Privacy Notice

Last Updated: March 2021

Charmill Residential is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Our use of your personal information is governed by this Privacy Notice.

Charmill Residential is a controller for the personal information that it collects and uses about you. We treat your personal information as confidential and in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

If there are any changes to the way in which your personal information is used, this Privacy Notice will be updated.

What types of information do we collect?

We will collect your name and contact details from you whenever you engage us.

In addition, if we are providing a service to you and where we are required to do so by law, we will collect information relating to your identity. This will be at least one form of photographic identification (such as a passport or a driving licence) and one form of documentation with proof of your residence (such as a council tax or utility bill).

Depending on the service that we provide to you we may also collect additional personal information such as:

Selling or Letting

If you are selling or letting a property:

  • We will collect contact details in order to get in touch with you to arrange viewings, feedback and to forward offers.
  • If you are not the legal owner of the property, we will request additional details from you as to your ability to sell or let the property (such as a Power of Attorney or Grant of Probate).
  • We will need to collect your bank account details for the payment of rents due to you.
  • We will need to provide your details to any deposit protection service provider.
  • We will, with your consent share your identification information with the Buyer’s agent to enable them to meet their anti-money laundering and counter terrorist obligations
Renting or Buying

If you wish to rent a property:

  • Any specific / access requirements so that we can best find a property that is suitable for you.
  • Your bank / building society / similar account details to allow us to manage an approved tenancy deposit account for you and to set up your rental payments.
  • Under the ‘Right to Rent’ scheme introduced by the Immigration Act 2014, we are required to collect and hold personal details/documents which confirm that you have the legal right to rent a property in the UK. This will include but not be limited to passport(s) biometric residence card, current immigration documents. The documents required will depend on your circumstance.
  • Address history and employment / income details for the purposes of the credit reference application.

If you wish to purchase a property:

  • Any specific access requirements you may have so that we can best find a property that is suitable for you.
  • At the point of an offer on a property we will collect information to identify you (and/or the controllers / beneficiaries if the purchaser is an entity) to meet anti-money laundering and counter terrorist requirements.
  • We will, with your consent share your identification information with the Seller’s agent to enable them to meet their anti-money laundering and counter terrorist obligations
Property Management

If you ask us to manage property on your behalf we may ask for additional contact information in case we need to get in touch with you in an urgent or emergency situation.

How do we use your information?

Legal Basis for processing

Under data protection legislation we can only use your personal information if we have a legal basis for doing so. We rely on the following legal bases to use your information:

  • To comply with legal obligations.
  • If the information is needed to carry out our obligations and perform any contracts entered into between you and us and provide you with the services you request from us.
  • To notify you about changes to our service.
  • For employment purposes.
  • Where the processing is necessary for us to carry out activities for which it is in Charmill Residential’s legitimate interests to do so including:
    • Promoting our brand including sending you marketing information that we believe will be of interest or benefit to you. You have the right to opt out of receiving this information at any time.
    • If it is necessary in order for the efficient administrative aspects of our business such as to verify the accuracy of information, for efficiency such as the outsource of administrative functions to third parties who specialise in such services and/or if it is needed for official purposes.
If you are Selling, Letting, Buying or Renting
  • Your personal information will be used by us to fulfil our obligations to you in order for us to sell or let your property or for the purposes of arranging a contract for sale or a lease for you.
  • If you are buying a property we will share your personal information with both sides’ appointed solicitors as is necessary to facilitate both the sale and purchase.
  • If you are renting a property we will share your personal data with third party referencing agencies for the purposes of the prevention and detection of crime, fraud and/or money laundering and checking your suitability to rent the property.
  • If you are renting a property we may need to provide your contact information from time to time to third party contractors and suppliers to carry out maintenance or repair work at the property, or conduct inventory checks and inspections at the property.

Property Management
  • If we manage your property we may need to pass your contact information from time to time to third party contractors to carry out maintenance on your properties.
  • If we manage the property we will need to provide your details to the appropriate utility suppliers and local authority as and when it is required to set up accounts and ensure correct billing.
Other uses of your personal information
  • To comply with our regulatory and legal obligations.
  • Where we use third party services providers, such as IT systems suppliers and third party referencing agencies who process personal information on our behalf.
  • We may need to share your personal information with any person working within the Charmill Residential group to enable us to perform our obligations to you.
  • If we sell any part of our business and/or integrate it with another organisation your details may be disclosed to our advisers / prospective purchasers. If this occurs the new owners of the business will only be permitted to use your information in the same way as set out in this Privacy Notice.
  • Your personal information will be held on our client management systems and used to provide you from time to time with marketing information we believe will be of interest or of benefit to you. You have the opportunity to amend or opt out of receiving this information at any time.

 

How long do you keep my data for?

We will only keep your information in an accessible form which can identify you for as long as we need to for the one of the uses we have identified above. We are committed to principles of data minimisation and will only retain your data if we have a lawful basis for doing so or where we have a legal obligation to retain the data.

Type of Information & Retention Period

Personal Information relating to you as our client matters

Up to 5 years after the date of our final bill for the relevant matter, unless:

(a) otherwise required by applicable law;
(b) where required for regulatory, compliance or insurance purposes;
(c) where a longer limitation period applies in respect of specific types of actions/documents; and/or in the event of a dispute which requires it to be kept for longer;
(d) where you ask that we retain some of your original documents (such as wills and trust documents) on your behalf for safekeeping – in such circumstances, we will retain the documents for such period (and on such terms) as agreed between us; or

Personal Information relating to suppliers and the services they provide to us

Up to 5 years following the end of our business relationship, unless:

(a) otherwise required by applicable law;
(b) you consent to us storing it for longer;
(c) the Information forms part of files which are required to be kept for longer (for example where you were involved in one of our client matters); or
(d) where a longer limitation period applies in respect of specific types of actions/documents; and/or in the event of a dispute or other legitimate reason which requires it to be kept for longer.

Personal Information used for marketing purposes

For as long as you have not opted out of our marketing. If you ask us to no longer use your Personal Information for marketing purposes, we will need to retain certain details of yours in our database to ensure that we do not accidentally send you marketing material.

Where we no longer require your information, we will take steps to delete or anonymise it. There will be circumstances where certain Information cannot be permanently deleted or anonymised, for example because it is stored in our back-ups for business continuity purposes. In such cases, we will take appropriate steps to minimise (and pseduonymise where technically practicable) the Personal Information that we hold, and to ensure that it is: (a) not used in connection with any decision involving you; (b) not shared with anyone, except where we are legally required to do so (e.g. following a court order); (c) kept secure and virtually inaccessible; and (d) permanently deleted if, or when, this becomes technically possible.

How do we keep your information secure?

The security of your information is important to us and so we do our best to have measures in place which are designed to prevent unauthorised access to your personal information.

We only engage reputable suppliers and undertake appropriate information security and regulatory compliance due diligence on them. Where suppliers will have access to our and/or our clients’ information, they are also made subject to strict contractual provisions requiring them to ensure any personal information is kept secure and is only used in accordance with our instructions (or as otherwise and to the extent strictly required by law, if applicable).

Changes to our Privacy Policy

You can ask us to correct your personal information if you believe it is inaccurate or to restrict our data processing activity. If you have any comments about the way we use your personal information please contact us at info@charmillresidential.co.uk so we can try our best to resolve the issue for you.

Any changes we may make to our Privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate also notified by email.