Privacy Policy

Express Estate Agency Privacy Notice

Please read the following information carefully. This Privacy Notice details what personal data we collect and process and how we shall use it. This Privacy Notice applies to:

  • Customers and business contacts of Express Estate Agency.
  • Individuals whose data may be processed when visiting this website.
About Us

Express Estate Agency are a Private Limited Company registered in England and Wales with number 07914454. Its registered office is St Georges House, Peter Street, Manchester, England, M2 3NQ.

Express Estate Agency is a UK-based hybrid estate agency that blends traditional estate agency services with modern technology. Established in 2008, the company operates nationally, assisting clients in buying and selling properties across the UK.

Privacy and Data Protection are fundamental human rights, we respect every individual’s right to privacy and data protection, and to process their data in a way that is fair and lawful.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information we hold about you, please contact our Data Protection Officer at Compliance@expressestateagency.co.uk

or by letter to the Data Protection Officer, Express Estate Agency, St George's House, 56 Peter Street, Manchester, M2 3NQ.

If it would be helpful to have this notice provided in another format, please let us know.

How to Make a Complaint

If you believe that your data protection rights may have been breached, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the applicable supervisory authority or seek redress through the courts. The UK supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office who can be contacted by calling 0303 123 1113 or by visiting their website at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We continually review our Privacy Notice and update it where necessary. We advise that you regularly check our Privacy Notice for updates. We do not wish to bother you with lots of minor amendments, but where we make significant changes to our policy, we may contact you to inform you.If you require this information in a different format please contact us at Compliance@expressestateagency.co.uk

Your Data Protection Rights

You have rights under UK data protection law in relation to the personal data we hold about you. These include the right to:

  • Request access to your personal data (a “data subject access request” or DSAR), allowing you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and certain supplementary information.
  • Request rectification of inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
  • Request erasure of your personal data, where there is no lawful reason for us to continue processing it.
  • Object to processing of your personal data, in certain circumstances, including where we process your data for direct marketing purposes.
  • Request restriction of processing, where:
    • you contest the accuracy of the data;
    • the processing is unlawful but you do not want the data erased;
    • we no longer need the data but you require it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
    • you have objected to processing and we are considering whether our legitimate grounds override your rights.
  • Request data portability, allowing you to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or to have it transferred to another organisation where technically feasible.
  • Withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent as our lawful basis for processing. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

Further information about your rights is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

How to Exercise Your Rights

To exercise any of your rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer:

Email: Compliance@expressestateagency.co.uk

Post: Data Protection Officer, Express Estate Agency, St George’s House, 56 Peter Street, Manchester, M2 3NQ

You do not need to use a specific form and your request does not need to mention data protection law to be valid.

How We Handle Data Subject Access Requests

We aim to respond to all valid requests within one month of receipt.

Where a request is complex or you have made multiple requests, we may extend this period by up to a further two months. If we do so, we will notify you and explain why.

Identity verification

We may ask you to provide information to confirm your identity before responding. This is to ensure personal data is not disclosed to someone who is not entitled to receive it.

Clarifying your request

If your request is unclear or very broad, we may ask you to clarify or narrow the scope of your request. Where this happens, the response timeframe will be paused until we receive clarification.

Reasonable and proportionate searches

We will carry out reasonable and proportionate searches for personal data in response to your request. This means we will take into account the nature of the request, the systems used, and the practical effort involved, in line with ICO guidance.

Fees, Refusals and Exemptions

You will not usually have to pay a fee to exercise your rights.

However, where a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, particularly if it is repetitive, we may:

  • charge a reasonable fee to cover administrative costs; or
  • refuse to act on the request.

Where we refuse a request, we will explain our reasons and inform you of your right to complain to the ICO.

Certain exemptions may apply under data protection law, for example where disclosure would prejudice the prevention or detection of crime, breach legal privilege, or infringe the rights and freedoms of others.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your request or believe your data protection rights have been breached, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office:

ICO helpline: 0303 123 1113

Website: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public

Keeping Your Data Secure

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used/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 for specified purposes, 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.

How Long Will We Store Your Personal Data?

We maintain retention schedules which define the periods for which we will store your personal data. We will only store personal data for as long as we have a legitimate need to retain it, either for statutory/legal reasons or because we need the data to be able to provide you with services or for other legitimate business needs.

When we no longer need this information, we will anonymise your data and/or dispose of it securely. A copy of our retention schedule is available by request to the DPO.

International Transfers of Personal Data

We are a UK-based organisation and primarily process personal data within the United Kingdom.

However, in some circumstances, it may be necessary for us or our service providers to transfer personal data outside the UK. Where personal data is transferred outside the UK and the destination country is not subject to UK adequacy regulations, this is known as a restricted transfer under UK data protection law.

Safeguards for international transfers

Before making any restricted transfer, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data and your rights. These safeguards may include:

  • transferring personal data to countries that have been recognised by the UK Government as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data; or
  • putting in place approved contractual safeguards, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, together with any supplementary measures required.
Transfer risk assessments

Where required, we carry out a transfer risk assessment, applying the UK data protection test to assess whether your personal data will continue to be protected to a standard essentially equivalent to that under UK data protection law. If we cannot ensure an appropriate level of protection, the transfer will not take place.

Further information

You can contact us using the details set out in this Privacy Notice if you would like further information about:

  • whether your personal data is transferred outside the UK; or
  • the safeguards we rely on for specific transfer
Automated decision-making. 

Automated decision-making is the process of making a decision by automated means without any human involvement. We do not currently process your personal data in this manner.

The Data We Collect About You

Personal data means any information that can identify you. We only collect personal data that is necessary for our services. We periodically review and delete data we no longer need

Depending on your relationship with us and the services you use, we may collect and process the following types of personal data:

  • Contact Data – such as your name, address, email address, telephone number and contact preferences.
  • Financial Data – information needed to provide services, process payments or meet legal obligations, including transaction and compliance-related financial information
  • Contractual Data – details of the products or services we provide, including agreements, instructions and service history.
  • Communications Data - records of emails, calls, messages, letters and other communications with us.
  • Usage Data – information about how you use our website, systems or services, including technical or usage data collected via cookies or similar technologies, where permitted.
  • Publicly Available Data – information obtained from public registers or other lawful public sources where relevant.
  • Identity and Verification Data – documents used to verify your identity or meet legal requirements, such as passports, driving licences or proof of address, where required.
  • Professional Data – information about your occupation or professional role where relevant to our services.
  • National Identifiers – government-issued identifiers, such as National Insurance or passport numbers, where strictly necessary for legal or regulatory purposes.
How we use your personal data:
Express Estate Agency processes your Personal Data for the following purpose:
Contract
  • Provide, manage, and fulfil products and services. (Contract)
  • Process and manage customer payments and fees. (Contract)
  • Communicate with customers to fulfil contractual obligations. (Contract)
  • Exercise contractual rights. (Contract)
Legal obligation
  • Communicate as required by law. (Legal Obligation)
  • Conduct fraud prevention, AML and credit checks. (Legal Obligation)
  • Respond to data protection rights requests. (Legal Obligation)
  • Prevent, detect and investigate crime and fraud where required by law. (Legal Obligation)
  • Maintain records and comply with statutory and regulatory obligations. (Legal Obligation)
Legitimate interests
  • General business communications. (Legitimate Interests)
  • Marketing similar products or services to existing customers, where permitted by law and subject to opt-out rights. (Legitimate Interests)
  • Identity verification. (Legitimate Interests)
  • Complaint handling and dispute resolution. (Legitimate Interests)
  • Debt recovery and enforcement of contractual rights. (Legitimate Interests)
  • Fraud prevention, security and risk management. (Legitimate Interests)
  • Data accuracy, internal analytics and service improvement. (Legitimate Interests)
Consent (where required)
  • Direct marketing where consent is required under PECR. (Consent)
  • Marketing through independent third-party partners where required. (Consent)
  • Sharing testimonials, reviews or case studies. (Consent)
  • Personalised online experience and use of non-essential cookies or tracking technologies. (Consent)
  • Market research activities where consent is required. (Consent)
  • Tracking email engagement where consent is required. (Consent)
Glossary Of Lawful Bases

Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject.

Consent means that you have provided us with a freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of your agreement to the processing of personal data.

Sharing Your Personal Data

We may share your personal data with the third parties such as: 

  • suppliers and those who process data on our behalf.
  • those to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice. 
  • Any entity to whom we are legally required or requested to make such disclosure by any court of competent jurisdiction or by any governmental, law enforcement agency or other regulatory authority.  

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. 

Selling your personal data

Express Estate Agency may choose to sell your personal data.

You have the Right to Object to us selling your personal data at any time and can do so by informing us by telephone, post, or email.

Where we choose to sell your information, we shall do so in the following circumstances:

  • Where we have your "Consent" to do so.
  • Where we have a "Legitimate Interest" to do so, including;
  • Where required for a proposed sale; reorganisation; transfer; financial arrangement; asset disposal; or any other transaction relating to our business and/or assets held by our organisation.