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GDPR PRIVACY POLICY – 01/01/2024

 

GDPR applies to all EU Member States from 01 January 2024..

 

Charter Whyman are committed to protecting and keeping confidential all the information you provide to us. This policy together with our ‘Terms and Conditions‘ sets out the privacy practices for Charter Whyman Estate Agents. In this policy we state how we process personal data collected about you, which we have collected via your interactions with our company.

 

We ask that you read this privacy notice carefully as it contains important information about who we are, how and why we collect, store, use and share personal information, your rights in relation to your personal information and how to contact us and supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

 

By accessing, browsing or otherwise using our charterwhyman.co.uk website, you confirm that you have read, understood and agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, and therefore, you agree to the collection and use of your data in accordance with this statement, until further notice or update of your preferences.

 

Our website and services may contain links to other independent websites. These sites may ask you to provide information to them. Please be aware that such requests and information provided is not under our control, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of those other sites.

 

Who we are:

 

Charter Whyman is a Private Limited Company registered in England, registration number 8662866. The registered office is at 18 The Arcade, Letchworth Garden City SG6 3ES. The firm collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal information about you. When it does so it is also regulated under the GDPR by the Information Commissioner and is responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information.

 

Charter Whyman Estate Agents may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure you are happy with any changes.

 

The personal information we collect, use and share:

 

We use your personal information primarily to enable us to provide you with a service in accordance with your instructions. We also use your personal information for related purposes including identity verification, administration of files, updating existing records if you have dealt with the company previously, analysis to help improve the management of the company and legal and regulatory compliance.

 

The information will be held in hard copy and/or electronic format. You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of all the personal data you supply to us, and we will not be held liable for any errors unless you have advised us previously of any changes in your personal data.

 

We use a private, secure, cloud computing service to assist us in processing and protecting your information and keeping it secure from the risks of cybercrime and fraud. All IT providers we use are subject to strict confidentiality agreements with this firm and we will ensure that they meet GDPR obligations in relation to the service they provide to us.

 

There may be occasions when we are under a legal duty to share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities. If we are required to disclose information to the National Crime Agency, we may not be able to tell you that a disclosure has been made. We may have to stop working for you for a period of time and may not be able to tell you why. We cannot be held liable for any loss you suffer due to delay or our failure to provide information in these circumstances.

 

Occasionally some of our client files may be audited strictly confidentially by external auditors or examiners to ensure we meet our legal, quality and financial management standards. Some information may be disclosed to our professional indemnity insurers and to our financial auditors if required.

 

We will not share your personal information with any other third party and will not issue any publicity material or information to the media about our relationship and the work we are doing for you without your explicit consent

 

The personal information we collect from you will typically include the following:

 

  • Full name and contact details (including your date of birth, contact number, email and postal address).
  • Any phone number or email used to get in touch with our customer services and/or offices.
  • Information relating to your identity where we are required by law to collect this to comply with the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 and the Immigration Act (such as passport and/or driving license).
  • Information on your close connections where we are required to conduct conflicts of interests under regulatory obligations.
  • Your banking details where 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.
  • Information on any access requirements you have necessary to enable us to find suitable properties for you, which may consist of special category personal data comprising details of any disability or other health information about you.
  • Details about your areas of interest where we wish to send you marketing information about similar products and/or services.

 

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 a) perform the existing contract and/or services as requested, b) enter in a contract and/or services as requested. In this case, we may have to cancel a contract or service you have with us, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

 

On what basis can we process your information:

 

The legal grounds under data protection legislation 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 for one or more specific purposes, namely 1) where you have given us consent to receive electronic marketing by us and/or 2) to process your Special Category Personal Data described above. 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 to improve and to promote our services and product and to better understand our customers’ interests and knowledge of the property market and to 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.

 

What are we going to do with your information:

 

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

 

  • 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 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 to assess your credit worthiness;
  • 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, or to enable third parties to provide you, with information about goods or services we feel may interest 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 (including newsletter and email) with information about our own goods and services similar to those which you have already obtained from us or negotiated to obtain from us (for those marketing messages you can unsubscribe at any time);
  • Track your use of our service, including your navigation of our website in order to improve the website performance and user experience;
  • To ensure that content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device;
  • To notify you about changes to our service.

 

How long do we keep your data for:

 

We will retain your personal data for different periods depending on the service you have chosen to use us for, 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.

 

Who do we share your information with:

 

We will pass your details to the following organisations (our “data processors”) who carry out certain activities on our behalf as part of us providing our services: payment service providers, property management agents, credit reference and fraud prevention agencies, cloud computing host providers, technical support service providers, advertising networks services, email marketing services, financial services, business partners, sub-contractors, services, etc.

 

We will also pass your details where necessary to your property solicitors and those of the other party to your transaction.

 

  • 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 is 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.

 

We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes without first obtaining your prior consent.

 

Is your data secure:

 

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way.

 

We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

 

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

 

Usernames and passwords:

 

If we have given you a username and password which enables you to access certain parts of your data on our systems, you are responsible for keeping it confidential. Please do not share it with anyone.

 

Unauthorised access to personal data:

 

The data that we collect from you may be stored and processed by staff operating inside and outside the EEA, who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff may be engaged in the fulfilment of the contract and/or services to you. Charter Whyman Estate Agents has taken all the necessary steps to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this policy and the new General Data Protection Regulation EU 2016/679.

 

We undertake business audits which enable us to further develop our strict procedures and security features to prevent unauthorised access.

 

How to access and update your information:

 

You have a right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you, known as a data subject access request. You also have the right to request that information we hold about you which may be incorrect, or which has been changed since you first told us, to be updated or removed. These requests are free of charge and can be sent to: DPO Andrew Whyman, 37 Station Road, Letchworth Garden City SG6 3BQ

 

 

 

How to request erasure of your data:

 

You can ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where you have withdrawn consent for us to process it (as explained below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

 

How to withdraw your consent:

 

You have the right at any time to withdraw any consent you have given us to process your personal data. Please note if you withdraw your consent it will not affect the lawfulness of any processing of your personal data we have carried out before you withdrew your consent. Should you wish to do so you can change your consent preferences at any time by contacting us at 01462 685808.

 

How to restrict or object us using your data:

 

You can ask us to suspend the way in which we are using your information in certain scenarios, or object to our processing your data where we are relying on a legitimate interest ground (or those of a third party) and you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms, or where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases where you object, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

 

Please note that if you want us to restrict or stop processing your data this may impact on our ability to provide our services. Depending on the extent of your request we may be unable to continue providing you with our service.

Any queries or concerns about the way in which your data is being used can be sent to: DPO Andrew Whyman, 37 Station Road, Letchworth Garden City SG6 3BQ

 

Moving your information to another organisation:

 

In the event that we process your data by automated means where you have either provided us with consent for us to use your information or where we used the information to perform a contract with you, you have the right to request that we send to you or to another organisation, a copy of the personal data we hold about you, for example when you are dealing with a different service provider.

 

If you would like us to move, copy, or transfer your information please let us know by email to aw@charterwhyman.co.uk. We will respond to you within one month after assessing whether this is possible, taking into account the technical compatibility with the other organisation in question.

 

Complaints about the use of your personal data:

 

We hope that our Data Protection Officer can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information. The GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at www.ico.org.uk/concerns/ or telephone 0303 1231113. 

 

Get in touch

You are always welcome at our branches where our property experts will be happy to help you with any property enquires