Privacy Statement

Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd (Hocking Stuart) is committed to protecting your privacy and your personal information and aims to maintain a high standard of compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (C’th) and the National Privacy Principles. This Privacy Statement forms part of the Hocking Stuart Privacy Policy and is intended to inform you about the following:

• how Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd collects your personal information;
• what type of personal information Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd collects;
• the purposes for which Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd uses that information;
• how Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd maintains and keeps the information secure; and
• how you may access, correct or update any personal information that Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd holds about you.

How does Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd collect personal information about me?

In addition to information submitted through the Hocking Stuart website or provided directly to Hocking Stuart or Hocking Stuart franchisees as a prospective seller or purchaser of a property, Hocking Stuart may collect information about you from the following sources:

• various databases in the public domain such as Telstra White Pages, Australia Post DPID database, Titles Office or other property databases; and
• referrals and recommendations from existing clients of Hocking Stuart or a Hocking Stuart franchisee.

As part of its due diligence process prior to entering into lease or rental agreements with you, Hocking Stuart may disclose your information to authorised credit-checking agencies.

What type of personal information does Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd collect about me?

Hocking Stuart may collect any of the following information about you if you are a prospective vendor, purchaser or landlord of real estate:

• contact details (including, address, telephone number and email address);
• current property ownership details;
• desired property ownership details; and
• details of properties sold or acquired by you.

If you are a prospective tenant for a rental property, Hocking Stuart may collect the following additional information from you:

• employment details such as your employment status, employer, salary, length of employment;
• other sources of income; and
• personal and financial referees whom we may contact about your application.

Sometimes Hocking Stuart may also need to ask you for other personal information to enable Hocking Stuart to provide its services to you.

Why does Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd collect this information?

Hocking Stuart collects this information to:

• enable Hocking Stuart to provide you with the services and/or products you may require;
• to comply with local, state or federal legislation or regulations with respect to real estate property sales, rental and administration;
• to enable subsidiaries, Hocking Stuart franchisees and third party partner businesses to assist you with related or ancillary services, as required; and
• for our internal administrative, marketing, planning, product development and research requirements.

How does Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd use the personal information held about me?

Any personal information about you that Hocking Stuart collects and records will only be used or disclosed by Hocking Stuart for the purpose of:

• compliance with obligations under real-estate regulations and laws applicable for Victoria;
• helping Hocking Stuart and Hocking Stuart franchisees efficiently and effectively deliver and improve on products and services;
• any other purpose if you would reasonably expect Hocking Stuart to use or disclose that personal information for that other purpose and that other purpose is related to the purpose for which the information is collected;
• offering to provide you with products or services provided by Hocking Stuart, Hocking Stuart franchisees and third party business partners; or
• sending you news and other information about Hocking Stuart’s activities and general promotional material which Hocking Stuart believes may be of interest to you. However, when Hocking Stuart does this, Hocking Stuart will provide you with an express opportunity to decline receiving any further communication from Hocking Stuart of this type via an opt-out mechanism.

Hocking Stuart may also use or disclose the information it collects for any other purpose specified to you at the time of collection.

If Hocking Stuart wishes to use or disclose any of your personal information in any other ways than described above, Hocking Stuart will not do so unless it:

• has your express consent to do so;
• has reasonable grounds to believe that the use or disclosure is necessary to prevent a threat to life or health; or
• has reasonable grounds to believe that the use or disclosure is required by law or to enforce the law.

Can I be anonymous when I deal with Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd?

To some extent you can preserve your anonymity when you deal with Hocking Stuart. You can browse our website without providing any personal information, you can access our real-estate advertising in various publications and you can generally attend auctions without providing personal details if you do not intend to bid.

However, when you enter into transactions with Hocking Stuart or Hocking Stuart franchisees that involve the sale, purchase or rental of real estate property, then various Acts, statutory legislation and regulations require you to provide Hocking Stuart with personal information so as to identify you.

What happens if I want to access or correct the personal information held about me?

You may access your personal information held by Hocking Stuart, 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.

If you believe that personal information Hocking Stuart holds about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request amendment of it. We will consider if the information requires amendment. If we do not agree that there are grounds for amendment, then we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it.

Hocking Stuart may charge you a reasonable fee to recover its costs for providing access based on the quantity of material and time involved in providing access.

Hocking Stuart may not be able to provide access to information in some situations, including:

• where in Hocking Stuart’s 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 Hocking Stuart’s opinion frivolous or vexatious; or
• 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 Hocking Stuart does not allow you to access your personal information, Hocking Stuart will provide you with reasons in writing for its decision.

Does Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd provide my personal information to third parties?

There are some instances when we need to provide your personal information to third parties. We may be bound by law to provide your details to government-related bodies, including the Titles Office or the Residential Tenancies Bond Authority.

Sometimes we may need to outsource some of our administrative and other property-related functions to external organisations such as advertising agencies, signwriters, building and garden maintenance contractors or consultants such as accountants, lawyers, surveyors and other advisors. Most of the above organisations are bound by express or implied confidentiality obligations to Hocking Stuart.

We may also need to provide your details to Hocking Stuart franchisees. Hocking Stuart may also provide your details to third party business partners for the purpose of offering to provide you with products or services provided by Hocking Stuart or these business partners that Hocking Stuart considers relevant to you.

Hocking Stuart does not sell your personal details to other organisations. We may however use the information about you to assist us with internal marketing and research.

How does Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd keep my personal information secure?

Hocking Stuart will take reasonable steps to ensure information Hocking Stuart collects, uses or discloses is stored in a secure environment that is accessed only by persons authorised by Hocking Stuart so as to prevent misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

If the personal information is no longer needed for any purpose, Hocking Stuart will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify the personal information.

Hocking Stuart endeavours to provide a secure environment and a reliable system but you should be aware that there are inherent risks associated with the electronic storage and transmission of information (particularly via the Internet) which cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

Who do I contact for further information?

Our Privacy Officer can assist you with any enquiries you have about the information that we hold about you. He can be contacted on (03) 9690 4388 from 9.00am to 5.00pm (Melbourne time), Monday to Friday.

You can also write to the Privacy Officer at:

Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd
Operations Centre
187 Moray Street
South Melbourne Victoria 3205
Fax: (03) 9690 4399
e-mail: privacy@hockingstuart.com.au

What if I have a complaint or concern?

If you have a complaint or concern you can phone the Hocking Stuart Privacy Officer on (03) 9690 4388 or write to the Privacy Officer at the address above. We will do our best to try and resolve your complaint within 90 days.

What if you are unable to resolve my complaint or concern?

If we are unable to resolve your complaint within this time, or you are unhappy with the outcome, you may refer your complaint to the Privacy Commissioner in your State capital. The Privacy Commissioner can be contacted by telephone from anywhere in Australia for the cost of a local call on 1300 363 992, or you can write to the Privacy Commissioner at the following address:

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)

How does this policy change over time?

This policy represents our policy as at 31 May 2010. We may change this policy from time to time. Although we intend to observe this policy at all times, it is not legally binding on Hocking Stuart in any way. From time to time we may regard it as necessary or desirable to act outside the policy. Hocking Stuart may do so, subject only to any other applicable contractual rights you have and any statutory rights you have under the Privacy Act or other applicable legislation.