Terms of service

1. About these terms

These terms are the agreement between you (the business or person named on your account) and us, MailStreet. They apply when you sign up, and they work together with our privacy policy, acceptable use policy and AML/KYC policy. If those documents and these terms disagree, these terms apply.

We’ve tried to write them plainly. If something isn’t clear, email us at [email protected] before you sign up. We record the version you accept, and you can see it in your dashboard at any time.

2. The service

MailStreet provides a business address and a mail handling service. Depending on your plan, that includes:

• a street address you can use as your registered office, principal place of business or mailing address;
• a photo of the outside of every item we receive for you, shown in your dashboard;
• opening and scanning items when you ask, and shredding, forwarding or holding items for collection;
• on Pro and Nameplate, hours in a bookable meeting room; and
• on Nameplate, a logo plaque on our Nameplate door and receiving your clients by appointment.

An address and mail service. No desk or room is included. No plan gives you a workspace, a lease, a licence to occupy any part of a building, a receptionist, or a phone answering service.

3. Your address

• Your address includes a mailbox reference in the form “Suite NNNNN”. The suite is a mailbox reference, not a room, office or premises. It is how we sort mail to you. You have no right to occupy any space at the address.
• Each account has one suite number. We allocate it only when your checks pass, and we never reuse a suite number for another customer.
• Business Address and Pro use our mail point. Nameplate uses our Nameplate address. Your suite number stays the same if you move between them, but the street address changes (see Changing plans).
• We don’t publish our street addresses. You see your full address in your dashboard once your address is released.

4. How you can use the address

Once your address is released, you may use it as your:

• registered office (for a company), including with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC);
• principal place of business, including on the Australian Business Register (ABR); and
• mailing and correspondence address, on your website, invoices and letterhead.

Each use is your decision and your responsibility. You must make sure that listing the address is accurate and lawful for your business. In particular, whether it is right to call it your principal place of business depends on how you run your business. We can’t give you legal or tax advice about this.

At sign-up you tell us your actual operating address: where your business is really run from. You must keep it current (see Your account). We keep it private, and we use it to meet our legal obligations.

Public companies, and entity types other than sole traders, proprietary companies, trusts and partnerships, are accepted only by request after an individual review. A public company’s registered office must be open to the public at set hours, which our address may not suit.

For a company using the address as its registered office, we provide a signed occupier’s consent letter when your address is released. That consent lasts only while your plan is active.

You must not use the address in ways our acceptable use policy prohibits, including suggesting that you lease or occupy premises there.

5. Verification and release of your address

The law requires us to verify the people behind each business using our address. Our AML/KYC policy explains who we check and what we check.

1. You pay first. You pay your first period (and any verification fee) at sign-up. We don’t release your address, issue any documents or accept any mail for you until every required check passes.
2. Your billing starts on approval. Your first billing period starts on the day your address is released, so you don’t pay for time spent waiting on checks.
3. If checks don’t pass, you get a full refund. If we decline your application, or the checks aren’t finished within 14 days of payment, we cancel your subscription and refund everything you paid, including any verification fee. We start the refund straight away. It usually reaches you within 5 to 10 business days, depending on your bank.
4. We may ask for more. If we need more information to make a decision, we’ll ask before we decide.
5. We may not be able to give reasons. We may decline an application at our discretion. The law sometimes stops us explaining a decision, so we may not give reasons. That doesn’t affect your refund.

6. Your account and keeping details current

• Everything you tell us at sign-up and afterwards must be true, complete and not misleading.
• You must tell us within 14 days if any of these change: your operating address; the directors, owners, trustees, partners or anyone else who controls your business; your business or entity name, ABN or ACN; the nature of your business; or your contact details. A change of director or owner means we run fresh checks on the new people.
• Each year we’ll ask you to confirm your details. Please respond within 30 days. If we can’t confirm your details, we may hold your mail until you do.
• Mail is accepted only for the business names and people listed on your account. You can add names in your dashboard. New names may need checks before we accept mail for them.
• Keep your login secure and turn on two-factor authentication. You are responsible for what you, and the team members you add, do in your account. Tell us straight away if you think someone else has access.
• The person who signs up must be authorised to bind the business to these terms. If you sign up for a company, trust or partnership, you confirm that you have that authority.

7. Receiving mail

• You authorise us, as your agent, to receive and sign for letters and documents addressed to you at your suite, and to deal with them as these terms set out.
• We photograph the outside of every item on the day we receive it and notify you. We record the date, sender and what happens to each item in a mail log.
• We open an item only when you ask us to scan it (including through a standing rule you set, such as “always scan mail from the ATO”). The exceptions are: if we reasonably believe an item is dangerous or prohibited, if the law requires us to, or if you ask us to open it to complete a customs declaration.
• If an item is addressed to a name that isn’t on your account, we hold it and ask you. If it isn’t sorted out within 14 days, we return it to the sender.
• Mail addressed to a closed or unknown suite is returned to the sender.
• Legal documents. Documents left at a company’s registered office can be legally served on it there, including court documents and notices from regulators. We treat these like any other mail: we photograph and notify you on the day they arrive. Check your alerts regularly and act on these items promptly. We aren’t responsible for the consequences of you not acting on a notice we have notified you about.
• Letters and documents only. We accept letters and documents up to Australia Post’s large-letter size (260 × 360 × 20 mm, 500 g), including Registered Post and Express Post envelopes. We don’t accept parcels on any plan. Parcels are refused at delivery and go back to the sender; if one is left with us anyway, we return it to the sender and aren’t responsible for it.
• Some items can’t be accepted at all. The list is in our acceptable use policy. We may refuse or return them, and dangerous or illegal items may be handed to the relevant authorities.

8. Scanning, shredding, forwarding and collection

Scan

• We open the item, scan it to a PDF and put it in your dashboard. Requests made before 2pm on a business day are usually done the same day. This is a target, not a guarantee.
• Business Address includes 10 scans a billing period, and the count resets at each renewal. Extra scans are $1.50 each. We tell you the price before you confirm.
• Pro and Nameplate include unlimited scans, subject to fair use of up to 150 items a month. If you regularly go over, we’ll talk to you about it first. We won’t charge you more without your agreement.
• A scan covers an item of up to 10 pages. For longer items, we’ll tell you the price before scanning.
• After scanning, we hold the original for 30 days and then shred it, unless you ask us to forward it or hold it for collection in that time.

Shred

• Shredding is free. Items are kept in a locked console and destroyed by a certified secure shredding vendor. Shredding can’t be undone, so we ask you to confirm.

Forward

• We weigh the item and send you a quote. Nothing is posted until you approve. When you approve, we charge your card on file and add the tracking number to your dashboard.
• On Business Address, forwarding costs postage plus a $2 handling fee for each dispatch. Items sent together in one package count as one dispatch. On Pro and Nameplate, you pay postage only, at cost.
• You can ask for items to be batched and sent weekly to save postage.
• We forward within Australia and overseas, except to countries where sanctions or carrier restrictions apply, or that we assess as high risk. For overseas items, you are responsible for the accuracy of the customs description, and for any duties and taxes charged at the other end.
• You are responsible for giving us the right forwarding address. Once we hand an item to Australia Post or a courier, the carrier’s terms and compensation rules apply to loss or delay in transit. We’ll help you make a claim. If you want extra cover, ask for registered or insured postage, which we charge at cost.

Collect

• You can collect items from our mail point during collection hours (Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm, excluding public holidays). We have the item ready once you ask.
• Whoever collects must show photo ID and be listed on your account (as you, or a person you’ve authorised in your dashboard). We record who collected each item. We may refuse to hand over an item if we can’t confirm who someone is.

9. How long we hold mail

This is our current schedule. It also appears on our mail scanning page.

If we change this schedule in a way that shortens how long we hold your items, we’ll give you at least 30 days’ notice. Our privacy policy sets out how long we keep records about you.

10. Nameplate

• Minimum term. Nameplate has a 3-month minimum term, starting on the day your address is released. After that it continues month to month. If you pay annually, your annual term applies instead.
• Your plaque. Your plaque is 10 × 5 cm, made from artwork you upload and a proof you approve. It’s included in your plan. We install it on our Nameplate door, alongside other customers’ plaques, and choose its position. Your artwork must be yours to use and must not be misleading (for example, it must not suggest you occupy the building).
• Removal. We remove your plaque within 7 days after your plan ends, or after you move to another plan. You can collect it within 30 days of removal; after that we dispose of it.
• Clients by appointment. You can receive clients by appointment in the meeting room, using your meeting room hours. We don’t receive unannounced visitors for you.
• Google. Google Maps ready, if you meet Google's rules (signage, staffed hours, meeting clients on site). Meeting them is up to you. Use your address on Google Maps, provided you meet Google's eligibility rules (signage, staffed hours, meeting clients on site). We'll help with your sign and video verification, but we can't guarantee Google approves your listing.
• Meeting Google’s rules is your responsibility. We provide the address, the sign and the meeting room. You provide the staffed hours and everything else Google asks for. We don’t sell Google listings, we don’t guarantee that Google approves or keeps your listing, and we don’t refund fees if it doesn’t.
• Spots are limited by the space on the door. If Nameplate is full, you can join the waitlist.

11. Meeting room (Pro and Nameplate)

• Pro and Nameplate include 4 hours a month of meeting room time, booked by the hour in your dashboard, during the hours the dashboard shows. Unused hours don’t carry over to the next month and have no cash value.
• You can cancel a booking up to 24 hours before it starts and get the hours back. Later cancellations and no-shows count as used.
• The room is for meetings. It is not a workspace, and you can’t leave belongings, signs or equipment there or use it as your business premises.
• You are responsible for your guests while they are with us. Please follow our staff’s reasonable directions, finish on time, and leave the room as you found it. You must pay for damage you or your guests cause, other than fair wear and tear.
• If we have to cancel your booking (for example, because the room is unavailable), we’ll tell you as soon as we can and restore your hours.

12. Fees, GST and payment

All prices include GST. We issue a tax invoice for every payment.

• A one-off verification fee of $15 applies to companies and trusts, and is shown at checkout before you pay. It is refunded if your checks don’t pass.
• Extras are charged to the card on file: extra scans on Business Address ($1.50 each) and forwarding (postage, plus $2 handling per dispatch on Business Address). We always show you the price before you confirm a paid action.
• Plans renew automatically at the end of each period until you cancel. For annual plans, we remind you 30 days and 7 days before renewal.
• Payments are processed by our payment provider, Stripe. We don’t see or store your full card number.

13. Failed payments

• If a payment fails, we tell you and try again over the next 7 days. Please update your payment method in your dashboard.
• If it still hasn’t been paid after 7 days, we suspend your account: we keep receiving and holding your mail, but you can’t action it until the balance is paid. Retention periods keep running while your mail is held.
• If the balance is still unpaid 30 days after we suspend your account, we may end your plan by email notice. If we do, the rules in What happens when your plan ends apply.

14. Changing plans

• You can change plans in your dashboard. Upgrades take effect straight away, and we charge the difference for the rest of the current period. Downgrades take effect at the start of your next period.
• If you move off Nameplate during its minimum term, the change takes effect when the minimum term ends.
• Moving between Nameplate and the other plans changes your street address. We’ll warn you before you confirm, issue new documents, and accept mail at both addresses for 30 days. You must update ASIC, the ABR and anyone else who has your address. ASIC requires a company to notify a change of registered office within 28 days.

15. Cancelling

• You can cancel at any time from your dashboard, or by emailing us.
• Monthly plans run to the end of the period you’ve paid for. We don’t refund part months.
• Annual plans end when you ask, and we refund the unused whole months of your annual term, worked out at one-twelfth of the annual price per month.
• Nameplate: if you cancel during the 3-month minimum term, your plan runs to the end of the minimum term and you pay for it in full.
• These rules don’t limit any refund you are entitled to under the Australian Consumer Law, or under the sections of these terms about changes, suspension or our closing your account.

16. When we may hold mail, suspend or close an account

• Anti-money-laundering holds. We may hold your mail, or stop you using the address, while we carry out an anti-money-laundering review or where the law requires it. During a hold we keep your items safe. The law may stop us telling you that a review is happening or why.
• Breaches we can fix together. If you breach these terms or our acceptable use policy and the breach can be fixed, we’ll tell you what’s wrong and give you at least 14 days to fix it before we suspend or close your account.
• Serious matters. We may suspend or close your account straight away if: you gave us false or misleading information; you or someone behind your business fails our checks or becomes subject to sanctions; you use the address for something illegal or seriously breach our acceptable use policy; or the law requires us to.
• Closing for our own reasons. We may also end our service to you for any other reason by giving you at least 60 days’ notice.
• Refunds when we close your account. If we close your account, we refund any fees you’ve paid for whole months after the closing date, unless the law prevents us from paying. The Nameplate minimum term doesn’t apply when we close an account.

17. What happens when your plan ends

• Update your records. You must update ASIC, the ABR and anyone else who has your address within 14 days after your end date. If you don’t, we may tell ASIC, the ABR or others that you no longer have our consent to use the address.
• Consent ends. The occupier’s consent to use the address as your registered office ends on your end date.
• New mail is returned. Mail that arrives after your end date are returned to the sender.
• Items we’re already holding. For 30 days after your end date you can still ask us to forward (at the usual price) or hold for collection any item we received before the end date. After that, they are securely shredded.
• Your data. Download any scans and photos you need before your end date. We delete mail images and scans 90 days after your account closes. We keep some records for longer where the law requires it, as our privacy policy explains.

18. Consumer guarantees and liability

Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law

Our services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law, including that they will be provided with due care and skill, be fit for any purpose you’ve told us about, and be supplied within a reasonable time. Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or changes those guarantees or any other right you have under the Australian Consumer Law or other law that can’t be excluded.

Where our services are not of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use, and the law allows it, our liability for failing to meet a consumer guarantee is limited to supplying the service again or paying the cost of having it supplied again.

Limits that apply to both of us

• Subject to the consumer guarantees above, our total liability to you for all claims arising out of these terms or the service in any 12-month period is limited to the fees you paid us in that period.
• Neither of us is liable to the other for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, business or opportunity, however caused.
• These limits don’t apply to liability for death or personal injury, fraud, or wilful misconduct, or to your obligation to pay fees.
• Each party’s liability is reduced to the extent the other party, or the other party’s people, caused or contributed to the loss.

Things outside our control

We aren’t responsible for items before they reach us, for loss or delay by Australia Post or couriers once we’ve handed an item over (see Forward above), for what senders put in items, or for delays caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as postal disruptions, outages, natural disasters or public health orders. If an event like this stops us providing the main parts of the service for more than 14 days in a row, you can cancel and we’ll refund the unused part of any fees you’ve paid.

19. Your responsibility for claims

If someone else makes a claim against us because you used the address illegally, gave us false information, or breached our acceptable use policy, you must cover our reasonable costs of dealing with that claim, including reasonable legal costs. This doesn’t apply to the extent the claim was caused by our own breach, negligence or misconduct. We’ll tell you promptly about any such claim and take reasonable steps to keep the costs down.

20. Privacy and confidentiality

• We handle your personal information as our privacy policy describes.
• Your mail is confidential. Only trained staff who have signed a confidentiality undertaking handle it, and only for the purposes in these terms. We don’t read your mail beyond what’s needed to scan it, and we don’t use its contents for marketing.
• We may disclose information about you or your mail where the law requires it, including to AUSTRAC, law enforcement agencies or under a court order.

21. Changes to these terms and prices

• We may update these terms, our policies or our prices. If a change could disadvantage you, we’ll email you at least 30 days before it takes effect, explaining what’s changing.
• If you don’t accept the change, you can cancel before it takes effect. If you do, we refund the unused whole months of any prepaid period, and the Nameplate minimum term doesn’t apply.
• Price rises don’t apply to an annual term you’ve already paid for. They apply from your next renewal.
• We may make changes that don’t disadvantage you (such as clarifications, new features or lower prices), or changes the law requires, with shorter notice. We’ll still tell you about them.

22. Complaints and disputes

• If something goes wrong, email us at [email protected]. We’ll acknowledge your complaint within 2 business days and aim to resolve it within 15 business days.
• If we can’t resolve it between us, either of us can suggest mediation, for example through the Victorian Small Business Commission. This doesn’t stop either of us going to a court or tribunal, or contacting a regulator, at any time.
• These terms are governed by the law of Victoria, Australia.

23. General

• Notices. We send notices to the email address on your account. You can send notices to [email protected]. Keep your email address current.
• Contractors. We use trusted contractors and service providers (for example, for shredding, identity checks and payments). We remain responsible for the service we provide to you.
• Transfer. You can’t transfer your account or address to someone else. We may transfer our rights and obligations to a buyer of our business if they agree to be bound by these terms. We’ll tell you first, and you can cancel if you don’t want to continue.
• Whole agreement. These terms, together with the policies linked above and the plan details shown when you signed up, are the whole agreement between us about the service.
• Severability. If a part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest of the terms still apply.

24. Who we are

MailStreet is operated by Dee Bee Vee Pty Ltd, ABN 53 642 651 590. Contact us at [email protected].