Privacy Policy and Other Policies

Privacy and Other Policies 

1. Privacy Policy 

2. Cookie Policy

3. Anti Money Laundering 

4. Record Rentention

5. Complaints Procedure

6. Disclaimer

Privacy Policy

Abode Property Management Ltd may collect, store and otherwise process the following information about you:

• Your name and contact details including email address, telephone number, and postal address
• Your date of birth and gender and nationality
• Your financial information, such as bank details or debit card details, where this is done, it is kept in a secure and limited way
• Details of your qualifications or employment
• Any other information you choose to send us

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) recognises certain categories of personal information as sensitive and therefore requiring more protection, for example information about your health, ethnicity and religious beliefs.

We will only process these special categories data if there is a valid reason for doing so and where the GDPR allows us to do so.

Information from our webservers’ log, such as Google Analytics

Our Site may place and access certain first party Cookies on your computer or device. First party Cookies are those placed directly by Us and are used only by Us. We use Cookies to facilitate and improve your experience of Our Site and to provide and improve Our services. In addition, Our Site uses analytics services provided by Google, which also use Cookies.

Data collected by Google Analytics is stored directly within the Analytics platform and anonymised. Our Analytics account can only be accessed by select members of Our Team and the login details for this are stored within an encrypted platform. For more details, please refer to Our Cookie Policy

Personal information of others

Before you disclose to us the personal information of another person, you must obtain that person’s consent to both the disclosure and processing of that personal information in accordance with the terms of this privacy policy

How will we use this information?

Your personal information, however provided to us, will be used for the purposes specified in this Notice. In particular we may use your personal information:

1. to allow you to request viewings or further information via our website
2. to provide you with a more personalised experience for example by making property suggestions
3. to answer your questions/requests and communicate with you in general
4. to manage relationships with our partners and service providers (for example StuRents, Housing Hand, utility companies)
5. to verify your identity and make credit or reference checks where required
6. to analyse and improve our work, services, products or information (including our website), or for our internal records
7. to audit and/or administer our accounts
8. to satisfy legal obligations which are binding on us, for example in relation to regulatory, government and/or law enforcement bodies with whom we may work

Will we share your personal information?

Abode Property Management Ltd commits to keeping your personal information confidential and safe:

• We won’t sell your data to any third party
• Other than when required by law or as set out in the Privacy Policy, Abode Property Management Ltd will not disclose, rent or sell the Personal Information to any third party that is not required to fulfil the services requested, without your permission.
• We may disclose your personal information to the purchaser (or prospective purchaser) of any business or asset that we are (or are contemplating) selling.
• Employees, landlords and contractors/engineers may be given access to any personal information which we collect but their use shall by limited to performance of their duties in relation to the services provided by Abode Property Management Ltd. We will take reasonable precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your Personal Information. Those who have access to your personal information are required to keep that information confidential and are not permitted to use it for any purpose other than for the products or services offered by Abode Property Management Ltd
• Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try and prevent unauthorised access.

How long will we keep your information?

In general, unless it is still required in connection with the purpose(s) for which it was originally collected, we remove your personal information from our records 5 years after the date it was collected and we will only keep your information for as long as it is relevant and useful for that purpose.

Access to your information

You can update your personal information by contacting us via email or telephone and we will update your records on our data management systems – please let us know if the personal information we hold about you needs to be correct or updated.

If you would like to know what personal information we hold about you, you may make a request for copies of this information. You should be aware we will need to see proof of identity before processing any such request and may charge an administration fee to cover our costs in providing you with this information.

We rely on your consent to use your personal information, you have the right to withdraw consent at any time. If requested we will make all reasonable efforts to supply, correct or delete the information about you.

Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes we make to our policy in the future will be posted on this page and we will notify you of any significant changes by contacting you directly where reasonably possible for us to do so.

Cookie Policy

This site uses cookies – small text files that are placed on your machine to help the site provide a better user experience. In general, cookies are used to retain user preferences, store information for things like shopping carts, and provide anonymised tracking data to third party applications like Google Analytics. As a rule, cookies will make your browsing experience better. However, you may prefer to disable cookies on this site and on others. The most effective way to do this is to disable cookies in your browser. We suggest consulting the Help section of your browser or taking a look at the About Cookies website which offers guidance for all modern browsers.

Other Policies

Anti-Money Laundering

• All transactions (should they need to be reversed) will ONLY be returned to the original tender,
• All Landlord payments/annual income statements are stored on a secure database,
• Annual rent statements and summaries are sent to the HMRC when requested,
• If a member of staff has reasonable grounds to suspect money laundering activities or proceeds of crime, or is simply suspicious, the matter is reported in house to Steven Harris (Managing Director.) Any suspicious circumstances are investigated in detail.  

Examples of suspicious behaviour

• Reluctance to provide details of their identity
• Customer is trying to use intermediaries to hide their identity or involvement
• There appears to be no genuine reason for the customer using the business’s services
• Money is paid by a third party who does not appear to be connected with the customer
• The customer requests payment to a third party who has no apparent connection with the customer
• A cash transaction is unusually large and the customer will not disclose the source of funds.
• A transaction is carried out for less than market value with an unconnected person

Client Identification

For customers defined as Corporate Customers, Listed Companies, Private Companies or Public Authorities, (presenting lower risk for money laundering activities and terrorist activity due to their regulated activities) we must obtain relevant information. e.g. company registration number, registered address and evidence that the individuals have the authority to act for the company – a search at Companies House will reveal details of directors and company secretary.

Private Customers, customer’s identity is done by documents that are based on a government issued document with the customer’s full name and photo with either the customer’s date of birth or residential address such as:

Tenants provided documentation & information from reliable and independent sources for verification checking.

1. Valid passport
2. Valid photocard driving licence and full Birth Certificate.
3. National identity card

Abode property management will not do business with;

• Persons with businesses in which the legitimacy of activity or source of funds can’t be reasonably verified;
• Persons refusing to provide the required information or documentation; or
• Entities whose shareholder/control structure cannot be determined.

Record Retention Policies

In general, unless it is still required in connection with the purpose(s) for which it was originally collected, we remove your personal information from our records 5 years after the date it was collected and we will only keep your information for as long as it is relevant and useful for that purpose.

Complaints Procedure

Download Complaints Procedure

If you are still unhappy with our response you can contact the Property Ombudsman at the following address:

The Property Ombudsman

Milford House

43-55 Milford Street

Salisbury, Wiltshire

SP1 2BP
Tel: 01722 333306
Email: admin@tpos.co.uk

Or alternatively you can contact BALMA (Bristol Association of Letting and Managing Agents) at:

Barrington & Co.

Portishead

Bristol

BS20 6EL

Disclaimer

All the information on this website is published in good faith and for general information purposes only. Abode Property Management Limited does not make any warranties about its completeness, reliability or accuracy of this information.

Specifically images or tours on our website are not dated so the aesthetics or furniture could have changed, in some cases this could be considerable. All properties should be seen before being let so at this stage you need to satisfy yourself that all information has been brought up to date.

From our website you may link to other sites. While we strive to create only quality links we have no control over other content found on these sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.