Mervyn Smith & Co are very aware of the importance of the privacy of our clients. We are aware of our responsibilities and obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and we will try to act in the spirit of the regulation.
Property sales and lettings is a type of business where there is an interchange of information and we collect personal details when people contact us. This may be, for example, when you want to arrange viewings or valuations or to register with us as potential vendors or purchasers. It is certainly not our intention to host any superfluous information and we respect all our clients’ privacy. Our policy will advise you how we collect and use the personal information that you supply us with. We are though obliged to state that by submitting your data to us, it is implied that you have given us your permission to use your data under the terms of our policy. But can we give you three major assurances. Firstly, we have no links on our website to any third-party websites, plug ins or applications which may allow third parties to collect or share personal data. Secondly, we do not use our clients’ details to market any services to you other than our core functions of selling and letting properties, and we certainly do not pass on client details to any third party for any postal, email or telephone marketing. Thirdly, Mervyn Smith have a company policy not to pass on our clients’ details to any third-party services from which we will derive any money. We will happily recommend solicitors, surveyors, house clearers, asbestos removers etc to you, - but only if you ask us to, - and we won’t recommend people because they are paying us. We will only recommend people we find in our experience are likely to provide you with a good service.
We collect personal details, which might include telephone numbers, address and e-mail, so that we can correspond with our vendors and landlords in the normal way and to keep buyers and tenants up to date with property information or to progress their ongoing tenancies, purchases or offers. For the security of our staff and our vendors, we will request that you provide your name, postal address and phone number if you wish to arrange to view any of our properties. In the event that you wish to make an offer to rent or purchase one of our properties then there may be further details that we request at that point. In some cases, such as your right to rent, we are legally obliged to ask for information from you. When we are instructed to market a property, we are legally obliged to ask for personal identification from the owners of the property under anti money laundering legislation. In other cases, we will be obliged to ask clients for personal details because we have a legitimate interest to do so. For example, if a potential purchaser makes an offer to buy one of our properties based on them obtaining mortgage finance, we may request sight of a mortgage agreement in principle. We trust you will understand this is not meant to be intrusive but is part of a due diligence process when assessing the viability of an offer on our vendors behalf.
In most cases we collect information directly from you. We do not pay for any private information from commercial databases. We do though gather some information that is already in the public domain. For instance, we often look at records on the Richmond and Kingston Borough planning databases which may contain some details of you and your property. We may download details from the Land Registry database. We may have your contact details passed on to us by a third party such as a solicitor. If you are a prospective landlord or tenant, then your details may have been passed onto us by our associate lettings partner company Carter Jonas.
We do not pass or sell on any client details or contacts to any third party except with your express permission and this will usually be on an individual case by case basis. For example, we may ask our tenants if they agree we can give their phone number to a tradesperson who is going to attend their property. We may ask our vendors if it is all right to pass on their email address and phone number to our photographer. In all other regards, your details as a buyer or seller can only be accessed by Mervyn Smith staff. When you are a landlord or tenant, or a prospective landlord or tenant, then we may pass on your details to our associate lettings partner company Carter Jonas. Carter Jonas also have their own rigorous privacy policy which can be viewed here: https://www.carterjonas.co.uk/policies
You also have the right to be told what data we hold about you. You can request this by writing to Stanley Shaw at:
Mervyn Smith & Co.
315 Richmond Rd
Kingston-Upon-Thames
KT2 5QU
There are very rare occasions when requests for information are made of us which supersede the requirements of data protection. The obvious instance of this would be a request in relation to criminal activity, where we may be obliged to divulge personal details in relation to an investigation.
We will take all reasonable steps to keep any details secure and free from unauthorised access, by use of technology and internal systems which will be updated as new technology becomes available and is appropriate to our systems. We are of course always aware both of the sensitivity of client data and the potential for intrusion into our IT systems, and we do protect our network with business strength anti-virus software installed and monitored by our IT consultants. We also strive to keep any paper records as safe as practically possible in the office environment and to securely shred any redundant records. We are by obliged by our insurers to keep some records for a fixed term after sales have been completed and these records are kept in secure storage.
We retain client details until such time as you ask for them to be removed, or until we delete them ourselves, which in most cases will be when client activity ceases. For example, we routinely ask potential purchasers who have registered with us if they are still looking to buy or not, and we delete contact details if the clients say their search has finished. We delete the names and contact details of clients who register looking for property but have made no further response to information or contact from us. Should you suspend or finish looking for properties through Mervyn Smith, or change your search criteria, you can at any time request that we amend or delete your details from our system by calling us on 020 8549 5099 or dropping us an email at info@mervynsmith.com.
We are though obliged to keep certain files and records for a certain time period when clients have bought or sold through us. We endeavour to keep these records as secure as practically possible and we do not pass or sell on any client details to any third party without their express permission.
In the unlikely event that you have a complaint about the way in which your details are used or stored by this company, please contact info@mervynsmith.com or write Stanley Shaw at:
Mervyn Smith & Co.
315 Richmond Rd
Kingston-Upon-Thames
KT2 5QU
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