Many of our members are aware that we have been interacting with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (“OPC”) to assist with its current examination into personal information collection practices in the rental sector. Our intention is to put forward
our members’ perspective and to provide the OPC with constructive input as to why and how landlords collect certain information. We expect that sometime
in May the OPC will publish updated guidance on how personal information is to be collected in the rental sector. Additional updates and reporting
will come as the process unfolds.

For the time being, here are some basic privacy facts, good practice suggestions and timely reminders to share with landlords. In no particular order:

  1. Landlords are considered ‘agencies’ by the Privacy Act and therefore are subject to its rules for handling (tenants’) personal information. There are
    no reciprocal obligations on the tenants given that they are private individuals not ‘agencies’.
  2. The OPC does not consider it necessary for landlords to store tenancy application forms from unsuccessful applicants. (Sidebar: We are seeking OPC clarification on incidental collection that occurs when a landlord and unsuccessful tenant application correspond with each other and how that interacts with s123A(1)(g)(ii) of the Residential Tenancies Act.)
  3. Tenants have the right to ascertain whether you hold certain personal information on them and, if that information is readily retrievable, to access
    that information. 
  4. If you have sourced and collected personal information of a tenant from a public platform (e.g. credit database, social media, news articles), you
    still have the same obligations vis-à-vis storage, access and retention of that information as if it was proffered by the tenant in the first place.
    For example, information collected from the...