Privacy Policy

The Tenancy Practice Service Limited Customer Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”)

This Policy addresses the following:

Definitions
Privacy Policy Scope
Privacy Policy Application
What Is Personal Information?
What Personal Information Do We Collect and Store?
Our Purpose in Collecting Personal Information?
How Do We Collect Your Personal Information?
How Do We Disclose Personal Information?
Application of Privacy Policy to Third Parties
Do We Send Your Personal Information Outside of New Zealand?
What Happens If We Are Not Able to Collect Personal Information?
How Do We Store and Secure Your Personal Information?
How Long Do We Retain Your Personal Information For?
Electronic Messages
Cookies
Directory
How Can You Access or Correct Your Personal Information?
How Can You Complain About a Breach of Privacy?
Changes to This Privacy Policy

1. Definitions

Act means the Privacy Act 2020, any amendment to that Act or any act that replaces the Act.
Landlord means a person interacting with us in their capacity as a landlord or potential landlord and as the context shall require any property manager.
Tenant means a person interacting with us in their capacity as a tenant or potential tenant.
TPS means The Tenancy Practice Service Limited. Also referred to as “our”, “us” and “we”.
Web Services means any of our websites, customer portals, mobile applications and electronic media from time to time.

2. Privacy Policy Scope

This Privacy Policy sets out how we collect, disclose, store and use your personal information. Further, this Privacy Policy sets out why we collect your personal information, whether you have to give the personal information and what the consequences are of not providing the personal information, your right to access and correct your personal information and various other matters relating to your personal information. These are general practices only – this Privacy Policy may be supplemented by privacy statements and consents.

3. Privacy Policy Application

By providing us with your personal information by any means including, without limitation, in person, by email, phone, via our Web Services or otherwise or by authorising (directly or indirectly) third parties to provide us with information you acknowledge and agree to your personal information being treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy. In addition, you also agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy if you agree with our terms and conditions.

If you provide us with information about anyone else, you must ensure they have authorised you giving us their information and that they are familiar with this Privacy Policy.

4. What is Personal Information

Personal information in this Privacy Policy means personal information under the Act and is generally information that is about you. This may include, without limitation, your name, age, address, gender, contact information and financial information.

5. What Personal Information Do We Collect and Store?

We only collect and store personal information that we consider necessary to provide our services to you and for the proper administration and functioning of our business. The personal information we collect may differ depending on the circumstances and in particular whether you are a Landlord or a Tenant. Without limitation we may collect the following personal information:

Basic identification and contact information including name, gender, age or date of birth, address, email address and telephone numbers.
Driver’s license number where relevant.
We may collect other information including information relating to previous tenancies including references and reviews, details of previous tenancy agreements, tenancy disputes, defaults and previous landlords so that reference checks can be conducted.
We may collect other financial and credit information including information relating to your credit history if we, for example, assist you in applying for bond finance or for the purpose of Landlords deciding if you are the best applicant based on merit.
Where you are a Landlord, account and payment information.
We may collect other personal information that may be required to conduct background and police checks.
Any additional information relating to you that you provide to us including through use of our Web Services including through cookies.
Where we assist with shifting utilities between houses, reasonable information required by those utility providers.
Where you are a Landlord and we are involved with maintenance request information provided in respect of that maintenance request.
That you provide to us or is otherwise publicly available including, without limitation, your enquiries to us and our responses to them, contact with our customer representatives and/or consultants, customer surveys, feedback and other communications, details of the services you have enquired about or purchased from or through us and any additional information necessary to deliver those products and services.

6. Our Purpose in Collecting Personal Information?

We collect personal information about you so that we may provide services to you and others. Any information that we collect will not be used in ways that do not reflect the original purpose for which the personal information was collected other than as described within this Privacy Policy or as permitted by the Act. Without limitation we may deal with, collect, disclose, hold and use your personal information for the following purposes:

To provide products and services to you
Where you are a Tenant for tenancy applications that you wish to apply for.
Where you are a Landlord for consideration and acquiring of tenancy applications.
Where you are a Landlord for the purposes of recovery or remedying tenancy defaults provided however we will not directly disclose or use information in a tenant’s profile that they do not otherwise disclose.
Where you use our consultancy services for training, liability and quality assurance purposes.
Where you are a Tenant, to enable us to assist in the transfer of utilities between houses and/or moving house as required by you.
Where you use our services relating to maintenance, any information provided in respect of that maintenance.
To facilitate any application of bond finance including establishing your credit history, credit worthiness, and anything else required by the financier for that application.
For our general administrative, quality control, marketing, promotional, planning, research, statistical analysis and product/service development purposes.
To manage, enhance and personalise our offerings to you and other customers.
To provide you with information about any products and services you have purchased from us and any new products and services we may offer.
To identify and contact you.
To communicate with you and deal with your enquiries.
To provide you with appropriate access to our Web Services and improve and personalise you and other customers’ experiences.
To carry out our legal obligations, including without limitation, investigating and enforcing our rights and remedies against you.
Any other purpose which is disclosed to you and to which you consent, expressly or impliedly, by providing us with your personal information with knowledge or a reasonable expectation or purpose for which we may use it.
We may collect data from 3rd parties we integrate with, so you have easy access to it and be able to view it within our system

7. How Do We Collect Your Personal Information?

We collect personal information in a variety of ways. We try to collect this personal information from you directly. Without limitation we collect personal information through:

Your access and use of our Web Services including information entered by you and other analytic and diagnostic information from the same including cookies, search histories and other tools.
Your enquiries to us and our responses to them, contact with our customer representatives and consultants, market research, customer surveys, feedback and other communications.
Any application or enquiry of or relating to a product or service of ours.
Applications to third parties including to any financier, moving company or property maintenance company or similar.
Third parties who may forward information to us to improve our products and services.
Credit reporting agencies, law enforcement agencies and/or the Courts, debt collection agencies, government departments and other publicly available sources, including the PPSR.
References provided by previous Landlords, property managers, employers and/or other referees.
From software systems our clients use or we use, such as property management software or other software.

8. How Do We Disclose Personal Information?

Where you are a Tenant, your tenant profile is kept private and your profile can only be seen by you and us. The data is only disclosed by us if you send it to a property manager or landlord using our services or Web Services. We will ensure there are reasonable safeguards in place to prevent loss, misuse or disclosure of your personal information. Any data used for statistical reports will be anonymous. If you wish for an organisation to see a specific part of your profile, that organisation can only do so with your permission. For example, providing evidence of your current address to the bank or WINZ. However, you consent to us disclosing information to third parties if relevant to the purposes for which we collected the personal information, including the proper administration and functioning of our business. These parties may include:

Our employees, officers, licensees, contractors, agents and partners;
Financiers and credit bureaus and other related reporting agencies and institutions;
New Zealand Police, the Ministry of Justice and other related government agencies as required;
Property managers and/or Landlords and their related software providers (if applicable);
Our accountants, insurers, lawyers, auditors and other professional advisors;
IT service providers such as software providers, web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, data entry service providers and all other IT related administrators or providers we engage with.
Existing or potential service providers or other suppliers, business partners or joint venture entities or partners, including moving and property maintenance companies.
Other parties authorised by you to receive information held by us;
A purchaser or assignee of TPS (including of any subsidiary company) where we sell part or all of the business of that entity.
Other parties who are permitted or required to receive the permitted information by law.

YOUR DATA WILL NOT BE SOLD TO MARKETERS OR ANY OTHER THIRD PARTIES.

9. Application of Privacy Policy to Third Parties

From time to time a third party may collect personal information from your use of the Web Services or otherwise collect information from you. This includes third party websites. On occasion we provide links to or otherwise interact with third party websites and vice versa. In such circumstances you may be subject to the privacy policies and other requirements of the relevant third party that may or may not be required to meet the standards or similar standards of the Act. Generally, any personal information is provided directly to the third party for these connected services but we may on occasion be granted access to personal information. To the extent that we deal with, collect, disclose, store and use that personal information from a third party website this Privacy Policy will apply.

10. Do We Send Your Personal Information Outside of New Zealand?

We may disclose your personal information to parties located outside of New Zealand. This may include any external service providers located outside of New Zealand (e.g. hosted servers).

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that any recipient outside of New Zealand maintains the privacy of your personal information.

11. What Happens If We Are Not Able to Collect Personal Information?

You are not obligated to provide us with your personal information and if you choose not to provide the same or restrict our ability to deal with, collect, disclose, store and use your personal information, then:

We may not be able to provide you with the services you want or to the standard that we otherwise could.
We may not be able to provide you with information about services that you may want or find useful.
We may not be able to adjust our Web Service to your preferences or deliver content on our Web Service in a way that we otherwise might be able to.

12. How Do We Store and Secure Your Personal Information?

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from loss, misuse or disclosure. If you suspect any loss, misuse or unauthorised access or disclosure of your personal information please contact us immediately.

13. How Long Do We Retain Your Personal Information For?

We keep your personal information for so long as is it is required having regard to the purpose for which the personal information was collected and as otherwise required comply with the law.

When the personal information is no longer required for the purpose it was collected, or in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy, or is not required to be retained by law then we will destroy it.

14. Electronic Messages

By using our Web Services or providing us with your personal information, you consent to receiving promotional or marketing electronic messages from us or from third parties on our behalf.

You may opt out of receiving those electronic messages by contacting us on info@tenancy.co.nz or 09 304 0853 or by utilising any unsubscribe facility that accompanies those electronic messages. If you do withdraw your consent to receiving these electronic messages or other unsubscribe, you will no longer receive these types of electronic messages from us. In respect of any unsubscribe facility we will cease to send these electronic messages within 5 working days of your unsubscribe request.

15. Cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks for permission to be placed on your device. The file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow Web Services to be tailored to you as an individual. The Web Services can tailor their operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies and this helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to your and other customers’ needs.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better Web Services, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your device or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us or if it is essential to use of the Web Service such as a log in.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. However, this may prevent you from taking full advantage of our Web Services.

16. Directory

Elite Partners and Trusted Partners will be added to the Tenancy.co.nz Directory, DirectMe, and their contact details we be displayed on this directory.

17. How Can You Access or Correct Your Personal Information?

Your personal information is stored securely and can only be accessed by authorised persons. You are welcome to contact us at any time at admin@tenancy.co.nz   or 09 304 0853 to confirm whether we hold personal information about you, request access to your personal information or correct it. In some cases, there may be a charge in correcting information based on your request, attaching to any personal information a statement of any correction sought but not made and retrieving and providing a copy of the personal information to you. On occasion we may also insist on the payment of the charge in advance before responding to a request for which we can charge.

If you believe the personal information is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you can log in and change it. If it relates to data such as credit reports or tenant history, you can request it from the credit bureaus. You can request a copy of all data we have on you at any time.

Notwithstanding the above we may not grant you access where we cannot reliably verify your identity first. There may be other circumstances where we cannot provide you access to the personal information we hold. For example, where it would breach somebody else’s right to privacy or would endanger someone else’s safety.

18. How Can You Complain About A Breach of Privacy?

If you have any comments, questions or complaints about the handling of your personal information you may contact our Privacy Officer on privacy@tenancy.co.nz or 09 304 0853 who will endeavour to respond to your enquiry promptly and outline options as to how this matter

may be resolved.

19. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may change our Privacy Policy from time to time. If we do change our Privacy Policy an updated version will be posted here https://www.tenancy.co.nz/privacy-policy/

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 01 June 2022. If you do not agree to any change in our Privacy Policy while we continue to hold personal information about you then please promptly contact us.