of this website in breach of any law or third-party right.

19. Disputes

If a dispute arises, the parties will first attempt to resolve it through good-faith negotiation. If it is not resolved within 14 days, either party may refer the matter to mediation through the New Zealand Dispute Resolution Centre, with the parties sharing the mediator’s costs equally. Neither party may commence court proceedings until mediation has been attempted, except to seek urgent interim relief.

20. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of New Zealand. Any dispute arising from your use of this website or your engagement of our services is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the New Zealand courts.

21. General

Severability. If any provision is found to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, it will be severed and the remaining provisions will continue in full force.

Waiver. Our failure to enforce any right or provision does not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer your rights under these terms without our prior written consent.

Entire agreement. These terms, together with the published scope for the service you purchase and our Privacy Policy, form the entire agreement between us and supersede any prior discussions.

22. Changes to these terms

We may amend these terms at any time. Changes take effect when posted to this website, and the version in force when you submit a project is the version that applies to it. Your continued use of the website constitutes acceptance of the amended terms.

23. Contact us

If you have any questions about these Terms and Conditions, please contact us: