Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy outlines how Real Property Management Ltd may collect, use, store and give access to personal information provided to us.

This Policy applies to all personal information that we collect about you, whether via our website, in person, through text/email, via our application process or other avenues.

We are committed to complying with our obligations under the Privacy Act 2020 when dealing with personal information.

1.  Owners

COLLECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION

Personal information is about an identifiable individual.

We collect personal information from you to fulfil our services. The type of information we collect will vary, depending on our relationship with you.

We may collect the following information:

·        Name

·        Address

·        Phone number

·        Email address

·        Bank account details

·        Solicitor details

·        Details of an emergency contact

INFORMATION WE COLLECT FROM OTHER PEOPLE

Sometimes we collect personal information about you from other people, rather than from you directly. For example, we may collect information:

·        Through Tapi, our maintenance management platform, when a tenant or tradesperson reports or updates a maintenance issue 

·        From tradespeople and contractors who carry out work at your property (eg: quotes, invoices and job reports)

·        From inspection reports on your property

·        From tenants about the property (eg: maintenance requests or concerns about the property)

We use this information to manage your property and provide our services to you.

USING OR DISCLOSING PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will only use and disclose your personal information for the reasons that we collect it.

We may use your personal information to:

·        Respond to communication from you

·        Protect and enforce our legal rights and interests

·        Defend any legal claim

·        Respond to lawful requests by public authorities

·        Transfer your information (for example in a sale, merger, consolidation, liquidation, reorganisation or acquisition)

·        Verify you are complying with any contract entered into, such as a management agreement

·        Analyse and improve our services

·        Comply with applicable laws

We may disclose your personal information to:

·        An emergency contact authorised by you

·        Tradespeople and contractors engaged to carry out work at the property

·        Service providers who help us manage the property (see section 3)

·        Professional advisers and representatives (eg: lawyers or a regulatory authority)

·        Any other person authorised by law

STORING PERSONAL INFORMATION

All information we collect is held on a secured drive which can only be accessed by authorised personnel. Some information is also held on the systems of our service providers (see section 3).

Your personal information will be stored for the prescribed length of time to comply with relevant legislation, at which time it will be appropriately destroyed and disposed of (shredding of paper documents and permanent deletion of digital files).

2.  Tenants

COLLECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION

Personal information is about an identifiable individual.

We collect personal information from you in order to fulfil our services. The type of information we collect will vary, depending on what stage you are at in the rental process and the purpose of collection associated with that stage.

For example, if you would like to register to attend a viewing we will only ask for your name and contact number or email address. This allows us to update you if a viewing is cancelled or changed and to follow up after a viewing to see if you are interested in a property.

When you make an application for a property, we will collect personal information necessary to verify your identity and assess your suitability for a tenancy.

There are two stages to the application. At the first stage we will collect the following information:

·        Name and contact information

·        Proof of identity

·        Whether the applicant is aged 18 years or older

·        Number of people who would live at the property

·        Names only of occupants who will not be on the tenancy agreement (eg: flatmates, dependants), but not other personal details

·        Contact details for landlord and non-landlord references

·        Consent to contact referees

·        Consent for a credit report and criminal record check

·        Pet ownership

·        Whether any occupants are smokers

·        Whether the tenant has a legal right to remain in New Zealand for the duration of a tenancy (only if the tenancy is for a fixed term)

If you are a preferred tenant who has made it to the shortlist of suitable applicants, we may collect the following additional information:

·        Any additional information needed to carry out credit or background checks (eg: date of birth or copies of ID documents)

·        Evidence of your ability to pay rent

When preparing a tenancy agreement we may collect the following information:

·        Vehicle information (if necessary to provide for parking on the property)

·        Address for service

·        Contact details for someone we can contact in an emergency

INFORMATION WE COLLECT FROM OTHER PEOPLE

We may also collect personal information about you from other people, rather than from you directly, including:

·        Referees you have nominated

·        Credit reporting and background check agencies

·        Previous landlords

·        Tapi and other service providers acting for us (see section 3)

·        The property owner (landlord)

We use this information to assess your application and to manage your tenancy.

USING OR DISCLOSING PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will only use and disclose your personal information for the reasons that we collect it.

We may use your personal information to:

·        Verify your identity

·        Assess your suitability for a tenancy

·        Verify you are complying with any contract entered into, such as a tenancy agreement

·        Respond to communication from you

·        Protect and enforce our legal rights and interests

·        Defend any legal claim

·        Respond to lawful requests by public authorities

·        Transfer your information (for example in a sale, merger, consolidation, liquidation, reorganisation or acquisition)

·        Analyse and improve our services

·        Comply with applicable laws

We may disclose your personal information to:

·        A referee or emergency contact authorised by you

·        A credit check/reference agency for the purpose of credit and background checking you

·        The property owner (landlord)

·        Tradespeople and contractors carrying out maintenance at the property

·        Service providers who help us manage the tenancy (see section 3)

·        Fast Connect, unless you have opted out (see section 3)

·        Professional advisers and representatives (eg: lawyers or a regulatory authority)

·        Any other person authorised by law

STORING PERSONAL INFORMATION

All information we collect is held on a secured drive which can only be accessed by authorised personnel. Some information is also held on the systems of our service providers (see section 3).

Your personal information will be stored for the prescribed length of time to comply with relevant legislation, at which time it will be appropriately destroyed and disposed of (shredding of paper documents and permanent deletion of digital files).

If you apply for a tenancy and are not successful, we will delete all personal information gathered as part of the application process. Such information will be deleted forthwith.

3.  Third-party service providers

We use trusted third-party providers to help us deliver our services. These include property management and trust accounting software, a maintenance management platform, property inspection software and an online tenancy application platform.

These providers may collect personal information on our behalf, hold it on their systems, and share it back with us. We only share the information they need to do their job, and they are required to protect it.

TAPI

We use Tapi to help manage maintenance at the properties we manage. To do this, we may share some of your details (such as your name, contact details and property information) with Tapi, whether you are an owner or a tenant. Also, where you share personal information with Tapi in relation to the maintenance at a property, it may be provided to us.

You can find more information about how your data is handled in this Privacy Policy and Tapi’s Privacy Policies (https://terms.tapihq.com/), including how to access or correct your details.

FAST CONNECT

Fast Connect is a utility connection service. When a tenancy starts or ends, we may pass tenants’ names, contact details, the property address and the move-in or move-out date to Fast Connect, so they can contact tenants to help connect, transfer or disconnect power and other utilities.

We will tell you before we do this, and you can opt out by letting us know. Using Fast Connect is optional, and you are free to arrange your own utilities.

4.  General

YOUR RIGHTS

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to ask us to correct it if you believe it is incorrect.

This includes personal information held for us by our service providers (see section 3). You can send any request to access or correct your information to us, and we will take care of it.

If you believe your rights under the Act have been breached, you can make a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner:

www.privacy.org.nz

0800 803 909

WHETHER YOU HAVE TO PROVIDE INFORMATION

Providing personal information to us is voluntary. However, if we do not receive the information we need (for example, for a tenancy application or a management agreement), we may not be able to provide our services or process your application.

GENERAL

We take all necessary precautions to ensure that your personal information is kept safe and secure and to meet our obligations under the Act. Information stored on servers which are accessible via the internet is not fully securable and therefore providing information via online platforms is done at your own risk.

We may update this policy from time to time by uploading a revised policy onto our website.

If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact Robyn Fantham – robyn@realpm.co.nz.