Privacy Policy – Crown Home Buying & Letting (CHBL)

At Crown Home Buying & Letting (CHBL), we are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring that your personal data is handled securely and lawfully. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information when you visit our website, communicate with us, or use our services.

This Privacy Policy should be read alongside our Terms of Website Use and Cookie Policy. We may update this Policy periodically, so please review it from time to time.

1. Information We Collect

Sources of Information

We collect personal data from various sources, including:

Directly from you when you contact us by phone, email, or in person.
When you fill out an online enquiry or booking form on our website.
Automatically when you visit our website through cookies and tracking technologies.

Types of Information Collected

Depending on your interactions with us, we may collect the following personal data:

Contact details – Name, address, phone number, and email address.
Website usage data – IP address, browser type, and pages visited.
Financial information – Payment details for property transactions.
Property preferences – Information related to your property search or listing.

2. Lawful Basis for Processing Personal Data

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018, we must have a legal basis to process your personal data. We rely on the following lawful bases:

Contractual necessity – When processing is required to fulfil a contract with you.
Legal obligation – When we are required to process data by law.
Legitimate interest – Where processing is necessary for our business operations and does not override your rights.
Consent – When you have given explicit permission for us to use your data for marketing or other purposes.

3. How We Use Your Information

Your personal data may be used for the following purposes:

To communicate with you – via email, phone, or post.
To process transactions – such as property sales, rentals, or financial transactions.
To provide personalised services – based on your property interests.
To send marketing materials – with your consent, about relevant properties or services.
To comply with legal obligations – including fraud prevention and regulatory requirements.
To improve our website – by understanding user behaviour through cookies.

4. Data Security & Storage

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from loss, misuse, or unauthorised access. However, while we strive to protect your data, the transmission of information over the internet is never completely secure, and any transmission is at your own risk.

Data Storage Duration

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes outlined in this Policy.
If we have acted for you in a property transaction, we may retain certain information for at least six years in compliance with regulatory and insurance requirements.

5. Sharing Your Information

We do not sell or rent your data to third parties. However, we may share your personal data in the following cases:

With your consent – when you authorise us to do so.
With service providers – such as IT support, marketing agencies, or payment processors under strict confidentiality agreements.
To comply with legal obligations – including fraud prevention, money laundering regulations, or law enforcement requests.

6. Your Data Protection Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights:

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 (‘Right to be Forgotten’) – Request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restrict processing – Ask us to limit how we use your data.
Right to object – Object to the use of your data for direct marketing or legitimate interests.
Right to data portability – Request that we transfer your data to another organisation.
Right to withdraw consent – If we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

To exercise these rights, please contact us at info@chbl.uk. We will respond within one month.

7. Cookies & Third-Party Links

We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience. You can manage your cookie preferences via your browser settings.

Our website may contain links to third-party sites (e.g., LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook). These websites have their own privacy policies, and we do not accept any responsibility for their content.

See our full Cookie Policy here: https://www.chbl.uk/en/article/cookies

8. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in legislation or business operations. The latest version will always be available on our website.