How we use your data
Overview
In the general course of business, Ashleigh Stone will process the personal information you provide to us, primarily to assist you in achieving the purpose for which you provided it to us. This includes the selling, buying and renting of property and associated services of arranging a mortgage, providing legal services and/or lettings management services, as relevant and necessary to your needs.
Any personal information that you provide to us will only be processed and/or shared in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations 2018. At least one of the following legal bases will always apply:
Legal Obligation - necessary for compliance with our legal obligations
Overview
This includes (but is not limited to) all laws relating to residential estate agency. In particular Estate Agents Act 1979, Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007, Data Protection Act 1998, General Data Protection Regulations 2018, Competition Act 1998, Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs), Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 (BPRs), Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, Consumer Rights Act 2015, Energy Act 2011, Money Laundering Regulations 2007, Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, Bribery Act 2010 and Modern Slavery Act 2015.
From time to time we may be asked to provide your data to assist in government department investigations e.g. Police, HMRC, Local Authorities. We will always check to ensure that such requests are legitimate and have relevant Data Protection exemptions before sharing information.
Contractual - necessary for the performance of a contract between you and us or pre-contractual requests made by you
Overview
This includes all contracts our customers enter into with us or our business partners, including (but not limited to) all forms of marketing agreements, landlord, tenant and tenancy agreements, the arranging of mortgages and insurance products and marketing agreements etc.
Some examples of where it would be necessary to process and/or share information to perform a contract would be:
- Marketing properties for sale or let and introducing buyers or tenants
- Marketing properties on Facebook as agreed
- Using your contact details to arrange viewings and negotiate offers
- Progressing sales and tenancies to a successful conclusion
- Referencing tenants and carrying out Right to Rent checks via FCC Paragon
- Progressing mortgage applications to a successful conclusion
- Mortgage contingency services as contractually agreed
- Letting Management providers
- Processing of applications for and administration of selected insurance products with external providers
- Accounting processes e.g. Barclays Bank, Metrobank, Expert Agent software & Sage software
- Software providers as necessary to support our business needs
Legitimate Interests - processing/sharing information for the benefit of you, us and other parties on which your transaction depends. It will not be processed or shared on this basis if it would be detrimental to you to do so.
Overview
This primarily involves providing you with information about additional services we offer within Ashleigh Stone that will help you to achieve your property aims.
Some examples of this are:
- If you wish to buy a property and require a mortgage, we may invite you to meet with one of our in house mortgage advisors
- If you are aiming to buy a property to let, we may discuss our lettings management service with you
- If you have a property which is not attracting high enough offers, we may discuss the possibility of letting in the short term while the market improves
- If we have arranged a fixed rate mortgage for you, as part of that service we may contact you towards the end of the fixed rate period to discuss the most attractive re-mortgage rates for your benefit
Information will only be shared by Ashleigh Stone Estates where it is in the legitimate interests of both the company and its customers or where consent has been obtained. Some examples are:
- Providing seller's contact details to surveyors to arrange survey appointments
- Sharing information essential to understanding progress or delays in a transaction you are involved with
- Providing tenant's contact details to contractors to arrange repairs
- Providing tenant's contact details to external providers to carry out periodic inspection and check out reports
Where we use a third party to provide support services the information we share will be restricted to property details and will not include personal data e.g. the companies who handle our out of hours telephone calls.
We may use your data for analysis to monitor and improve the services we provide.
Consent - where you have given your consent for us to process and/or share your information in a particular way for a specific reason.
Overview
This includes every form of data processing and/or sharing that is not included in the above sections. Where you have provided consent, you may be contacted by carefully selected and professional third parties in relation to a product or service which may be of interest to you. This may include (but is not limited to) referrals to our conveyancing panel firms operated by Brown & Co, Gisby Harrison, Marcus Baum. It could also include referrals for the provision of additional legal services such as Wills and consent from landlords or tenants for referrals to energy or media providers.
The data you provide may be used for any or all of the following reasons:
- To contact you in order to carry out your instructions to us
- To provide you with information, products and services which you have requested from us
- To help you with information, products and services connected with and relevant to your property aims and in your interests e.g. mortgage, conveyancing services, lettings management services etc.
- To provide customer support e.g. out of hours phone services,
- To process payments and transactions
- To notify you about changes to our services
As with many organisations, communications by telephone may be recorded for the purposes of monitoring and improving our customer service standards.
In the case of electronic communications, Ashleigh Stone may use the information provided by customers in an existing business relationship or one that has ended within the last 12 months or one that is under negotiation. Otherwise we will contact you by post and include a method for opting out of future mailing.
We will not share your personal data outside of Ashleigh Stone other than as described in this Privacy Policy or without your verbal or written consent.
Should you wish to withdraw your consent at any time, please contact us using the details provided below.
Security of Your Data
Overview
We will securely retain all paper files containing your data in cabinets and offices which will be locked when unattended.
Electronic data is securely held and protected by anti-virus software and firewalls. Our servers are subjected to regular penetration tests to check that they are securely protecting your data. Data held on laptops is password protected and subject to the same anti-virus software and firewalls. No personal data is held on iPads or mobile telephones.
As with any company, we are unable to provide absolute guarantees due to the ever increasing sophistication of criminal activity. However we will do everything reasonably possible to ensure that your data is protected.
How long we will keep your information for?
Overview
Ashleigh Stone will only keep your data for as long as is necessary to provide you with the services requested until your aims are met and to comply with our regulatory requirements. The maximum period will be 7 years.
The minimum period will be 12 months from the last contact we had with you in cases where no transaction or other business activity has taken place through us and you have not contacted us again to request that we continue providing our services to you during this period.
How to contact us if you have concerns
Overview
Should you have any queries in respect of this Privacy Policy or our use of your data, we would welcome the opportunity to resolve your concerns directly in the first instance. Please email us at: property@ashleighstone.co.uk or telephone on 01702 480 666. The Data Controller is Ashleigh Stone Estate Agents Ltd.
If we are unable to resolve your concerns, The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) monitor the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 and can be contacted by email at: www.ico.org.uk or by telephone on 0303 123 1113.