PRIVACY POLICY

 

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

At Rettie we are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. This privacy notice tells you what to expect when the Rettie* collects personal information. Rettie Limited is data controller in respect of the personal data processed when you visit our website. If you have any questions or concerns in relation to this Privacy Notice you can contact our Data Protection Officer.

Our Privacy Policy applies to information we collect about:

• Legitimate Interests
• Visitors to our website
• People who use our services, e.g. who subscribe to our newsletters, live chat or request any information from Rettie
• Cookies
• Complainants and other individuals in relation to a complaint
• Job applicants and our current and former employees
• Other websites
• Security & performance

LEGITIMATE INTERESTS

Under the new data protection law starting in May 2018 we have a number of lawful reasons that we can use (or ‘process’) your personal information. One of the lawful reasons is called ‘legitimate interests’. Legitimate Interests means that we can process your personal information if:

• We have a genuine and legitimate reason and we are not harming any of your rights and interests

So, what does this mean? When you provide your personal details to us we use your information for our legitimate business interests to carry out our Estate Agency, Letting and Development Services work. Before doing this, though, we will also carefully consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights.

Some typical examples of when we might use Legitimate Interest are for direct marketing, preventing fraud, maintaining the security of our system, data analytics, enhancing, modifying or improving our services, identifying usage trends and determining the effectiveness of our campaigns.

Visitors to our websites

Rettie is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy and we pledge to handle your data fairly and legally at all times. Rettie is also dedicated to being transparent about what data we collect about you and how we use it. We have structured our website so that you can visit Rettie on the website without revealing yourself or any personal information.

When someone visits www.rettie.co.uk  we use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns.  We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is Aggregated Data and is processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

Once you choose to provide us with any information by which you can be identified, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

For your protection, we are registered under the Data Protection Act 2018 and have given all appropriate notifications to the Information Commissioner.

People who use our services

We may collect the following information:

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

Our employees  will usually follow up, by e-mail, phone or mail, with people who have requested information from the website.

Where an enquiry relates to a New Homes development, our New Homes team may share information with the developer client expressly for the purpose of responding to the enquiry. This We require that users supply personal information, including name, company (if applicable), address, telephone number and e-mail address prior to receiving specific corporate and information materials or where you submit an enquiry to us.

We may also ask you to provide us with information regarding your housing and contact preferences in order to provide you with further correspondence about the properties we have for sale/to let. The information is either needed to fulfil your request or to enable us to provide you with a more personalised service.

What do we do with the information we gather?

Information remains confidential as required by the UK Data Protection Act 2018.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us. You can ask us to rectify or update your personal information at any time by email to compliance@rettie.co.uk or write to The Data Protection Officer Rettie 4 Jamaica Street Edinburgh EH3 6DH

Disclosures of your Personal Data

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the “Purposes for which we will use your personal data” table above. We have agreements in place with our third parties that restrict their use of your personal data. We only allow third parties to use your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

External Third parties acting as processors in the United Kingdom who provide marketing, IT and system administration services, anti-money laundering service providers, tenancy deposit administrators and services to enable us to perform our contract with you.

Professional advisors acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the United Kingdom who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accountancy services.

HMRC, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances. 

Marketing

To enable us to periodically send promotional mail or e-mails about new properties or other information which we think you may find interesting or have requested we will use the address or e-mail address which you have provided.  

You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes.  If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, please click here or use the link on the bottom of our newsletter to unsubscribe or manage your preferences. If you do withdraw your consent, this will result in us ceasing to market goods and services to you.

Rettie also processes your data when it is in our Legitimate Interests to do this and when these interests do not override your rights. Those Legitimate Interests include providing you with information on our services, properties, property market research & updates and competitions. Please see the section on ‘Legitimate Interest’ for more information.

Web Banner Advertising

If you visit our website, you may receive personalised banner advertisements whilst browsing other websites.  Any banner advertisements you see will relate to products you have viewed whilst browsing our website on your computer or other devices. 

These advertisements are provided by Rettie via market leading specialist providers using ‘cookies’ placed on your computer or other devices (see further information on the use of cookies in our Cookie Policy).  You can remove or disable cookies at any time.

We use a variety of digital marketing networks and ad exchanges, and a range of advertising technologies like pixels, ad tags, cookies, and mobile identifiers, as well as specific services offered by some sites and social networks, such as Facebook’s Custom Audience service.

Using your information to help prevent terrorism and crime

The Government also requires us to verify the identities of and complete due diligence on all our customers.to ensure we are complying with the international fight against terrorism and other criminal activities.  We are aware that the real estate industry is a target for organised criminals seeking to launder the proceeds of criminal activity. We always seek to prevent this activity by cooperating fully with the authorities and reporting suspicious activity to the National Crime Agency.

As part of this commitment, we adopt a strict compliance of all Anti-Money Laundering rules, with specific emphasis on the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, the Bribery Act 2010 and the Terrorism Act 2000.

As a result of this we may need to disclose information to government bodies.

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unrelated to your enquiry unless we are required to do so by law.

Data Security

Once we have received your personal data we will use reasonable and necessary procedures and security features to try and prevent unauthorised access. For example, we limit who can access your personal data to those individuals and third parties who need to know it and who are subject to a duty of confidentiality. If we become aware of a data breach we will notify the Information Commissioner’s Office. If we believe that the data breach is serious, we may notify you in accordance with our legal requirements.

Your rights

Under the Data Protection Act 2018, you have rights as an individual which you can exercise in relation to the information we hold about you.

Access to personal information

Rettie tries to be as open as it can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. Individuals can find out if we hold any personal information by making a ‘subject access request’ under the Data Protection Act 2018. If we do hold information about you we will:

• give you a description of it and tell you why we are holding it;
• tell you who it could be disclosed to; and let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.
• ask that any inaccurate information we hold about you is corrected;
• ask that we delete the personal data we hold about you in certain situations;
• ask that we stop using your personal data for certain purposes;
• ask that we do not make decisions about you using completely automated means; and/or
• ask that personal data we hold about you is given to you, or where technically feasible a third party chosen by you, in a commonly used, machine-readable format.

 

The rights listed above may apply in certain circumstances, and so we may not always be able to comply with your request to exercise these rights.

E-newsletter

We periodically send out e-newsletters. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies including clear gifs to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter.

People who contact us via social media

If you send us a private or direct message via social media the message will come directly to Rettie and is not be shared with any other organisations.

People who email us
We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send is within the bounds of the law.

Use of Cookies by Rettie

You can read more about how we use cookies on our Cookies page.

People who make a Complaint

When we receive a complaint from a person we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.

We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to analyse the level of service we provide to improve our customer experience. We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for two years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle.

Job applicants, current and former Rettie employees

What will we do with the information you provide to us?

All of the information you provide during the process will only be used for the purpose of progressing your application, or to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements if necessary.
We will not share any of the information you provide during the recruitment process with any third parties for marketing purposes. The information you provide will be held securely by us and/or our data processors whether the information is in electronic or physical format.

We will use the contact details you provide to us to contact you to progress your application. We will use the other information you provide to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for. 

What information do we ask for, and why?

We do not collect more information than we need to fulfil our stated purposes and will not retain it for longer than is necessary.
The information we ask for is used to assess your suitability for employment. You don’t have to provide what we ask for but it might affect your application if you don’t. 

Assessments

We might ask you to participate in assessment days; complete tests or personality profile questionnaires; and/or to attend an interview – or a combination of these. Information will be generated by you and by us. For example, you might complete a written test or we might take interview notes. This information will be held by Rettie.

If you are unsuccessful following assessment for the position you have applied for, we may ask if you would like your details to be retained for a period of six months. If you say yes, we may contact you should any further suitable vacancies arise. 

Conditional offer

If we make a conditional offer of employment we will ask you for information so that we can carry out checks. We are required to confirm the identity of our staff, their right to work in the United Kingdom and seek assurance as to their trustworthiness, integrity and reliability. 
You will therefore be required to provide: 

• Proof of your identity – you will be asked to attend our office with original documents, we will take copies.
• Proof of your qualifications (if applicable) – you will be asked to provide us with original documents, we will take copies.
• We will contact your referees, using the details you provide in your application, directly to obtain references

How long is the information retained for?

If you are successful, the information you provide during the application process will be retained by us as part of your employee file for the duration of your employment plus 6 years following the end of your employment.

Other websites

Our website may contain links to enable you to visit other web sites of interest easily. However, once you have used these links to leave our site you should note that we do not have any control over that other web site. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Security and Performance

Rettie uses a third-party service to help maintain the security and performance of the Rettie website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to our website.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We keep our Privacy Notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 3 April 2018

How to contact us

If you want to request further information about our privacy policy, how we maintain the security of your personal information and your rights to access your information you can email us at or write to:

Chief Operating Officer or Data Protection Officer
Rettie & Co.
4 Jamaica Street
Edinburgh
EH3 6DH

*Rettie consists of: Rettie & Co Ltd , Rettie Bearsden LLP, Rettie Borders LLP, Rettie Berwick LLP, Rettie Newcastle LLP and Rettie West End LLP, Edinburgh Festival Rentals Ltd