Your information, handled with care.

The Settlement Lab Pty Ltd ("we", "us", "our") is a Queensland law practice providing conveyancing and property law services. We take the privacy of our clients, prospective clients and the people we deal with seriously. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles, and with our professional obligations of confidentiality as a law practice.

1. What we collect

The information we collect depends on how you deal with us. It may include:

• identity and contact details, such as your name, date of birth, residential and postal address, phone numbers and email address;
• identification documents, such as your driver licence or passport, which we need to verify your identity before acting for you, as required by law, Titles Queensland and PEXA;
• property and transaction details, such as the property address, contract, price, deposit, settlement dates, finance and lender details, agent details and the other party's details;
• information about your circumstances that affects our advice, for example whether you are a first home buyer, an Australian citizen or permanent resident, or buying through a company or trust;
• how you heard about us and your dealings with us, including quotes we have provided;
• payment details when you pay our fees, and trust account records we are required by law to keep.

We do not collect tax file numbers through our website or quote form. Where a tax file number is needed for a transaction, we will ask for it separately and handle it in accordance with the Tax File Number Guidelines.

If you do not provide information we ask for, we may not be able to give you a quote, act for you or complete your transaction.

2. How we collect it

We collect personal information directly from you when you request a quote through our website, engage us, send us documents, or contact us by phone, email or in person. We also receive information from other people involved in your transaction, such as real estate agents, mortgage brokers, financiers and the other party's lawyer or conveyancer, and from searches we conduct with government and other registries (for example Titles Queensland, the Queensland Revenue Office, local councils and InfoTrack).

3. Why we use it

We use personal information to prepare and send you a quote; to verify your identity; to provide legal advice and conveyancing services; to prepare contracts, disclosure statements, transfer documents and duty forms; to settle your transaction through PEXA; to communicate with you and the other parties to your transaction; to manage our client relationship, billing and trust accounting; to comply with our legal and professional obligations; and to improve our services.

With your consent, we may also use your contact details to send you information about our services and property-related updates. You can opt out at any time by using the unsubscribe option in any marketing email or by contacting us. We comply with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).

4. Who we share it with

We share personal information only where it is necessary to provide our services or required by law, including with:

• the other party to your transaction and their lawyer or conveyancer, and real estate agents and brokers involved in the transaction;
• your financier, and government bodies including Titles Queensland, the Queensland Revenue Office, the Australian Taxation Office and local councils;
• service providers we use to run our practice, such as our practice management system (Actionstep), electronic settlement platform (PEXA), search provider (InfoTrack), legal precedent provider (Lexon), Microsoft 365 for email and documents, and the providers that host our website, quote form and quote emails;
• our professional advisers, insurers and regulators, including the Queensland Law Society and the Legal Services Commission, where required.

We do not sell personal information.

5. Overseas disclosure

Our online quote form is hosted by Replit, a service provider based in the United States, and the details you enter in it are stored in its database. Quote emails are sent through Resend, an email delivery provider, which may process your name, email address and quote outside Australia. Our website is hosted by Netlify. Where a service provider stores or processes information overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is handled in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.

6. How we protect it

We store personal information in secure, access-controlled systems. Our website and quote form use encrypted connections, and access to quote records is limited to our staff and password protected. Staff access to client information is limited to what each person needs to do their work.

7. How long we keep it

We keep your legal file for at least seven years after your matter is completed, as required by our professional obligations, after which it may be destroyed. Quote requests that do not go ahead are kept only for as long as we need them for our records, and then deleted.

8. Access, correction and complaints

You can ask us for access to the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it, by contacting us using the details below. We will respond within a reasonable time and may need to verify your identity first. If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us and we will investigate and respond. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au or the Queensland Law Society.

9. Our website

Our website and quote form may use cookies and similar technologies so the site works properly, for example to keep our staff signed in to the quote system. We do not use third-party advertising trackers. Links to other websites are provided for convenience, and we are not responsible for their privacy practices.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available on our website.

11. Contact us