Privacy Policy

We are committed to protecting your privacy and this Privacy Notice summarises what we do with the personal data that we collect from you. We only process your data if it is fair and lawful to do so and is in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that came into force in May 2018.


What information do we collect about you?

During the course of our activities we will collect, store and process personal information/data about our staff, customers, suppliers and other third parties. Personal data or personal information means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified.

We will collect data that you provide to us electronically, in paper format, in conversation or automatically through your use of the website; for example

  • Personal details (Name, address, email address, telephone number, copies of identification documents)

  • Payment information (bank details)

  • Professional information (includes information we may collect in the course of providing our services to you)

  • Information required to comply with legislation

  • Communication and marketing preferences

Technical data includes internet protocol (IP) address, browser type, time and location gathered from the devices you use to access our website using Cookies. The information collected is used to improve our website usability and is stored and used for aggregated and statistical reporting.

We also collect data provided by third parties in the course of providing our services to you.

We also collect and use information that we generate internally for statistical purposes.


We do not normally collect or store sensitive personal data about you such as race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, disabilities. Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences. However should this occur we will take care to ensure that your privacy rights are protected.


Telephone recording

We may record telephone calls for training and security purposes. Where we do record telephone calls, you will be informed at the beginning of the call. Recordings will be kept no longer than necessary and in general information collected in such a fashion is for our internal use only.


If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to facilitate the process of providing you with a rental property). In this case, we may have to cancel a service you have or hope to have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.


How we use the information about you?

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 make contact with you for the first time (for example, where you have made an enquiry to our offices);

  • to provide you with information about our range of services or details as to the properties we have on offer

  • where we need to perform the services and/or contract with you) including sharing the data with a third party with your consent

  • where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests; and

  • where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.


Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending direct marketing communications or referring you to third parties who provide complementary services that may be of interest to you, but this will only be with your explicit consent and in accordance with your communication preferences. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting the Data Protection Officer, Agent Hitchin Limited, 41 Hermitage Rd, Hitchin SG5 1BY.


Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact Data Protection Officer, Agent Hitchin Limited, 41 Hermitage Rd, Hitchin SG5 1BY.


Disclosure of your Personal Data

We may have to share your personal data with third parties for the purposes of performing the services and/or contract that we are about to enter into or have entered into with you; for example

  • Companies for the purpose of undertaking credit reference checks

  • Landlords or tenants where it is necessary in performance of the service and/or contract agreed to

  • Other companies within the Beard Group in order for that company to carry out any of the services/obligations referred to above.

  • Third parties providing complementary services but only with your explicit consent.

  • If a change happens in the ownership of our business then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.


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.


Agent Hitchin Limited is registered under the Data Protection Act, number Z1658653


Beard Group

The Beard Group consists of;

  • Cooper Beard Estate Agency Limited

  • Agent Hitchin Limited (t/as Stonegate Estates)

  • Cooper Beard Estate Agency (Rushden) Limited (t/as Mike Neville)

  • Charles Ross Fine Art Auctioneers Limited

  • Charles Ross Auctioneers Limited (t/as Holloway’s)

  • Melissa Willars EPC Limited

  • Beard and Ayers Limited


Data Security

We have put in place 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.


Data Retention

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


Your Legal Rights

We aim to ensure that you remain in control of your personal data, and you have the following legal rights:

  • The right to be informed about our collection and use of your personal information

  • The right to request access to your personal data and to request a copy of that information (this is known as a subject access request)

  • The right to ask us to delete any personal information held about you where it is no longer necessary for JBA to retain such data or to process such data unless we are obliged to retain the information for other legal reasons

  • The right to have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected, although we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us

  • The right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your data at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent

  • The right to object to the use of your data for particular purposes

  • The right to change or withdraw your consent to receive marketing communications from us;

  • The right to data portability (obtaining a copy of your data to re-use with another service provider or organisation)

  • The right to make a complaint


If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact Data Protection Officer, Agent Hitchin Limited, 41 Hermitage Rd, Hitchin SG5 1BY. 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 is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.


What we may need from you;

  • 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.


Cookie Policy

Our website uses cookies, as almost all websites do, to help provide you with the best experience we can. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile phone when you browse websites.


We use cookies to make our website work including:

• Determining if you are logged in or not

• Remembering your search settings

• Showing you which pages you have recently visited

• Improving the speed/security of the site

• Allowing you to share pages with social networks like Facebook

• Collecting standard internet log and visitor behaviour information

• Completing statistical reports on website activity


We do not use cookies to:

• Collect any personally identifiable information (without your express permission)

• Collect any sensitive information (without your express permission)

• Pass data to advertising networks

• Pass personally identifiable data to third parties

• Pay commissions


Granting us permission to use cookies

If the settings on your software that you are using to view our website (your browser) are adjusted to accept cookies we take this, and your continued use of our website, to mean that you agree to this. You can usually switch cookies off by adjusting your browser settings to stop it from accepting cookies however doing so will probably limit the functionality of our website so that it will not work as you would expect.


Other websites

This Policy applies only to your use of our website. The website may contain links to other websites. Please note that we have no control over how your data is collected, stored, or used by other websites and we advise you to check the policies of any such websites before providing any data to them.


Complaints

In the first instance if you have a complaint about the use of your personal data please write to Data Protection Officer, Agent Hitchin Limited, 41 Hermitage Rd, Hitchin SG5 1BY. We will address your concerns and attempt to solve the problem to your satisfaction. If you are not happy with our response you can complain to the UK Information Commissioners Office which regulates and enforces data protection law in the UK. Details of how to do this can be found at www.ico.org.uk


Changes to our policy

We keep our privacy notice under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page. This privacy notice was last updated on 17th August 2018.