Privacy Policy

Privacy & Cookies Notice

 Introduction

Ashtons Holdings Ltd and its affiliates and subsidiaries (“Ashtons”, “we”, “us”, “our”) of 40 Gracechurch Street, London, EC3V 0BT jointly operate this website and are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This Privacy Notice (“this Notice”) sets out the basis on which any Personal Data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your Personal Data and how we will treat it.

The following Ashtons Holdings Ltd affiliates and subsidiaries are registered as Controllers in the UK with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”), with the following registration numbers:

·        Ashtons (Estate Agents) Limited (incorporating Aitchisons Residential Limited) - Z6786586

·        Ashtons Residential Lettings Limited - Z8383249

·        Ashtons (Land & New Homes) Limited - ZB358322

·        Ashtons (Commercial) Limited - ZB358301

·        Ashtons (Equestrian) Limited - ZB358332

As an information-led business, we place great importance on ensuring the quality, confidentiality, integrity and availability of the data we hold and in meeting our data protection obligations when processing Personal Data. We are committed to protecting the security of your Personal Data. We use a variety of technical and organisational measures to help protect your Personal Data from unauthorised access, use or disclosure.

We update this Notice from time to time in response to changes in applicable laws and regulations, to our processing practices and to the products and services we offer. When changes are made, we will update the date at the top of this document. Please review this Notice periodically to check for updates.

What information do we process?

We may collect and process the following Personal Data:

Information you give us. You may give us information about you by filling in forms on our website www.ashtons.co.uk (“our site”) or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you:

·        search for a property;

·        list your own property;

·        request a valuation on our site;

·        enter a competition, promotion or survey; or

·        when you report a problem with our site.

Information we collect about you. With regard to each of your visits to our site, we may automatically collect technical information, including:

·        the IP address used to connect your computer to the internet;

·        your login information;

·        your browser type and version;

·        your time-zone setting;

·        your browser plug-in types and versions; and

·        your operating system and platform.

We may also collect other information about your visit, including:

·        the full URL clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time);

·        properties you viewed or searched;

·        page response times;

·        download errors;

·        length of visits to certain pages;

·        page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks and mouse-overs);

·        methods used to browse away from the page; and

·        any phone number used to call us.

Information we receive from other sources. We may receive information about you from any other websites we operate or the other services we provide and from other third parties including:

·        business partners;

·        sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services;

·        advertising networks;

·        analytics providers;

·        search information providers; and

·        credit reference agencies.

We use the information held about you in the following ways:

Information you give to us. We will use this information to:

·        carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;

·        to provide you with the information and services that you request from us;

·        to inform property owners of your interest;

·        to store your property preferences and search criteria so that we may contact you with details of properties which may be of interest to you;

·        to provide details of your property to interested parties if you ask us to provide property marketing services (which we will display on our site, at our offices, in marketing emails and on information sheets we produce to market your property);

·        to provide you with information about other services we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about;

·        to provide you with information about services we feel may interest you. If you are an existing customer, we will only contact you by electronic means (e-mail or SMS) with information about services similar to those which were the subject of a previous sale or negotiation of a sale to you; and

·        to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.

Information we collect about you. We will use this information:

·        to administer our site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;

·        to improve our site to ensure content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;

·        to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;

·        as part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure;

·        to measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you; and

·        to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our site about goods or services that may interest you or them.

Information we receive from other sources. We may combine this information with information you give us and information we collect about you. We may use this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive).

Information about our use of Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us provide you with a good experience when you browse our site and also allows us to improve our site.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer, if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to the hard drive on your computer.

We use the following cookies:

·        Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services;

·        Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily;

·        Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region); and

·        Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

The individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them are listed in the table below:

Please note that third parties (including advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

To learn more about cookies and what you can do to opt out of receiving them, please visit https://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

Purposes and bases for processing your Personal Data

We use the principal of 'Legitimate Interest' as the lawful basis for collecting and processing incoming Personal Data and subsequent ongoing communication regarding property-related matters. Separately, where we approach our clients for cross-selling any products or services, or where we may pass on non-property-related information, we use the principle of 'Consent' as the lawful basis to conduct business.  It is easy to withdraw consent (opt-out) by unsubscribing from the communication emailed to you or by emailing privacy@ashtons.co.uk with your request.

Sharing your Personal Data

We may share your Personal Data with:

·        any member of our group, which means our ultimate holding company, its affiliates and subsidiaries (as defined in section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006.)

We may share your Personal Data with selected third parties including:

·        individuals or organisations interested in a property you own if you ask us to provide property marketing services;

·        individuals or organisations who own a property if you indicate to us that you are interested in that particular property;

·        business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with you;

·        advertisers and advertising networks that require the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you and others; and

·        analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site.

We may share your Personal Data with third parties:

·        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;

·        if Ashtons (Estate Agents) Limited, Ashtons Residential Lettings Limited, Aitchisons Residential Limited or substantially all or any of those company’s assets are acquired by a third party, in which case Personal Data held by that company about its customers will be one of the transferred assets; and

·        if we are under a duty to disclose or share your Personal Data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Ashtons (Estate Agents) Limited, Ashtons Residential Lettings Limited, Aitchisons Residential Limited, our customers, or others.

This also includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud prevention and credit risk reduction.

Personal Data storage and retention.

The data we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination within the United Kingdom (“UK”). It may also be processed by staff operating within the UK who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff may be engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of any services you request from us, the processing of your payment details and the provision of general support services. By submitting your Personal Data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy notice.

Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

We will retain your Personal Data for as long as is necessary to provide you with our products and ongoing services and for a reasonable period thereafter, to enable us to meet our contractual and legal obligations and to deal with complaints and claims.

At the end of the retention period, your Personal Data will be securely deleted in accordance with our Personal Data Retention Policy.

Your rights

The UK GDPR provides you with certain rights in relation to the processing of your Personal Data, including to:

·        Request access to Personal Data about you (a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the Personal Data we hold about you and to check that we are processing it lawfully;

·        Request rectification, correction, or updating of any Personal Data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected;

·        Request Personal Data provided by you to be transferred in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format;

·        Request erasure of Personal Data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove Personal Data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove Personal Data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below);

·        Request the restriction of processing of your Personal Data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of Personal Data about you (e.g., if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it); and

·        Object to the processing of your Personal Data in certain circumstances. This right may apply where the processing of your Personal Data is based on our legitimate interests.

Some of these rights are not absolute and are subject to various conditions under applicable data protection and privacy legislation, laws, and regulations to which we are subject. If at any time you decide that you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, or if you would like to exercise any of your rights as set out above, you can contact us at privacy@ashtons.co.uk.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your Personal Data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

In addition to the above, please note that you have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you are concerned about the way in which we are handling your Personal Data.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy and cookies notice are welcomed and should be addressed to privacy@ashtons.co.uk. 

Last Updated: 1st November 2023