How we manage your private information
Privacy Statement – Introduction
“Geelong Property Managers” is a trading name of Mitchell Property Management Pty Ltd which is known in this Privacy Statement as “Geelong Property Managers” or the “agency” or “we” or “us”. Geelong Property Managers is committed to protecting your privacy and personal information and we do comply with the relevant Acts and Privacy Principles. This Privacy Statement is intended to inform you about the following:
- How we collect your personal information;
- What type of personal information we collect;
- The purposes for which we use that information;
- How we maintain and keep the information secure; and
- How you may access, correct or update any personal information that we may hold about you
If you any further enquiries, please contact our Privacy Officer (details below).
How we collect personal information about you
Geelong Property Managers, like many other real estate agencies, may access various databases in the public domain such as Sensis White Pages, Australia Post DPID database, Titles Office or other property databases. Existing clients, other estate agents or our business contacts may also provide us information about you for referral purposes.
When you become a client or prospective client of Geelong Property Managers, we will obtain personal information from you directly or indirectly via the sources in the preceding paragraph. Before entering into lease agreements, we may also use authorised credit-checking services as part of our regular due diligence activities.
What types of personal information do we collect and hold about you?
If you are one of our Landlords or prospective Landlords, we may collect and hold your contact information including mailing and residential addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers as well as relevant property ownership details.
If you are Tenant or prospective Tenant, we may collect and hold:
- Identity information including your name, address, previous addresses, date of birth, and copies of photo identification documents
- Employment details such as your employment status, employer, salary, length of employment
- Other sources of income
- Personal and Financial Referees whom we may contact
- Next-of-kin contact details
At times, we may ask you for additional personal information to provide additional services to you.
Why do we collect this information?
We collect the abovementioned personal information to:
- Enable us to provide you with the services we offer.
- To comply with Local, State or Federal legislation or regulations with respect to real estate leasing and administration.
- Enable third party partner businesses to assist you with related or ancillary services, as required.
How do we use the personal information held about you?
Geelong Property Managers will only use your personal information lawfully for its business activities which include:
- compliance with our and your obligations under real-estate regulations and laws applicable for Victoria, including Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (residential Tenants), Retail Tenants Reform Act 1998 (commercial Tenants), The Subdivision Act 1988 (body corporate) and other various minor acts
- business improvement by way of customer satisfaction surveys
- sending you news, special offers, competitions and anything else we feel may be of benefit to our clients, however, we will always give you the opportunity to stop receiving such said offers via an ‘opt-out’ mechanism
- any other reasonable purpose neccessary for conducting our business
Geelong Property Managers may, upon request of a landlord, provide that landlord or another real estate agency specified by that landlord their current tenant’s application form and supporting documents, however, Geelong Property Managers reserves the right to refuse such a request.
If Geelong Property Managers wishes to use or disclose any of your personal information in any other ways than described above, we will not do so unless:
- we have your express consent to do so;
- we have reasonable grounds to believe that the use or disclosure is necessary to prevent a threat to life or health; or
- we have reasonable grounds to believe that the use or disclosure is required by law or to enforce the law.
Is it possible to be anonymous when dealing with us?
Yes. You may view our advertisements on third-party websites or printed publications with anonymity from us. You may also visit our website anonymously, but please note that our web traffic is recorded for market analysis purposes and therefore the IP address that you use to visit our website may be logged. You may not, however, attend an open-for-inspection at any of our properties available for lease without leaving personal information for security purposes.
It is not possible to be a prospective Landlord or prospective Tenant with us without us collecting personal information from you.
In accordance with various Acts, Statutory Legislation and Regulations, we must collect certain personal information from you if you are a Landlord or Tenant of ours.
Can you access or correct the personal information that we hold about you?
You may access your personal information held by us subject to some exceptions. We will respond to your request for access within 14 days and endeavour to provide the requested information within 30 days. We may charge you a reasonable fee to recover our costs for providing access based on the quantity of material and time involved in providing access. We may not be able to provide access to information in some situations including:
- where in our opinion providing you access may create a serious threat to the life or health of any individual or may be an unreasonable intrusion into the privacy of another individual
- where your request for access is in our opinion frivolous or vexatious
- where providing access would be unlawful, may prejudice an investigation of possible unlawful activity, may prejudice enforcement of law, or denying access is specifically authorised by law
If for any reason we do not allow you to access your personal information, we will provide you with reasons in writing for our decision.
How do we keep your personal information secure?
Geelong Property Managers will always take reasonable steps to ensure that any information we hold about you remains secure from all other parties. Once your information is no longer required for our business activities, including statutory information retention periods, we will take resonable steps to destroy it.
Please be aware that although your physical and electronic information is stored in secure environments, we cannot guarantee that your information will be 100% secure from malicious and illegal activities of some individuals. Any security breaches that may occur via the internet or in our business premises will be reported to the relevant authorities immediately.
How can you get further information?
For any enquires relating to your personal information and/or this Privacy Statement, please contact our Privacy Officer on 03 5277 2727 from 9:00am to 5:00pm, Monday to Friday.
You can also write to the Privacy Officer at:
Geelong Property Managers Privacy Officer
350 Latrobe Terrace
Newtown VIC 3220
What if you have a complaint or concern?
Any grievances can also be communicated to our Privacy Officer via the abovementioned contact details. We will do our best to try and resolve any complaints within 90 days.
What if we cannot resolve your complaint or concern?
If you are unhappy with the outcome of a complaint or concern, you can refer your issue to the Privacy Commissioner in your state capital on 1300 363 992. You can also write to the Privacy Commissioner at:
The Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 1042
Fax: (02) 9284 9666
e-mail privacy@privacy.gov.au
TTY: 1 800 620 241 (Teletype access for the hearing impaired)