Privacy Policy of 3R Property Management
Privacy of personal information is an important principle to 3R Property Management its subsidiaries, affiliates, successors, and assigns (collectively “3R”). This Privacy Policy applies to 3R, the properties managed by 3R, as well as the landlords and corporate owners of these properties. We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the premises and services we provide. We also try to be open and transparent as to how we handle personal information. This document describes our privacy policies.
What is Personal Information?
Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. Personal information includes information that relates to their personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, income, home address or phone number, electronic address, family status), their health (e.g., disabilities) or their activities and views (e.g., religion, politics, opinions expressed by an individual, opinions about an individual). Personal information is to be contrasted with business information (e.g., an individual’s business address and telephone number), which is not protected by privacy legislation.
Who We Are
Our organization provides property management, development and asset management services to owners of residential and commercial properties. To provide this service, we hire employees and use a number of consultants and agencies that may, in the course of their duties, have access to personal information we hold. These include, but are not limited to, building superintendents and managers, security, cleaning and maintenance organizations, accountants, lawyers, computer consultants, cleaners, and temporary workers. We restrict their access to any personal information we hold as much as is reasonably possible. We also have their assurance that they follow appropriate privacy principles.
We Collect Personal Information: Primary Purposes
About Tenants
Like all property managers, we collect, use and disclose personal information in order to serve our clients and their tenants and to manage our clients’ property. For our clients’ tenants, the primary purpose for collecting personal information is to ensure their safety, security and reasonable enjoyment and that of the other tenants, to ensure they have access to the premises, equipment and services that our clients have agreed to provide, to preserve our clients’ property and to collect rents and other fees. We disclose limited personal information to third party suppliers of services, such as telecommunications and utility service providers, so that they can market and make available their services to new
and existing tenants. We may also disclose personal information to insurers, lenders or prospective purchasers of properties we own or manage. A complete list of persons or business entities to whom your personal information may be provided and who may, in turn, send Commercial Electronic Messages (CEMs) to you is attached as a schedule to this privacy policy under the heading: “Third Party Disclosure”. At this time, we have taken steps to generally prohibit third parties from using your personal information for the purpose of sending you (CEMs) unless same are exempt from restrictions of, and are otherwise sent in full compliance with, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). Third Parties who may send CEMs are listed in the disclosure schedule appended to this privacy policy.
We may permit or require tenants to communicate with us directly or indirectly by using a third party website (e.g. RENTCafe). If a tenant uses a third party website or platform, they will be required to agree to and follow the third party’s Terms of Service.
Examples of the type of information we collect for these purposes includes the following:
Names of all occupants of the unit
Business, personal and emergency contact information
Use and intended uses of the property
Compliance with the tenancy agreement and our client’s rules and regulations
Payment, banking and other financial information
Any special needs of tenants (e.g., disability or health) and
Social insurance number, but only for the purpose of issuing a tax receipt for interest on the rental deposit and for obtaining credit reports and
The amount of rent payable with respect to each rental unit
As a service and convenience for tenants we, or our clients, may maintain public directories of tenants (e.g., by the front door). If you do not wish to be listed in any directories or wish to be described in a particular way, please let us know.
Where a tenant voluntarily provides the information, we maintain information on occupants who need help during an evacuation or temporary shutdown of important services such as hydro (electricity), heat or water. The purpose is to better understand and enable assistance to occupants during these events. Upon request or where reasonably necessary, this information may be disclosed to the City of Toronto and/or the Toronto Fire Department.
It would be rare for us to collect any personal information without the tenant’s express consent, but this might occur in a case of urgency (e.g., the tenant is unavailable), where we believe the tenant would consent if asked and it is impractical to obtain consent (e.g., information provided by a relative about an absent tenant), appropriate public sources (e.g., government, court or tribunal records) or to investigate a breach of the tenancy agreement or contravention of the law.
We, or our clients, subscribe to a consumer reporting service. This service provides information to us, or our clients, about prospective tenants. In return, we, on behalf of our clients, provide information to the service in order for the service to maintain a databank on a tenant’s credit history. We collect your full legal name and date of birth to ensure the
accuracy of those records. We, or our clients, obtain your consent for using the consumer reporting service in the rental application form and tenancy agreement.
The information described above and the information set out below about prospective tenants can be collected or updated if the tenant is in arrears of rent or fees or wishes to renew a tenancy agreement.
3R hosts tenant appreciation events from time to time. Photographs maybe taken at these events and the photographs may be included in internal tenant newsletters and other internal publications thereafter to showcase the event. Your image may be captured in any of these photographs and may be included in internal newsletters or other internal publications. If you have any questions regarding this practice, or if you do not wish for your image to be taken or included in internal circulations, please notify our Information Officer.
During unit inspections, photographs of the rental unit may be taken before and after suite repairs, during annual suite inspections, or in emergency or extraordinary situations as required by our insurers or by law. All efforts will be made to avoid capturing any personal information in these photographs. In situations where personal information will be inadvertently captured in photographs, we will make efforts to inform you and obtain your consent.
About Prospective Tenants
Prospective tenants are requested to complete a rental application form so that we or our client can assess their suitability as tenants and have necessary basic information should they become tenants. This would include, but not limited to the following types of information:
Past and current tenancy history
Employment history
Business and personal telephone, email, and other contact information
References and conduct history
Financial means and credit history
Automobile information and
Intended use of the premises
We may require prospective tenants to provide this personal information to us directly or indirectly by using a third-party website (e.g. RENTCafe). If a prospective tenant uses a third-party website or platform, they will be required to agree to and follow the third party’s Terms of Service.
We, or our clients, will then confirm this information and check references and the conduct history of the prospective tenants. This might include following up with other individuals identified during the course of these inquiries as having relevant information (e.g., a person identified by a reference you provided to us). We, or our clients, may also contact a credit agency and/or a consumer reporting service for information about your suitability. We, or our clients, might also check appropriate public sources (e.g., government, court or tribunal records). We or our clients may also provide the Applicant’s name, new
address and move in date to a third party telecommunications or service or utility provider, if the Applicant is accepted as a tenant, in order to enable that third party to contact the tenant in regard to the provision of en-suite services. By completing a rental application form and a Consent to Disclosure form you agree to us, or our clients, collecting this information about your suitability to be a tenant. Your information is subject to transfer to Third Parties in the same manner as that set out above in relation to Tenants.
About Members of the General Public
For members of the general public, our primary purpose for collecting personal information is to promote the safety of tenants and the security of the property. For example we, or our clients, may operate security cameras and monitor the presence, vehicles and the conduct of visitors and non-tenants on our property. We believe that the collection of this information is implied by the private and residential nature of our client’s property.
Secondly, we, or our clients, might gather personal information in the course of marketing our client’s property to prospective tenants. This information is collected either from appropriate public sources (e.g., telephone directories) or directly from the individuals with their consent.
On our website, we only collect, with the exception of cookies (electronic markers identifying computers that have previously visited our website), the personal information you provide and only use that information for the purpose you gave it to us (e.g., to respond to your email message, to provide information about our services). Cookies are only used to help you navigate our website and are not used to monitor you.
Our website uses Google Analytics a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. to collect anonymous traffic data to our website to help us analyse how users use it and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. We will not (nor will we enable third parties to) use this analytics tool to track or collect any personally identifiable information about users of our website. For further information on the privacy of Google Analytics data please visit https://policies.google.com/privacy.
Suppliers and Contractors
We often deal with suppliers and contractors who provide goods and services to the properties we manage. We monitor their performance, including their promptness, reliability, quality and value of services. Most of this information is business information and would not be covered by privacy legislation. However, occasionally, this information relates to the conduct of an individual (e.g., skill of a particular employee of a supplier or contractor, inappropriate behaviour or comments by a particular representative). We reserve the right to collect this information, use it in deciding upon future services and to disclose it to the landlord or others involved in related or similar operations. We may also collect home contact information to reach them in case of emergencies.
About Contract Staff and Employees
For people who are contracted to do work for us (e.g., temporary workers), our primary purpose for collecting personal information is to ensure we can contact them in the future
(e.g., for new assignments) and for necessary work-related communication (e.g., sending out paycheques, year-end tax receipts, tax filings). Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those purposes include home addresses and telephone numbers. It is rare for us to collect such information without prior consent, but it might happen in the case of an emergency (e.g., an outbreak of a contagious disease) or to investigate a possible breach of law (e.g., if a theft were to occur).
We, or our clients, may transfer your personal information to third parties and servers located within and outside of Canada for the purposes of file storage and backup, for use with respect to their accounting and maintenance systems, and for the processing of payroll and online applications. While this information is outside of the country, it is subject to the laws of the country in which it is held. As such, it may be accessible to law enforcement and national security authorities of that jurisdiction.
3R hosts employee group events from time to time. Photographs may be taken at these events and the photographs may be included in internal employee newsletters and may be used for other internals purposes thereafter to showcase the employee group event. Your image may be captured in any of these photographs and may be included in internal newsletters, circulations or used for other internal purposes. If you have any questions regarding this practice, or if you do not wish for your image to be taken or included in internal circulations, please notify our Information Officer.
We Collect Personal Information: Related and Secondary Purposes
Like most property managers, we also collect, use and disclose information for purposes related to or secondary to our primary purposes. The most common examples of our related and secondary purposes are as follows:
To collect rents and other fees on behalf of related companies that we provide management services for (our “clients).
To collect fees and accounts from our clients.
To advise clients and others of new developments in the area of landlord and tenant relations (e.g., a newsletter sent to a home address of a client).
We review tenant, client and other files for the purpose of ensuring that we provide high quality services, including assessing the performance of our consultants, suppliers and staff. In addition, external consultants (e.g., auditors, lawyers, business consultants) may on our behalf do audits and continuing quality improvement reviews of our operations, including reviewing tenant or client files and interviewing our staff.
Various government agencies (e.g., Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Information and Privacy Commissioner, Human Rights Commission, etc.) have the authority to review our files and interview our staff as a part of their mandates. Also, we believe that we should report information suggesting serious illegal behaviour to the authorities. These reports could include personal information about a tenant or other individual to support the concern (e.g., illegal drug activity), although we try to keep this disclosure to a minimum. In these circumstances, we may consult with professionals (e.g., lawyers, a private security service) who will investigate the matter and report back to us.
If a tenant’s rent or fees are paid for by a third party (e.g., employer, your trustee, the government) we may be asked to provide them with certain information. These third party payers often have tenant consent or legislative authority to direct us to collect and disclose to them certain information in order to demonstrate tenant entitlement to and responsible use of this funding.
Tenants, clients or other individuals we deal with may have questions about the services they received. We also provide ongoing services for many tenants and clients over a period of months or years for which previous records are helpful. We retain tenant and client information for a minimum of six years after the last contact to enable us to respond to those questions and provide these services.
You can choose not to be part of some of these related or secondary purposes (e.g., by not having a third party pay your rent). We do not, however, have much choice about some of these related or secondary purposes (e.g., external regulation).
Protecting Personal Information
We understand the importance of protecting personal information. For that reason, we have taken the following steps:
Paper information is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area.
Electronic hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area at all times. In addition, passwords are used on computers. All of our cell phones are digital, which signals are more difficult to intercept (however, we still are careful on cell phones because sometimes they switch over to an analog service).
Paper information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes or boxes by our employees or reputable companies.
Electronic information is transmitted either through a direct line or is anonymized or encrypted.
Staff are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy policy.
External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must provide us with appropriate privacy assurances.
Breach of Security Safeguards
Despite the safeguards that we have put in place, we recognize that there may be breaches of those security safeguards. These breaches may be caused by human error, malicious attacks or another reason. A breach of security safeguards is defined as the loss of, unauthorized access to or unauthorized disclosure of personal information.
If a breach occurs, we will conduct a risk assessment to determine if the breach poses a real risk of significant harm to any individual whose information was involved. Significant harm includes bodily harm, humiliation, financial loss, identity theft, negative effects on the credit record, and damage to or loss of property. The risk assessment will consider the sensitivity of the information involved, and the probability that the information will be misused.
If we determine that the breach presents a real risk of significant harm, we will report the breach to the Commission and to the affected individuals as soon as feasible. We will also notify any other organization or government institution that may be able to reduce the risk of harm to affected individuals.
We will keep a record of every breach for 24 months after the day on which we determine that the breach has occurred. Records shall be kept about all breaches, and not just those that pose a real risk of significant harm. Records shall include information about reports to the Commissioner and notification of affected individuals in accordance with this Policy and PIPEDA.
Retention and Destruction of Personal Information
We need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can answer any questions you might have about the services provided and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies. However, we do not want to keep personal information too long in order to protect your privacy.
We keep our client files for a period deemed reasonable by our clients, but will not be less than 6 years from the last month of tenancy. Our clients, tenant and contact directories are much more difficult to systematically destroy, so we remove such information when we can if it does not appear that we will be contacting you again. However, if you ask, we will remove such contact information right away. We keep any personal information relating to our general correspondence with people who are not tenants for approximately 12 months.
We destroy paper files containing personal information by shredding. We remove electronic information when we can if it does not appear that we will be contacting you again. When the hardware is discarded, we ensure that the hard drive is physically destroyed or completely reformatted.
You Can Look at Your Information
With some exceptions, you have the right to see what personal information we hold about you. We ask that, if you choose to exercise this right, you put your request in writing. We reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests. We can help you identify what records we might have about you. We will also try to help you understand any information you do not understand (e.g., short forms, technical language, etc.). We will need to confirm your identity, if we do not know you, before providing you with this access.
If there is a problem, we may ask you to put your request in writing. If we cannot give you access, we will tell you within 30 days if at all possible and tell you the reason, as best we can, as to why we cannot give you access.
If we collected personal information on behalf of a landlord client we may have conveyed that information directly to the landlord. If so, we may not have it as a part of our own files and you will have to go to the landlord to look at the information.
If you believe there is a mistake in the information, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected. We may ask you to provide documentation that our files are wrong. Where we agree that we made a mistake, we will make the correction and notify anyone to whom we sent this information. If we do not agree that we have made a mistake, we will still agree to include in our file a brief statement from you on the point and we will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information.
Collection of Information by Video Surveillance and Recordings
Video equipment may be installed and operating in common areas of the complex in which your rental unit is located. The video equipment may have special capabilities that will allow it to capture sound recordings along with images. Other special capabilities that the video equipment may possess includes, but is not limited to, zoom, facial recognition, or night-vision features.
The video equipment may be operating at all times. Surveillance of the video recordings may occur at any time.
The purpose of the use of such equipment is to ensure your safety, security and reasonable enjoyment and that of the other tenants, to ensure you have access to the premises, equipment and services that our clients have agreed to provide, to preserve our clients’ property, and to deter crime.
Where required by law, signs will be posted informing you that video equipment is operating and recording personal information about you. Also posted on those signs will be the contact information for our Information Officer whom you can contact if you have questions regarding the video recordings or if you wish to have access to recorded images of you.
What is Captured by the Video Recordings
Your image, movements, actions, or other identifiable information about you, may be captured by the video equipment. Where video equipment captures audio recordings, any sounds or communications you make may be recorded.
Retention and Destruction of Personal Information Recorded by Video Equipment
The recordings captured by the video equipment along with the video equipment will be stored in a secured location. Access to the location and recordings is limited. Hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area. Recordings will be kept for a minimum of 5 days before being destroyed.
Collection of Information by Audio Equipment and Recordings
There are circumstances under which 3R may make audio recordings of its employees, contractors, tenants, or other individuals who contact 3R (e.g. voicemail messages). There are several purposes for making the recordings; they include: situations where there are work-related performance issues, to ensure the safety of the workplace, to ensure productivity, and to prevent harassment.
Audio recordings may be made during meetings, interviews, or telephone calls between the employer and an employee. Audio equipment may be operating at other times. Information recorded by the audio equipment may capture communications of any of the following persons: the employer, employee, tenants, contractors, and the general public.
Retention and Destruction of Personal Information Recorded by Audio Equipment
Audio recordings will be kept for a minimum of 24 hours before being destroyed. The recordings may be kept for a longer period if there are on-going issues related to the employment relationship, if required by law, or if litigation is contemplated. The audio recordings will be stored in a secured location. Access to the location and recordings is limited. Hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area.
Retention and Destruction of Personal Information Recorded by Voicemail
Voicemail messages left for 3R will be erased after they have been listened to by an employee. If a message contains personal information of an individual which 3R will rely upon when making a decision, that voicemail will be kept for a period of no more than 24 hours. After that period has expired, the voicemail message will be erased, and thus will not be available for review.
Disclosure of Personal Information, Including Personal Information Recorded by Video or Audio Equipment
We may disclose your personal information without your knowledge or consent under certain circumstances. Those circumstances include: if the disclosure is required by law, provided to our lawyers, for the purpose of collecting a debt you owe to us, in compliance with a subpoena, warrant, or issued order made by a court, person or body with jurisdic- tion to compel the production of information, or to comply with rules of court relating to the production of records.
Disclosure may also be made to a government institution that has made a request for the information, identified its lawful authority to obtain the information and indicated that: it suspects that the information relates to national security, the defence of Canada or the conduct of international affairs, the disclosure is requested for the purpose of carrying out any investigation relating to the enforcement, gathering intelligence for the purpose of enforcing, or enforcing any law of any jurisdiction, or the disclosure is requested for the purpose of administering any law of Canada or a province. Disclosure may be made by an investigative body if the disclosure is reasonable for purposes related to investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the laws of Canada or a province.
Upon our initiative, we may disclose the information to an investigative body or a government institution if we have reasonable grounds to believe that the information relates to a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the laws of any jurisdiction that has been, is being or is about to be committed, or if we suspect that the information relates to national security, the defence of Canada or the conduct of international affairs.
If information regarding an identifiable individual is disclosed to a person who needs the information because of an emergency that threatens the life, health or security of an individual and, if the individual whom the information is about is alive, we will inform that individual in writing of the disclosure without delay.
Use Without Knowledge or Consent of Personal Information Recorded by Video or Audio Equipment
We may, without your knowledge or consent, use your personal information if: we become aware of information that we have reasonable grounds to believe could be useful in the investigation of a contravention of the laws of any jurisdiction that has been, is being, or is about to be committed, and the information is used for the purpose of investigating the contravention, it is used for the purpose of acting in respect of an emergency that threatens the life, health, or security of an individual, or has been collected under circumstances in which consent is not required.
No Liability for Third Party
As permitted by this Privacy Policy, your personal information may be collected, used, stored by and/or disclosed to a third party, including but not limited to the third parties listed in Schedule A. 3R is not responsible for the activities of such third-parties, including but not limited to the third party’s websites, services or resources. We make no representations or warranties, express or implied, with respect to the collection, use, storage or disclosure of your personal information by such third parties, including any representations or warranties as to accuracy or completeness. Because we have no control over third-parties, you acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible or liable for your use or your exchange of any information with such third parties: including your use of their websites or services, or the content, statements, representations, advertising, products, properties, services or other materials available by third parties.
You acknowledge and agree that 3R shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused in connection with your use or reliance on any such content, information, goods, or services available on or through any such third party site, service or resource. If you decide to access any such third party websites, products, resources or services, or to transact with any such third party for their products or services, you do so entirely at your own risk. You acknowledge that you may be subject to the terms and conditions and the privacy policies or other terms and conditions of such third-party, including terms of use for their websites.
Access to Your Personal Information
Upon request, an individual will be informed of the existence, use, and disclosure of his or her personal information and will be given access to that information. An individual will be able to challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information and have it amended as appropriate. Such a request must be made in writing. If you require our assistance with preparing your request, you must inform us of your need for assistance.
We will respond to your request within thirty days of receiving the request. If there is a circumstance that prevents us from responding to your request within thirty days, we will provide you with a notice of extension.
In certain situations, we may not be able to provide access to all the personal information we hold about you. The reasons for denying access to this information will be provided to you upon request. Exceptions may include information that is prohibitively costly to provide, information that contains references to other individuals, information that cannot be disclosed for legal, security, or commercial proprietary reasons, or information that is subject to solicitor-client or litigation privilege.
If you believe there has been an unauthorized disclosure of your personal information, you must put your complaint in writing and direct it to our Information Officer.
Employees, agents, or other contractors may have access to the personal information that has been recorded by the video and audio equipment. Disciplinary action will be taken in respect to any employee, agent, or contractor who fails to comply with this privacy policy.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
3R reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If 3R makes a material change, this Privacy Policy will be updated accordingly. We recommend that you periodically review this Privacy Policy, which is available in our site office and on our website www.3rproperties.com, so that you are aware of any changes. Your continued reading of the policy and use of our services and website following the posting of any changes to this Privacy Policy shall constitute your acceptance of these changes.
Do You Have a Question?
Our Information Officer can be reached at:
3520 Pharmacy Avenue, Unit #1, Toronto, Ontario M1W 2T8
Tel: 416-487-4633 Fax: 416-499-5312 Email: info@3rproperties.com
Our Information Officer will attempt to answer any questions or concerns you might have.
If you wish to make a formal complaint about our privacy practices, you may make it in writing to our Information Officer. He/she will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, ensure that it is investigated promptly and that you are provided with a formal decision and reasons in writing.
This policy is made under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. It is a complex Act and provides some additional exceptions to the privacy principles that are too detailed to set out here. There are some rare exceptions to the commitments set out above.
Schedule “A”: Third Party Disclosure List
Carma Billing Services Inc.
Metergy Solutions Inc.
Rogers Communications Partnership
Yardi Systems, Inc.