Privacy Policy

Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains:

Who we are
How we collect data
What data we collect
How we use it
Who we share it with
How long we retain it
International transfers
Lawful basis
Your rights
Security
Updating your information

We keep this Policy under regular review. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy and will post the changes on this page so we recommend you check this page regularly to keep up to date.

Who we are

For the purposes of data protection law, Bourne Estate Agents Limited is the data controller responsible for the processing of your personal data.

The below wording outlines the general meanings of phrases within this policy:

We / Us / Our: Bourne Estate Agents Limited
You / Your: A user of the website or our services
The Website: bourneestateagents.com and any extension of
You can contact us for any purpose relating to this Privacy Policy by contacting us at data@bourneestateagents.com or write to us at Data Protection Dept, Bourne Estate Agents, 72a High Street, Alton, Hampshire, GU34 1ET

About Bourne Estate Agents Limited
Bourne Estate Agents is a trading name of Bourne Estate Agents Limited whose registered number is 05365647 and registered office is:

BOURNE ESTATE AGENTS LIMITED
4 RIVERVIEW, WALNUT TREE CLOSE
GUILDFORD
SURREY
GU1 4UX
 
How do we collect personal information about you?
We obtain personal information about you which you provide to us through our website, mobile sites, emails, phone conversations, documents you provide to us or when you visit one of our branches, for example when you:

• Enquire about specific properties for sale or for rent
• Ask us to value your property
• Register for our email newsletters
• Register for additional property services/alerts
• Liaise with us on property management matters
• Participate in one of our surveys
• Interact with us on our social media sites

Where you share personal information about another person/s with Bourne Estate Agents you must ensure you have that person’s consent to do so. This applies to the disclosure and processing of their data and you should obtain their permission in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy.

We also obtain personal information relating to you using automated technical means when you visit our website.

What type of personal information is collected?
The information we collect from you might include (but is not limited to) your name, address, email address, phone number, date of birth, identification documents, property status and financial details and any other information you choose to provide to us. The information we ask you for allows us to provide you with relevant services, information and content.

We do not knowingly collect or use any personal data for anyone under the age of 18 years.

Information we collect from your use of our website
When you visit our website we will automatically collect technical information, such as the internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your device to the internet location of where you connected to our service, your internet service provider (ISP) and the type of device you are using to access our service.

We also place ‘cookies’ on your computer or device – please see our Cookie Policy for more information. Additionally, we collect information about which website pages are accessed, page response times and length of visits to pages. We use Google Analytics to help understand how our website site is being used and to improve the user experience.

Data collected through analytics tools is typically aggregated and used to analyse website usage
and you can find out more about Google’s position on privacy by visiting their Privacy Policy.

How do we use your personal information?
We may use the information you provide to us in ways listed below and may use your name, address and contact details for the purpose of:

Contracts and service delivery

• carrying out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and Bourne Estate Agents, such as providing you with services you have requested, including but not limited to visiting and arranging viewings of your property.
• administering and managing a contractual relationship where you are party to an existing contract with us or regularly enter into contracts with us for our services, to notify you of changes to the terms and conditions of our services.
• asking for your feedback about the services we have provided to you where you have entered into a contract with us or we have provided you with services, to help us evaluate and improve the quality of our services, with a view to promoting the success of our business and positive customer relationships.

Enquiries

• providing you with information you have requested from us, responding to enquiries or requests from you, communicating with you in relation to those enquiries or requests and arranging visits to your property by our staff.
• providing you with information regarding similar goods and services to those you have already enquired about or purchased with a legal basis of legitimate interests, in the ongoing marketing of our services where we have an existing relationship in connection with our services and/or to those who have expressed an interest in those services,

Property valuation enquiries:

• Where you request a property valuation or market appraisal from us, we may contact you to arrange the appointment, provide valuation advice and follow up regarding potential property sales or lettings services related to that request.
• We may also contact you after the valuation to provide market updates or information about our services where we believe these may be relevant to you. Our legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests in responding to your enquiry and providing property services you have requested.
• Where you use an online property valuation tool on our website, the information you submit may be used to provide an estimated valuation and to contact you with further information about property services related to that request.

Call recording:

• for training, monitoring, and quality assurance purposes.
• This could involve the use of a third-party platform, which may analyse general call data to help us improve service delivery and enhance our overall customer experience.
• not all calls are recorded

Marketing communications:

• sending you marketing communications which may include information about properties for rent or for sale, the current property market, promotions or offers.
• Where you have previously enquired about or used our services we may contact you with information about similar services that may be of interest to you. This is sometimes referred to as the “soft opt-in” under electronic marketing regulations. Our legal basis for this use is legitimate interests or consent, depending on how we obtained your details.
• You can opt out of marketing communications at any time by using the unsubscribe link in our emails or contacting us directly.

Anti-Money Laundering

• We may use your identification documents and proof of residence to verify your identity for Anti-Money Laundering purposes. We reserve the right to utilise the services of a third party electronic verification company for the purposes of verifying identity.
• We may carry out verification checks on landlords and other parties involved in property transactions in order to comply with Anti-Money Laundering regulations and other legal obligations.
• Our legal basis for this processing is compliance with a legal obligation and our legitimate interests in preventing fraud and ensuring the security of our systems.

Tenant referencing and due diligence

• Where you apply to rent a property through us, we may share your personal data with tenant referencing providers, credit reference agencies and other relevant third parties in order to assess your suitability as a tenant and to carry out identity, credit and affordability checks.
• We may process identification documents to comply with immigration and “Right to Rent” requirements.
• Checks may include verification of identity, credit history, employment status and previous rental history. Our legal basis for this processing is the performance of a contract, compliance with legal obligations and our legitimate interests in ensuring properties are let responsibly.

We may use the information which we automatically collect using technical means through our website to:

• Administer our site and for troubleshooting, testing, research and statistical purposes. We use Google Analytics, a third-party website monitoring tool. Our legal basis for this is our legitimate interests, namely monitoring the use of our software and IT systems, improving our website.
• Measure or understand the effectiveness of our own advertising activity. Our legal basis for this use is our legitimate interests, namely improving the relevancy of our advertising;
• Measure or understand the effectiveness of our marketing emails which may be through third party software and data processors. Our legal basis for this use is consent.
• This automated collection of information may involve the use of cookies. Please see our Cookie Policy for further details.
• We may analyse the personal information we collect directly from you and obtained using automated technical means to create a profile of your interests and preferences so we can contact you with information relevant to you.
• We may use automated systems to match your property requirements with available properties or to identify potential buyers or tenants for a property.
• We may also use any of the personal information we collect from you directly along with additional information about you from external sources, where necessary to detect and reduce fraud and credit risk. These sources include, but are not limited to, HM Land Registry, credit referencing agencies and Anti-Money Laundering

Who has access to information?
Bourne Estate Agents commit to keeping your personal information confidential and safe and we will not sell or rent your information to third parties.

We may pass your information to third party service providers, including but not limited to:

• Business partners, subsidiaries, utility providers, local authorities, deposit protection scheme providers, suppliers and sub-contractors working on our behalf for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you, such as (but not limited to) EPCs, floorplans, surveys, investigation, specialist advice and service suppliers who carry out works required in line with any contract we enter into with you.
• Advertisers and advertising networks (including social media) to select and serve relevant adverts to you;
• We may also share your information with property portals, customer relationship management systems, marketing platforms and software providers used to manage property marketing, applicant matching and communications.
• Our employees, agents, contractors and third party suppliers may have access to personal information which we hold for you, however, their use of your data will be restricted to the service they are being asked to provide to you. Anyone who has access to your personal data is expected to treat it confidentially and are not permitted to use it for any reason other than to provide the service requested. We will take reasonable measures to prevent loss or mis-use of any data.
• We may disclose your information to any party we have a commercial relationship with for the purposes of auditing, accounting and quality assurance purposes.
• We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group of companies (this means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and all its subsidiaries) insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.
• We may disclose your personal information to our insurers and /or professional advisers insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes of obtaining and maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, obtaining professional advice and managing complaints or legal disputes.
• We may also receive personal data about you from property portals and property advertising platforms where you submit an enquiry about a property marketed by us. This information typically includes your name, contact details and details of the property you are interested in so that we can respond to your enquiry.
• Where you enquire about a property through a property portal, the portal provider may also process your personal data in accordance with their own privacy policy.
• We may transfer your personal information to a third party as part of a sale of some or all of our business and assets, or as part of any business restructuring or reorganisation, or if we’re under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to enforce or apply our terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our customers. However, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.
• In some circumstances we may obtain personal data about you from another organisation as part of a sale, acquisition, merger or restructuring of a business, rather than directly from you. This may occur where we acquire or merge with another estate agency/letting agency or we purchase part of another business.
• The personal data obtained may include contact details, property requirements, transaction history or other information relevant to the services you previously received.
• We will process this information in accordance with applicable data protection laws and for purposes consistent with those for which it was originally collected, such as continuing to provide property services, managing existing relationships, or contacting you regarding relevant services.
• Where required by law we will inform you within a reasonable period that we hold your personal data and provide details of the source of the information.

In addition to the specific disclosures set out in this section, we may disclose your personal information where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person, or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative out-of-court procedure. This includes exchanging information with external organisations and companies for the prevention of money laundering and fraud protection.

Where we share your personal data with others we will make it necessary that they have in place relevant security measures to protect your personal data.

When we use third party service providers we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and otherwise use your information in accordance with applicable data protection law.

Information sent via the internet may not be secure. While we take reasonable steps to protect your data we cannot guarantee security of information sent through digital channels and your use of such channels is at your own risk.
 
How long do we retain your personal information?
Bourne Estate Agents review our retention periods for personal data on a regular basis and only keep your information for as long as necessary, where it is relevant to the purpose for which it was originally collected.

We are legally required to hold some types of information for certain prescribed periods to fulfil our statutory obligations. This is generally 7 years following our last contact with you.

Personal data relating to property transactions and financial records may be retained for up to 7 years to comply with legal and regulatory requirements including Anti-Money Laundering legislation. Other customer data may be retained for shorter periods depending on the purpose for which it was collected. We reserve the right to retain certain details for longer periods if it is lawful and we have a legitimate interest to do so.
 
Transfer of your data overseas
Some of our service providers may process personal data outside the United Kingdom. Where this occurs, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data in accordance with UK data protection law.

These safeguards may include transferring personal data to countries that have been recognised as providing an adequate level of data protection or using approved contractual protections such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) or other recognised transfer mechanisms.

We take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal data remains protected and handled securely wherever it is processed.

In some cases, our technology providers and cloud-based systems may store or process personal data in jurisdictions outside the United Kingdom as part of the services they provide to us.
 
We will process your information under the following lawful bases:

• Contractual – to manage a contractual relationship with you in order to fulfil certain transactions or contractual obligations
• Legal – to ensure compliance with legal obligations where we are required to collect, process or store personal data for specific periods of time
• Legitimate interests – we may process your information for purposes which might include (but are not limited to) due diligence, fraud, security, analytics and web monitoring, cloud storage, direct marketing and opt out management, customer record management and updating, financial services, sales, lettings and other services which may be relevant to you
• Public interest – information may be processed in accordance with public interest
• Vital interest – information may be processed in accordance with vital interests
• Consent – we will process your information on the basis that you have consented to such processing. For marketing purposes, where we gain your consent you have the right to opt out at any time.

Your rights and choices
In this section we have summarised the rights that you have under data protection law regarding your sensitive/personal information. Some of the rights are complex, applying only in certain circumstances and subject to certain exceptions, and in the interests of keeping this policy concise, not all of the details have been included in our summaries.

Accordingly, you should read the relevant laws and guidance from the regulatory authorities for a full explanation of these rights.

You may have the following rights:-

• To be informed about how we collect and use your personal information
• Access to personal information we hold about you by requesting a data subject access request. Proof of identity will be required before processing your request. We aim to respond to requests as quickly as possible and within the timeframes required under applicable data protection law.
• To update and correct any personal information we hold about you which you believe to be inaccurate or incomplete
• To ask us to delete any personal information unless we are legally obliged to retain the information for other reasons.
• To restrict or prevent the processing of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions
• To data portability eg for use of your data for another service or organisation
• To object to the use of your data for specific purposes
• To withdraw consent previously provided. Where we process your data under legitimate interests you can object at any time on legitimate grounds. If your right to remove consent is limited by local law or legal reasons we will inform you accordingly. When we collect your data, you can choose whether you wish to receive marketing communications from us. If you wish to stop receiving marketing communications, you can opt out at any time by clicking an ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of one of our emails. If you withdraw your consent, we will stop the relevant processing, but it will not affect the lawfulness of our processing before the withdrawal.

Security precautions to protect your information

• We take appropriate precautions to secure your personal information, for both technical and organisational purposes to prevent its loss, misuse or alteration. All information you provide to us is stored on secure servers.
• The transmission of unencrypted (or inadequately encrypted) data over the internet is inherently insecure, and for this reason we cannot guarantee the security of data sent between us over the internet.
• Access to personal data is restricted to authorised personnel who require it for legitimate business purposes.
• Where we share any personal data with others, they will only use it in accordance with our express instructions and will be expected to have appropriate security measures in place.

Updating your information
If you believe the personal data we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, we encourage you to contact us so we can update or correct the information promptly. In many cases this can be resolved quickly without the need to submit a formal data access request.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at data@bourneestateagents.com or write to us at Data Protection Dept, Bourne Estate Agents, 72a High Street, Alton, Hampshire, GU34 1ET. You can also exercise your right to remove consent for direct marketing at any time by clicking an ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of our emails.

We will retain a record of your request to exercise your rights, along with any responses to your request. This will enable us to demonstrate our compliance in line with data protection obligations. These records will be retained in accordance with our retention policies as outlined in this Policy.
 
Use of Cookies
Like many other businesses, our website and digital channels use cookies. It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. For more information on the Cookies we use, visit our Cookies Policy.

Links to other websites
Our Privacy Policy only applies to our own website. Our website may contain links to third party websites and we are not responsible for the privacy policies of those organisations or the content of their websites. You should read their privacy policies before providing them with any personal information.

Please also be aware that accessing our digital channels via social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Those sites may also collect and use personal information. Information from social media activity, including but not limited to, likes, shares, posts and tweets may be collected.
 
Further information
You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you believe your personal data has been processed in a way that does not comply with data protection law. Further information can be found at the ICO website ico.org.uk.

To raise an enquiry with us, please send via data@bourneestateagents.com or write to us at Data Protection Dept, Bourne Estate Agents, 72a High Street, Alton, Hampshire, GU34 1ET

This policy was updated on the 1st May 2026 and is reviewed annually.