Important Information

Hodges Real Estate and its related bodies corporate (we, our, us) recognise the importance of protecting the privacy and the rights of individuals in relation to their personal information.
This document is our privacy policy and it tells you how we collect and manage your personal information.

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.

What personal information do we collect and hold?
We may collect your name, mailing or street address, email address, telephone number, facsimile number, age or birth date, profession, occupation or job title and any additional information relating to you that you provide to us directly through our websites or indirectly through use of our websites or online presence, through our representatives or otherwise and information you provide to us through our service centre, customer surveys or visits by our representatives from time to time.

How do we collect your personal information?
We collect your personal information directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so. When collecting personal information from you, we may collect in ways including:

through your access and use of our website
by telephone, letter, fax or email
during conversations between you and our representatives
by contracting with us
by entering competitions, promotions or requesting information or material from us
completing surveys or providing feedback
We may also collect personal information from third parties including:

• from third party companies such as credit reporting agencies, law enforcement agencies and government entities
• your representatives (lawyers, accountants and financial advisers)
• your employer
• publicly available sources of information or any other organisations where you have given your consent

Cookies
In some cases we may also collect your personal information through the use of cookies. When you access our website, we may send a “cookie” (which is a small summary file containing a unique ID number) to your computer. This enables us to recognise your computer and greet you each time you visit our website without bothering you with a request to register. It also enables us to keep track of products or services you view so that, if you consent, we can send you news about those products or services. We also use cookies to measure traffic patterns, to determine which areas of our website have been visited and to measure transaction patterns in the aggregate. We use this to research our users’ habits so that we can improve our online products and services. Our cookies do not collect personal information. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can set your browser so that your computer does not accept them.

We may log IP addresses (that is, the electronic addresses of computers connected to the internet) to analyse trends, administer the website, track users movements, and gather broad demographic information.

What happens if we can’t collect your personal information?
If you do not provide us with the personal information described above, some or all of the following may happen:

• we may not be able to provide the requested products or services to you, either to the same standard or at all;
• we may not be able to provide you with information about products and services that you may want; or
• we may be unable to tailor the content of our websites to your preferences and your experience of our websites may not be as enjoyable or useful.

For what purposes do we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information?
We collect personal information about you so that we can perform our business activities and functions and to provide best possible quality of customer service.

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

• to provide products and services to you and to send communications requested by you;
• to answer enquiries and provide information or advice about existing and new products or services;
• to provide you with access to protected areas of our website;
• to assess the performance of the website and to improve the operation of the website;
• to conduct business processing functions including providing personal information to our related bodies corporate, contractors, service providers or other third parties;
• for the administrative, marketing (including direct marketing), planning, product or service development, quality control, survey and research purposes of Hodges Real Estate, its related bodies corporate, contractors, franchisees, franchisees’ real estate agents or service providers;
• to provide your updated personal information to our related bodies corporate, contractors or service providers;
• to update our records and keep your contact details up to date;
• to process and respond to any complaint made by you; and
• to comply with any law, rule, regulation, lawful and binding determination, decision or direction of a regulator, or in co-operation with any governmental authority of any country (or political sub-division of a country).

Your personal information will not be shared, sold, rented or disclosed other than as described in this Privacy Policy.

To whom may we disclose your information?
We may disclose your personal information to:

• our employees, related bodies corporate, contractors, franchisees, franchisees’ real estate agents or service providers for the purposes of operation of our website or our business, fulfilling requests by you, and to otherwise provide products and services to you including, without limitation, web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, mailing houses, couriers, payment processors, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators, debt collectors, and professional advisors such as accountants, solicitors, business advisors and consultants;
• suppliers and other third parties with whom we have commercial relationships, for business, marketing, and related purposes; and
• any organisation for any authorised purpose with your express consent.

Direct marketing materials
We may send you direct marketing communications and information about our products and services that we consider may be of interest to you. These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS, fax and email, in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Spam Act 2003. If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so. In addition, at any time you may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us by contacting us (see the details below) or by using opt-out facilities provided in the marketing communications and we will then ensure that your name is removed from our mailing list.

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). Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will try to provide you with suitable means of accessing it (for example, by mailing or emailing it to you). We may charge you a fee to cover our administrative and other reasonable costs in providing the information to you and, if so, the fees will be disclosed on our website. We will not charge for simply making the request and will not charge for making any corrections to your personal information.

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.

Do we disclose your personal information to anyone outside Australia?
We may disclose personal information to our related bodies corporate and third party suppliers and service providers located overseas for some of the purposes listed above. We take reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipients of your personal information do not breach the privacy obligations relating to your personal information.

What is the process for complaining about a breach of privacy?
If you believe that your privacy has been breached, please contact us using the contact information below and provide details of the incident so that we can investigate it. We will deal with the complaint in accordance with our then current Complaints Handling Procedure.

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.

Links
Our website may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party website. Third party websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices.

Changes to our privacy policy
We may change this privacy policy from time to time. Any updated versions of this privacy policy will be posted on our website. This privacy policy was last updated on 20 March 2014 for the changes to law commencing on 12 March 2014.

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 our Privacy Officer using the details set out below.

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.

Please contact our Privacy Officer at:

Hodges Corporate
Phone: 03 9559 0200
Email: privacy@hodges.com.au

Complaint handling and dispute resolution policy

How to make a complaint

Hodges Real Estate aims to make it easy for you to bring any problems or complaints to our attention.

You should first raise your issue with the agent, representative or property manager who is handling your business.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you can make a complaint to us by:

• telephone (during business hours): call 03 9559 0200 and ask to speak to Gary Dans
• email: complaints@hodges.com.au
• fax: 03 9559 0299 attention to Gary Dans
• post: Level 1/251 Bay Street, Brighton, VIC, 3186

Please provide as much detail as possible about your complaint, including the outcome you would like.

If you need help to describe or send your complaint, or if you would like to discuss your concerns informally first, please feel free to contact us.

How we will handle your complaint

Our complaints officer will oversee the complaints process. This person is responsible for working with you and relevant agency staff, to ensure that the issues you raise are fully examined and that your complaint is handled in accordance with this process.

We will treat the process, and all the details of your complaint, in strict confidence. If we need to discuss any issues arising from your complaint with someone outside of the agency, we will obtain your consent first.

We will always try to give you a fair opportunity to explain your case. You should make your initial complaint as clear as possible. Sometimes we may want to meet you in person to discuss your concerns and try to find a satisfactory solution.

How long will it take?

We will try to resolve your complaint as soon as possible. However, how long this takes will depend on the nature and complexity of the issues you have raised.

We will send you acknowledgment of receipt of the complaint within two business days. We will give you an estimate of how long it may take us to deal with the matter and we will try to finalise the matter within five business days.

What action will we take in response to your complaint?

If we decide that your complaint is justified, we will then decide what action we should take in response. We will always try to match our response to the nature of your complaint and your desired outcome, but this may not always be possible.

 

Some of the things we might do include:

• take steps to rectify the problem or issue you have raised
• give you additional information or advice so you can understand what happened or how we have dealt with it
• take steps to change our policies or procedures if your complaint identifies a problem in the way we are doing things.

What if you’re still unhappy?

Sometimes it will not be possible to resolve a complaint to everyone’s satisfaction, and you might want to escalate the matter to Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV).

CAV can deal with enquiries and complaints about real estate agents and offers information, advice and dispute resolution services on real estate issues.

You can telephone CAV on 1300 73 70 30, Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm to discuss your complaint.