Introduction

W.B. Simpson & Son is committed to protecting your privacy and your personal information and aims to maintain a high standard of compliance with the Privacy Act 1998 (Commonwealth) as amended by the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000, and the National Privacy Principles.

This privacy statement is intended to inform you about the following:

1. How we collect personal information;
2. What type of personal information we hold;
3. For what purposes we collect personal information;
4. How do we use personal information;
5. How do we store personal information and keep it secure;
6. When do we disclose personal information to third parties; and
7. How you may access, correct or update any personal information held us.

How does W.B. Simpson & Son collect personal information

Personal information may be collected from publicly available property, telephone and Government databases or may be collected through referrals or recommendations from existing clients. It also is collected when you register on our Internet site or through e-mails that you may send to us. If you attend one of our Open For Inspections we will also record your name and telephone number.

When you become a client of W.B. Simpson & Son most of the personal information about you is collected directly from you or from other publicly available sources as mentioned above.

If you apply to lease a property from W.B. Simpson & Son, we may collect personal information from you and credit checking agencies or tenancy databases. If this information is not provided we may not be able to process your application or manage the tenancy.

Types of personal information collected

If you are a prospective vendor, purchaser or landlord or real estate, W.B. Simpson & Son may collect any of the following type of personal information:

• Names, addresses and telephone numbers;
• Property ownership details;
• Prospective property ownership requirements;

If you are a tenant or prospective tenant, W.B. Simpson & Son may collect the following information from you:

• Names, addresses and telephone numbers;
• Prospective leasing requirements;
• Employment details such as employer name, salary, length of employment;
• Other sources of income;
• Bank account details;
• Tertiary education details for students;
• Passport and Drivers Licence details; and
• Personal, rental and business references.

W.B. Simpson & Son may need to request other personal information to enable us to process and evaluate applications and to manage properties.

Why does W.B. Simpson & Son collect personal information

W.B. Simpson & Son collects personal information to:

• provide you with the real estate services and/or products that you may require;
• comply with Local, State or Federal legislation or regulations with respect to Real Estate transactions and management of a Real Estate Agency business; and
• ensure the security of a vendor’s property during open for inspections.

Use of personal information

In our agency business, W. B. Simpson & Son uses personal information collected from you to act as your agent and to perform our obligations under our agreement with you.

Personal information collected by us in the course of a tenancy application and any subsequent tenancy is necessary for us to verify your identity, to process and evaluate your application and to manage the property.

We may use personal information collected from you during open for inspections for security purposes. We may also use that information to contact you in respect of the property or another property which may interest you.

We may use personal information collected by W.B. Simpson & Son to send you news, information about us and our activities and general promotional material. We may also use such information to promote our services and seek potential clients. When W.B. Simpson & Son does this, you may decline to receive any further information by contacting us directly.

W.B. Simpson & Son may use your personal information for a reasonably expected purpose which is related to the purpose for collecting the information as contemplated by this statement.

Personal information may also be used to comply with our obligations under legislation affecting real estate transactions and administration in Victoria.

Storage and security of personal information

We hold your personal information in a combination of computer storage facilities and paper-based files and other records. These records are stored in a secure environment on site at our office and can be accessed by only authorised persons so as to prevent misuse, loss, unauthorised access or disclosure.

Disclosure of personal information to third parties

There are some instances when we may need to provide personal information to third parties. We will ask you to consent to this disclosure in writing, over the telephone or by electronic mail.

The types of third parties to whom we may disclose personal information includes:

• Service providers of administrative and property related functions including tradespeople, accountants, printers, body corporate managers, signwriters, financial institutions, debt collectors, media organisations, insurers, solicitors, advertising agencies, utilities, security services and cleaners;
• Government bodies including local councils, courts, tribunals, residential tenancy bond authorities, Land Titles Office and Valuer Generals offices;
• Other real estate agents and valuers;
• The Real Estate Institute of Victoria;
• Credit reporting agencies and credit referees; and
• Tenancy database operators for the purpose of assessing your suitability as a tenant.

We may also share personal information with related bodies corporate.

We may also disclose or use your personal information without your consent in the following circumstances:

• The use or disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a threat to life, health or safety;
• The use or disclosure is required or authorised by or under law;
• We reasonably believe that the use or disclosure is reasonably necessary to assist an enforcement body to perform its functions; and
• The disclosure to a credit-reporting agency in connection with recovering amounts owed to us.

W.B. Simpson & Son does not sell your personal information to other organisations. We may, however, use the information to assist us with marketing and research.

Access to and correction of personal information

On request, you may access your personal information held by W.B. Simpson & Son. We will take reasonable steps to amend any personal information to ensure that it is complete, accurate and up-to-date.

We may charge you a reasonable fee to recover our costs for providing access based on time involved in providing access and the quantity of materials provided.

We may not be able to provide access to information in some situations including:

• 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;
• Where in our opinion, providing you access may create a serious threat to the life or health or safety of an individual or may be an unreasonable intrusion into the privacy of another individual; and
• Where your request is in our opinion frivolous or vexatious.

Contact

If you would like to contact us about privacy related issues or to access your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer as follows:

The Privacy Officer
W.B. Simpson & Son
30 Errol Street
North Melbourne Vic 3051
Tel: 9328 1213 Fax: 9329 9030
Email: enquiries@wbsimpson.com.au