Privacy Policy

We will collect and process the minimum amount of personal data in order to fulfil our service to you in assisting you with your property search and/or the marketing and subsequent sale or let of your property. This information will be:

• Name and contact details (including your telephone number, email address and postal address)
• Usage information about your visits to our website (which enable our website to remember information about you and your preferences) and use of our site. We may automatically collect information about your computer or mobile device, including your IP address. This information may be combined with other information you provide to us, as described above
• Information relating to your identity where we are required by law to collect this in order to comply with the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 and the Immigration Act
• Information on your close connections where we are required to conduct conflicts of interests under regulatory obligations
• Your banking details were required such as where you are letting a property or, where renting, to set up an approved tenancy deposit account for you and arrange for rental payments
• Details about your areas of interest where we wish to send you marketing information about similar products and services
• Your communications with us, including a record of any email correspondence between us and/or a call recording of your initial enquiry via either Rightmove, Zoopla, On the Market or One Dome.

Where we need to collect personal data by law (for example to meet our obligations to prevent fraud and money laundering) or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with our services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us. In this event, we will notify you.

The legal grounds under the General Data Protection Regulations for processing your personal data are as follows:

• It is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party, or to take steps prior to entering into a contract with you, for us to provide you with our products and services.
• You have given us explicit consent to the processing of your personal data namely to receive electronic marketing by us. You do not need to provide us with marketing consent in order to receive our services.
• It is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests, except where our interests are overridden by the interests, rights or freedoms of affected individuals (such as you). To determine this we shall consider a number of factors, such as what you were told at the time you provided your data, what your expectations are about the processing of the data, the nature of the data, and the impact of the processing on you. Our legitimate interests include processing necessary data to improve and to promote our services and products and to better understand our customers’ interests and knowledge of the property market and administer the technical aspects of our service and products.
• Where we need to comply with a legal obligation; or in rare circumstances:
• Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests); and/or
• Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.

We will hold and use personal information about you in the following ways:

• In order to fulfil our obligations to you when providing you with our property services.
• To share your information with others where necessary to fulfil our property services for you or where acting as an agent for a third party on your behalf.
• To comply with our statutory and regulatory obligations, including verifying your identity, prevention of fraud and money laundering and assessing your creditworthiness.
• To communicate with you during the course of providing our services, for example with your enquiries and requests.
• Statistical purposes so we can analyse figures to help us manage our business and plan strategically for the future.
• To provide you additional property related services from third-party providers, only where you have provided permission for us to do so. These may include:

• • Contractors and Tradesmen
  • Utility Providers and City Council in relation to tenancies
  • Mortgage brokers
  • Solicitors
  • Accountants
  • Surveyors
  • Photographer/Floor planner/EPC engineer
  • For Sale/To Let Board Companies
  • Other Estate Agents for the purposes of progressing a sale or tenancy

• Or to provide you with information about goods or services we feel may be of interest to you, where you have provided permission for us to do so or, if you are an existing customer, where we choose to contact you by electronic means with information about our own goods and services similar to those which you have already obtained from us or you have negotiated to obtain from us. For those marketing messages you can unsubscribe at any time.
• To track your use of our services in order to improve these services.
• To notify you about changes to our services.
• To ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device.

We will retain your personal data for different periods depending upon the service you have asked us to provide, which may be a longer period than that for which we need to hold your data to provide those services, i.e. where we are under regulatory or statutory duties to hold your data for a longer period or need to retain it in the event of a legal claim or complaint.

We engage third-party service providers (our “data processors”) to perform a variety of business operations on our behalf. In so doing, we may share your personal information with them. We provide our service providers with only the personal information they need in order to perform the services we request such as inventory, referencing and maintenance services. We contractually require that they protect this information appropriately and not use it for any other purpose.

We will also pass your details where necessary to your appointed legal representatives and those of the other party to your transaction. We will also disclose your personal information to third parties:

• In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
• If our company or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by us about our customers will be one of the transferred assets.
• If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal or regulatory obligation or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our company, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

The success of our business depends on your trust. We do not sell your personal information and we will only share your personal information within our organisation. We will not share your personal information with any third parties for marketing purposes, without obtaining your prior consent.

Your data will be stored electronically with all reasonable technological and operational measures put in place to safeguard it from unauthorised access and any identifiable information will be encrypted or minimised. Where necessary your data will be stored securely, in hard copy format, within the premises of Chimneypots Estate Agents. Access to such data will be limited to Chimneypots staff members only.