FUTURE HOMES LEGAL & PRIVACY POLICY
Effective January 01st, 2004.
Future Homes & Real Estate Ltd. Brokerage (“Future Homes”) maintains this website (“this site”) for your personal entertainment, education, communication, convenience and for informational purposes only. Future Homes accepts no liability whatsoever should an error occur in data input information recorded on this site. Please feel free to browse this site. You may download material displayed on this site for non-commercial, personal use only, provided you also retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained on the materials. You may not, however, distribute, modify, transmit, reuse, report or use the contents of this site for public or commercial purposes, including the text, Future Homes logos, images, audio and video without Future Homes written permission. Future Homes does not accept any liability for your use of this site. Your use of this site is at your own risk at all times. Any outside links posted on this website are not intended as a guarantee, approval or endorsement of the linked sites. Future Homes does not in any way track your IP address and will never collect, deliver, send, trade and or submit your e-mail address to anyone outside of our organization at anytime whatsoever. If you require any specific information on Copyright material contained in this website, please contact Michelle Tatomir. The trade mark MLS®, Multiple Listing Service®, displayed on this site, including CREA, the associated logos and design marks are owned by CREA.REALTOR® is a trade mark of REALTOR® Canada Inc., a corporation owned by CREA and the National Association of REALTORS®. The trade mark DFS™, DIRECT Full Service™ displayed on this site, the associated logo and design marks are owned by Future Homes & Real Estate Ltd. Brokerage.
Future Homes & Real Estate Ltd. Brokerage recognizes the importance of an individual’s right to privacy. We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal information in a responsible manner in accordance with law. Future Homes & Real Estate Ltd. Brokerage also recognizes the important principles for the protection of personal information in respect of commercial activity, as set out in the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Future Homes & Real Estate Ltd. Brokerage is a member of the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and as professionals, are also governed by the Code of Ethics and Standards of Business Conduct as set out by CREA. We have a professional obligation to keep confidential all information we receive, obtain consent for the use of the information given and are committed to protecting any personal information we hold. Personal information is any information about an identifiable individual, but does not include the name, title, business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization. Future Homes & Real Estate Ltd. Brokerage collects and uses your personal information solely for the purpose of providing you with the products and services you have requested from us. Future Homes & Real Estate Ltd. Brokerage may also contact you from time to time to inform of new products and services, verify and update information and/or conduct market research and surveys in an effort to continually improve our product and service offerings. To enable us to more effectively provide the products and services you have requested from us Future Homes & Real Estate Ltd. Brokerage may share your personal information with other affiliate companies who are acting on our behalf as our service providers. If you do not want your name to be made available, please e-mail Michelle Tatomir or call 322-1234 ext. 12.
| 1. | 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. | |||
| 2. | 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. | |||
| 3. | The Person in Charge | ||
| 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: | |||
| a) | Establish and update information protection policies; | ||
| b) | Ensure policies are implemented by other organizations to which data-processing functions are outsourced; | ||
| c) | Establish criteria for classification of information; | ||
| d) | Evaluate the accessibility of sensitive information and take corrective action where necessary; | ||
| e) | Provide education to employees on the importance of information protection; | ||
| f) | Attempt to resolve consumer privacy complaints to the satisfaction of the consumer. | ||
| 4. | The Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information | ||
| a) | 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; | ||
| b) | 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; | ||
| c) | 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; | ||
| d) | 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; | ||
| e) | Once information is collected, it will be used and disclosed only for the purposes disclosed to the individual; | ||
| f) | All representation agreements must include the approved privacy clauses. | ||
| 5. | Disclosure for New Purpose | ||
| a) | Anyone using personal information for some new purpose that extends beyond the consent already provided must obtain the express consent of the person for that use | ||
| b) | 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. | ||
| 6. | 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: | |||
| a) | Collection and Disclosure | ||
| I | Meetings with customers and clients on these premises must take place in a place and manner to ensure confidentiality; | ||
| II | Mail and faxes must be routed directly to the intended recipient; | ||
| III | Information should be available to other persons in the office only on a need-to-know basis. | ||
| IIII | 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. | ||
| IV | 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. | ||
| b) | Storage | ||
| I | Filing cabinets designated by the office manager to contain personal, including sensitive, information are to be kept secured at all times; | ||
| II | All personnel have computer passwords. These passwords are confidential and are not to be shared with any unauthorized persons. | ||
| c) | Destruction | ||
| I | This office has in place a record retention and destruction policy. Refer to that portion of the policy manual for details. | ||
| 7. | Accuracy of Personal Information | ||
| To ensure the quality of the information collected: | |||
| a) | Insofar as possible, personal information should be collected directly from the consumer; | ||
| b) | Public property information (taxes, assessment data, etc.) should be verified; | ||
| c) | Disclaimers of accuracy in the form approved by the office should always be attached to any disclosure of information. | ||
| 8. | Access to Personal Information | ||
| a) | 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; | ||
| b) | 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; | ||
| c) | 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; | ||
| d) | 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; | ||
| e) | 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; | ||
| f) | A minimal administrative fee may be charged to supply the information. | ||
| 9. | Compliance | ||
| a) | 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; | ||
| b) | 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. | ||
