Privacy Policy
HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION USED BY G & S SHEEN LTD & SHEEN’S LETTINGS AND MANAGEMENT (TRADING AS SHEEN’S ESTATE AGENTS)
Policy Updated May 2018
Your information will be held by G & S Sheen Ltd & Sheen’s Lettings & Management Ltd, which trades under Sheen’s Estate Agents.
How We Use Your Personal Information
This privacy notice is to let you know how both G & S Sheen Ltd & Sheen’s Lettings & Management promise to look after your personal information. This includes what you tell us about yourself, what we learn from you as a client, and the choices you give to us about what marketing you would like us to send to you. This notice tells you about your privacy rights and tells you how we will comply to the rules and how the law protects you.
Our Privacy Promise
We promise we will not sell your data and to keep your data safe and private. We will also give you ways to review and manage your marketing choices at any given time.
Who We Are
Sheen’s Estate Agents is made up of two legal entities which are G & S Sheen Ltd (Reg No:04506883) & Sheen’s Lettings & Management Ltd (Reg No: 04927328). The companies will provide you services on both a sales and lettings basis and this is whom your business relationship is with. If you have any further questions you can contact us on enq@sheens.co.uk or call us on +44 01255 475444.
How The Law Protects You
Your privacy is protected by law as well as our above Privacy Promise.
Data Protection law states that we are allowed to use a clients personal information only if we have a proper reason to do so. This includes sharing it outside G & S Sheen Ltd & Sheen’s Lettings & Management. The law states we must have one or more of the following reasons:
• To fulfil a contract we have with you
• When it is a legitimate interest of ours
• When it is our legal duty
• When you consent to it
A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information. It still has to be fair and not go against what is best and right for you. If we rely on our legitimate interest, we will inform you of what that is.
Information on What Data We Collect & How We Use It
Here is a list of all the ways that we may use your personal information along with the reason we rely on to do so. We have also noted here what our legitimate interests are:
Where We Collect Personal Data From
We will collect data from you:
• Through our own website, smart phone mobile and tablet Applications
• Property Portals (for example rightmove, zoopla, primelocation etc)
• Over the telephone
• On personal visits into our office
• On home visits where we undertake viewings, valuations and inspections
• In written emails and letter communications.
• In Customer Surveys
• Through Social Media Advertisements and Pages of Sheen’s Estate Agents
In any competitions or promotions.
We may also collect personal information about you from other companies who have passed on your details to us by means of referral for our services. We also will obtain further information from our referencing agencies regarding Lettings Applications on your financial status and legal rights to rent a property in the U.K
Who We Share Your Personal Information With
We may share your information within G & Sheen Ltd & Sheen’s Lettings and Management along with these organisations if necessary:
• Contractors who we use for maintenance issues on properties
• HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities
• Credit Referencing Agencies
• Fraud Prevention Agencies
• Companies we need to co-operate with in order for the transaction to progress (for example solicitors, surveyors etc)
• Companies which we introduce you to.
• Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)
• The Property Ombudsman
• The National Association of Estate Agents
• Tenancy Deposit Scheme Companies (example TDS)
Tenant Referencing Agencies (TRA’s)
We will carry out credit and Identity checks when you apply for a lettings property through our business. We use Tenant Referencing Agencies to help with this.
We will share your personal information with TRA’s and they will give us information about you. The data we exchange can include:
• Name, Address, Email Address, Phone Numbers & Date of Birth
• Any Previous Addresses
• Current Landlord or Lettings Agent information
• Marital Status
• National Insurance Number
• Next of Kin
• Status at Current Address (Homeowner, tenant, living with family etc)
• Financial Situation & History
• Employment History & Income
• Public Information, from sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register
• Who will be living at the property including any children and pets
• Name of Person who will be paying the Security Deposit
• Bank Account & Financial Details
We use this data to determine:
• Affordability
• Make sure what you’ve told us is correct and true
• Help detect and prevent financial crime
• If you meet the landlords criteria and if a Guarantor is needed
• Comply with Right To Rent regulations
• Whether the landlord can get rent insurance based on your application results
This date will be verified with the Tenant Referencing Service and all information can be seen by both the authorised agent acting (Sheen’s & Sheen’s Lettings & Management) and the landlord.
Fraud Prevention Agencies (FPA’S) & Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)
We will need to confirm your identity when both buying and selling a property along with if you are a landlord or a tenant looking at letting a property.
Once you have become a customer of ours we will collect and share your personal information with the relevant authorities in order to comply with anti-money laundering regulations and help detect fraud.
Both we and the fraud prevention agencies can only use your personal information if we have a proper reason to do so. It must be needed either for us to obey the law or for a ‘legitimate interest’.
A legitimate interest is when we have a commercial or business reason to use your information. This must no go unfairly against what is right and best for you.
We or the relevant FPA’s or SOCA may allow law enforcement agencies to access your personal information. This is to support their duty to investigate, detect, prevent and prosecute crime. They can keep hold of your information for different lengths of time and can keep your data for up to six years if they find a risk of fraud or money laundering.
Sending Data Outside the EEA (European Economic Area)
Sheen’s Software Provider Database is held on both UK Servers and in Ireland (EU) servers. This means that all of your personal information is held in country’s which are signed up to comply with all new GDPR Regulations. We will only ever send your information outside of this area in accordance with your instructions, to comply with a legal duty or to companies which our Software providers make sure are protected in the same way as if it were being used within the EEA.
If You Choose Not To Give Personal Information
Sometimes we need to collect personal information by law and for the security of our staff and clients and in order to complete our duties outlined in a contract we have with you.
If you decide not to give us this personal information, it may prevent or delay us from meeting our contractual obligations. It may also mean we cannot provide services needed to deal with our company.
Any data collection that is optional would be made clear upon the point of collection.
Marketing
We may use your personal information to inform you about relevant services and offers which both Sheen’s Estate Agents & Sheen’s Lettings and Management provides.
The personal information we have for you is information that you have given us or been passed to us by third parties whom we work with.
We use this data to determine which services and offers you may be interested in. This can include valuations, property searching, mortgages, surveys, solicitors, removals and insurance. This is how we decided which products and services may be of interest or relevance to you.
We can use your personal information to send you marketing messages if we have either your consent or a ‘legitimate interest’. This is if we have a commercial or a business reason to use your information. It must not go against what is right and best for you.
At any point you inform us that you wish us to stop sending you marketing material.
We may ask you to confirm or update your choices during your transaction.
You can also update your choices again if you decide you would like to receive information from us.
Marketing information we may send includes:
• Postal Mail-out Booklets of available properties
• Emailing Marketing brochures of available properties
• Phone calls of latest properties available and to check if still actively looking
• Valuation Confirmation Letters and Subsequent Follow up letters
• Phone Calls from Valuations
• Letters & Calls to Clients with a property to sell/let offering our services
• Progress reports on Marketing of clients property by email/post
• Text Messages of Latest Properties
• Yearly follow up letters after completion offering a free valuation
• Information about our services and third party services we work with including solicitors, surveyors, mortgage advisors, insurance brokers etc
How Long Will We Keep Your Personal Information For
We will keep your personal information for as long as you’re are a customer of Sheen’s or Sheen’s Lettings and Management.
After our business relationship is complete we will continue to hold your data for around eight years for one of the following reasons:
• To respond to any questions or complaints
• To Maintain Records according to rules that apply to us as Estate Agents
• To show that we treated you fairly
We may keep your data for longer than eight years if we cannot delete it for a legal, regulatory or technical reason. We may also keep hold of it for our own statistical or research purposes only. If this was the case then we will make sure that your privacy is protected at all times and it is only used for these purposes.
How To Get A Copy Of Your Personal Information
You can request a copy of all of the data we hold for you by emailing us at enq@sheens.co.uk or by writing to our head office at:
Sheen’s Estate Agents, 110 Old Road, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex CO15 3AA
Letting Us Know If Your Personal Data Is Incorrect
You have the right to question any information we have about you which you think is wrong or incomplete. Please make contact with us if this is the case. We will make reasonable steps to check its accuracy and correct it.
What To Do If You Want Us To Stop Using Your Personal Information?
You have the right to object to our use of your personal information if there is no reason or legal obligation for us to keep it. You can request that the data is either deleted, removed or to stop using it is no valid reason for it. This is known as the ‘right to object’ and ‘right to erasure or ‘The right to be forgotten’.
There may be official or legal reasons why this data must be maintained by us but please just let us know if you think we should not be using it.
If you want to object on how your data us used or ask us to delete or restrict its use then please make contact with us.
How To Withdraw Your Consent
At any point you can withdraw your consent. Please contact us to enable us to update our files. If you withdraw your consent we will not be able to provide you with information about our services and properties etc.
How To Complain
If you are unhappy with how your personal data is being used you can contact us at enq@sheens.co.uk or Sheen’s Estate Agents 110 Old Road, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex CO15 3AA. Or ask for one of the directors on 01255 475444.
Formats For Sharing Data
The data Privacy laws are changing on 25th May 2018. From this date you will have the right to get your personal information from us in a format which can be easily re-used.
Terms and Conditions
Please read these terms and conditions (“Agreement”) carefully. It governs your use of this website (“Site”). By using this Site you, the person using this Site (referred to in this Agreement as “you” or “your”) agree with Vebra Solutions Ltd and associated companies (referred to in this Agreement as “we”, “us” or “our”) to be bound by the terms of this Agreement. If you do not accept the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement, you may not use this Site or access or display any of the information made available to you at this Site.
i) Licence to use this Site. We grant to you a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use this Site for your own personal use, including:
to display any information; and
to print copies of any information relating to any property or services made available on this Site.
ii) You may not:
i) except as expressly agreed by us in writing, use this Site, including any information that you extract from this Site, for any commercial purpose or payment;
ii) except as expressly agreed by us in writing, copy, reproduce, redistribute, download, republish, transmit, display, adapt, alter, create derivative works from or otherwise extract or re-utilise any information made available on this Site, whether for commercial gain or otherwise;
iii) decode nor try to determine the method of representation of any information or service made available on this Site; or
iv) remove any proprietary notices, labels or marks from this Site.
v) Intellectual Property. All rights, including copyright, trade marks, names and logos, used in relation to this Site are owned by or controlled for these purposes by us. Nothing in this Agreement confers on you any licence or right under any or our trade marks, names or logos or those of any third party.
iv) No Warranty. You acknowledge that this Site may contain bugs, errors and other problems that could cause systems failures. Consequently, this Site is provided “AS IS”, without a warranty of any kind.
v) Limitation of Liability. You use this site at your own risk. In no event will we be liable to you for any loss or damage of any kind (except personal injury or death resulting from our negligence) including any lost revenue, profit, or data, or for special, indirect, consequential, incidental or punitive damages howsoever caused.
vi) You acknowledge that the information made available to you on this site is provided by third parties over whom we have no control, in particular in relation to the accuracy or completeness of the data. You agree that we shall not be in any circumstances be liable to you for any loss or damage at all arising from any inaccuracies, faults or omissions in, or in the provision, the information unless caused by our negligence or wilful default.
vii) Neither you nor we shall be liable to the other for any failure to perform any obligation due to the failure of any machine, data processing system or transmission link to operate or for any reason beyond your or our control (as the case may be).
viii) Modification of Terms. We may, at our sole discretion, change any term of this Agreement by posting a new agreement on our web-site. It is your responsibility to check if changes have been made. Your continued use of the web-site after such changes are posted will constitute your acceptance of the changes to such terms.
ix) Modification of web-site. We may, at our sole discretion, terminate, change or suspend any part of our web-site, including any content, features or hours of availability.
x) Offers. Nothing on this web-site shall constitute an offer by us to provide to any person any information or any goods or services.
xi) Third Party Rights. Nothing in this Agreement confers on any third party any benefits under the provisions of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
xii) Severance. If any part of this Agreement is found to be void or unenforceable, it will be severed from the rest of this Agreement so that it is ineffective to the extent that it shall not affect the validity of the balance of the Agreement, which shall remain valid and enforceable according to its terms.
xiii) Entire Agreement. This Agreement records the entire agreement between you and us. Nothing in this clause shall affect the liability of either party in respect of any misrepresentation which it makes fraudulently.
xiv) Governing Law. This Agreement is made under and will be governed by the laws of England. You and we hereby submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.