Privacy Policy

Forever Homes

Last Updated: 2nd June 2025

Forever Homes ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and share your personal data when you use our services as an estate agent in the United Kingdom.

We are a data controller for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are

Forever Homes is a UK-based estate agent.

Our registered address and contact details will be provided upon request, or you can find them on our website.

2. What Personal Data Do We Collect?

We may collect and process various types of personal data about you, depending on your relationship with us (e.g., vendor, buyer, landlord, tenant, prospective client). This may include:

  • Identity Data: Name, title, date of birth, nationality, gender, marital status.

  • Contact Data: Address, email address, telephone numbers.

  • Financial Data: Bank account details (for rent or sales proceeds), mortgage information, financial status for affordability checks.

  • Property Data: Details of properties you are selling, buying, letting, or renting, including property address, type, value, photographs, floor plans, and energy performance certificates (EPCs).

  • Transaction Data: Details about payments to and from you, and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.

  • Profile Data: Your interests, preferences, feedback, and survey responses.

  • Usage Data: Information about how you use our website and services.

  • Marketing and Communications Data: Your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

  • Technical Data: Internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access our website.

  • Special Categories of Personal Data: In very limited circumstances, and only where strictly necessary for legal or regulatory compliance (e.g., for anti-money laundering checks or accessibility requirements), we may collect information related to health or ethnic origin. We will always seek your explicit consent if we need to process such data.

  • Criminal Convictions and Offences Data: For anti-money laundering (AML) checks, we may process information relating to criminal convictions and offences. This is done strictly in accordance with legal requirements.

3. How Do We Collect Your Personal Data?

We collect data from and about you through various methods, including:

  • Direct Interactions: You may give us your Identity, Contact, and Financial Data by filling in forms, corresponding with us by post, phone, email, or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:

    • Enquire about properties for sale or rent.

    • Register your interest in a property or our services.

    • Instruct us to sell or let your property.

    • Engage our property management services.

    • Subscribe to our newsletters or marketing communications.

    • Provide feedback or contact us with queries.

  • Automated Technologies or Interactions: As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, Browse actions, and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. Please see our Cookie Policy for more details.

  • Third Parties or Publicly Available Sources: We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources, such as:

    • Property portals (e.g., Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket).

    • Referral partners (e.g., mortgage brokers, solicitors).

    • Professional service providers involved in property transactions (e.g., conveyancers, surveyors).

    • Anti-money laundering and credit reference agencies.

    • Publicly available sources such as the Land Registry, Companies House, and the Electoral Register.

4. How Do We Use Your Personal Data?

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • To provide our estate agency services, including:

    • Valuing, marketing, and selling properties.

    • Finding and matching properties for buyers.

    • Arranging viewings and negotiations.

    • Facilitating conveyancing and mortgage applications (through referrals).

  • To manage our relationship with you, including:

    • Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy.

    • Asking you to leave a review or take a survey.

  • To administer and protect our business and website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting, and hosting of data).

  • To deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you.

  • To use data analytics to improve our website, products/services, marketing, customer relationships, and experiences.

  • To make suggestions and recommendations to you about services that may be of interest to you.

  • To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, such as anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, consumer protection laws, and property ombudsman requirements.

5. Our Lawful Bases for Processing

Under the GDPR, we must have a lawful basis to process your personal data. We rely on the following lawful bases:

  • Performance of a Contract: Where we need to process your data to fulfil our contractual obligations to you (e.g., selling your property)

  • Legal Obligation: Where we need to process your data to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation (e.g., AML checks, record-keeping requirements).

  • Legitimate Interests: Where processing is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This includes activities such as:

    • Marketing our services to you (where consent is not required).

    • Improving our services and website.

    • Preventing fraud and ensuring security.

    • Debt collection.

    • Responding to enquiries and managing complaints.

  • Consent: In certain situations, we may ask for your explicit consent to process your personal data for a specific purpose (e.g., for sending marketing communications where required, or processing special categories of data). Where consent is the lawful basis, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

6. Who Do We Share Your Personal Data With?

We may share your personal data with the following categories of recipients:

  • Third-Party Service Providers:

    • Solicitors/Conveyancers: To facilitate property transactions.

    • Mortgage Brokers: If you request assistance with mortgage applications.

    • Surveyors and Valuers: For property assessments.

    • IT and System Administration Service Providers: For our IT infrastructure and support.

  • Property Portals: To advertise properties (e.g., Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket).

  • Prospective Buyers/Sellers/Landlords/Tenants: Anonymised or necessary details to facilitate viewings and negotiations.

  • HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), regulators, and other authorities: Who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.

  • Fraud Prevention Agencies and Law Enforcement: For anti-money laundering and fraud prevention purposes.

  • Potential Purchasers of Our Business: In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.

  • Ombudsman Services: In the event of a complaint, such as The Redress

Scheme.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

7. International Transfers

We primarily store and process your personal data within the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA).

If we transfer your personal data outside the UK or EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the UK or European Commission.

  • Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the UK or European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK/EEA.

  • Where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield or other equivalent schemes which require them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between the UK/EEA and the US.

8. Data Security

We have implemented appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors, and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

9. Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Generally, we will retain client files for a minimum of 6 years after the conclusion of the business relationship, to comply with anti-money laundering regulations and other legal obligations. Marketing data may be retained for shorter periods, or until you withdraw consent.

10. Your Legal Rights

Under data protection law, you have certain rights regarding your personal data. These include:

  • The right to be informed: About how we collect and use your personal data.

  • The right of access: To request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.

  • The right to rectification: To request that inaccurate or incomplete data we hold about you is corrected.

  • The right to erasure ("the right to be forgotten"): To request that we delete or remove your personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue processing it.

  • The right to restrict processing: To request that we suspend the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.

  • The right to data portability: To request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party.

  • The right to object: To our processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes.

  • Rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling: We do not currently use automated decision-making or profiling that would have a significant effect on you.

  • The right to withdraw consent: Where we are relying on consent to process your personal data.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided below. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

11. Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will post any new policy on our website and, where appropriate, notify you by email. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information.

13. How to Complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal data, you can make a complaint to us at support@forever-homes.co.uk or by calling us on 01226 447838

You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113 ICO website: www.ico.org.uk