Privacy • Home by Holly

privacy.policy & collection.notice

This Privacy Policy & Collection Notice sets out how home.byholly Pty Ltd (ABN 22 364 983 785) (we, us, our) collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and applicable real estate, property and tenancy legislation in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.

This document applies to personal information collected by us offline and online, including through our website https://homebyholly.com.au, inspections, auctions, property management activities, sales transactions, electronic communications, and through third‑party platforms and software we use in the operation of our business (including Reapit, Microsoft Office tools and other real estate platforms).

This document combines our Privacy Policy and Privacy Collection Notice. It is available on our website, at our office, and may be provided to you at inspections, auctions, or when we first communicate with you.

We may update this Privacy Policy & Collection Notice from time to time. The most current version will be published on our website.

What is personal information?

Personal information is information or an opinion about an identified individual, or a reasonably identifiable individual. This includes sensitive information, which is given a higher level of protection under the APPs.

What personal information do we collect?

The types of personal information we may collect include:

your name;
images of you;
images of your property;
your contact details, including email address, postal address, street address and telephone number;
your age and/or date of birth;
banking and payment details;
demographic information such as postcode;
details of products and services we have provided to you or that you have enquired about, and our responses;
browser session information, geo‑location data, device and network information, statistics on page views and sessions, acquisition sources, search queries and browsing behaviour;
information about your access to and use of our website, including through cookies;
information you provide to us directly or indirectly through our website, applications, social media platforms or accounts you permit us to access; and
any other personal information requested by us or provided by you or a third party.

How we collect personal information from you

We will collect personal information from you in the following circumstances:

Property Management

if you are a prospective or current landlord and you want us to manage your property, then we will collect personal information from you to identify you and the property;
if you are a prospective or current tenant and/or you inspect any rental property, then we will collect personal information from you when you attend the property inspection; and
if you are a prospective or current tenant and you want to rent a property, then we will collect personal information from you, usually at the rental application stage from the rental application and supporting documentation that you supply. If you are the successful tenant then we may also collect personal information from you during the continuation of any tenancy or lease agreement with the landlord.

Sales

if you are a prospective or current vendor and you want us to act as your sales agent, then we will collect personal information from you to identify you and the property;
if you are a prospective or current purchaser and you inspect any property or at auctions when registering as bidders, then we will collect personal information from you when you attend the inspection/auction; and
subject to the other provisions of this Privacy Policy, we may also collect personal information from you when you make any other enquiry with us about the property.

How we collect personal information from other sources

We can collect personal information about you from other sources in any manner permitted by the Act. We will only collect personal information from other sources where it is reasonably necessary for us to do so in relation to, or in connection with, any services we are supplying in connection with our real estate business. Examples of such sources of personal information include:

from your agents, other owners, insurers and underwriters, contractors, legal, financial and other advisors in relation to or in connection with any tenancy, lease or contract for sale of the property;
from public registers, including those managed by the ACT / NSW Land & Property Information;
from publicly available information;
from property valuers or related service providers; and
from our other service providers, including any third party that has been authorised to supply us with personal information.

When the law authorises or requires the collection of personal information

We may be required to collect and disclose personal information under applicable laws, including but not limited to:

Property, Stock and Business Agents Act 2002 (NSW) and associated regulations;
Agents Act 2003 (ACT) and associated regulations;
Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (ACT);
Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Act 2003 (ACT); and

Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing

We may collect, use and disclose personal information where reasonably necessary to comply with our obligations under applicable anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, including for the purposes of identity verification, customer due diligence, ongoing monitoring, record-keeping and reporting to relevant regulatory authorities such as AUSTRAC, where required or authorised by law.

How your personal information may be used

We may collect and disclose your personal information for the following purposes, including:

Property Management

to identify and/or verify the identity of any prospective or actual landlord or tenant for any property we manage or propose to manage;
to process and assess any application received in relation to a tenancy or lease of any property;
to advertise, market and promote any tenancy or lease of any property;
to negotiate and prepare any tenancy agreement, lease or any other document for any property;
to liaise and exchange information with the landlord or the tenant as well as their agents, contractors, legal, financial and other advisors in relation to or in connection with any tenancy or lease of the property;
to manage any tenancy or lease agreement, including the collection of rent and other amounts on behalf of the landlord and the preparation of required statements of account;
to ensure the safety and security of landlords and existing occupiers and of each of their properties in connection with the inspection of any property by prospective tenants;
to provide your insurer with information relating to or connected with any property;
to comply with any applicable law in connection with the tenancy agreement or lease;
to confirm whether the landlord or tenant is registered for GST purposes;
to tell you about any other rental property that we are managing or any other service that we provide, unless you tell us not to (this is referred to as direct marketing);

Sales

to identify and/or verify the identity of any prospective or actual vendor for any property;
to advertise, market and promote the sale of any property;
to negotiate and manage the sale of any property (including to provide non-legal assistance with the exchange of the contracts for the sale of property as well as the preparation of any required statements of account);
to liaise and exchange information with the vendor, purchaser (including any prospective purchaser), as well as their respective agents, contractors, legal, financial and other advisors in relation to or in connection with the sale of the property;
to ensure the safety and security of vendors and existing occupiers and of each of their properties in connection with auctions and the inspection of any property by prospective purchasers;
to comply with any applicable law in connection with the sale of the property;
to confirm whether the vendor or purchaser is registered for GST purposes;
to tell you about any other property that we are selling or any other service that we provide, unless you tell us not to (this is referred to as direct marketing);

Generally

to provide statistical and other information to the Real Estate Institute;
to allow us to run our business efficiently and to perform administrative and operational tasks;
to comply with any dispute resolution or other legal process;
to act on behalf of clients in accordance with any agency agreement and to comply with our obligations under that agreement;
to update our records and your contact details;
to operate controlled money accounts;
if we enter into or propose to enter into any agreement or arrangement with any party for the purpose of, or in connection with, the acquisition of our business (including any part of our business that includes personal information), then we may provide that party (including its legal, financial and other professional advisers) with personal information in relation to or in connection with those arrangements; and
any other purpose to which you have consented.

You can tell us at any time if you no longer wish to receive direct marketing information or offers from us. We will process your request as soon as reasonably practicable after receipt of the request.

Automated Decision Making

ADM is when:

we use a computer program to make, or do a thing that is substantially and directly related to making, a decision; and
the decision could reasonably be expected to significantly affect the rights or interests of an individual; and

We may use computer systems and software to assist with operational decisions that support our services, including systems used for application processing, compliance, and record management. These tools do not make decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on individuals. These systems do not remove your rights under applicable laws.

How we share your personal information

Sharing personal information with third parties

We may seek and use personal information about you from, and use or disclose personal information about you to, third parties in relation to or in connection with the potential or actual rental of a property, the sale and purchase of a property or other business or administrative functions for the real estate agency. These third parties may include:

your representatives, attorneys, lawyers, settlement agents, accountants, brokers;
any conjunction, co-listing, buyers’ or other property agents that act on your behalf in connection with the rental, leasing, sale and purchase of property;
auctioneers;
your financier, including any mortgage brokers that may be assisting you with any existing mortgage loan or application in relation to the sale or purchase of property;
valuers, surveyors, insurers, re-insurers, claim assessors and investigators;
financial institutions, including deposit-taking institutions;
if you are a tenant, including any prospective tenant, your referees, including your employer or other individuals to confirm your identity and/or other details about you in any rental application that you submit;
organisations in and associated with debt collecting;
courts, tribunals, law enforcement agencies and regulators as required by law;
government and/or regulatory bodies, including (without limitation) NSW Fair Trading, the NSW Land and Property Management Authority, Access Canberra, the ACT Revenue Office, the Australian Taxation Office, and the NSW Office of State Revenue. In many cases, these organisations may share information with foreign authorities;
mailing houses and telemarketing agencies that assist us in communicating with you;
if we enter into, or propose to enter into, any agreement or arrangement with any party for the purpose of, or in connection with, the acquisition of our business (including any part of our business that includes personal information), that party (including its legal, financial and other professional advisers) to provide personal information in relation to or in connection with those arrangements; and
service providers, including IT and data consultants, agents, contractors and advisers that assist us to conduct our business.

Sharing personal information with related companies

We may share personal information about you with our related companies for any of the purposes described above.

Sharing personal information outside of Australia

We may store information about you in the cloud or other types of networked or electronic storage. As electronic or networked storage can be accessed from various countries through an internet connection, it is not always practical to know in which country personal information about you may be held.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that any overseas organisation that receives your personal information will comply with the Act.

If you do not provide personal information

If you do not provide your personal information to us, it may not be possible to provide you with the service that you have requested or applied for, for example:

if personal information is not disclosed in a rental application by a prospective tenant, then we may be unable to process the application and/or submit it to the landlord for their consideration or approval. If you enter into a rental or lease agreement, you will need to be identified, and your personal information will be included in the rental or lease agreement;
if personal information is not disclosed by a vendor in connection with the sale of their property, we will not be able to verify that they are the owner of the property and/or to advertise and market the property;
if personal information is not disclosed by a prospective purchaser at an open inspection, then we may not be able to admit them into the inspection;
if personal information is not disclosed by a prospective purchaser at an auction, then we will not be able to register them as a bidder;
to let you know about other services we provide that might be suitable for your needs (unless you opt out of this by telling us that you do not wish to receive such information).

Personal information about other people

If you give us personal information about any other person in relation to, or in connection with, the rental/lease or sale of any property:

we are entitled to assume that you have sought their consent to the disclosure of such personal information to us;
we have collected their personal information for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy;
we may exchange their personal information with other organisations for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy;
we will handle their personal information in the same way as set out in this Privacy Policy and they can:
- access or request a copy of this Privacy Policy; or
- access the personal information we hold about them.

Anonymity and pseudonymity

We are not always able to deal with people who do not wish to identify themselves. This will be particularly the case when we are proposing to, or we do, act for a vendor or a landlord in relation to either the sale or rental/lease of any property. This will also apply where we are also dealing with actual or prospective tenants for any rental property that we manage.

Further, we are not able to allow people through any property inspections who do not wish to identify themselves, as this can create security and other concerns for the property owner (among other considerations).

However, where possible, we can provide information of a general nature such as, for example, we can respond to general telephone and related enquiries about a rental/lease or sale property to unidentified individuals. Of course, if an individual makes an enquiry by email or other electronic or written methods, then there is every possibility that the mode of communication may identify you.

Information security

We take reasonable steps to protect all information which we hold (including personal information) from misuse, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Where appropriate, we use secure transmission facilities. However, no transmission of information over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure and we do not warrant the security of any information transmitted to us over the internet.

Direct marketing
We may use personal information (excluding sensitive information) to inform you about properties, services or opportunities we believe may be of interest to you. You may opt out of marketing communications at any time by contacting us or using unsubscribe facilities.

We may also use the information, including personal information (excluding sensitive information), provided by users of our website for marketing and research purposes, to analyse and improve products, benefits and services and to inform users of products, services and benefits provided by us, our related entities, suppliers or sponsors which we consider may be of value or interest to users, unless the user tells us, or has previously told us, not to. If a user does not wish to receive any information about such products, services and benefits, they can contact the Privacy Officer (details specified below). We will not use your sensitive information for these purposes without your consent.

Accessing your Personal Information

Unless we are entitled to withhold access to your personal information (there are various reasons why this may be the case), you have the right to request access to any personal information held by us which relates to you. We may charge a reasonable fee where access to personal information is provided. Any requests for access to your personal information should be made in writing to the Privacy Officer (details specified below). You also have the right to request the correction of any personal information which relates to you that is inaccurate, incomplete, irrelevant, misleading or out-of-date.

Complaints

If you believe we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles, please contact us with details of your complaint. We will investigate and respond in writing. You may also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

If you require any further information about our management of personal information or have any queries or complaints, you should contact:

The Privacy Officer

home.byholly PTY LTD. l Level 1, 3/97 Northbourne Avenue, Turner ACT 2612

0491 850 701 l admin@homebyholly.com.au

The Office of the Information Commissioner can be contacted as follows:

Phone enquiries	1300 363 992 Mon–Thurs 10am–4pm AEST/AEDT
Online enquiries	Enquiry form

Post	GPO Box 5288 Sydney NSW 2001
Fax	+61 2 9284 9666