Complaints Procedure

We are only permitted to deal with and discuss a complaint with the complainant or their properly appointed representative.

Stage 1

First point of contact

If you are unable to resolve the issue informally, write to the member of staff who dealt with you, or their manager, so that they have a chance to put things right. In your letter you should set out the details of your complaint, the consequences for you, and the remedy you are seeking.

Acknowledgement

Within 3 working days

Full response

Within 15 working days

Stage 2

Escalation

If you are not satisfied with the initial response, address your letter to Carl Britton & Andrew Gilbert, Specialist Letting Agency, 209 Redhill Drive, Bournemouth, BH10 6AJ and ask for your complaint and the response to be reviewed.

Acknowledgement

Within 4 working days

Full response

Within 15 working days

Some issues may require longer to investigate fully. Where a matter requires more detailed investigation, you will receive an interim response describing what is being done and when a full reply can be expected.

Final Stage

Independent redress

If you are not satisfied with our final written response, you have two options to pursue the matter further.

Option 1

Property Redress Scheme

Write to: The Property Redress Scheme, Premiere House, 1st Floor, Elstree Way, Borehamwood, WD6 1JH.

A referral must be made within 12 months of our final view statement.

Option 2

Money Claim Online

You can seek financial redress by commencing a money claim procedure through the government's online service.

Visit moneyclaim.gov.uk

Privacy Notice

Our privacy notice provides information on how we and any of our third party providers collect, use, secure, transfer and share your information. Specialist Letting Agency are a provider of Lettings Agent Services within the UK, primarily in the Dorset area.

Registered office

Specialist Letting Agency Ltd
209 Redhill Drive
Bournemouth
BH10 6AJ

Types of information we collect

Residential lettings

For the purpose of providing residential lettings services, we may collect the following personal information:

—Full names including middle names

—Previous names (if married or changed)

—Date of birth

—Current and previous addresses

—Residential status

—Landlord details (current and previous)

—Nationality

—National Insurance number

—Number and age of any dependants

—Primary ID (copy taken)

—Address ID (copy taken)

—Bank details

—Mortgage statement (copy taken)

—Payslips (copy taken)

—Self-employment account details (copy taken)

—Employer details

—Gender

—Email address

—Phone numbers

—New property details

—Land registry details

—Marital status

—Salary

—Previous employment details

—Ethnicity

—Next of kin details

—Relevant persons details

Methods of collection

Information may be collected from the following sources:

—Yourself

—Next of kin

—Spouse, partner or family member

—Business associates

—Employers

—Trusted sources such as government, land and police registers

—Credit and default agencies

—Financial institutions (banks, building societies etc)

Such information will normally be collected directly via our standard forms, over the internet, via email, in our office or through telephone conversations. We may also collect personal information through our affiliates or suppliers.

You may also choose to submit information directly to us through our website, in response to marketing, by signing up to our services or products, or in connection with an actual or potential business relationship.

You may also agree to third parties disclosing information about you to us that those third parties have collected.

Purpose of collection

We collect and process your personal information for the following purposes:

—Accessing applications for and providing Specialist Letting Agency services.

—Conducting business and developing relationships with Specialist Letting Agency and affiliates.

—Processing payments and transactions including accounting, authorisation, clearing, auditing, billing, reconciliation, collection, complaints, enquiries, credit checks and related dispute resolution.

—Protecting against and preventing fraud, unauthorised transactions, money laundering, tax evasion, claims and other liabilities, and managing risk exposure, compliance and security.

—Providing, administering and communicating with you about our services, offers, programmes, promotions and partners.

—Operating, monitoring, evaluating and improving our services, websites and other digital assets.

—Developing new services.

—Managing communications and assessing the effectiveness and optimisation of advertising.

—Enforcing Specialist Letting Agency's terms of business and other legal rights as required by applicable laws, regulations or judicial process.

—Complying with industry standards, legal responsibilities and Specialist Letting Agency's policies.

Anti-Money Laundering

Legal obligation

In addition to helping you with a property related service, we are required to comply with the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017. Specialist Letting Agency is required to obtain certain information from you to comply with these regulations. The information provided will only be used to comply with these regulations and will not be shared with any party outside of companies wholly owned by us, unless we are required to do so under law.

If you enter into a business relationship with Specialist Letting Agency or any wholly owned subsidiary, we will require two separate identification documents. For tenants this is detailed in the Prove Your Right to Rent section of the Government website.

Lawful basis of processing

Specialist Letting Agency processes your information under the following lawful bases:

Performance of a contract

Where you enter into a contract with or through Specialist Letting Agency and we need to process your information as part of that contract.

Legitimate interest

Some information is processed as part of our legitimate interest, which includes fraud prevention, risk assessment, due diligence, network security, direct marketing, lettings, sales and other core services.

Public interest

Some information is processed in accordance with public interest, such as relocations.

Consent

Where we process information under consent, we will seek your clear and unambiguous consent prior to processing your data.

Information we share

We do not sell or otherwise disclose personal information we collect about you, except as described in this privacy notice or as indicated via the consent process at the time the data is collected. We may share information with, but not limited to:

—Vetted affiliates, partners, financial institutions and insurance companies for business facilitation.

—Formally contracted service providers performing services on our behalf.

—Helpdesk, call centres and answerphone services.

—Councils and healthcare providers.

—Law firms.

—Credit agencies, Land Registry, HMRC, the Financial Conduct Authority and other relevant regulatory bodies.

We contractually require all service providers to safeguard the privacy and security of personal information they process on our behalf, and authorise them to use or disclose information only as necessary to perform services or comply with legal requirements.

We may also share information about you if required legally, to prevent harm or financial or reputational loss, or for investigation of suspected or actual fraudulent or illegal activities.

Specialist Letting Agency reserves the right to transfer your information in the event of a sale or transfer of our business or assets, with reasonable efforts for the acquirer to protect your information consistently with this privacy notice.

How long do we keep information?

Generally 7 years

We will keep information for a reasonable amount of time in order to fulfil the purposes listed above. We only keep information for as long as necessary. We generally keep personal information for 7 years after last contact with you. However, Specialist Letting Agency reserves the right to keep information for longer where this is in our legitimate interest.

International data transfers

Specialist Letting Agency may transfer personal information collected about you to recipients in countries other than the country in which the data was collected. Those countries may not have the same data protection laws as ours. When we transfer information to other countries, we will protect that information as described in this privacy notice or as otherwise disclosed to you at the time the data is collected.

Your rights and choices

Your rights regarding the personal information we maintain about you enable you to exercise choices about what we collect, how we use it and how we communicate with you.

Access and correction

You may obtain confirmation that we hold personal information about you, request access to it, and receive copies of the information we maintain. The right to access may be limited in some circumstances by local law. If we refuse to correct your personal information, we will provide written notice setting out our reasons and the mechanisms available to you to make a complaint.

Object to processing

You have a right to object to any processing of your personal information. You can contact us outlining what processing you would like to object to.

Erasure, blocking or anonymisation

You can request that we delete, block or anonymise information we hold about you. Contact us outlining what information you would like actioned.

Opting out

You can opt out of the collection of personal information by contacting us as detailed in the "How to contact us" section below.

Withdrawal of consent

If we obtained your information by consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. If we process your information under legitimate interest, you can object at any time on legitimate grounds. Specialist Letting Agency will apply your preferences going forward. Please note that doing so may mean you cannot take advantage of certain services, products or promotions. The right to consent removal may be limited in some circumstances by local law.

How we protect personal information

The security of your personal information is very important to us. We maintain administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect the personal information you provide against accidental, unlawful or unauthorised destruction, loss, alteration, access, disclosure or use. We use SSL encryption on our website for the transfer of personal information.

Specialist Letting Agency stores personal information only for as long as it is necessary for the fulfilment of the purpose for which it was collected, as required by law, or until it is no longer required for the purpose for which it was collected.

How to contact us

If you would like to make a complaint, access or update your information, or change your preferences, please get in touch:

By email

[email protected]

By post

Mr Carl Britton & Mr Andrew Gilbert
Specialist Letting Agency Ltd
209 Redhill Drive
Bournemouth
Dorset
BH10 6AJ

Complaints will be acknowledged within 72 hours (excluding weekends and bank holidays) and an estimated time for a full response will be given at that point.

Updating this privacy notice

We will update this statement from time to time, so we suggest that you review it at regular intervals. Where we make substantial changes to our privacy notice, we will endeavour to inform you directly about those changes.