Worthington Estates Privacy Policy

In line with the Data Protection Act 1998 and GDPR 2018, Worthington Estates takes your privacy very seriously and is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

Summary

Below is a summary of the key terms laid out within Worthington Estates Privacy Policy.

We are committed to protecting your personal information and we want you to be confident that your personal information is safe and secure with us. The purpose of the Privacy Policy is to explain:

  • how we obtain your personal information;
  • the type of personal information we collect;
  • how we use your personal information;
  • who we share your personal information with; and
  • the rights and choices you have when it comes to your personal information.

Policy

1. Who are we?

Worthington Estates is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected and take responsibility very seriously.

Worthington Estates (company number 13347905) is the data controller in relation to the processing of the personal information that you provide to us when you use our Services. Its registered address is 94a Wolverhampton Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton, WV8 1PE. If you have any queries relating to our use of your personal information, or any other related data protection questions, please contact our Customer Services Team at enquiries@worthingtonestates.co.uk. Our Data Protection Officers at Worthington Estates are the Directors. To contact our Data Protection Officers please email enquiries@worthingtonestates.co.uk or write to us at Worthington Estates, 94a Wolverhampton Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton, WV8 1PE. The Privacy Policy sets out how we will use personal information about you and the steps taken to ensure your personal information is kept secure and confidential in line with our Terms and Conditions.

2. How we collect personal information?

We may obtain personal information from you through the website, mobile applications and/or other similar devices or telephone calls.

3. What personal information do we collect?

We may collect personal information about you during registering for and/or using our Services via the website or via telephone, for example:

  • name
  • contact information including email address, telephone number
  • address
  • other information you choose to provide
  • where appropriate your marital status, date of birth, nationality, and financial information when you enter into a residential sale with us
  • financial or other identifiers including your bank account details, tax URN number and income/expenditure details where we manage a financial transaction for you, set up a standing order, or take payment for the services which we provide to you;
  • your date of birth, nationality and other details from identity documents which you provide to us where we are required by law to carry out client anti-money laundering checks and the results of those checks;
  • details of your existing or proposed mortgage arrangements, confirmation of how long you have owned the property and details of the source of monies invested in the property when you register to sell;
  • proof that you have sufficient funds to pay any deposit required when you wish to make an offer to buy a property;
  • evidence of the source of funds you will be using to buy a property, including for example, a copy of your bank statement or an agreement in principle from your mortgage provider;
  • details relating to your property including photographs, floor plans, energy performance certificate ratings/ home reports, property description and survey results when you engage us to market a property for you;

4. How do we use your personal information?

We may use your personal information for the following purposes:

  1. to enable you to access and use the Services;
  2. to personalise and improve aspects of our Services;
  3. for research, such as analysing market trends and customer demographics;
  4. to communicate with you, including some or all of the following:
    1. sending you information about products and services which we think may be of interest to you – if you agree, we will contact you (depending on your contact preferences) via email, post, telephone, SMS, or by other electronic means such as social and digital media which may include new product launches, newsletters, and opportunities.
    2. sending you a confirmation email of your enquiry - when you enquire with us, you will automatically be sent confirmation of your enquiry by email and/or SMS so that you have a record of it and can easily retrieve this in the future. This is a standard part of our Services and by using the Services you agree to receive these communications;
  5. to enable you to share our content with others, e.g. by using any ‘Email a friend’ or ‘Share this’ functionality on our Sites.

We may monitor or record your calls, emails, SMS, or other communications but we will do so in accordance with data protection legislation and other applicable law. Monitoring or recording will always be for business purposes, such as quality control and training purposes, to ensure effective systems operation, to meet any legal obligation and/or to prevent or detect crime.

5. Why do we process your personal information?

We will only collect and use your personal information (as described in section 4) in accordance with data protection laws. Our grounds for processing your personal information are as follows:

  1. Consent – Where necessary we will collect and process your personal information if you have given your consent for us to do so, for example, we will only send you certain marketing emails and process any sensitive information about you if we have your prior consent.
  2. Contract – We may use and process some of your personal information to fulfil our Service to you, for example, helping you to sell your property, arranging an energy performance certificate.
  3. Legitimate Interests – We may use and process some of your personal information where we have sensible and legitimate business grounds for doing so. Under European privacy laws there is a concept of “legitimate interests” as a justification for processing your personal information. Our legitimate interests for processing your personal information are:
    1. to enable you to access and use the Services by searching the website for housing opportunities and using the Contact Form. Using your information in this way is an essential part of us being able to provide the Services to you;
    2. to communicate with you about the Services. We may need to keep you informed about your use of the Services for example sending you communication emails of partner updates. This won’t include marketing communications unless you have given us your consent to receive these; and

From 25th May 2018, you will have a right to object to our use of your personal information for these legitimate interests including where we may use your personal information to create a profile to inform customer demographics. If you raise an objection, we will stop processing your personal information unless very exceptional circumstances apply, in which case we will let you know why we are continuing to process your personal information. Please contact the Directors at enquiries@worthingtonestates.co.uk if you wish to exercise this right.

6. Who do we share your personal information with?

  1. if required or permitted to do so by law;
  2. if required to do so by any court, or any other applicable regulatory, compliance Governmental or law enforcement agency.

If we reasonably believe false or inaccurate information has been provided and fraud is suspected, details may be passed to fraud prevention agencies to prevent fraud and money laundering.

7. What cookies do we use?

  1. We use cookies (files which are sent by us to your computer or other access device) and tracking technology to help to improve the functionality and performance of our Site.
  2. The information derived from our use of cookies will be aggregated to provide statistical information about the usage of our Site. However, we do not use any information derived from cookies, nor any IP addresses we collect, to identify an individual user of our Site.

8. How secure is our site and what steps do we take to keep you safe?

Your personal data’s security is very important to us. Therefore, where it is appropriate, our Sites use HTTPS to help keep information about you secure. However, no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure.

You may complete a Contact Form when you sign up to use the Services. This may include the creation of a username, password and/or other identification information. Any such details should be kept confidential by you and should not be disclosed to or shared with other parties. Where you do disclose any of these details, you are solely responsible for all activities undertaken on the Sites where they are used. To protect your account, we ask you to choose a strong password to access your information on our Sites. A strong password should be lengthy and include a mixture of letters and numbers. Your password can only be reset with access to the email address registered in our system.

We do our best to keep the information you disclose to us secure. However, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information which you send to us, and you do so at your own risk. By using our Site, you accept the inherent risks of providing information online and will not hold us responsible for any breach of security.

9. How can you amend your preferences?

Any electronic marketing communications we send to you will include clear and concise instructions to follow should you wish to unsubscribe at any time. You may also amend your marketing preferences by accessing your personal details via your account, via the link received in emails or by emailing us at enquiries@worthingtonestates.co.uk.

Should you no longer wish to be contacted by us, you can advise us at any time by contacting our Customer Services team on 01902 847358 - lines are open Monday to Friday 9.00 to 5.00 or by sending an email to enquiries@worthingtonestates.co.uk.

10. Your personal data rights and how to contact us

You have certain rights under existing data protection legislation. This includes the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. If you wish to request a copy of this information you can do so in writing.

From 25th May 2018 you will have the following rights:

  1. Right to be informed: the right for us to provide information about how we process your data as detailed in this Privacy Policy;
  2. Right to access: the right to request copies of your personal information from us;
  3. Right to correct: the right to have your personal information rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
  4. Right to erase: the right to request that we delete or remove your personal information from our systems;
  5. Right to restrict our use of your information: the right to ‘block’ us from using your personal information or limit the way in which we can use it;
  6. Right to data portability: the right to request that we move, copy or transfer your personal information;
  7. Right to object: the right to object to our use of your personal information including where we use it for our legitimate interests or where we use your personal information to carry out profiling to inform our market research and customer demographics (see section 5 above).

To make enquiries, exercise any of your rights set out in this Privacy Policy and/or make a complaint please contact our Customer Services Team at enquiries@worthingtonestates.co.uk.

If you are not satisfied with the way any complaint you make in relation to your personal information is handled by us, then you may be able to refer your complaint to the relevant data protection regulator which in the UK is the Information Commissioner’s Office.

This Privacy Policy shall be governed and construed in all respects in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.

11. How long do we keep your personal information?

Unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law, we will only hold your personal information on our systems for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy or until you request it to be deleted. If, having registered for any of our Services, you do not use them for a reasonable time (which may vary depending on the Service(s) you’ve registered for) we may contact you to ensure you’re still happy to receive communications from us. Even if we delete your personal information it may persist on backup or archival media for legal or regulatory purposes.

Call Recording

Calls may be recorded for training or monitoring purposes.