The Privacy Code of the Canadian Real Estate Association

This Brokerage is a member of The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and adheres to and abides by the principles set out in the CREA Privacy Code. All employees and sales representatives associated with this office must sign an acknowledgement that they will comply with the requirements of the Code.

The Policy Statement

This office only collects personal information necessary to effectively market and sell the property of sellers, to locate, assess and qualify properties for buyers and to otherwise provide professional and competent real estate and mortgage services to clients and customers.

Michelle Tatomir is the privacy compliance officer responsible for privacy compliance for Real Estate in this office, Kattie Tatomir is the privacy compliance officer responsible for privacy compliance for Mortgages in this office. The responsibilities of the privacy compliance officer shall include:

Establish and update information protection policies;   

Ensure policies are implemented by other organizations to which data-processing functions are outsourced;

Establish criteria for classification of information;

Evaluate the accessibility of sensitive information and take corrective action where necessary;

Provide education to employees on the importance of information protection;

Attempt to resolve consumer privacy complaints to the satisfaction of the consumer.

The Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

Sales people and other representatives of this office will collect only the information necessary to facilitate the real estate transaction and/or mortgage or otherwise provide professional and competent service to clients and customers;

No personal information shall be collected from an individual without first obtaining the consent of the individual to the collection, use and dissemination of that information;

To assist us to make credit decisions about clients applying for mortgage financing, we may request information about clients from the files of consumer reporting agencies;

Express consent (whether oral or written) must always be obtained except in the following situation. Consent my be implied where the information is not sensitive and where it can be reasonably assumed that the individual would expect the information to be disclosed in this fashion;

Disclosure for New Purpose

Requests for information by law enforcement officials, lawyers, private investigators or other agents or subpoenas for documents issued by the court must be referred to the privacy office/office manager or broker/agent as appropriate.

Protecting Information

Information must be protected in a manner commensurate with its sensitivity, value and criticality. This policy applies regardless of the media on which information is stored, the locations where the information is stored, the systems used to process the information, or the processes by which information is handled:

Meetings with customers and clients on these premises must take place in a place and manner to ensure confidentiality;

Only with the consent of the individual providing the personal information will be disclosed to a third party acting on behalf of and/or providing additional services to the said client. Third parties include, but are not limited to lawyers, home inspectors, financial companies, banking institutions, insurance companies, etc.

Future Homes & Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage if approached by a third party will contact the individual in question to obtain the proper consent from the individual before releasing any information to the third party, unless otherwise instructed to do so.

Filing cabinets designated by the office manager to contain personal, including sensitive, information are to be kept secured at all times;

All personnel have computer passwords. These passwords are confidential and are not to be shared with any unauthorized persons.

This office has in place a record retention and destruction policy. Refer to that portion of the policy manual for details.

Accuracy of Personal Information

Copies of any privacy brochure approved by this office should always be available to the public in the reception area of the office Public property information (taxes, assessment data, etc.) should be verified;

The individual set out in Section 3 as being responsible for privacy compliance is the person responsible for responding to access requests and all such requests will be referred to him or her. All staff and salespersons will co-operate fully with the privacy compliance officer in responding to requests;

On written request and appropriate identification satisfactory to the organization, an individual will be advised of personal information about him/her retained in the firm’s records;

Where information cannot be disclosed (for example the information contains reference to other individuals or is subject to solicitor-client privilege) the individual will be given reasons for non-disclosure;

An individual may have appended to a record, any alternative information where the office is of the view that the appended information is, in fact, correct;

Any complaints from an individual concerning the collection, use or disclosure of their personal information or concerning the individual’s ability to access their personal information must be referred to the privacy compliance officer, who will attempt to resolve the complaint to the individual’s satisfaction;

In the event the complaint cannot be resolved internally to the individual’s satisfaction, he or she will be advised of where to direct the complaint.