​Butler+Co Estate Agents is committed to protecting your right to privacy of your personal information. We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Act.

​We will ensure that all of our employees and subcontractors are ware of and understand Butler+Co’s obligations as well as their own obligations under the Act. This will be ensured through the provision of training and maintaining and implementing internal policies and procedures to prevent any personal information from being collected, used, disclosed, retained, accessed and disposed of improperly.

​What is your personal information?

​When used in this privacy policy, the term “personal information” has the meaning given to it in the Act. In general terms, it is any information that can be used to personally identify you. This may include your name, address, telephone number, email address and profession or occupation. If the information we collect personally identifies you, or you are reasonably identifiable from it, the information will be considered personal information.

​Information Collection, Use and Disclosure

During the course of your involvement with Butler+Co Estate Agents, we may collect, use or disclose personal information about you for the following purposes:

  • Assisting you to sell your property;
  • Assisting you to purchase a property;
  • Assisting you to lease a property (either as lessor or lessee);
  • Assisting you to obtain a loan;
  • Assisting you with payment or refund of a bond;
  • Assisting you with tenancy disputes;
  • Coordinating repairs or maintenance of a property owned or leased by you;
  • Recording or accessing information at the Titles Registry Office or other government agency;
  • Recording or accessing information at the Residential Tenancies Authority;
  • Recording or accessing information on tenancy information services or databases;
  • Client and business relationship management;
  • Marketing of products and services to you;

The types of personal information we may collect, use or disclose about you includes but is not limited to:

  • Your full name;
  • Your date of birth;
  • Your residential address;
  • Your postal address;
  • Your email address;
  • Your home telephone number;
  • Your work telephone number;
  • Your mobile telephone number;
  • Your occupation and business address;
  • Financial information including details of your employer, income, name of bank or financial institution;
  • Details of your spouse, de facto, dependent children, and roommates;
  • Details of properties owned by you;

​In order to provide products and services to you, we may disclose your personal information to the persons/organisations described below:

  • In the event that you are a buyer or a lessee, we may disclose your personal information to the sellers of the property you are purchasing or leasing;
  • Your legal advisor(s) and the legal advisor(s) representing the other party(s) involved in your transaction;
  • Your financial institution and/or financial advisor;
  • Insurance providers and brokers;
  • Utility providers and utility connection service providers;
  • Persons or organisations involved in providing, managing or administering your product or service including independent contractors engaged by us as real estate agents;
  • Tradespeople engaged by us to repair or maintain a property owned or leased by you;
  • Organisations involved in maintaining, reviewing and developing our business systems, procedures and infrastructure including maintaining or upgrading our computer systems;
  • Persons or organisations involved in purchasing part or all of our business;
  • Our related companies;
  • Organisations involved in the payments systems including financial institutions, merchants and payment organisations;
  • The Titles Registry Office or other government agencies;
  • The Residential Tenancies Authority;
  • Police;
  • Tenancy information services or databases;
  • Real estate websites;
  • Real estate peak bodies;

Whenever it is reasonable or practicable to do so, we will collect your personal information directly from you. Sometimes it will be necessary for us to collect information from a third party or a publicly available source, such as a credit reporting agency, your legal adviser, your past or current employers, your previous lessors or property managers, and tenancy information services or databases.

​In the course of providing services to you, it may be necessary for us to enter your personal information into forms generation software and real estate websites.  Depending on the terms of use of such software and websites, a third party may acquire rights to use or disclose information entered into the relevant forms or websites.

​We may disclose your personal information to recipients within Australia or to overseas recipients. Should information be required to be sent interstate or overseas, we will take steps to protect the privacy of your information.

​We need your permission to collect, use and disclose your personal information, and we therefore ask that you sign the consent on the first page of this document to indicate your consent.

​In the event that you do not consent to Butler+Co collecting and releasing your personal information as described above, we may be unable to provide the services requested by you.

​How can you access and correct your personal information?

​You may request access to any personal information we hold about you at any time by contacting us (see the details below). We may charge you a fee to cover our administrative and other reasonable costs in providing the information to you. There may be instances where we cannot grant you access to the personal information we hold. For example, we may need to refuse access if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others or if it would result in a breach of confidentiality. If that happens, we will give you written reasons for any refusal.

​If you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request us to amend 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.

​Security

​As our website is linked to the internet, and the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot provide any assurance regarding the security of transmission of information you communicate to us online. We also cannot guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the internet. Accordingly, any personal information or other information which you transmit to us online is transmitted at your own risk.

​Contacting us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, any concerns or a complaint regarding the treatment of your privacy or a possible breach of your privacy, please use the contact link on our website or contact the Butler+Co office.

We will treat your requests or complaints confidentially. Our representative will contact you within a reasonable time after receipt of your complaint to discuss your concerns and outline options regarding how they may be resolved. We will aim to ensure that your complaint is resolved in timely and appropriate manner.