Privacy policy
Who we are
Vine Estates is a trading name of Vine Estates (Kent) Ltd. Vine Estates (Kent) Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number 17325239, at c/o Hilden Park Accountants Limited, 79 Tonbridge Road, Hildenborough, Tonbridge, Kent TN11 9BH.
Vine Estates (Kent) Ltd is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. That means we are responsible for deciding how it is held and used.
If you have any question about this policy, or about the information we hold on you, the quickest route is to email david@vine-estates.com or call 01732 449981.
What this policy covers
How we collect, use and look after personal information when you use this website, get in touch with us, or instruct us to sell a property.
The information we collect
When you use the enquiry form or contact us
- Your name
- The address of the property you are asking about
- Your phone number or email address, whichever you give us
- Whatever you tell us in your message
- Optionally: how and when you would prefer to be contacted, and roughly when you are thinking of moving
If you go on to instruct us
- Identification documents required by law — see “Money laundering checks” below
- Financial information relevant to the sale, such as details of any mortgage
- Details of your property, including photographs and floorplans
- Correspondence with you, and with solicitors, surveyors and other parties to the sale
Automatically, when you visit the site
- Technical information such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you looked at
- If you agree to analytics cookies: which pages you read, how long you spent, how you arrived at the site and roughly where in the country you are, collected through Google Analytics. We do not use it to identify you, and it is not collected at all if you decline.
Why we use it, and our legal basis
| What we do with it | Why we are allowed to |
|---|---|
| Reply to your enquiry and give you advice on price and timing | Our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact us |
| Prepare and market your property, and negotiate a sale | Performance of our agreement with you |
| Carry out identity and anti-money-laundering checks | A legal obligation under the Money Laundering Regulations |
| Keep records of transactions for tax and accounting | A legal obligation |
| Send you occasional updates about the market, if you have asked for them | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Keep the website running and secure | Our legitimate interest in operating the site properly |
We do not sell your information to anyone, and we do not use it to make automated decisions about you.
Money laundering checks
Estate agents are legally required to verify the identity of clients before acting for them. If you instruct us, we will ask for identification documents and may use an electronic checking service to confirm them. We are required to keep those records, and we cannot act for you without them.
Who we share it with
Only where there is a reason to:
- Moveli, the network Vine Estates operates on, which provides the systems the business runs on
- Property portals such as Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket, where your property is being marketed publicly
- Photographers and floorplan providers engaged to prepare your property details
- Solicitors, surveyors, lenders and other agents involved in your sale
- Our identity checking provider, for anti-money-laundering purposes
- Our IT, hosting and email providers, who hold data on our behalf under contract
- HMRC, regulators and law enforcement, where we are legally required to disclose
- Google, as our analytics provider, but only if you have agreed to analytics cookies
How long we keep it
| What | How long | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiries that don’t lead to an instruction | 12 months | Long enough to be useful if you come back to us |
| Records relating to a sale | 6 years after completion | The period during which a claim could be brought |
| Anti-money-laundering records | 5 years from the end of our relationship with you | Required by the Money Laundering Regulations |
| Marketing consents | Until you withdraw them |
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:
- Give you a copy of the information we hold about you
- Correct it if it’s wrong
- Delete it, where we don’t have a legal reason to keep it
- Stop or limit how we use it
- Send it to another organisation in a portable format
- Stop sending you marketing, at any time
Email david@vine-estates.com and we will respond within one month. There is no charge.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, by calling 0303 123 1113, or by writing to Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. We would rather you came to us first, so we have a chance to put it right.
Changes to this policy
If we change it, we will update the date at the top. If the change is significant, we will say so on the site.