Boyce Thornton Estate Agents

Data Protection Privacy Policy for Boyce Thornton Limited

Boyce Thornton is a Residential Sales and Lettings Agency with offices in Oxshott. We treat the privacy of our clients and website users very seriously and take appropriate security measures to safeguard your privacy.

This Policy explains how we use any personal information that we collect about you, either via a telephone conversation, email, letter, or the use of our website. It explains what personal data we collect, how we collect it, how we process it, protect it and share it, and the measures we take to protect and manage it.

What information do we collect about you?

Personal data means any information that may be used to identify a living individual. The information we may collect about you includes, but is not limited to: your first and last name, your home address, your email address and other contact information, whether at work or at home, and where necessary other information including your date of birth. To comply with Money Laundering Regulations and to obtain proof of your identity, we may also need to collect data from your passport or other sources of such proof. During the course of our dealings with you, we may also collect other personal data about you, to enable us to help you in your search for a property. And where you use our website, we may also automatically collect electronic information such as your IP address, Geolocation information and Internet Service Provider.

How do we obtain your personal data?

Information provided by you
You may provide personal data to us when you contact us, for example by telephone, by email, by registering or creating a “property list” on our website, or by writing to us. We will always ensure that you consent to passing that data to us and check the purposes for which you are providing it.

Information obtained from other sources
We only obtain personal data about you from third parties if this is permitted by law. We may use legal public sources to obtain information about you, for example, to verify your identify in order to satisfy our legal obligations, for example under the Money Laundering Regulations. Boyce Thornton outsource to Creditsafe UK and Rent4Sure.

We will ensure that any information we obtain is relevant to the transaction we are undertaking, and is obtained only from reputable third-party companies that operate in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Examples may include law firms, banks/financial institutions, mortgage lenders, credit checking/referencing agencies and similar organisations. You will already have submitted your personal data to these companies and specifically given permission to allow them to pass this information to other companies that provide similar services.

How do we use your personal data?

We use your personal data to manage and administer your search for a property to purchase or rent, or to sell or let a property on your behalf. We will use it for the purposes for which it was provided to us as stated at the point of collection (or as is obvious from the context of its collection).

We may use your personal data to contact you with information about Boyce Thornton’s services and to notify you of any changes to our service, and other information which may be of interest to you, such as news about the property market, interest rates, price fluctuations, stamp duty changes and so forth. You may unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time by contacting us.

Any information that is given to us to enable us to help you in your search for a property will not be used for marketing purposes unless you specifically consent to receiving it.

Protecting your personal data

We undertake at all times to protect your personal data, including any financial details, in a manner consistent with the Code of Conduct of the professional bodies to which we belong (NAEA/ARLA Propertymark, available on request if required) and the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). We will also take reasonable security measures to protect your personal data in storage, including but not limited to: password protection/ encryption of electronic data, lockable filing cabinets, and secure physical premises.
Boyce Thornton are equipped with Microsoft encrypted computer systems supported by Vebra Live and CFP Winman software.

Sharing your personal data

We recognise that your information is valuable and we take all reasonable measures to protect your information while it is in our care. We will keep information about you confidential and will only disclose your information with other third parties with your express consent, unless we are obliged by law to do so (for example in the event of an investigation into alleged fraud, money laundering or other legal action).

How long do we keep your personal data?

We keep information about you for the time it takes to assist you with your search for a property, and in order to progress any purchase/sale/letting transaction that may ensue. Thereafter we retain the property file for the time prescribed by law for compliance with Money Laundering Regulations.

If, after the completion of your transaction, you have not contacted us for a period of 5 years, we shall permanently delete your personal data. In all cases our need to use your personal information will be reassessed on a regular basis and information which is no longer required will be securely disposed of.

Your rights as a “data subject”

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) grants you the right to request details of particular personal data that Boyce Thornton holds about you. This is referred to as a Subject Access Request (SAR). We will respond as promptly as possible and certainly within one month of receiving your request. Our response will include details of the personal data we hold about you, including:

The source from which we acquired the information
The purpose for processing the information, and
The persons or entities with whom we are sharing the information (if applicable)

Right to rectification and erasure
If you advise us of any errors in the data held, or you ask us to erase your personal data, we will confirm to you, without undue delay, that we have corrected any errors in the data held or that we have erased your personal data, unless we are prevented from doing so by a legal obligation or requirement.

Right to data availability
You have the right, without undue delay, to receive your personal data which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly-used and machine-readable format, and you also have the right to give this data to another organisation without hindrance from us.

Policy changes

This policy is regularly reviewed to ensure that we comply with best practice standards in protecting your privacy. We reserve the right to update, modify or amend this policy; however we will not materially change how we use information you have already given to us without your prior agreement. (Last reviewed March 2023)