Privacy Policy
This privacy policy sets out how Swansea Property Agents Ltd uses and protects the personal information you give us when you use our website. It also covers personal information provided to us through offline business matters.
We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should you freely give or have been asked to give certain information by which you can be identified, you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement for the purposes of accessing our services.
We may change this policy from time to time. This will be done by updating this page. It is advised that you check this page from time to time to ensure you are up to date and happy with any changes. This policy is effective from 25th May 2018.
As a letting agent, Swansea Property Agents Ltd will collect data from a wide range of clientele, which are listed below. When entering into communication with us, the least we will ask for in terms of personal information will be your name, telephone number and email address for each customer type. This is due to there being a legitimate interest in holding such information in each circumstance so we can provide an efficient service, relevant to a particular customer type.
This is an individual or group who has contacted Swansea Property Agents Ltd with an interest in receiving information on a particular property or possibly several, requesting a viewing or booking a viewing. For purposes of communicating with the property viewer for the reasons above, we will ask for personal data, as mentioned above. This is also for security/safety purposes for our staff members who will be conducting your viewing. Other information that would be deemed legitimate for the purposes of sourcing best matching properties would be for the viewer to make it known to Swansea Property Agents Ltd of the following: preferred areas, budget, number of bedrooms and any other information deemed important to the viewer in terms of personal requirements (parking, garden, garage; for example).
This is an individual who has specifically expressed an interest in entering into the tenancy application process with the objective of becoming a tenant. At this time, an application form will be required to be completed, along with terms and conditions for prospective tenants. Further data such as home address, date of birth, current landlord (if applicable) and current employer will be required for the legitimate reason of the tenancy application process. In order to become a tenant, referencing will be conducted. (You will be provided with full details of this process at the time of application). In the interest of clarity and or the purposes of this policy, in brief referencing will consist of credit checks, landlord reference, employer reference, electoral roll confirmation and identity/fraud checks. Referencing is carried out by a third party referencing agency, full details of the agency will be disclosed at the time of application. This information is required so that the individual can be deemed a suitable applicant that meets the referencing criteria. This agency is fully compliant with GDPR regulations and you will be provided with their details so you can read their own privacy policy.
A tenant is an individual who has signed a tenancy agreement (contract) executed by Swansea Property Agents Ltd. For tenants of managed properties, your personal data will not be shared with your Landlord unless you have provided authorisation to do so. For tenants of properties where we have provided a let only service to the Landlord, the following details will be shared with your Landlord in order for him to be able to manage the tenancy effectively. Name, D.O.B, telephone number, email address, guarantor details (if applicable. Please see Guarantor headed note for further details), current employer/current study status, along with student number (if applicable). At the start date of your tenancy, Swansea Property Agents Ltd/Landlord has a legal obligation to inform the water board (Welsh Water) of the new tenancy details, including your name, start date of tenancy and new property address. Additionally, it is necessary to provide the local authority (City and County of Swansea) and the particular utility providers of the property (gas and electric) with new tenancy details. Throughout the tenancy, maintenance reports will be made by the tenant and from time to time (not always) it may be necessary for tenant contact details to be shared with approved contractors of Swansea Property Agents Ltd in order to tend to such reports and resolve maintenance issues swiftly. Wherever possible, contractor visits will be arranged with tenant and contractor via Swansea Property Agents Ltd who will liaise between both parties to organise visits, if there is ever a time when direct access is required (for after hours’ appointments, for example) then Swansea Property Agents Ltd will contact the tenant to obtain authorisation for that particular matter. For any future matters, we will ensure to obtain renewed authorisation.
A Guarantor is an individual who has been asked to undergo guarantor referencing with our approved referencing agency and sign a guarantor agreement in relation to a tenancy application for an individual. A Guarantor will be required in circumstances where a tenant is unable to provide sufficient evidence of meeting the referencing criteria. This may be due to no or low income, student status, adverse credit history or declined landlord reference, for example. The Guarantor will be required to agree to become liable for the tenancy should there be any defaults. This is a requirement of the tenancy application for any such tenant applicant that falls within the above examples. The Guarantor will be required to provide personal information in accordance with the referencing process, as stated previously under tenant application header. Please refer to this section. Full details of the role of the Guarantor will be discussed at the time of tenancy application and Swansea Property Agents Ltd advise all tenants to obtain permission from their prospective Guarantor before any referencing can commence. The Guarantor should be in full acceptance prior to any details being shared. Swansea Property Agents Ltd welcome communication from Guarantors so that full and detailed communication can take place on this matter.
A Prospective Landlord is an individual who has expressed an interest in employing Swansea Property Agents Ltd services for the purpose of securing tenants and/or managing a property owned or looked after by the prospective landlord. For this purpose and to provide the prospective Landlord with our relevant service, Swansea Property Agents Ltd will need to visit the property or properties to conduct a lettings appraisal of the property and so for security/safety reasons when conducting appraisals, we require the aforementioned personal information data as a minimum. To assist Swansea Property Agents Ltd in providing our efficient service to the prospective Landlord, for legitimate reasons we may also require information in respect of the prospective Landlord’s ownership of the property. This may include current tenure, e.g. leasehold or freehold, period of ownership, if currently occupied and brief details of such tenancy (not the personal data of the tenants, purely the tenancy duration, whether it may be coming to an end, when the property will be available, whether any works are required/planned). Additionally, from time to time we may send prospective Landlords details of properties that have come to the sales market, should the prospective Landlord previously expressed an interest to be informed of such properties with a view to expanding their portfolio. Should this no longer be required, then prospective Landlords should inform Swansea Property Agents Ltd and communication will cease regarding this matter. Other information that may be sent could be updates on or changes to services.
A Landlord is an individual who has signed our Landlord Terms of Business to formally instruct us to act on his/her behalf in a let only or managing agent capacity. We require the specific personal information requested within the Landlord Terms of Business in order to fulfil our legal obligation in providing the Landlord’s contact details to Rent Smart Wales should they request information about the property and/or its owner(s). For legitimate reasons, it may be necessary for Swansea Property Agents Ltd to provide the local authority and/or utility companies with the Landlord’s essential contact information at the end of tenancies, therefore entering into a void period where the Landlord becomes responsible for all costs in relation to as council tax, water, gas and electricity. During the course of business, from time to time it may also be practical for Swansea Property Agents Ltd to issue the Landlord’s contact information to an approved contractor, with the Landlords authorisation in order to discuss approved repairs/improvements in more detail. Should this be required, Swansea Property Agents Ltd will contact the landlord to obtain authorisation for that particular matter. For any future matters, we will ensure to obtain renewed authorisation.
A Sales Applicant/viewer is an individual who has made it known they are searching for a property to buy and has requested further details on available properties or booked a viewing. Please see previous section stated as property viewer for details in addition to this section. Should a Sales Applicant/viewer develop into a Prospective Purchaser, he/she may be
required to provide proof of funds and/or a mortgage offer, information pertaining to their current financial situation and current housing situation may be required at this stage in order to be assured that the individual can proceed with the purchase of a property. Finally, as a legitimate interest to seeking a property to purchase, Swansea Property Agents Ltd may send the Sales Applicant details of further properties that may be of interest to them, so it is for valid reasons to be aware of the individual’s preferred area of residence, their maximum purchase budget and their personal situation regards to buying a property. This will ensure that Swansea Property Agents Ltd can provide the best service to any potential purchaser/sales applicant.
A Purchaser is an individual who has had an offer to purchase a property accepted by a Vendor. In addition to the requirements as stated under the heading above in relation to proof of funds, mortgage offer etc. as a means of entering into a contract of sale, Swansea Property Agents Ltd will be required to share a Purchaser’s essential personal information with their solicitor, the Vendor’s solicitors in the form of a memorandum of sale and formal letters that commence the sales process. Swansea Property Agents Ltd will also be in receipt of information collected when the Purchaser was a Prospective Purchaser and/or Sales Applicant and may continue to process data in accordance with those customer types for the reasons stated previously.
A Prospective Vendor is an individual, who has expressed an interest in accessing Swansea Property Agents Ltd’ services for the purpose of securing a purchaser for a property owned or looked after by the Prospective Vendor. For this purpose and to provide the prospective Vendor with our relevant service, Swansea Property Agents Ltd will need to visit the property or properties to conduct a sales appraisal of the property and so for security/safety reasons when conducting appraisals; we require the aforementioned personal information data as a minimum. To assist Swansea Property Agents Ltd in providing our efficient service to the prospective Vendor, for legitimate reasons we may also require information in respect of the prospective Vendor’s ownership of the property. This may include current tenure, e.g leasehold or freehold, period of ownership, if currently occupied and brief details of any tenancy (not the personal data of tenants, purely the tenancy duration, whether it may be coming to an end, when the property will be available, whether any works are required/planned). We may, from time to time send information on updates on our services or changes to our services which are relevant to the matter by which the prospective Vendor contacted Swansea Property Agents Ltd in the first instance.
A Vendor is an individual who has signed the Sales Terms of Business to formally instruct Swansea Property Agents Ltd to act on his/her behalf in finding a purchaser. We require the specific personal information requested within the Sales Terms of Business, along with the proof of identity requested in order to fulfil our legal obligation under Money Laundering Regulations 2017. Additionally, as a means of entering into a contract of sale, we will be required to share a Vendor’s personal information with their solicitor and the Purchaser’s solicitor. If, as lawfully required by The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property)(England and Wales) Regulations 2015, an Energy Performance Certificate is required and access to the property to carry out this requirement can be arranged via Swansea Property Agents Ltd with an approved assessor and therefore we will be required share the property information with an Energy Performance Assessor.
A Purchaser’s Solicitor and Vendor’s Solicitor is an individual, individual acting on behalf of a company or a company who has been instructed by a Purchaser to act on his/her behalf in the purchase of a property or by a Vendor to act on his/her behalf in the sale of a property. As a means of entering into a contract of sale, we will be required to share a Purchaser’s Solicitors’ and Vendor’s Solicitor’s essential personal and company information with their clients (the Purchaser and Vendor) and the other party’s Solicitor.
A Contractor is an individual, individual acting on behalf of a company or a company who has been instructed by Swansea Property Agents Ltd, a Landlord and/or a Vendor to carry out maintenance tasks/works at a property. As a legitimate interest to completing the works swiftly and efficiently, we may share a Contractor’s personal contact information with a Tenant, Landlord and/or Vendor in order to arrange mutually convenient access to a property. Wherever possible, contractor visits will be arranged with tenant/vendor and contractor via Swansea Property Agents Ltd who will liaise between both/all parties to organise visits, if there is ever a time when direct access is required (for after hours’ appointments, for example) then Swansea Property Agents Ltd will contact the contractor to obtain authorisation for contact details to be shared for that particular matter. For any future matters, we will ensure to obtain renewed authorisation.
As a lettings agent, Swansea Property Agents Ltd are required to instruct the services of outside agencies to provide additional services imperative to the lettings/tenancy application process. We are bound by law to engage with relevant government approved schemes that protect tenant and landlord interests. Swansea Property Agents Ltd will never share personal information with any third
party that is not deemed a part of the tenancy process and will only share information with approved third parties/outside agencies that have a direct requirement in line with current regulations on property lettings. In the interest of clarity and for peace of mind for the tenant and landlord, we provide a list of the outside agencies we will share data with and the reason why the data is shared:
For all referencing requirements, in line with the terms of a tenancy application
For the protection and tenant’s bonds (deposits)
Swansea Property Agents Ltd will only retain data for as long as necessary. How long is necessary may depend on a variety of factors, however, we operate within the current regulations in relation to data handling/retention. In some cases, data will be retained for at least six years from the end of the business dealings between us and a client. This is for the reason that potentially an individual or company can submit a monetary court claim six years after and the information held may be required
should there be any court or insurance claim for a particular matter. Should a tenancy be on-going for some time or we have a valid legitimate reason for retaining data longer, then we will see fit to do so. In relation to a sale/purchase of a property Money Laundering Regulations 2017 state that we must retain the records of Purchasers, Vendors, Purchaser’s and Vendor’s Solicitors for a period of five years.
Swansea Property Agents Ltd are committed to ensuring that your information is safe and secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access, we have put in place procedures to safeguard the information we hold by the methods of secure web databases, servers and software and locked facilities for the storage of paper files/documents.
We will not share any information or transfer data that we collect to locations outside of the European Economic Area. All our outside agencies are UK based and UK registered companies.
For information transferred via the internet, we cannot personally guarantee the safe transmission of the data as the internet is not completely secure. So any information sent to Swansea Property Agents Ltd electronically is sent at the sender’s own risk and we advise that the sender has adequate software securities in place for their own devices. For any parts of our website that require log in details or a password, you are responsible for keeping this safe and confidential.
The Internet pages of the Swansea Property Agents use cookies. Cookies are text files that are stored in a computer system via an Internet browser.
Many Internet sites and servers use cookies. Many cookies contain a so-called cookie ID. A cookie ID is a unique identifier of the cookie. It consists of a character string through which Internet pages and servers can be assigned to the specific Internet browser in which the cookie was stored. This allows visited Internet sites and servers to differentiate the individual browser of the dats subject from other Internet browsers that contain other cookies. A specific Internet browser can be recognized and identified using the unique cookie ID.
Through the use of cookies, the Swansea Property Agents can provide the users of this website with more user-friendly services that would not be possible without the cookie setting.
By means of a cookie, the information and offers on our website can be optimized with the user in mind. Cookies allow us, as previously mentioned, to recognize our website users. The purpose of this recognition is to make it easier for users to utilize our website. The website user that uses cookies,
does not have to enter access data each time the website is accessed, because this is taken over by the website, and the cookie is thus stored on the user's computer system. Another example is the cookie of a shopping cart in an online shop. The online store remembers the articles that a customer has placed in the virtual shopping cart via a cookie.
The data subject may, at any time, prevent the setting of cookies through our website by means of a corresponding setting of the Internet browser used, and may thus permanently deny the setting of cookies. Furthermore, already set cookies may be deleted at any time via an Internet browser or other software programs. This is possible in all popular Internet browsers. If the data subject
deactivates the setting of cookies in the Internet browser used, not all functions of our website may be entirely usable.
There may be links to other websites from our own website, however, once you have used these links to leave our website, please be aware that this privacy policy does not extend to any other website, therefore we cannot be held responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites. We would advise you to be cautious and view the privacy policy applicable to any other website.
General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) gives individual the following rights:
The right to be informed
The right of access
The right to rectification
The right to erasure
The right to restrict processing
The right to data portability
The right to object
Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling
Please visit the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website for more information on your rights.
Swansea Property Agents Ltd do not as a general rule engage in direct marketing, however, as industry standards/regulations change and update, we may from time to time contact our Tenants and Landlords with industry specific information that would be beneficial in the form of email. If you think you may have previously agreed to us using your personal data for such purpose, and you wish to withdraw from any potential future direct marketing, you can do so any time by writing to us or emailing us at info@swanseapropertyagents.co.uk
Under the Data Protection Act 1988 and General Data Protection Regulations you may request details of personal information which we hold about you by making a formal request to info@swanseapropertyagents.co.uk or by writing to us at 35 Mansel Street, Swansea, SA1 5SN. If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please email or write to us as soon as possible. We will swiftly correct any information found to be incorrect. You may request that any information we hold about you is deleted and we will do so unless there is a legal basis for to retain that information.
All intellectual property rights and other similar rights, including, without limit, copyright, in and to the website and content that appears or is published on the website (the "materials") are owned by
or licensed to Swansea Property Agents Ltd. All such rights are expressly reserved to Swansea Property Agents Ltd and/or the respective copyright owner or licensor. In accessing this website, you may only download the materials for your own personal non-commercial use. You are not permitted to copy, broadcast, download, store (in any medium), transmit, show or play in public, adapt or change in any way or communicate to the public the materials for any other purpose whatsoever without the prior written permission of Swansea Property Agents Ltd. Links to other third party sites are provided for your convenience, Swansea Property Agents Ltd accepts no responsibility or liability for the content of those sites or of any external third party site which links to this website. Requests for any further authorisation regarding proposed usage of the materials provided on this website should be addressed to:
Swansea Property Agents Ltd 35 Mansel Street
Swansea SA1 5SN