Privacy Statement

Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd is committed to protecting your privacy and your personal information and aims to maintain a high standard of compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth) as amended by the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000, 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 its marketing activities, Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd may access various databases in the public domain such as Telstra White Pages, Australia Post DPID database, Titles Office or other property databases. Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd may also obtain referrals and recommendations from existing clients.

When you become a client or prospective client of Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd, most of the personal information about you is collected by Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd either directly from you, or indirectly from Hocking Stuart franchisees, Hocking Stuart Home Loans Pty Ltd or from public-domain, government databases such as the previously mentioned examples.

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


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

Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd may collect any of the following information about you if you are a prospective Vendor, Purchaser or Landlord of Real Estate:

  • Contact details
  • Property ownership details
  • Desired property ownership details

If you are a prospective tenant for Real Estate Rental or Lease, Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd may collect the following information from you:

  • Employment details such as your employment status, employer, salary, length of employment;
  • Other sources of income;
  • Personal and Financial Referees whom we may contact;

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


Why does Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd collect this information?

Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd collects this information to:

  • Enable Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd 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.
  • enable subsidiaries, associated franchised offices of Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd and third party partner businesses to assist you with related or ancillary services, as required.

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

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

  • compliance with our and your obligations under real-estate regulations and laws applicable for Victoria, including the Sale of Land Act (Vic) 1962, Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (residential tenants), Retail Tenants Reform Act 1998 (commercial tenants), The Subdivision Act 1988 (body corporate) and other various minor acts
  • helping Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd and Hocking Stuart franchisees and Hocking Stuart Home Loans Pty Ltd efficiently and effectively deliver and improve on Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd., Hocking Stuart Franchisees and Hocking Stuart Home Loans Pty Ltd. products and services or any other purpose specified to you at the time of collection; or
  • any other purpose if you would reasonably expect Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd to use or disclose that personal information for that other purpose and that other purpose is related to the above purpose; or
  • sending you news, and other information about Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd's activities and general promotional material which Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd believes may be of interest to you, however, when Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd does this, Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd will provide you with an express opportunity to decline receiving any further communication from Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd of this type via an opt-out mechanism.

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

  • Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd has your express consent to do so;
  • Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd has reasonable grounds to believe that the use or disclosure is necessary to prevent a threat to life or health; or
  • Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd 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 Pty Ltd You can visit our website without providing any personal information, you can access our real-estate advertising in various publications including our Property Weekly magazine, and you can attend auctions without providing personal details.

However when you enter into transactions with Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd or Hocking Stuart Home Loans Pty Ltd, that involve the sale, purchase or rental of real estate property, then various Acts, statutory legislation and regulations require you to provide us 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 Pty Ltd, 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; 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 Pty Ltd does not allow you to access your personal information, Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd 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 but not limited to 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 Pty Ltd.

We may also need to provide your details to Franchisees of Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd, and Hocking Stuart Home Loans Pty Ltd.

If you are a member or become a member of the Hocking Stuart Connections Club, we may also need to provide your details to the operators and administrators of the Hocking Stuart Connections Club.

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

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

Hocking Stuart Pty Ltd 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
239-241 Park 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 Pty Ltd 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)