Privacy Policy

 

 

Privacy Statement (Reviewed 12.12.23)

 

 

SCOPE

 

Your privacy is important to Dove Properties and Estates Limited, and we go to great lengths to protect it. This Privacy Statement applies to the collection of personal information via products, services, documentation, websites, competitions, events, webinars and any mobile applications operated by Dove Properties and Estates Limited or its Agents.

 

Our products and/or websites may contain links to sites maintained by others, or by other parts of Dove Properties and Estates Limited. This Privacy Statement does not reflect the privacy practices of providers not directly managed by Dove Properties and Estates Limited.

 

HIGHLIGHTS

 

WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION IS COLLECTED AND HOW IS THAT INFORMATION USED?

  • We collect information about individuals, users and professionals in a variety of ways including but not limited to: direct from the individuals - for example, when submitting and enquiry or when carrying out a viewing of a property in person or online, when completing an application for a property viewing or tenancy, when applying to become one of our landlords or contractors, using our services, from your employer, guarantor as stated on the application form or any additional or subsequent guarantor, tenancy deposit schemes, utilities and utility management companies, credit and referencing agencies, publicly available information, and through cookies, and/or similar technology.
  • We use the information primarily to provide you with a personalised product, namely the letting and/or management of a property to one or more individuals and to service that agreement in line with the agreement itself, legislation and as specifically consented to by you.
  • We do not share with others any of the information you provide, unless we say so in this Privacy Statement, by way of contractual agreement, as specifically consented to by you or where the law requires it.

 

HOW IS MY PERSONAL INFORMATION PROTECTED?

  • We maintain administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect against loss, misuse or unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration or destruction of the personal information you or your representative provides to us.
  • Dove Properties and Estates Limited complies with Data Protection/Privacy regulations, laws and industry best practices in respects to security around personal information.
  • If you are located outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”), or a country without data protection/privacy law, we may transfer your personal information to countries that may not guarantee the same level of protection for personal information as the one in which you reside. Examples of such activity could be via email correspondence utilising servers outside these jurisdictions. Such occurrences are unlikely and do not form part of our general working practices and will only do so with your consent.

WHO HAS ACCESS TO THE PERSONAL INFORMATION?

  • We will not sell, rent, or lease mailing lists or other customer data to others, and we will not make your personal information available to any unaffiliated parties, except our approved agents, landlords, tenants, customers, suppliers and contractors, or as otherwise described in this Privacy Statement, as contractually agreed in order to maintain the agreed service with you or as specifically agreed by you.
  • We rely on some of our affiliates for support of the products and services we offer, and we share some of our back-office functions with other Dove Properties and Estates Limited agents, suppliers or landlords; in accordance with this Privacy Statement, they agree to maintain the same standards and an appropriate contract will be in place where necessary.
  • We will not disclose any personal information or information about your usage of our services, websites or mobile applications to unaffiliated third parties, except as necessary to enforce the terms of use, to meet our obligations to content and technology providers, as consented to by yourself or as required by law.

BASIS FOR PROCESSING

  • The lawful purpose for processing your personal data is by way of contract, e.g. a tenancy agreement, terms of business, guarantor form etc. You will have either provided the details directly to use or you will have authorised us to check, supplement, enhance your data for the purpose of providing accommodation via a contract (tenancy agreement) and maintaining the same.
  • In addition, and for the purposes of data protection transparency, we also draw your attention to specific aspects of the tenancy agreement or contract and initial application form at the time of obtaining the relevant personal data and where possible secure your additional consent.
  • Where your personal data has been obtained via consent and it not underpinned by contract (e.g. within a tenancy agreement), you may withdraw this consent at any time.
  • We will not retain or process your data without a lawful basis for processing the same. In some instances you grant consent in line with this Privacy Statement on an implied basis, i.e. by providing your details for us to answer a query or provide a quote for example. On other occasions and where possible, we will seek your specific consent by way of signature and/or contractually to enable us to process your personal data.

HOW MAY YOU CORRECT, AMEND, OR DELETE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION, OR UPDATE YOUR PREFERENCES?

  • You may amend update or delete your information at any time by contacting us by post:

Data Controller

Dove Properties and Estates Limited

430 Ecclesall Road

Sheffield

S11 8PX

Or by email at:
DPO@doveproperties.co.uk

 

FULL PRIVACY STATEMENT

 

What Personal information Does Dove Properties and Estates Limited Collect and How Do We Use It?

We collect information about individuals, users and professionals in a variety of ways including but not limited to: when carrying out a property viewing in person or online,  direct from the individuals (for example, when completing an application for tenancy, using our services, or signing up for a newsletter), from your employer, guarantor, tenancy deposit schemes, utilities (and utility management companies), credit agencies, publicly available information, and through cookies, and/or similar technology. We use the information primarily to provide you with a personalised product, namely the letting and/or management of a property to one or more individuals and to service that agreement in line with the agreement itself, legislation and as specifically consented to by you. We do not share with others any of the information you provide, unless we say so in this Privacy Statement, by way of contractual agreement, as specifically consented to by you or where the law requires it.

 

User-Supplied Information

When you register for our services - directly or via your agent/guarantor, we may ask you to provide some personal information, for example, your name, address, phone number, email address, payment information, bank details, occupation, and/or certain additional categories of information in line with our tenancy and/or contractual agreements and legal obligations for example; Immigration Right to Rent checks. We may use some of this information to verify your identity and suitability to enter into a contract with you. We may also use some of your personal information to maintain the agreement with you, for example passing on names and contact details to tenants, the landlord, referencing companies, utilities suppliers, debt collection and tracing agencies, financial organisations (including banks and insurance companies), public and government bodies (including those who administer benefit payments), courts, police and law enforcement agencies and/or maintenance personnel. We keep this information on file throughout the life of the agreement and up to 7 years after its expiry for tax and litigation purposes and to maintain our service contract with you.

 

Marketing 
We may use certain information you provide to offer you products and services that we believe may be of interest to you or for market research purposes. You will only be added to such services if you have specifically consented. You may opt out (unsubscribe) as described below. Marketing services and products are kept to a minimum and are used sparingly in order to enhance your privacy. To be included within this service, you will have given appropriate consent.

 

Usage and Web server logs 

When you visit our products or web sites, we may track information about your usage and/or visit, and store that information on usage or web server logs, which are records of the activities on our products or sites. Our servers may automatically capture and save the information electronically. Some examples of the information we may collect include:

 

  • Your unique Internet protocol address
  • The name of your unique Internet service provider
  • The city, state, and country from which you access our website
  • The kind of browser or computer you use
  • The number of links you click within the site
  • The date and time of your visit
  • The web page from which you arrived to our site
  • The pages you viewed on the site

The information we collect in usage or web server logs helps us administer the product and site, analyse its usage, protect the product and/or website and its content from inappropriate use, and improve the user's experience. 


Dove Properties and Estates Limited Messenger and/or Enquiry Forms

If you are a user of these products, whilst unlikely, any personal information you post could be visible to other users. This privacy policy will not apply in these instances. Please refer to the Terms of Use on the website.


In addition, Dove Properties and Estates Limited may be required by laws or regulations to store messages, and conversations to meet regulatory and compliance obligations for a certain period of time. This includes public and private interaction between users. Others with access to the technology you use for this interaction may have access to historical or live conversations.  


To develop the product and/or communities, Dove Properties and Estates Limited may analyse certain data.


Cookies 
In order to offer and provide a customised and personal service through our products and websites, we may use cookies to store and help track information about you and your visit to our website or where our products are advertised.


A cookie is a small text file sent to your device that we may use to store limited information about your use of the product or website. We use cookies to provide you with certain functionality (such as to enable access to secure log-in areas and to save you having to re-enter information into product or website forms). Without cookies, some functionality may be unavailable. For further information about cookies visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org. You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above websites tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, in a few cases some of our website features may not function if you remove cookies from your browser. 


By using our products and websites you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device. Your active consent is sought prior to use.


Third Party Services 

Where we use third party providers to enhance the experience from our website and to obtain additional information about our service and products, in particular, media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, ZenDesk they have their own privacy policies and are beyond the control of Dove Properties and Estates Limited. By using such links and services, you are doing so with the understanding that any privacy policies are not the responsibility of Dove Properties and Estates Limited, nor does Dove Properties and Estates Limited have any authority to overtly influence such activity.


Where visitors have registered to receive marketing communications from us, we may use the tools provided by third party companies to send targeted e-mail marketing and track the effectiveness of our e-mail campaigns, including through the use of clear gif images in e-mails.


You have the right to refuse or disable cookies served through our products or website although, if you choose to do so, certain functionality may become unavailable to you. As the means by which you may do this vary from browser to browser, we recommend that you visit your browser's help menu for further information.


Our email and promotional communications may also include "Clear Image" gifs to track results of an email campaign. To turn off gifs you can do so in the email itself, or visit your email client’s help menu. 


We respect your right to choose whether or not to accept cookies and clear gifs.


Please note that if you do not set your browser and e-mail settings to disable cookies and clear gifs, you will be indicating your consent to receive them.  


If you wish to find out more about cookies and clear gifs, you may like to visit www.allaboutcookies.org, an independent third party resource that explains what cookies and clear gifs are and how you may manage them. Please note that we are not responsible for, and have no control over, the content of this third party website.


Where personal data is passed to a third party in line with our contractual agreement, it will occur in line with the agreement itself and for the purposes of maintaining that agreement, unless otherwise specifically consented to by you. This may occur for example, where it is necessary to send a contractor to the premises to rectify a reported fault, or for example where we need to put in place utility services or council tax records related to the property, the landlord and/or the tenancy agreement. In such circumstances, a data protection contract or legal obligation will be in place between Dove Properties and Estates Limited and the third party to maintain the security and lawful processing of your data.


HOW DOES DOVE PROPERTIES AND ESTATES LIMITED PROTECT THE PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT IT COLLECTS?

 

We have implemented certain appropriate security measures to help protect your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorised access, use, or disclosure. For example, some of our products and/or websites are protected with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology. Also, we store the information about you in an ‘off grid data system’ with restricted access and appropriate monitoring, and we use a variety of technical security measures to secure your data. In addition, we use intrusion detection and virus protection software.


Electronically held data is stored and backed up on a daily basis utilising encryption technology.


Also, please note that we may store and process your personal information in systems located outside of your home country. However, regardless of where storage and processing may occur, we take appropriate steps to ensure that your information is protected, consistent with the principles set forth under this Statement, and as required under Data Protection/Privacy laws. Our ‘off grid data system’ and servers are based in the UK.

We ensure that hard copies of your personal data and agreements (such as tenancy agreement and guarantor forms) are held securely with a backup system being employed. This ensures your data cannot be destroyed inadvertently or by natural disaster, i.e. fire or flood.


TRANSFER OF PERSONAL INFORMATION TO OTHER COUNTRIES

If you are located in the European Economic Area ("EEA"), or a country with similar data protection/privacy law standards, we may transfer your personal information to countries that may not guarantee the same level of protection for personal information as the one in which you reside. Examples of such activity could be via email correspondence utilising servers outside these jurisdictions through email addresses supplied by you. Such occurrences are unlikely and do not form part of our general working practices, however by giving your information via such a system, you consent to these transfers. Dove Properties and Estates Limited takes the security of your personal information seriously and will therefore add additional consideration to the necessity of using any personal information within email, and other similar exchanges, where it believes communications may go beyond those described above.

We will take appropriate steps to provide an adequate level of protection to all personal information against the standards set within the EEA, as a minimum. No matter where you reside your data shall be processed in accordance with the provisions set out in this Privacy Statement.

 

WHO HAS ACCESS TO THE PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We will not sell, rent, or lease mailing lists or other customer data to others, and we will not make your personal information available to any unaffiliated parties, except as follows:

  • When the data is collected from publicly available domains including but not limited to websites, company directories, company registrars, publicly available government lists, search engines and similar technology.
  • To agents, our landlords, our tenants and customers, deposit protection schemes, HMRC and tax collection bodies for tax enquiries we receive, utility & service providers (for example UniHomes, Split the Bills, Glide, Npower, British Gas, British Telecom etc), Sheffield City Council for local tax or property certification and regulatory purposes, University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University and to contractors who may use it on our behalf or in connection with their relationship with us and for access and repairs to a property. We may use third parties to help us with repair services, referencing of tenants or the supply of utilities to accommodation, it may be used by a landlord of a property that you have applied for, or by a tenant that has applied for a tenancy at a property that you are Landlord of. In both circumstances this will be so that they can maintain the tenancy agreement with you.
  • We may share information with debt collection, referencing and tracing agents, the police, emergency services or law enforcement bodies.
  • Should a property be bought or sold or transferred to another agent we may need to share the information with the previous or new owner/agent as applicable.
  • We may need to share data with government bodies who administer benefit payments and we may also need to share data with banks, financial organisations or mortgage providers (for example tenancy agreements to assist in the valuation of properties).
  • We may need to share your information with your next of kin e.g. in an emergency.
  • Where you have a tenancy jointly with someone else or there is a guarantor for your tenancy, as necessary, we will share the information either with the joint tenant or the guarantor (or both), in order that we can maintain the agreement we have.
  • By law in England, we may require to check your immigration status before we rent a property to you. We may need to check and authenticate documentation you provide as part of the process.
  • We may also share information with professional advisers, lawyers or advice agencies in relation to the performance of the tenancy agreement or contractual arrangement we have with you.
  • If you live or own a property that we rent and/or manage, we may need to share your information with the freeholder or managing agent etc.
  • If you live or are present in a property that we are instructed to manage or let on behalf of a landlord, we may carry out an online video recording viewing for the purpose of reletting the property. The video recording may be placed by us on property website(s) and/or portals and promoted for viewing to other potential tenants, customers and the general public.
  • As required by law, in a matter of public safety or policy, as needed in connection with the transfer of our business assets (for example, if we are acquired by another company or if we are liquidated during bankruptcy proceedings), or if we believe in good faith that sharing the data is necessary to protect our rights or property.
  • When specific consent has been granted by you.

We also rely on some of our affiliates for support of the products and services we offer, and we share some of our back-office functions with other Dove Properties and Estates Limited businesses. Our affiliates are all required to preserve the confidentiality of any personal information they may access in accordance with this Statement.


We will not disclose any information about your usage of our service or products to unaffiliated third parties, except as necessary to enhance the product experience, service the legal agreement between us, (and your guarantor if appropriate), service the account, to enforce the terms of use, to meet our obligations to content and technology providers, or as required by law.


We may also use statistics regarding usage for product development and enhancement purposes.


Your access to some of our products, services and content may be password protected. We recommend that you refrain from disclosing your username(s) and password(s) to anyone. We also recommend that you sign out of your product, account or service at the end of each session. You may also wish to close your product terminal or browser window when you have finished your work, especially if you share a computer with someone else or if you are using a computer in a public place.


BASIS FOR PROCESSING

By initially soliciting communication and providing your personal information you are actively consenting to the use of that information as set out in this policy. This engagement allows us, where requested, to provide you with information about our products, for example availability of a property, the price for rental and any terms and conditions.

 

In line with the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), we will then seek your continued consent to process your personal data should this interaction progress to a contractual undertaking.

 

The lawful purpose for processing your personal data is generally by way of contract, i.e. a tenancy agreement or guarantor form. You will have either provided the details directly to use or you will have authorised us to check, supplement, enhance your data for the purpose of providing accommodation via a contract (tenancy agreement) and maintaining the same.


In addition and for the purposes of data protection transparency, we often draw your attention to specific aspects of the tenancy agreement at the time of obtaining the relevant personal data and where possible secure your additional consent.


Where your personal data has been obtained via consent and it not underpinned by contract (e.g. within the tenancy agreement or terms of business), you may withdraw this consent at any time.


We will not retain or process your data without a lawful basis for processing the same. In some instances you grant consent in line with this Privacy Statement on an implied basis, i.e. by providing your details for us to answer a query or provide a quote for example. On other occasions and where possible, we will seek your specific consent by way of signature and/or contractually to enable us to process your personal data. There may also be occasions where the lawful basis is governed by another purpose, for example ‘as required by law’. Where this occurs, we will record details of such instances for compliance purposes and in compliance with GDPR.


We may monitor, record and retain your calls, emails, text messages, social media messages and other communications. This is in our legitimate interests to maintain an accurate record of these and maybe necessary in order that we can maintain the agreement that we have with you.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Dove Properties and Estates Limited does not utilise automated decision making processes.


On occasions, it may not be possible to provide a service and/or contract for tenancy if personal information is not provided. In essence, this would prevent a contractual agreement between the two parties.

 

 

 

HOW MAY I CORRECT, AMEND, OR DELETE MY PERSONAL INFORMATION AND/OR UPDATE MY PREFERENCES?

You may amend update or delete your information at any time by contacting us by post:

 

Data Controller

Dove Properties and Estates Limited

430 Ecclesall Road

Sheffield

S11 8PX


Or by email at:

DPO@doveproperties.co.uk 

Our Information Commissioners reference is: Z3119559

To update your preferences for email communications for our products, services, news updates, bulletins, and reports please email us accordingly.


QUESTIONS AND COMPLAINTS

If you would like to see the data Dove Properties and Estates Limited holds on you (there is a charge for this service) or if you have any questions or concerns related to this statement and/or our practices, or a complaint or dispute, please email us or write to the address above.


Whilst Dove Properties and Estates Limited will endeavour to resolve any issues, you are entitled to make a complaint directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office. They can be contacted via their website (www.ico.org.uk), email (casework@ico.org.uk), telephone (03031231113) or by writing to the ICO at: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

 

PRIVACY STATEMENT CHANGES

If Dove Properties and Estates Limited’s information practices change in a significant way, we will post the policy changes here. Dove Properties and Estates Limited reserves the right to change this Privacy Statement at any time by posting an updated version here. All previous versions will not be valid.


This Privacy Statement was last updated on 12th December 2023