Privacy Policy

01

Who this policy covers

Residential Plannings is a founder-led town planning and architectural drafting practice operating in Sydney, New South Wales. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean Residential Plannings and its director, Maryana, who handles client matters personally.

This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, who we disclose it to, and how you can access or correct it. It applies to this website, to enquiries made by phone, email or WhatsApp, and to work we carry out for clients.

Many Australian small businesses are not bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Rather than rely on that, we handle personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles as a matter of practice, and we treat this policy as a commitment we are accountable for.

02

What we collect

We collect only what a planning matter actually requires. In most cases that is:

• Your name, email address and phone number.
• The address of the property, and details of your ownership or interest in it.
• What you are proposing to do, how far you have progressed, and your timeframe.
• Whether a council or certifier is already involved, and any correspondence with them.
• Documents you give us — survey plans, existing drawings, contracts, section 10.7 planning certificates, reports by other consultants, and photographs of the property.
• Information about existing works, including works that may have been built without approval.

03

Sensitive and unauthorised-works information

Compliance and retrospective approval work sometimes requires you to tell us about building work carried out without consent. We treat that information as confidential and use it only to advise you and, where you instruct us to, to prepare and lodge documentation seeking approval.

We will not disclose it to a council or certifier unless you instruct us to lodge, or unless we are required to by law. You should be aware that once an application is lodged, the information in it forms part of a public process — see clause 06.

We are planners and drafters, not lawyers. If unauthorised work exposes you to enforcement risk, we will tell you to obtain legal advice rather than advise you on it ourselves.

04

How we collect it

We collect information directly from you — through the enquiry form on this website, by email, by phone, through WhatsApp, and in conversation or on site.

We also obtain information about a property from public sources as part of ordinary planning work: council planning certificates, planning instruments and development control plans, mapping and hazard layers, and the public registers maintained by councils and the NSW Government.

If you give us information about another person — a co-owner, a tenant, a neighbour, or a builder — please make sure they know you have done so and that they can read this policy.

05

Why we use it

We use personal information to:

• Respond to your enquiry and tell you which pathway applies to your property.
• Prepare a Planning Assessment, planning documentation or architectural drawings.
• Prepare, lodge and manage applications with councils, certifiers and the NSW Planning Portal.
• Correspond with councils, certifiers and other consultants on your behalf.
• Issue quotes and invoices, and keep our own business records.
• Meet obligations imposed on us by law.

06

What becomes public when you lodge

This is the clause most worth reading. Development applications in New South Wales are assessed through a public process under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW). Material lodged in support of an application — including plans, statements, reports, and the property address — is ordinarily made available for public inspection by the consent authority, may be notified to neighbours, and may be published on a council website or on the NSW Planning Portal.

Submissions made by other people about your application also form part of that process.

We cannot control the extent of that publication, and neither can you: it is a feature of the planning system, not a decision either of us makes. What we can do is tell you before you lodge, and prepare your documentation with that in mind. If a particular detail concerns you, raise it with us before lodgement rather than after.

A Planning Assessment, by contrast, is private. It is prepared for you and is not lodged with anyone unless you instruct us to lodge something.

07

Who we disclose it to

We disclose personal information only where it is necessary for the work you have engaged us to do, or where the law requires it. In practice that means:

• Local councils and other consent authorities.
• Private certifiers, for complying development and post-consent certificates.
• The NSW Planning Portal and related government systems used for lodgement.
• Other consultants engaged on your project — commonly surveyors, structural engineers, bushfire and flood consultants, arborists, landscape architects and heritage consultants — where their input is needed.
• Our service providers, including website hosting, email and analytics providers, who handle information on our behalf.
• Our own professional advisers, and anyone we are required to disclose to by law.

08

We do not sell your information

We do not sell, rent or trade personal information. We do not disclose it to third parties for their own marketing.

If we send you email about our services, it will be because you contacted us or engaged us, it will identify us, and it will contain a way to unsubscribe — consistent with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). Unsubscribing does not affect correspondence about a matter we are actually working on for you.

09

This website, cookies and analytics

This website does not require you to create an account, and it does not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

We use privacy-respecting analytics to understand which pages are read and how the site performs. That data is used in aggregate to improve the site, and it is not used to build a profile of you or to identify you personally.

Our hosting and analytics providers may process data on servers outside Australia. Where that happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure the information is handled consistently with this policy.

The enquiry form on this site is transmitted over an encrypted connection and delivered to our own email. Choosing to contact us by WhatsApp means your message is also handled under WhatsApp's own terms and privacy policy, which we do not control.

10

How long we keep it

We keep client records for as long as the matter is live, and afterwards for as long as we may reasonably need them — because planning matters resurface. A property is sold, a certifier asks for the approved set, an occupation certificate is required years after consent, or a council raises a question about work that was documented long ago. Records that answer those questions protect you as much as us.

We also keep records for the period required by our tax, insurance and professional obligations.

When information is no longer needed for any of those purposes, we destroy it or de-identify it. If you want your information deleted sooner, write to us and we will tell you what we can delete and what we are required to retain, and why.

11

Keeping it secure

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. That includes access-controlled accounts, encrypted connections for the website and for file transfer, and limiting who can see a client file — which, in a founder-led practice, is a short list.

No system is perfectly secure. If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm, we will respond in line with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under Part IIIC of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth): we will contain it, assess it, notify affected people and, where the scheme applies, notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

12

Accessing and correcting your information

You can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and you can ask us to correct it if it is wrong. Write to maryana@residentialplannings.com.au or call 0493 128 930.

We will respond within a reasonable period. We may need to verify who you are first. There is no charge for asking; if a request requires substantial work we will tell you what it involves before we do it.

If we refuse a request, we will tell you why in writing and how to complain about that decision.

13

Complaints

If you think we have mishandled your personal information, tell us first — write to maryana@residentialplannings.com.au with the details. We will acknowledge your complaint and respond with our position and what we propose to do about it.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can refer the matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au, which handles privacy complaints in Australia.

14

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our practice or our obligations change. The current version is always the one published on this page, and the date it took effect is shown at the top.

If a change materially affects how we handle information for a live matter, we will tell the affected clients directly rather than rely on you noticing a new date.