This privacy policy outlines how PICA Group manages personal information in connection with its services. This policy applies to Prudential Investment Company of Australia Pty Ltd ACN 004 266 817 and its subsidiary companies other than Kemps Petersons (“PICA Group, we, us”).
A list of all PICA Group entities covered by this policy can be found on our website here.
PICA Group’s core service is to act as managing agent and service provider for entities that are responsible for administering common property in multi-unit dwellings (whether under strata, unit, community, company title, or any equivalent regime of subdivision of real estate) (“schemes”). PICA Group also offers additional services and benefits to owners and occupants of such lots.
In acting on behalf of a scheme, PICA is responsible for administering the scheme in accordance with scheme specific laws, many of which contain provisions requiring a scheme to collect, hold, use, and disclose personal information for certain purposes relevant to the scheme. These laws therefore affect how we collect, use, and disclose your personal information on behalf of your scheme.
Relevant legislation includes the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW), Community Land Management Act 1989 (NSW), Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (QLD), Owners Corporations Act 2006 (VIC), Unit Titles Act 1975 (NT), Unit Title Schemes Act 2009 (NT), Strata Titles Act 1998 (TAS), and the regulations made under these Acts.
PICA Group collects and holds various categories of personal information in connection with its services. These may include: name, address, telephone number, email address, bank account details, strata plan number, building name and scheme records that identify individuals.
When PICA Group is appointed as managing agent of a scheme, all scheme records held by the outgoing managing agent are required to be transferred to PICA Group and, on receipt, are included in our records database. These records may contain personal information of owners and occupants of lots relevant to that scheme.
Otherwise, PICA Group generally collects personal information directly from individuals or their representatives (such as a lawyer or conveyancer) in the course of providing services to schemes, or lot owners and occupants. For example, PICA Group may collect personal information from an owner or occupant when they:
In some circumstances, PICA Group may also receive personal information via third party referrals, such as referrals from property managers, building managers, caretakers, or individuals you may be in contact with.
In addition to personal information, PICA Group also gathers statistical data from our website using analytics software to collect information about the number of visitors coming to the site. No identifying information is collected using the analytics software. The software records the IP address of the visitor only. We may also engage third party tracking services, which use web-based tracking tools to analyse and help us improve the activities and services provided to you on our websites.
When you visit our websites, the server may attach a “cookie” to your computer’s memory. A “cookie” assists us to store information on how visitors to our websites use it and the pages that may be of most interest. However, this information is not linked to any personal information you may provide and cannot be used to identify you. You have the option to manage cookie preferences through your browser settings.
We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information to deliver our services to schemes, lot owners and occupants.
For example, we may use or disclose your personal information to:
Your scheme may be subject to record-keeping and information access requirements under strata-specific (or equivalent) legislation. Typically, this includes a requirement to maintain a public database of information relevant to a scheme (including personal information), and to make this information available to owners and interested parties on request. In acting on behalf of your scheme, we may therefore need to disclose your personal information in facilitating your scheme’s compliance with these requirements.
We may disclose personal information to regulators in the event of complaints or reviews, or to courts, law enforcement agencies, tribunals, mediators, arbitrators, or experts, in the event of claims being made or disputes.
We may also disclose personal information to contractors and service providers engaged by your scheme or on a confidential basis to our external service providers so they can assist with performing services on our behalf, for example:
While we store scheme records in Australia, your personal information may be transferred overseas, including to recipients located in the United States and European Union, when we use third party contractors or technology tools and solutions. Our relationships with such external service providers are governed by our contracts with them.
We take reasonable steps to ensure that your information is properly protected from unauthorised access, disclosure, or modification. Our security measures include, but are not limited to, encrypting the data sent from your computer to our server, firewalls and virus scanning tools.
You have the right to ask for access to personal information that we hold about you and ask that we correct that personal information. If you ask, we must give you access to your personal information, and take reasonable steps to correct it if we consider it is incorrect, unless there is a law that allows or requires us not to.
We may ask you to submit your request in writing and will ask you to verify your identity before we give you access to your information or before we correct it. The steps appropriate to verify an individual’s identity will depend on the circumstances. For example, during a telephone contact it may be adequate for us to request information that can be checked against our records.
If we refuse to give you access to, or correct, your personal information, we must notify you in writing setting out the reasons. Please note that, in relation to correction requests, we cannot alter scheme records retrospectively, but we can place a note on the records.
PICA Group reserves the right to recover any reasonable cost in connection with providing access to personal information except where the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) provides otherwise. However, we will not charge you for submitting access or correction requests.
If you have any questions about this policy or if you wish to access or update personal information we hold about you, or to make a complaint about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles, you can contact PICA Group:
See our Feedback and Complaints | PICA Group form.
1300 889 227
PICA Group
Locked Bag 22
HAYMARKET NSW 1240
Each complaint we receive with respect to a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles will be considered on a case by case basis and we will respond to the complainant in writing within a reasonable period of time after each complaint, which will usually be within 30 days. If you aren’t satisfied with the outcome of a complaint you are entitled to further refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
From time to time we may update our Privacy Policy. The most current version will always be on our website picagroup.com.au.
