JL BUSINESS SALES PRIVACY POLICY
This Privacy Policy explains how JL Business Sales Limited (“JLBS”, “we”, “us”, “our”), a licensed real estate agency under the Real Estate Agents Act 2008, collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal information. We handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 2020 (“Privacy Act”) and its Information Privacy Principles.
1. About This Policy
1.1 This policy applies to all personal information we collect about the people we deal with, including vendors, purchasers, enquirers, referrers, and visitors to our website at jlbs.co.nz.
1.2 By giving personal information to us, or by using our website or forms, you accept the practices described in this policy.
2. Information We Collect
2.1 The personal information we collect may include your name, contact details, and date of birth; identity verification documents; ownership and structure details for companies and trusts; financial, transactional, and business information; and any information you give us in connection with a business enquiry, listing, appraisal, negotiation, or sale.
2.2 If you give us information about another person, such as a referrer, business associate, or adviser, you confirm that you are authorised to do so.
2.3 You do not have to give us personal information. However, some information is required for us to meet our legal obligations, including identity information under the AML/CFT Act. If you do not provide information we reasonably require, we may be unable to provide our services, release information about a business, or progress a transaction.
3. How We Collect Information
3.1 We collect personal information directly from you in several ways, including through the enquiry and contact forms on our website, by email, by phone, in meetings, and when you send us documents such as financial statements, business records, or identification, whether you send them through our website or to us directly.
3.2 When you submit information through our website forms or send it to us directly, we collect and hold the information you choose to provide, together with the basic technical information needed to receive and process your enquiry.
3.3 Our website may use cookies and similar tools to help the site work and to understand how it is used. You can set your browser to refuse cookies, although some features may not then work as intended.
4. Why We Collect And Use Information
4.1 We collect and use personal information to appraise, market, and facilitate the sale or purchase of businesses; to verify identity and meet our obligations under the Real Estate Agents Act 2008 and the Anti Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (“AML/CFT Act”); to carry out due diligence, prepare and manage agreements, and complete transactions; to communicate with you about our services; and to manage our internal processes, records, reporting, and quality assurance.
4.2 Where you have agreed, we may also send you marketing or listing updates. You can opt out of these at any time.
5. Information We Collect About You From Others
5.1 Sometimes we collect personal information about you from someone other than you, for example from a referrer, professional adviser, public register, or government agency. This is known as indirect collection.
5.2 Where the Privacy Act requires it, and unless an exception applies, we will take reasonable steps to make you aware that we have collected your information, what we have collected, why we collected it, who we may share it with, and your rights to access and correct it. Publishing this policy is one of the ways we do this.
6. How We Share Your Information
6.1 We treat your personal information as confidential. We do not sell, rent, or trade it, and we do not share it with any third party for their own purposes.
6.2 We only disclose your personal information where it is necessary to carry out the engagement or transaction you have asked us to act on, or where the law requires or allows it. This may include sharing information with:
(a) the other party to a transaction and their advisers, with your authority and, for sensitive business or financial information, under a signed confidentiality agreement;
(b) our professional advisers and service providers, such as our lawyers, accountants, auditors, and our information technology, database, and AML verification providers, who must keep it confidential and may only use it to provide services to us; and
(c) government agencies, regulators, or a court, where we are required to disclose or report by law.
6.3 Other than as set out above, we do not disclose your personal information to any third party unless you have authorised it or the law requires it.
7. Sending Information Overseas
7.1 Some of our service providers may store information on secure servers located outside New Zealand. Where this happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure the information is protected by comparable safeguards, consistent with the Privacy Act.
8. Use Of Technology And Assisted Tools
8.1 We use secure software and may use automated or AI assisted tools to help us prepare documents and manage our work. Where we do, personal information is kept secure and a member of our team reviews the output before it is used or sent.
9. How We Keep Information Safe
9.1 We take all reasonable steps to protect personal information from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, use, or disclosure.
9.2 Our measures include secure premises, access limited by role, password protected systems, and encryption of digital information where appropriate.
9.3 Our staff, contractors, and authorised agents are required to keep personal information confidential.
10. How Long We Keep Information
10.1 We keep personal information only for as long as we have a proper business or legal reason to hold it. We retain information for legal, audit, reporting, and internal quality assurance purposes, and to bring or defend any claim.
10.2 Minimum retention periods that apply to us include at least 5 years for AML/CFT records after a transaction or business relationship ends, and at least 7 years for financial and tax records. Record keeping periods under the Real Estate Agents Act 2008 also apply.
10.3 We may hold information for longer where a dispute, complaint, investigation, audit, or limitation period requires it.
10.4 Once we no longer need it, we securely destroy or de identify it.
11. Accessing And Correcting Your Information
11.1 You have the right to ask for access to, or correction of, the personal information we hold about you.
11.2 Please send requests in writing to our Privacy Officer (clause 14). We may need to verify your identity first. We will respond to access and correction requests as soon as reasonably practicable, and no later than 20 working days after receiving them, as the Privacy Act requires.
11.3 If we decline a request, we will tell you why in writing. A reasonable charge may apply to certain access requests, as permitted by the Privacy Act. If we decline to correct information, you may ask us to attach a statement of the correction you sought to the information we hold.
12. Privacy Breaches
12.1 If a privacy breach occurs that is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the affected individuals as required by the Privacy Act.
13. Complaints
13.1 If you are concerned about how we have handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer in writing.
13.2 We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 days and aim to respond fully within 30 days, or such longer period as we agree with you.
13.3 If you are not satisfied with our response, you may raise the matter with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
14. Contacting Our Privacy Officer
14.1 Please direct all privacy enquiries, requests, and complaints to:
Privacy Officer, JL Business Sales Limited
Email: info@jlbs.co.nz
Phone: 0800 8 255 255
15. Office Of The Privacy Commissioner
15.1 You may also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner:
Phone: 0800 803 909
Email: enquiries@privacy.org.nz
Website: privacy.org.nz
Post: PO Box 10094, Wellington 6143, New Zealand
