Privacy Policy

Who are we

‘We’, ‘us’, ‘our’ or “The Group” refer to PEER GROUP ACCOUNTANTS PTY LTD ACN: 611 567 750 their related body corporates, directors, partners, employees, service providers, licensees, licensees and their employees, contractors and any referred real estate agent/finance broker/financial planner/ accountant that will assist you.

Commitment to Privacy

This Privacy Policy sets out the way in which we will use, manage and protect your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) contained in the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012.

We recognise that any personal information we collect about you will only be used for the purposes we have collected it or as allowed by law. It is important to us that you are confident that any personal information we hold about you will be treated in a way that ensures protection of your personal information. 

Our commitment in respect of personal information is to abide by the Australian Privacy Principles for the protection of personal information, as set out in the Privacy Act, Spam Act 2003, Do Not Call Register Act 2006 and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009, and any other relevant laws.

Personal Information

When we refer to personal information we mean information from which your identity is reasonably apparent. This information may include information or an opinion about you. 

The kinds of personal information we may collect about you include your name, mailing or street address, telephone number, email address, facsimile number, age or birth date, occupation, profession, TFN, ABN and any other information relating to you that you provide directly or indirectly through our related body corporates, employees, Licensees and their employees, websites, representatives, contractors, service providers, customer surveys, Open For Inspections forms or visits by our representatives from time to time. 

If you give us personal information about another person, you represent that you are authorised to do so and agree that you have obtained consent from that person for us to use and disclose their personal information and that they may access any personal information we hold about them.

Why we collect personal information

We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information so that we can conduct our business activities. 

Your personal information is used for the following purposes

• to assist you with, buying, selling or renting a property
• to enable us to assess your suitability and eligibility for buying, selling or renting a property, property management services, applying for home loans, insurance policy or for the provision of other services
• to provide marketing including direct marketing, related bodies corporate, franchisees, franchisees real estate agents and employees, contractors, service providers or other third parties;
• to provide conveyancing and property settlement services
• to provide Accountancy and Taxation Services
• to provide Financial Planning Services
• to provided Superannuation Management Services
• to manage our relationship with you;
• to answer any enquiries and provide information or advise about existing products and services or new products and services offered by the Group;
• to update our records to keep your details up to date;
• if you apply to become a Licensee with us or apply for employment with us we will collect information about you to assist us to decide whether to appoint you
• to provide you with access to the protected areas of our website

Your personal information will not be used in any other way other than what is described in this Privacy Policy.

How do we collect your personal information

When collecting information from you we may collect it in ways including:

• Our websites, telephone, letter, fax or email,
• Conversations between our representatives
• Contracting with us,
• Open For Inspections,
• By entering into competition, promotions or requesting material from us.
• From third parties such as your representatives (Lawyers, Accountants, Finance/Mortgage Brokers and Financial Advisers)
• Your Employer, Credit Reporting Agencies, Law Enforcement Agencies and Government Entities
• Any other Organisation where you have given consent

To whom we disclose your personal information

To ensure you receive the highest possible service levels and best possible outcomes, we may disclose your personal information to our business partners or other organisations that provide products or services used or marketed by us. 

Personal information that you provide to us will only be disclosed to a third party either in Australia and/or overseas, if we are required or authorised by law to disclose the information. 

Any information that is disclosed will be done in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APP). 

The types of organisations to which we are likely to disclose information about you include mortgage intermediaries, finance brokers, mortgage brokers, financial planners, insurance brokers, registered valuers, surveyors, accountants, SMSF auditors, registered auditors, lawyers, credit reporting Bodies, recoveries firms, debt collectors, real-estate agents, building and pest inspection contractors and property management services contractors. 

We may also disclose your personal information to any other organisation that may have or is considering having an interest in your property purchase/sale or in our business. 

Your personal information may be disclosed between “the Group” to facilitate a transaction to which the provision of that personal information relates or to enable us to properly conduct our business within “the Group”.

Disclosure to Overseas Parties

The Peer Group will never sell, lease or surrender our database to any party whatsoever. At the time of writing this Privacy Policy the Peer Group website and cloud-based CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) software are hosted by Australian website hosting companies with their servers located within Australian borders. 

From time to time, overseas hosting companies may host our data on their servers, however the Peer Group will only engage reputable companies that have well established privacy and data protection service agreements. 

All companies conducting business with the Peer Group; whether foreign or domestic are bound by agreements that further protect your information. This includes overseas companies that may be engaged as contractors to help develop our business proprietary systems.

How is your information stored?

We take reasonable steps to securely store personal details and information. This includes electronic and physical security measures, staff training, and use of password protection software. Details of our security systems are available by contacting our Privacy Officer. 

When the personal information that we collect is no longer required, we will remove or de-identify the personal information as soon as reasonably possible. 

We may, however, retain personal information in our IT backups for as long as is necessary to comply with any applicable law, for the prevention of fraud, for insurance and governance purposes, for the collection of any monies owed and to resolve disputes.

Direct Marketing

We may use personal information; specifically your name, telephone number, email address and relevant home or postal address details, to let you know about our services, facilities and benefits and those of our related bodies corporates, licensees, licensees agents and employees, contractors, service providers of the Peer Group. 

We and/or our related bodies corporates, licensee, licensee’s agents and employees, contractors, service providers or other third parties may contact you for direct marketing purposes in a variety of ways, including by mail, email, SMS, telephone, online advertising or facsimile.

Open for Inspection Collection Notice

Privacy Act 1988, Spam Act 2003, Do Not Call Register Act 2006 and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. 

We store and use your personal information collected from you at the Open for Inspections for security purposes on behalf of our clients. 

We will also use your personal information to contact you by means of any officer, contractor, employee or agent in relation to this property as well as other properties, products and services which we believe may be of interest to you. 

We will also contact you for customer feedback on our services. 

In providing your personal information you consent to us collecting, storing and using your personal information in the manner set out above and you consent to us disclosing your personal information to our related bodies corporate and each of their officers, contractors, employees and agents who may collect, store and use of your personal information in the manner set out above. 

You are also consenting for us to give your personal information to our preferred product suppliers; for them to offer you products that we may receive a commission on. 

You acknowledge and agree that this consent is effective consent for the purposes of the Do Not Call Register Act 2006, Spam Act 2003, Privacy Act 1988 and National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 and is deemed to be for an indefinite period (unless you advise us differently). 

If the information is not provided by you we may not be able to provide an effective service to you. 

If you require more information you can contact Peer Property or agent with which you have dealings, or contact us on the details provided below.

Opting Out

We may send you direct marketing communications and information about our product services that we consider may be of interest to you. Your consent will remain current until you advise us otherwise. 

However, you can opt out at any time, in the following ways:

• Send a letter to the Peer Group Po Box 508 Sandgate 4017
• Send an email to admin@peergroup.com.au
• Advise us if you receive a marketing call that you no longer wish to receive these calls
• Use the unsubscribe facility that we include in our commercial electronic messages (such as emails and SMSs) to opt out of receiving those messages
• Use the Opt Out facility used in the marketing communications

Notification of source

If we have collected the personal information that we use to send you direct marketing material from a third party (for example a direct mail database provider), you can ask us to notify you of our source of information, the Peer Group policy is to do so unless this is unreasonable or impracticable.

Change in our Privacy Policy

We are constantly reviewing all of our policies and attempt to keep up to date with market expectations. Technology is constantly changing, as is the law and market place practices. 

As a consequence we may change this Privacy Policy from time to time or as the need arises. 

You may request this Privacy Policy in an alternative form. 

This Privacy Policy came into existence on 12th March 2014

Contacting Us

You can make any requests relating to the treatment of your personal information or requests relating to your personal information held. 

We will respond to your request within 30 days and/or a reasonable period of time from when the request was made.

Our Obligations

The Group is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) contained within the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012. 

The Group has appointed a Privacy Officer to be the company point of contact for all privacy matters. Please contact us if you wish to discuss any privacy issues.

John King (Privacy Officer) 
Peer Group Accountant’s Pty Ltd
admin@peergroup.com.au 
Phone: 1300 012 399

You can obtain further information about the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 and the protection of your personal information on the Australian Federal Government Commissioner’s website: www.privacy.gov.au