HOUS Group Privacy Policy

Home Owners Utility Services (HOUS) Limited and its related and subsidiary companies (“HOUS Group”) are committed to respecting the privacy of its customers. The following policy discusses how personal information received by the HOUS Group will be dealt with.

Although not currently required by law to comply with its provisions, the HOUS Group seeks to opt in to the Privacy Act 1988 (also sometimes referred to as the Privacy Principles Act or the Personal Information Privacy Principles Act) in dealing with its customers. We do this so that our customers will have confidence that they are dealing with a supplier committed to excellence and security for our customers.

Collecting personal information

The HOUS Group will only collect information that is necessary for us to deliver the best possible products, services and advice.

The HOUS Group collects personal information about you for the purpose of assessing and processing your application for membership, providing you with the product or service of your choice and the ongoing administration and management of that product or service.

We only collect personal information by legitimate means. Personal information is generally collected directly from you over the phone, through the mail using paper application forms or electronically over the internet.  However, in some circumstances, such as when a membership is purchased as a gift, we collect personal information from a third party, this may include friends and relatives.

No one is obligated to provide personal information. However, failure to do so may result in the HOUS Group being unable to sell you products and/or provide certain services including after sales services.

Use of personal information

Any personal information that we do collect, we keep strictly confidential and it can only be accessed by authorised staff within the HOUS Group.  The HOUS Group’s agents, contractors and other third parties, who need your personal information to provide a legitimate service, are bound by terms in their contracts to ensure your personal information remains protected at all times.  The HOUS Group does not sell personal information.

The HOUS Group may contact individuals via telephone, SMS, email, post or any other form of electronic or conventional communications channel using the information provided in order to:

• Provide information that may be of interest about updates, new HOUS products and services, special offers and other matters that may be of interest.
• To send newsletters.

The HOUS Group does not send advertising information without obtaining prior consent. If an individual receives communications from the HOUS Group which they do not wish to receive, they may remove their name from the database either by contacting us on the customer service line 1800 01 4687 or by sending an email from the HOUS website at the link “contact us”. Please allow 14 days for this request to be processed.

Accessing your personal information

Generally, you have the right to know all the personal information we hold about you. You can request access to view this information by:

• Calling our customer enquiry line on 1800 01 4687. We will ask you questions so that we can identify you over the phone.
• Sending an email from the HOUS website at the link “contact us”.
• Writing to HOUS, GPO Box N985, Perth WA 6849 and providing us with details of what you would like to know or see.

We will respond to your request as quickly as possible and we will provide you with a written, verified copy of the personal information that we hold. Depending on the nature of your request and the accessibility of the information (for example, information may be archived), we will aim to respond within fourteen working days, but may be able to respond sooner than this. If it will take us longer than this to access your personal information, then we will inform you of the delay and the reason for the delay.

Problems or queries

Any queries relating to the Privacy Policy, or any problems or complaints may be directed to the HOUS Group by calling the customer enquiry line on 1800 01 4687 or by sending an email from the HOUS website at the link “contact us”.

Amendments to the Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy may be amended by us from time to time and if we amend this Privacy Policy we will post the changes on this website.