DRAKE & CO PRIVACY POLICY
Drake & Co commit to providing you with a high level of service throughout our relationship. We use the personal information you share with us to add value to our services and with the aim of making your experience even better.
We take the issue of security and data protection very seriously and strictly adhere to guidelines published in the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 which is applicable from the 25th May 2018, together with any domestic laws subsequently enacted.
This privacy policy explains what information we collect (which may be held on paper, electronically, or otherwise), when we collect it, why we collect it and how we use this. Also, our dedication to protecting it, your rights and the options you have to control your personal information and protect your privacy. We collect and handle personal information about our tenants and residents and prospective tenants and residents along with any guarantors to enable us to provide residential accommodation. This includes dealing with applications for tenancies, checking the suitability of tenants, residents along with any guarantors (including credit, immigration and similar referencing checks), arranging lettings, property management (including dealing with repairs), rent collection, dealing with any complaints, maintaining our accounts and records, tenancy terminations and administering tenancy deposits. We call this information “your information”. It is also referred to as “data”. Where this notice is given to more than one person it is given to each of you separately. If there is no guarantor, please disregard any reference in this notice to guarantor or guarantee. You should read this notice when you give us information so you are aware of how and why we are using this. Please update us if any information supplied by you changes.
Our policy also outlines what personal information we collect about you when you contact us or otherwise engage with us via our website, social media or alternative methods. This could be using a variety of communication channels such as, but not limited to;
a. In person
b. Telephone
c. Email
d. Text message or MMS
e. Post
f. Through our social media accounts
g. On Messaging services
h. On our website www.drakes.co.uk
i. Via third party websites
j. Through property portals such as rightmove.co.uk, and Zoopla property group websites (Zoopla.co.uk, primelocation.com)
The policy also sets out how we use your personal information and the third parties we will share it with.
By engaging the services of Drake & Co or by visiting our website www.drakes.co.uk you are accepting and consenting to the practises described in this policy.
Who collects your information?
For the Purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) the Data Controller is Drake & Co, 161a Dickenson Road, Rusholme, Manchester, M14 5HZ. We are notified as a Data Controller with the Office of the Information Commissioner under registration number Z2428903
Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) is Darrell Kerr – Company Director. Any questions relating to this policy and our privacy practices should be emailed – info@drakes.co.uk, or by post at our registered address above.
Updates to this policy
We will regularly review and update this privacy policy to ensure it is free from errors, contains appropriate information about your rights and our processing of your data, that it is implemented and that it is compliant with the applicable law. In the event that the policy is updated we will post a notification on our website along with an updated copy of the policy.
What personal information may we collect from you?
“Personal information” is any information that relates to you and identifies you personally, either alone or in combination with other information available to us. We use different ways to collect data about you including the information you supply to us when applying for a tenancy/residency. If you fail to provide this information we may not be able to proceed.
We may collect and process the following personal information which you have provided by:
a. Filling in forms on our Website, social media accounts, third party websites and Portals which send information to us,
b. In person,
c. Communicating with us via telephone calls, emails, messaging services and through our social media account.
This information that you disclose when agreeing to register as an applicant or enter in to a transactional relationship with us, can include, but is not limited to;
a. Personal information: Name, address, email address and telephone number
b. Financial: Bank account details, including account number and sort code.
c. Socio-Demographic information: Details about your employment status (including email and phone numbers) of the employer/accountant, payroll numbers, length of employment, salary information (including any regular overtime or commission), and any other income received; nationality, education (esp. students)
d. Transactional: Details of payments you make to us
e. Contractual: Details about the products or services we provide to you
f. Communications: What we learn about you from letters, emails and conversations
g. Open data and public records: e.g. Electoral information, internet, Newspapers
h. Documentary Data: e.g. copies of ID
i. Consents: how we can contact you
j. National Identifiers: e.g. National Insurance Number
k. Connected Persons: Guarantor and/or Next of Kin name, e-mail address, telephone number, Date of Birth, address (including any previous addresses), marital status, National Insurance Number, nationality, next of kin.
We also generate and use data internally, e.g. our rent records.
To ensure the safety of our team when they are attending external appointments, such as property viewings, marketing appraisals, inspections and inventories we require contact details for the client or customer, including a residential address in the UK. Where a client is visiting and does not have a permanent address in the UK, we will require their temporary address, such as a hotel, or friends/relative address if they are staying with friends/relatives.
We also collect and receive data about you from third parties. This may be information given to us by other tenants or residents or neighbours. It can include information from a guarantor where there is a guarantor for your tenancy or from a joint tenant or other residents. Public bodies such as local authorities or the police, or other law enforcement agencies may give us information about you. This can include the Department for Work and Pensions or the local authority where you are receiving Universal Credit or housing benefit. Information may be given to us relevant to Council Tax by the local authority. Utility companies or service providers may also give us personal information about you. Where the property is let or managed on our behalf by an agent the agent will supply us with information about you. We obtain information about you when we carry out credit checks or take up references. We may also receive information from you via websites or from online rental portals such as Openrent, Gumtree or Rightmove. Any information which we receive in this way is set out in the Table to this privacy notice which gives you more details about information which we can receive from third parties. SEE TABLE.
Information required to comply with legislation such as Right to Rent checks required under Section 22 of the Immigration Act 2014 if you are renting a property and The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (more commonly referred to as the Money Laundering Regulations 2017) if you are buying or selling a property through us.
Information to enable us to tailor our marketing and communications to you based on your personal preferences, such as type of services required, budget, specifications of your property search.
If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence and ask for information if you report an issue with our services, or an issue at the property you are renting.
What information is collected through our website?
When you visit or otherwise access our website, drakes.co.uk we may collect details including but not limited to: –
a. Information about the device and browser you are using to access the Website e.g. type, version, operating system, etc.,
b. Traffic data including the URL of the website that referred you to our website if applicable
c. Location data including geolocation (you are able to control the location data which is being collected using the settings on your browser/device)
d. Weblogs and other communication data,
e. The resources that you access including social media interaction.
f. Your IP (Internet Protocol) address,
g. The date and time of the visit and how long you remained on our Website,
h. The pages visited on our Website and interactions performed,
You consent to any information concerning you which we collect and process being used, stored and processed in accordance with this Policy.
When you visit one of our websites, we may send you a cookie. A cookie is a small file which is placed on your computer or device to enable us to identify your device or allow the website framework to run effectively. We only use cookies that are strictly necessary to enable you to move around the site, to provide certain basic features, to enhance the functionality and to improve the performance of the website. For more information on cookies and how we use them, please read our Cookie policy on our website www.drakes.co.uk
External links
Our website, drakes.co.uk, our social media accounts and digital correspondence may contain links to third party sites we have no control over, if you visit those sites you should check you are happy with their own privacy policies and terms of use before providing any personal information. In addition, if you linked to our website or social media accounts from a third party, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of that third-party site.
Downloads and media
Any downloadable media such as documents, files images etc. on our website, drakes.co.uk, our social media accounts and digital correspondence are provided to you at your own risk. We take reasonable precautions to ensure that such files are free of virus but we recommend that you use anti-virus software as a precaution. We accept no responsibility for downloads and media provided by third party websites.
How do we use your personal information?
The personal information we collect when you first contact us will be used for identification and authentication purposes in addition to creating a profile for you with the information needed to provide you with our relevant products or services. We use and analyse this personal information where necessary for the following purposes detailed below:
- Improving our products and services: we will use your personal information to build a profile on you in order to understand your requirements, to improve our Website, as well as to personalise the properties and services we offer you. We process your personal information in this way as it is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests in providing better products and services for you and our other customers.
- Processing your transaction: we use relevant personal information described above (including your name, address and financial details) to enable us to complete a transaction with you, such as buying, selling, renting or letting a property through us. This information may be required to be passed on to third parties, including solicitors, surveyors, financial advisors etc.
- Preventing fraud: we will also use your personal information to assess your creditworthiness (in the case of buying or renting a professional let property) and to prevent fraud. For this purpose, we may need to share your personal information with our referencing providers and/or solicitors (see “how we share your personal information” below). This is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests in ensuring we are not the victim of fraud and to protect our legal rights.
- To provide customer support: if you contact our team (or vice versa), we will use personal information such as your email address, phone number and residential address as well as your contact history to process your request and provide you with the best service possible. We will process your personal information in this way if it is necessary for the performance of a contract or if it is required for us to comply with any legal obligations. If it is not necessary to process your personal data for either of these reasons we will process it as it is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests in ensuring we can provide the best service possible.
What kind of information do we collect?
The way you interact with us across all the different channels described above (e.g. our Website, social media and marketing messages we send you) and the information we collect in that regard from each of these channels provides us valuable information about your current circumstances and preferences. This insight gives us the opportunity to offer you the best customer service experience possible. To learn about you and your interests, we may analyse your interactions with us using various kinds of information, as set out above. If you have given us your consent to send you marketing communications or if we are permitted by law to send such communications without obtaining your consent, we use the information that you have provided to us when interacting with us for sending you personalised marketing messages about our products or services, events and promotions. In some instances, we will also aggregate your personal information with that of other individuals, to create comprehensive reports about how clients and customers use our products and services. This is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests in analysing our brand and determining how to improve our services.
Information legally required under your tenancy agreement
Your tenancy agreement provides that in certain situations you must give us information when asked. This is a legal obligation because it is a contractual requirement. You should refer to the relevant clauses in your tenancy agreement which tell you the situations in which such information must be given.
How may we share your information?
The information you provide to us will be treated as confidential and will be processed only by any third party, acting on our behalf, within the UK/EEA. This information will only be shared as necessary and only for the purposes and on the lawful grounds described in this policy.
Who may we share information with?
We require that third parties with whom we may share your information, adhere to strict rules when processing your information in accordance with our specific instructions (such as contacting you to arrange access for necessary repairs) and the applicable laws.
These third parties who may process your personal information on our behalf (data processors) include but are not limited to;
If we enter into a joint venture with or merged with a business entity, your information may be disclosed to our new business partners or owners as one of the transferred assets.
Tenant referencing agencies, landlords or managing agents, Money Laundering referencing, Anti Money Laundering verification agencies, contractors, surveyors, utility companies, insurance providers, fraud prevention agencies, HMRC, regulators and other authorities.
If you are unable to make payments under your contractual obligations or tenancy agreement, your information may be disclosed to any relevant party assisting in the recovery of this debt or the tracing of you;
In the creation, renewal or termination of a tenancy, your information will be disclosed to the relevant local authority, tenancy deposit scheme administrator, service/utility provider, freeholder, factor, facilities manager or any other relevant person or organisation in connection with this.
If you are a tenant in a property which is being sold, it is necessary that your data may be disclosed to the new owner and their solicitors.
Solicitors/conveyancers, surveyors, financial/mortgage advisors, contractors and other property agents where there is a chain.
How you provide us with the personal information of others
Prior to disclosing the personal information of others to drakes.co.uk, such as guarantor, next of kin, tenant, landlord or employers you must gain their consent for the disclosure and the processing of their information under this policy.
How long will we keep your information?
We will keep your information for as long as you are a client of Drake & Co. The length of time we retain your information will depend on the lawful basis in which it was collected and processes.
Where a transaction has been entered into and there is a contractual reason, or where we must comply with legal obligations (e.g. Money Laundering Regulations, The Property Ombudsman Code of Practice)
Where consent has been given and where there is a legitimate interest to do so, such as where a client has registered their interest in buying, letting, selling or renting a property through us, we will retain data for a period of two years.
Holding data outside the European Union
Our email account and web provider (if any) is the provider specified in the Table. Our email account is web based. Providers store related data internationally and not necessarily within the European Union. The recipient of this data is the provider concerned. You need to refer to the provider concerned to determine if they have the required clearance (adequacy decision) from the EU authorities or whether or not, instead, there is an agreement containing appropriate and suitable safeguards and to obtain a copy of this agreement.
Your rights
Where we hold personal data about you, you are the data subject. Data protection legislation gives you a number of rights.
To exercise any of these rights you should contact us. You can do so by email at the address given – info@drakes.co.uk or you can telephone us on 0161 224 2134. You can also write to us at our address given at the top of this notice.
In particular you have a right to object to the processing of your information where we are processing this in our own legitimate interests or those of someone else. This applies if you feel that this impacts on your own interests or your fundamental rights or freedoms.
These rights are as follows –
- Access – you have the right to make a request to be told what personal data we hold about you. This is a right to obtain confirmation that data has been processed and to have access to your personal data and the right to information details which should be provided with the privacy notice.
- Correction/Rectification – if you consider any data we hold about you is inaccurate you can tell us so that where appropriate this can be corrected. Where a mistake is made in data processing then you can ask to have it rectified. Any third parties who have received the data from us should then be told of the rectification and you should be informed by us of any such third parties.
- Erasure – you have a right to ask us in certain circumstances to erase any data we hold about you (the so called right to be forgotten). Individuals can request the right to have personal data erased to prevent processing in specific circumstances, i.e. it is no longer necessary, consent has been withdrawn, there is an objection and where applicable your rights etc., override the legitimate interests to continue our processing, or data has been unlawfully processed.
- You can object to our processing of data – this allows you to object to our processing of data about you. We must then stop processing data unless we can establish legitimate reason for continuing. In particular this applies where we are relying on our own legitimate interests or those of a third party to process data but it can also apply in other situations.
- Restricting processing – you can ask us to suspend processing of your personal data and we must then restrict processing of data. This includes where you are contesting the accuracy of a statement or the lawfulness of the processing.
- Data portability – this allows individuals to reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services allowing them to move, copy or transfer personal data more easily.
Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) is Darrell Kerr – Company Director – Any questions relating to this policy and our privacy practices should be emailed – info@drakes.co.uk or by post at our registered address above.
If you would like to make changes to the data held, enforce your ‘Right to Erasure/The Right to be Forgotten’ to be provided a copy of your data in a useable electronic format (Right to Data Portability) or for a subject access requests, please write to, The Data Controller, Drake & Co, 161a Dickenson Road, Rusholme, Manchester, M14 5HZ. We will comply with these requests in line with applicable law
Withdrawal of consent
Where your consent provides us with the legal gateway to process data about you you can withdraw this at any time by telling us by email or post using the telephone/addresses given above.
Complaints & The Information Commissioner (ICO)
Should you wish to complain about the use of your information, we would ask that you contact us to resolve this matter in the first instance. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office in relation to our use of your information. The Information Commissioner’s contact details are noted below:
England:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Email: click to email us
Scotland:
The Information Commissioner’s Office – Scotland
45 Melville Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7HL
Telephone: 0131 244 9001
Email: click to email us
Wales:
Information Commissioner’s Office
2nd floor, Churchill House
Churchill way, Cardiff, CF10 2HH
Telephone: 029 2067 8400
Email: click to email us
Northern Ireland:
Information Commissioner’s Office
3rd Floor, 14 Cromac Place
Belfast, BT7 2JB
Telephone: 028 9027 8757