Privacy Policy

This is an important notice regarding your privacy and the way in which ALEXANDER CHARLESWORTH Ltd (trading as CHARLESWORTH ESTATES) (referred to as “we, “our or “us” in this policy) collects and makes use of your personal data. We want to be open and transparent with you, and therefore encourage you to contact us if you have any questions about this policy or the ways in which we use your personal data.

This policy applies to our tenants / purchasers, agents, landlords / sellers and referees using the CHARLESWORTH ESTATES services. We take our privacy responsibilities seriously and are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This policy sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

Questions regarding this policy should be directed to our Data Protection Officer who can be contacted at info@charlesworthestates.co.uk. The Data Protection Officer is responsible for ensuring compliance with relevant data protection legislation and with this policy. Any questions about the operation of this policy or any concerns that the policy has not been followed should be referred in the first instance to the Data Protection Officer.

Who is this for?

• All clients (data subjects) whose personal data is collected, in line with the requirements of the General Data Protection (GDPR)
• Charlesworth Estates will not collect information from any persons under the age of 18. Should we receive any personal data that is associated with persons under the age of 18 please contact our data protection officer.

1. What information do we hold about you?

We may collect, store and use personal data about you (referred to throughout this privacy notice as personal information):

Tenants / purchasers / vendors

• Personal contact details such as your name, title, date of birth, address, telephone number and email address.
• Personal details such as your passport information, gender, nationality, next of kin, employment information (salary, start date, details of contacts), income status (benefits, pensions, investments, self-employment), financial details (sort code and account number), and accommodation information (previous addresses, current addresses, your residential status at these addresses and any other addresses found in our search).
• Information collected during the course of your application including such information provided by you when completing the online tenancy form or by contacting us via phone or email.
• Information inputted by you or the agent acting on your behalf to our online reporting system.
• Information obtained from third parties such as credit referencing companies and when carrying out anti-money laundering checks.
• Any other information you supply to us in support of your application.
• Payment information such as credit / debit card number, expiration date, security code and name as it appears on the card and the address the card is registered to.

Agents

• Contact details such as your name, title, business telephone number and business email address.
• Information that you provide or we collect during our interactions with you, such as how long we have done business with you.
• Any other personal information you provide to us.

Landlords / sellers

• Contact details such as your name, title, business telephone number and email address.
• Information that you provide or we collect during our interactions with you.
• Any other personal information you provide to us.

Referees

• Contact details such as your name, title, telephone number and email address (whether you are a business or an individual).
• References for the prospective tenants, and any other information you provide to us in support of a prospective tenant’s application.

Information that we will never ask for

• Race, Religious View, Ethnic Origin, Genetic Data, Biometric Data, Health Data

2. How will we use your personal information and what is the legal ground we rely on for doing so?

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. When we use your personal information, we must have a legal ground for doing so. The following are (amongst others) the legal grounds by which we can use your personal information:

• Where you have provided us with your consent for us to do so.
• Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you or to take steps to enter into a contract with you.
• Where we need to comply with a legal obligation to which we are subject.
• Where it is in pursuit of our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

More specifically, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

Tenants / purchasers / vendors

• Your personal information to evaluate and progress your application – to perform the contract with you or to take steps to enter into a contract with you.
• Your passport, ID and immigration status details to validate “Right to Rent” status – to perform the contract with you or to take steps to enter into a contract with you and when we provide those details to the agents – in pursuit of our legitimate interests to provide our services to the agents.
• Your financial information to carry out bank account and credit checks – to perform the contract with you or to take steps to enter into a contract with you and when we provide those details to the agents – in pursuit of our legitimate interests to provide our services to the agents.
• Your ID documents to carry out anti-money laundering checks – to perform the contract with you or to take steps to enter into a contract with you and when we provide those details to the agents – in pursuit of our legitimate interests to provide our services to the agents.
• Your personal information required to carry out reference checks – in pursuit of our legitimate interests to verify your suitability as a tenant and when we provide those details to the agents – in pursuit of our legitimate interests to provide our services to the agents.
• Your personal information to transfer to fraud prevention agencies and if court proceedings are taken against you for any reason – to comply with a legal obligation.
• Your payment information – to perform the contract with you or to take steps to enter into a contract with you.

Agents

• Your contact details and any other personal details provided by you to us – in pursuit of our legitimate interests (to facilitate business between you or your business and us).

Landlords

• Your contact details and any other personal details provided by you to us – in pursuit of our legitimate interests (to keep you updated on the tenant application process).

Referees

• Your personal contact details and information supplied by you to us in your reference – in pursuit of our legitimate interests (to progress the prospective tenant’s application).

Generally

• Information provided to us on calls – in pursuit of our legitimate interests in monitoring and improving our services.

3. What happens if there is a change of purpose?

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

4. Which type of third parties might we share your personal information with?

We require third parties to respect the security of your personal information and to treat it in accordance with the law. For example, where we instruct third party service providers, we carry out due diligence on those providers to ensure they treat your personal information as seriously as we do.

We may share your personal information with the following types of third parties:

• Estate and letting agents.
• Landlords and sellers connected to the property you are interested in.
• Immigration status check agencies.
• Credit check agencies to carry out credit checks on prospective tenants and establish future financial performance – we use UK TENANT DATA for referencing purposes and their privacy policy can be found here: https://www.uktenantdata.com.
• Anti-money laundering providers to carry out anti-money laundering searches on prospective tenants.
• Referees to validate the information supplied by prospective tenants.
• Fraud prevention agencies if required or permitted by law.
• Third party companies in order to record calls.
• Other third parties where necessary with a view to performing the contract with you.

5. Data retention

How long will we use your personal information for?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for.

We assess the appropriate retention period for different information based on the size, volume, nature and sensitivity of that information, the potential risk of harm to you from unauthorised use or disclosure of that information, the purposes for which we are using that information, applicable legal requirements for holding that information, and whether we can achieve those purpose(s) through other means.

• Where your information is provided to us, it will be stored for 6 years.
• Where you have provided us with your personal information during the course of making a complaint, we will keep this information for 6 years.
• Where you use our website and one of our cookies are activated, that cookie will operate for the duration set out in our Cookie Policy.

6. Where we store your personal data

Electronic versions of your personal information are stored on our system hosted in the UK.

Where we use third party service providers to assist us, your personal information may also be stored in accordance with their practices and procedures. We require third parties to respect your personal information and to treat it in accordance with the law.

Where your data is transferred outside of the EEA, we will take steps to ensure your personal information is adequately protected.

7. Rights of access, correction, erasure and restriction

Your rights in connection with your personal information

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information (known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
• Request the erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information when there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to stop processing personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact our Data Protection Officer in writing using the contact details set out at the beginning of this privacy notice.

8. No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

9. What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access any personal information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to another person who has no right to receive it.

10. Right to withdraw consent

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact our Data Protection Officer in writing using the contact details set out at the beginning of this privacy notice.

Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your personal information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so.

11. What happens if you fail to provide personal information?

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you (such as providing you with our products or services), or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations (such as to ensure the health and safety of visitors to our premises).

12. Right to complain

You have the right to make a complaint if you wish to do so. The organisation with oversight of our processing is the Information Commissioner’s Office, which can be contacted in writing at Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, by telephone (0303 123 1113) or by e-mail (casework@ico.org.uk).

13. Changes to this privacy notice

We may change, modify, add or remove portions of this policy at any time, and any changes will become effective immediately.

Any changes we make to our privacy notice will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you.

14. Disclosure

Charlesworth Estates will not pass on your personal data to third parties outside of our service providers which we use to perform the necessary tasks to fulfil your enquiry or request (without first obtaining your consent).

15. Links to other websites

This privacy notice does not cover any links within our website linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on other website which you may visit.