Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Proptrest ("we", "us", or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website proptrest.com or use our estate agency services.

We are a data controller for the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. If you have any questions about how we handle your personal data, please contact us using the details at the end of this policy.

2. Information We Collect

Personal Information You Provide

When you use our services or contact us, we may collect:

• Contact details: Your name, email address, phone number, and postal address
• Property information: Details about your property including address, number of bedrooms, property type, and any other information you provide for valuation or marketing purposes
• Enquiry details: Any messages or questions you send us through our contact forms
• Marketing preferences: Your consent choices for receiving marketing communications

Information We Collect Automatically

When you visit our website, we automatically collect certain information:

• Usage data: Pages visited, time spent on pages, links clicked, and general browsing patterns
• Device information: Browser type, operating system, IP address, and device identifiers
• Cookies: Small text files stored on your device (see our Cookies section below)

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information for the following purposes:

• To provide our services: Processing your property valuation requests, arranging viewings, and managing the sale of your property
• To communicate with you: Responding to your enquiries, sending property updates, and providing customer support
• To market properties: Creating and distributing marketing materials for your property (with your consent)
• With your consent, to send marketing: Sending you updates about our services, property market insights, and relevant information (you can unsubscribe at any time)
• To improve our services: Analysing website usage to enhance user experience and service quality
• Legal compliance: Meeting legal and regulatory obligations, including anti-money laundering checks

Our lawful basis for processing your data includes: your consent, performance of a contract, compliance with legal obligations, and our legitimate interests in running an effective estate agency business.

4. Data Sharing and Third Parties

We share your personal information only with trusted third parties who help us provide our services:

• Tally.so: Our form provider, which processes contact and valuation form submissions and sends email notifications to us
• Twilio: Our SMS notification service, used to alert us when you submit a form
• Cloudflare: Our website hosting and content delivery provider
• Professional service providers: Solicitors, surveyors, and other professionals involved in property transactions (only with your knowledge and consent)

We never sell your personal data to third parties. All third-party providers are carefully selected and must comply with data protection laws and maintain appropriate security measures.

5. Data Retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary:

• Active enquiries: While we are handling your enquiry or property transaction, plus a reasonable period afterwards
• Completed transactions: Up to 7 years after completion, as required by legal and regulatory obligations
• Marketing contacts: Until you withdraw consent or we no longer have a legitimate reason to retain your data
• Website analytics: Typically 26 months, in line with industry standards

After these periods, we securely delete or anonymise your data unless we are legally required to retain it longer.

6. Your Rights Under UK GDPR

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right to access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Right to rectification: Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data
• Right to erasure: Request deletion of your data in certain circumstances
• Right to restrict processing: Ask us to limit how we use your data
• Right to data portability: Receive your data in a machine-readable format
• Right to object: Object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing
• Right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details below. We will respond to your request within one month. If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

7. Cookies

We use cookies to improve your browsing experience and understand how visitors use our website.

Essential Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function properly and cannot be switched off. They are usually set in response to your actions, such as setting privacy preferences or filling in forms.

Analytics Cookies

We use analytics tools to understand how visitors interact with our website. This helps us improve content and user experience. These cookies collect anonymised information about page visits, traffic sources, and user behaviour.

Managing Cookies

You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to refuse cookies or delete existing ones. Please note that disabling cookies may affect website functionality and your user experience.

For more information about cookies and how to manage them, visit aboutcookies.org.

8. Data Security

We take the security of your personal data seriously and implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

Our security measures include:

• Secure HTTPS encryption for our website
• Access controls limiting who can view your personal data
• Regular security assessments of our systems and third-party providers
• Staff training on data protection and confidentiality

While we strive to protect your data, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security but will notify you promptly of any data breaches where legally required.

9. Children's Privacy

Our services are not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a child, please contact us immediately so we can delete it.

10. International Data Transfers

Your data is primarily stored and processed within the United Kingdom. Where we use third-party service providers that may process data outside the UK or EEA, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the UK government.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. We will notify you of significant changes by posting a notice on our website or by email (if we have your email address). The "Last updated" date at the top of this policy indicates when it was last revised.

We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, please contact us:

For data protection enquiries specifically, you can also contact our Data Protection Officer at the same email address with "Data Protection Enquiry" in the subject line.