Privacy Policy

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PRIVACY POLICY

Wimmera Real Estate Pty Ltd, trading as Horsham Real Estate and Wimmera Real Estate

 

1. About this Policy

Wimmera Real Estate Pty Ltd ("we", "us", "our"), trading as Horsham Real Estate and Wimmera Real Estate, provides real estate sales, leasing, and property management services across Horsham and the Wimmera region. We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and by any applicable Victorian legislation, including the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (Vic) and the Estate Agents Act 1980 (Vic).

This Policy explains how we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information — including through our website, rental and sales applications, property management systems, and in the course of providing our services.

 

2. What personal information we collect

Depending on our relationship with you (enquirer, buyer, seller, tenant applicant, tenant, landlord/rental provider, tradesperson, or website visitor), we may collect:

  • Identity information: full name, date of birth, and government-issued identification (e.g. driver licence, passport) where required for identity verification

  • Contact information: residential address, phone numbers, email address

  • Financial information: income, employment details, bank account details for rent or trust disbursements, and payment history

  • Tenancy and rental history: previous addresses, previous property managers/landlords, references, and rental ledger history

  • Property information: ownership details, title information, and details relevant to sale, lease, or management of a property

  • Enquiry and communication records: emails, phone calls, maintenance requests, and correspondence with our office

  • Website usage information: browser type, device information, pages visited, and referring website (see Section 10)

  • Employment and reference details for job applicants, where applicable

3. Sensitive information

We generally do not seek to collect sensitive information (such as health information) unless it is volunteered — for example, where a tenant discloses a health condition relevant to a reasonable modification of a property, or where required for work health and safety purposes. Sensitive information is only collected with consent, or where otherwise permitted or required by law, and is used only for the purpose it was provided.

 

4. How we collect personal information

Wherever practicable, we collect personal information directly from you — for example, when you:

  • Submit a rental application, sales enquiry, or maintenance request (including via our online forms)

  • Contact us by phone, email, or in person

  • Register for a property inspection or use our tenant or landlord portals

  • Provide references, or when we contact your nominated referees, previous agents, or employer to verify information you have provided

We may also collect personal information from third parties, including tenancy database providers, previous real estate agents, referees, publicly available sources (such as title searches), and, where relevant, from co-owners or joint applicants.

 

5. Why we collect, hold, use and disclose your information

We collect and use personal information to:

  • Assess and process rental and sales applications

  • Manage tenancies, including rent collection, lease renewals, inspections, and maintenance

  • Market and sell or lease properties on behalf of owners

  • Communicate with you about your enquiry, application, tenancy, or property

  • Comply with our legal obligations, including under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (Vic), the Estate Agents Act 1980 (Vic) (including trust account obligations), and the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth)

  • Manage our business operations, including staff training and service improvement

6. Who we may disclose your information to

We may disclose personal information to third parties for the purposes described above, including:

  • Property owners/rental providers (for tenant and applicant information) and prospective tenants (for property information)

  • Tenancy default databases (e.g. TICA, National Tenancy Database), where permitted by law

  • Trades and contractors engaged to carry out maintenance or repairs

  • Our software and service providers, including PropertyMe (trust accounting and property management), Airtable (data and workflow management), Make.com (workflow automation), PandaDoc (document preparation and e-signature), and Canva (marketing collateral)

  • Our administrative support staff, including members of our offshore support team, who assist with day-to-day processing under our direction and confidentiality obligations

  • Our compliance provider, easyAML, for customer due diligence and AML/CTF Tranche 2 obligations

  • Conveyancers, solicitors, banks, and financial institutions involved in a sale or purchase

  • VCAT, courts, tribunals, AUSTRAC, and other regulators, where required or authorised by law

  • Our accountant, insurer, and professional advisers

We do not sell personal information to third parties.

 

7. Overseas disclosure

We disclose personal information to our offshore administrative team, engaged through Stafflink, who are based in the Philippines and access our systems remotely in the course of their work for us.

In addition, some of our software providers — including Airtable, Make.com, and PandaDoc — store and process data on servers located in the United States.

Where personal information is disclosed overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure the overseas recipient handles it consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles, including through confidentiality obligations in our service agreements. If you do not want your information disclosed to an overseas recipient, please contact us — in some circumstances this may limit our ability to provide services to you.

 

 

8. Direct marketing

We may use your contact details to send you information about our services, market appraisals, or properties that may be of interest, including property alerts you have signed up for. You may opt out of direct marketing at any time by contacting us or using the unsubscribe function in our communications.

 

9. Data quality and security

We take reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we hold is accurate, complete, and up to date, and to protect it from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. This includes restricting access to personal information to staff who need it to perform their role, and using secure, password-protected systems.

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, or as required by law (for example, trust account and tenancy records under the Estate Agents Act 1980 (Vic)), after which it is securely destroyed or de-identified.

 

10. Cookies and website usage information

Our website automatically collects non-identifying information such as browser type and version, operating system, pages viewed, time spent on pages, and referring website address. This information is used to understand website traffic and improve the site, and is not used to identify individuals.

 

11. Access and correction

You have a right to access the personal information we hold about you, and to request that it be corrected if it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading. To make a request, please contact us using the details in Section 13. We will respond within a reasonable time. We may charge a reasonable fee to cover the cost of retrieving and providing access to information, but will not charge for lodging a request or for making a correction.

 

12. Complaints

If you believe we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles or mishandled your personal information, please contact us using the details below. We will investigate and respond within a reasonable time (typically 30 days). If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at www.oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

 

13. Contact us

 

14. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. The current version will always be available on our website, and the "Last updated" date at the top of this Policy will be revised accordingly.