1. Who we are
This Privacy Notice applies to the use and processing of personal information collected by icestates
The phrases us, we or our will mean those businesses which are part of icestates on behalf of and in respect of whom this Privacy Notice is made.
For information concerning the collection, use and processing of personal information by any of our third-party business partners or suppliers, please contact our representative with whom you usually deal.
2. Information covered by this Privacy Notice
Personal data. This is information, or any combination of separate pieces of information, that could be used to identify you
Special categories of personal data. This is information which is classified as sensitive (for example details of your health)
Please read this Privacy Notice carefully. If you have any questions about this notice or our use of your personal data, please contact the icestates on info@icestates.com
3. Where we get personal information from
When you enquire or register for products and services provided by Icestates Limited we may collect personal information from a variety of sources.
The majority of the personal information which we collect will have been provided by you during the course of your relationship with us either through face to face contact, by telephone, email or electronic communications such as messaging or through the internet.
However, we may also obtain your personal data from other sources including:
information we collect when you visit or create an account on our websites
companies which support advertising services that promote our services including online property portals (such as Rightmove and Zoopla), social media sites (such as Facebook and Twitter) and online advertising platforms (such as Google Adwords)
information provided to us by other third parties
other publically available sources such as the electoral roll and HM Land Registry
4. What information we collect
4.1 Information we collect directly from you
Depending on the type of service or product we are discussing, the following are examples of information we may collect directly from you:
Your name, postal address, phone number, email address and details of your requirements
- to provide you with estate agency services to find a property to buy or sell
Your marital status, date of birth, nationality and tax status - when you enter into a residential sale or letting agreement
Your date of birth, nationality and details from identity documents you provide - To perform know your client, anti-money laundering and right to rent checks, as required by law
Proof that you have sufficient funds to support any offer that you may wish to make to buy a property - To ensure you able to pay the required amount of deposit
Financial information, for example, a copy of your bank statement or an agreement in principle from your mortgage provider - To provide evidence of the source of funds you will be using to buy a property
Your bank account details - Where we take payment for the services we provide to you
Details of your mortgage arrangements, confirmation of how long you have owned the property and details of the source of monies invested in the property when you register to sell - To undertake to know your client and anti-money laundering checks
Details relating to your property including photographs, floor plans, energy performance certificate ratings/ home reports, property description and survey results - To deliver our service to you when you engage us to market a property for you
Your communication and marketing preferences - To ensure we only send you details of products and services you are interested in through your preferred communication channel
We may, during the course of your relationship with us, request additional information from you which is relevant to the provision of specific services.
Any telephone calls either to or from our customer service teams may be recorded for training, monitoring, compliance and security.
4.2 Information we collect when you visit or create an account on our websites
We use cookies and other technologies to collect information when you visit our web sites, including when you make use of our online chat.
We may collect personal information in connection with your use of our website, such as:
your name, email address, telephone number and property address when you register for an account or use an online form to arrange a viewing, register for property alerts, request a valuation or lettings consultation, book a mortgage appointment or submit an enquiry
data sent from your browser to our server which may include:
- the time, date and duration of your visit
- the site from which you have come (the referral URL)
- the pages you have visited and
- your IP address
Details of how we use cookies are provided in Section 13 Our Use of Cookies and in our Cookies Policy
4.3 Information we obtain from online portals
Where you contact by providing your details through online portals such as Rightmove or Zoopla, we will use the details contact you to provide the services you have requested.
4.4 Information we obtain from third parties
Where we are required by law, or for business needs, we will obtain information about you from third parties, but only after we have your agreement to do so. For example (but not limited to) the third parties we may need to contact our credit reference agencies, banks, employers, accountants and solicitors in order to obtain references, undertake identity verification and basic criminal record checks, and validate your income level and financial history.
4.5 Circumstances under which criminal disclosures will be collected
The arrangement of certain types of insurance may involve disclosure by you to us of information relating to historic or current criminal convictions or offences. This is relevant to insurance related activities such as underwriting, claims and fraud management.
When we process any Criminal Disclosures we do so on the basis that it is in the substantial public interest to be able to provide vital insurance products as permitted by UK data protection-related laws and regulations from time to time. Information on Criminal Disclosures must be capable of being exchanged freely between insurance intermediaries such as us and insurance providers, to enable customers to secure the important insurance protection that they require.
5. How we use your information
We will process the information you provide or we obtain from other sources to provide you with products and services and answer any questions you may have.
The following are examples of how we use the information we collect:
To process your registration and confirm your identity
To provide you with the estate agency services which you have asked us to provide, including but not limited to:
helping you to sell your property
valuing your property
arranging and carrying out accompanied viewings
finding a property to purchase
To arrange a survey and valuations
To provide property auction services
To create and manage your online account
To process payment for our services
To protect against and prevent fraud, unauthorised transactions, money laundering, tax evasion, claims, other liabilities and manage risk exposure and agent or franchise quality, integrity, compliance and security of business processes
To provide, administer and communicate with you about icestates services, offers, programs and promotions, their issuers, acquirers, retailers and partners
To arrange an energy performance certificate or home report inspection for you
To compile business directories, including business contact information and maintain up to date client records
To operate, monitor, evaluate and improve our products, services and websites
To evaluate your interest in and suitability for employment
5.1 Information about our products and services
We may also use your personal data to contact you by post, email, telephone or other electronic means to provide you with information about products and services from the icestates and carefully selected third parties which we feel may be of interest or relevant to your needs.
Please see Section 12 for information about how you can exercise your rights.
6. Third Party service providers
Where we engage third party service providers to provide products (such as mortgages, house and contents and family protection insurances and utility services) or other business services and operations, we provide them with only the personal information they need to perform the service or provide the product we request. We contractually require them to securely protect the information, and not to use it for any other purpose.
Indicatively - but not limited to - we may disclose your information to the third parties listed below for the purposes listed:
Third party
Approved contractors -To install for sale boards , to appoint managing agents and building maintenance contractors, to arrange EPC visits, to arrange for contractors to providing safety & statutory tests and to take inventories
Surveyors - To undertake a structural or Homebuyers survey
Firms on our conveyancing panel - To provide home conveyancing service
Our panels of mortgage lenders - To progress your enquiry or application for a residential or buy to let mortgage application
Law enforcement bodies including the police, HMRC and local authorities - To comply with court orders or legal obligations
The parties whose property you have viewed or on whose property you have submitted an offer - For the purposes of ascertaining in a potential fee payable for introduced parties (title, first initial, surname) or for other reasons relating to your viewing or offer on a property
The Property Ombudsman - Where they are providing a dispute resolution service in connection with letting services
7. Lawful basis of processing
icestates processes your information under any of the following lawful conditions:
Performance of a contract - this is where the collection and processing of your data is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party, or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract
Legal obligation - this is where the collection and processing of your data is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation, for example, verification of identity and fraud prevention
Consent - where we process information under consent we will seek your clear and unambiguous consent before processing your data, for example, to send and/or receive marketing information from other Icestates Group companies
Legitimate interests - some information is processed by icestates as part of its legitimate interests which include network and information security, direct marketing, web analytics, updating customer details, lettings, sales, and other core services provided
8. Other situations
We may transfer or otherwise process your personal information:
When we have received your instruction to pass the sale of your property to another agent
To enforce our terms and conditions
When required by law and/or government authorities
When requested by the Property Ombudsman Service or any other consumer ombudsman or trade association
9. How long we keep your information for
We will keep your information for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice, and to fulfil our legal and regulatory obligations.
For further information about how long we will keep your information, please contact the Icestates Data Protection Officer by email at DPO@icestates.com
10. When we communicate with you
10.1 Service related
We will send you service-related communications and respond to any questions which you may ask.
10.2 Marketing our services to you
Where you contact us through our website or make an enquiry in branch or on the phone, or via Rightmove or Zoopla we will use the details you have supplied to us to provide you with our general property marketing list by email.
If you choose to 'opt-out' then we will not email you any further information relating to our general property marketing list.
We may also contact you in order to provide you with information about our core products and services which we believe may be of interest to you, in accordance with your preferences including:
general updates in relation to the property market
information on mortgages, protection and insurance products and conveyancing services
We may also carry out targeted advertising to you on social media websites such as Facebook where you have already shown an interest in our services. This is done by analysing the information we collect about your interactions on our websites and making this available to social media networks.
11. How we communicate with you
For service related communications, we will contact you either by email or through the post. We may also telephone you or send you SMS messages, which may include automated SMS reminders for viewings.
We give you choices about how we communicate promotions and offers to you.
11.1 By email
We only send you promotional emails if you explicitly select to receive these (you opt-in). You can stop receiving promotional email messages from Icestates Limited by contacting your local branch or by following the link to the Marketing Preference Centre
11.2 By post
We only send you promotional postal mail if you explicitly select to receive these (you opt-in). You can stop receiving promotional postal mail from Icestates Limited or by changing your preferences in the Marketing Preference Centre
11.3 Mobile Text Messages
We will only send you promotional text messages if you explicitly select to receive these (you opt-in). You can stop receiving promotional text messages from Icestates Limited by following the opt-out instructions provided in the text message or by changing your preferences in the Marketing Preference Centre
11.4 Telephone
We will only contact you by phone for promotional reasons if you explicitly select to receive these (you opt-in). You can opt out of receiving promotional telephone calls from Icestates Limited by informing our telephone agents or by changing your preferences in the Marketing Preference Centre
12. Your statutory rights
You have a number of rights concerning the personal information we use. These include the right to:
ask us for access to a copy of your personal information we hold about you
ask us to correct your personal information
ask us to delete your personal information
You can delete your online account at any time. This will delete any personal information in your account that we have about you, and it will mean any data about how youve used the online account will be made anonymous.
However, deleting your online account will not delete any data youve shared with us for reasons that are not connected with your online account. If you wish us to delete your data which is unconnected with your online account, please contact us as described below
withdraw your consent to use your personal information
Where you have provided consent for our processing of your personal data, you may withdraw that consent at any time. If you withdraw your consent, your previous consent will remain valid in respect to our use of your data in relation to good or service we are still contracted to provide
If you would prefer not to receive information from Icestates or carefully selected third parties you can opt out or by changing your preferences in the Marketing Preference Centre
We will act to respond to your request to stop receiving promotional email, phone, text or postal messages from icestates as quickly as is practicable (around 10 working days, as systems take time to replicate). We will keep information for record keeping purposes, to ensure we fulfil your request not to send particular types of messages.
ask us to restrict the use of your personal data, including direct marketing
object to our use of your personal data
object to an automated decision, including profiling (for example, in terms of credit risk)
lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office, if you object to the way we use your personal information. For more information please go to www.ico.org.uk
We will acknowledge your request and let you know what we will need from you to carry out your request. Every effort will be made to respond to or comply with your request as quickly as possible, and we will ensure our systems are updated as soon as is practicable in response to your request.
13. Our use of cookies
A cookie is a small file placed on your device when you visit a website that can be understood by the site that issued the cookie. We use the information collected by cookies to remember who you are to log you in and to store your preferences when using a particular site. It may contain a unique identifier to ensure that you are not shown the same information and/or are only shown information you have stated that you are interested in.
Our security software may use your IP address and browser version to help protect our systems and provide diagnostic information in the case of an issue.
Further information about our use of cookies is provided in our Cookies Policy
14. How we protect your information
We store your personal information on our computer systems and in our paper records.
We have implemented strict security procedures to ensure that personal information is not damaged, destroyed or misused, and to prevent unauthorised access to your information.
The information that we collect is stored in a secure facility with restricted physical access.
We also use a number of security measures to prevent electronic access.
Where - in line with this Privacy Notice - information is shared with third parties, similar security measures are used to protect your information.
15. Data Transfers
If we need to transfer data outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and the country its transferred to is not on an approved list for having adequate security controls in place, we will limit when we do this and the amount of personal data we send. We will also ensure that there is adequate protection in place before sending anything to other countries outside the EEA by imposing contractual obligations on the recipients to ensure the security and confidentiality of your data.
16. Childrens privacy
We do not offer any products or services to children. In certain circumstances (for example a mortgage application) we may need to collect the name and date of birth of children from mortgage applicants and share this with the selected mortgage provider.
17. Links to other websites
Our websites, other electronic portals and documentation may provide links to other websites for your convenience and information. These may operate independently from us and have their own privacy notices or policies, which we strongly suggest you review.
Where linked websites are not owned or controlled by us, we are not responsible for their content or data privacy practices.
18. Our Promise to you
When you provide us with this information, you agree to the collection, use and sharing of your information in accordance with this data privacy notice. Our promise to you is that
Well work with other businesses to put together offers we think you might like
You are in control of your data
You can change your privacy settings at any time
If you dont think the data is correct tell us and well put it right
We will keep your data secure
We also promise to collect, process store and share your data safely and securely and to make sure the businesses we work with do the same
19. Updates to our Privacy Notice
We will occasionally update our Privacy Notice, so we suggest that you review this Notice from time to time. If we make substantial changes to our Privacy Notice, we will endeavour to inform you directly about these changes.