BAY STRATA PTY LTD (ACN 099 553 045)

Bay Strata Pty Ltd (“Bay Strata”, “we”, “us”, “our”) recognise the importance of protecting your privacy. Bay Strata is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) which regulate the collection, use and disclosure of personal information and we are committed to complying with its obligations.

The Act allows for ‘personal information’, including ‘sensitive information’ (which are defined in the Act) about you to be collected, used and disclosed provided we have provided you with notice and in certain circumstances also obtained your consent.  In this Privacy Policy and, where appropriate, a reference to ‘personal information’ includes ‘sensitive information’.

We may (from time to time) update, revise, amend or replace this Privacy Policy by posting any changes to it on our website or by giving you any other form of notification. This Privacy Policy is available on our website, at our office and may also be made available to you at any property inspection or when we first communicate with you by email.

This Privacy Statement explains in general terms how Bay Strata protects the privacy of your personal information under the National Privacy Principles. It will apply to any personal information you provide to us:

• by notices or information issued to us pursuant to section 22 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (‘the Act’);
• via baystrata.com.au, deft.com.au or other online sites operated by our company or our bankers; and
• under any other agreement or arrangement.

This Privacy Statement will also apply to any information about you that is provided to us by someone else such as your solicitor or real estate agent.

What is personal information?

Personal information is any information about you or that can be used to identify you. This includes your name, contact details and any information or an opinion about you (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), whether true or not, and no matter how the information or opinions are recorded. The information may be collected from you directly or provided to us by another party. It includes sensitive information about you, such as your health information.

What information do we collect?

The types of personal information we collect from or about you is largely set out in section 22 of the Strata Schemes Management Act. If you are a prospective or current owner of a strata title lot in a strata scheme and we are appointed as the strata managing agent of that strata scheme, then we will collect personal information from you in order to identify you and the property; 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 strata management of your property.

We collect details such as your name, address, billing address, telephone numbers, email address, and where you pay your levies by using a credit/debit card or by bank transfer or cheque, then we will collect your credit/debit card number and expiry date and/or bank account number/s.

If you are a WEBlink client we may also collect your Personal Identity Number where you have elected to change the number from that issued by us. As we are required by law to obtain your consent to the collection of “sensitive information” we will assume that you have consented to the collection of all information which is provided to us for use in accordance with this Statement, unless you tell us otherwise

If you feel that the personal information that we are requesting at any point is not information that you wish to provide, please feel free to raise this with us.

This policy does not apply to the collection, holding, use or disclosure of personal information that is an employee record. An employee record is a record of personal information relating to the employment of an employee. Examples of personal information relating to the employment of the employee include, but are not limited to, health information and information about the engagement, training, disciplining, resignation, termination, terms and conditions of employment of the employee.

How do we collect personal information

We can collect personal information about you from other sources in any manner permitted by the Act.  We will collect personal information directly from you if it is reasonable or practicable to do so, by a number of means, including but not limited to:

• through application forms;
• by email or other written mechanisms;
• over a telephone call;
• in person and/or at strata meetings;
• through transactions;
• business cards;
• contracts;
• through our website;
• through surveillance cameras;
• by technology that is used to support communications between us;

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 strata agency 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 NSW Land & Property Information;
• from publicly available information;
• from property valuers or related service providers; and
• from telephone directories, the internet and social media sites;
• from our other service providers including any third party that has been authorised to supply us with personal information.

When we collect personal information about you through publicly available information sources, such information will be managed in accordance with the APPs.

 

Unsolicited personal information is personal information that we receive which we did not solicit. Unless we determine that we could have collected the personal information in line with the APPs or the information is contained within a Commonwealth record, we must destroy the information to ensure it is de-identified.

How we use your personal information

We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

• to accurately identify you as a person with an interest in strata scheme that is managed by our company
• To ensure that your interest in strata properties managed by our company is recorded in the respective strata rolls;
• to ensure that all notices, minutes, levy advices and other information about your strata property is directed to you in the most expedient manner;
• to ensure that any payments made by you on account of your strata property is promptly and accurately accounted for, and
• to liase and exchange information with any owner of a strata title lot in a strata scheme as well as their agents, tenants, contractors, legal, financial and other advisors;
• to ensure the safety and security of owners, existing occupiers and users of common areas of any strata title lot in a strata scheme;
• to comply with any applicable law in connection with the management of the relevant strata scheme;
• to confirm whether the owners corporation or body corporate is registered for GST purposes; and
• to tell you about any other strata scheme that we or a related body corporate are managing or any other service that we or a related body corporate provide, unless you tell us not to (this is referred to as direct marketing);
• to provide statistical and other information to the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales, and other programs we may use in the performance of our services, including Property IQ (or any other management software), Flick it Over, Rental Bonds Online, RP Data, Inspection Manager, Smoke Alarms Australia, Utility Connection Services, Strata Communities Australia (SCA), Strata Hub etc.
• 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;
• in order 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
• for recruitment, employment, franchisee placement and contracting purposes;
• To personalise and customise your experiences with us;
• To help us review, manage and enhance our services;
• To communicate more effectively with you;
• To communicate more effectively with you;
• For administration purposes, including charging, billing and collecting debts;
• To promote and market our products and services which we consider may be of interest to you;
• any other purpose to which you have consented or would otherwise reasonably expect

Other types of personal information we collect help us maintain communications with you and ensure that the most efficient communication corridors are made available to you.

Disclosure of personal information to third parties

We may disclose your personal information to third parties, for example, to contractors who are engaged to undertake work on behalf of your strata property who may need to contact you to arrange access to your lot/s. We may also disclose your personal information to various law enforcement agencies and governments throughout Australia, pursuant to the Property, Stock and Business Agents Act 2002 (NSW) and/or the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996, including any regulation under those laws.

These third parties may include:

• your representatives, attorneys, lawyers, settlement agents, accountants, brokers;
• any conjunction, co-listing, buyers’ or other property agents that acts 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;
• law enforcement agencies;
• government and/or regulatory bodies including (without limitation) the NSW Land and Property Management Authority, Australian Taxation Office, the NSW Office of State Revenue, Strata Hub.  In many cases, these organisations may share information with foreign authorities;
• mailing houses and telemarketing agencies that assist us to communicate 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.

Sections 258 & 22 of the Act provide that, in certain circumstances, information recorded on the strata roll of strata schemes managed by our company must be made available to an owner, mortgagee or their authorised agent.

Usually the information provided pursuant to these requests is restricted to information about the lot/s in which the requesting owner, mortgagee or their agent has an interest and the common property of the strata scheme. However in the course of examining the information provided under s. 258 of the Act, inspecting owners, mortgagees or their agents may obtain access to information about lot/s other than the lot/s in which they have an interest. We have no control over what use these persons may make of any such information they may obtain and we may not be reasonably able to restrict their access to this information.

Pursuant to section 22 of the Strata Schemes Management Act an elected Secretary of a strata scheme is responsible to maintain the strata roll. In strata schemes managed by our company this responsibility has been delegated to our company, however that does not prohibit the Secretary from gaining access to the strata roll and all information required by the law. We do not permit access to such persons to any additional information we may have that is not required pursuant to section 22 of the Strata Schemes Management Act.

Other than the above, we will not disclose your personal information without your consent unless disclosure is either necessary to prevent an unreasonable threat to safety, damage to property, authorised or required by law, reasonably necessary to enforce the law or necessary to investigate a suspected unlawful activity.

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 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 use third party suppliers and service providers located in a number of countries outside Australia, and disclose your personal information to them in order to obtain their suppliers and services.

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, and we may not be able to carry out our duties under the Act or our agency agreement.

Disclosure of the personal information of others to you

Subject to the provisions of s. 22 of the Act as set out in the preceding paragraph we are not able to disclose personal information about others who have or have had an interest in a strata scheme managed by our company. This includes persons who may have provided services or amenities to a strata scheme including the original builder or developer of the strata scheme property, unless those persons have granted consent for the disclosure.

Personal information about other people

If you give us personal information about any other person in relation to, or in connection with the strata management 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 landlord/owner in relation to either the rental/lease or strata management of any property.  This will also apply where we are also dealing with actual or prospective tenants for any rental property that we manage or owners, or their representatives during strata meetings.

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).

Further, we are unable to register an owner as present at a strata meeting without properly identifying such owner.

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 strata 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.

 

Security of your personal information

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

We hold your personal information in both paper-based and electronic files.  Electronic information is stored on secure servers that are protected in controlled facilities. Our employees and agents are obliged to treat any personal information held by us confidentially with limited staff access to personal identification documents.

We use cookies

A cookie is a small file that our web server may send to your device when you visit our websites. A cookie is stored on your machine each time you visit one of our websites, but does not identify you or give us any information about your computer. A cookie stores information such as the type of browser you use, your operating system, your internet service provider, your Internet Protocol (IP) address, your mobile service carrier, and the online address of a previously visited site

Most internet browsers allow you to control the extent to which your device collects and activates cookies. Any information we seek to collect via cookies is used to better understand our customer’s needs and the services they are seeking from us.

Access to and correction of information we hold about you

We will, on request, provide you with access to the information we hold about you, unless there is an exception which applies under the National Privacy Principles, including for the purpose of correcting or updating that information. We may recover from you any costs of supplying you with access to this information as provided in s. 258 & 22 of the Act.

Your request to provide access to this information will be dealt with within the time limits set down by s. 258 & 22 of the Act. If we refuse to provide you with access to the information, we will provide you with reasons for the refusal and inform you of any exceptions relied upon under the National Privacy Principles.

Keeping your personal information up-to-date

We take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete, and up-to-date whenever we collect or use it. If the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date, please contact us and we will take immediate steps to correct this information. Access to most of the personal information we hold about you can be obtained through the ‘Owners’ page of this website if you are a registered WEBlink owner. Most necessary corrections can be made online and, provided they are within our acceptance parameters, will be recorded on our records. You can register as a WEBlink owner on the WEBlink info page of this website.

Marketing and opting out

We may also use the information, including personal information (excluding sensitive information), provided by you for marketing and research purposes, to analyse and improve products, services and benefits and to inform you of products, services and benefits provided by us, our related entities, suppliers or sponsors which we consider may be of value or interest to you, unless you tell us (see the marketing opt-out below), or have previously told us not to. We will not use your sensitive information for these purposes without your consent.

Questions and complaints

We welcome your comments regarding this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or if you have any questions, concerns or complaints about the way in which we have handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details set out below

Att: Privacy Officer

Bay Strata Pty Ltd

Address:  1/426 Princes Highway, Rockdale NSW 2216
Email:   admin@baystrata.com.au

We will investigate any complaint regarding the handling of your personal information and will advise you of the outcome of our investigations in writing. You may also lodge a complaint with the Office of Australian Information Commissioner by calling 1300 363 992 or sending an email to enquiries@oaic.gov.au.

More information about your rights and our obligations in relation to privacy, and information on making a privacy complaint are available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, which can be contacted at www.oaic.gov.au or by mail to GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 or by email to enquiries@oaic.gov.au

Changes to this Privacy Statement

We may amend this Privacy Statement as our business requirements or the law changes. Any changes to this Privacy Statement will be updated on this website

• by notices or information issued to us pursuant to sec. 22 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (‘the Act’);
• via baystrata.com.au, deft.com.au or other online sites operated by our company or our bankers; and
• under any other agreement or arrangement.

This Privacy Statement will also apply to any information about you that is provided to us by someone else such as your solicitor or real estate agent.