Hough Gould aims to handle the data of customers and visitors responsibly and lawfully. This Privacy Policy will set out the types of information we handle and how we collect, use, and record it. If you have any questions about this policy, please contact us.

Please note that this Privacy Policy applies to our website accessible from https://www.houghgould.com/ all services offered by Hough Gould.

PROTECTION OF YOUR DATA

Regarding the protection of your data, please note:

• Your personal information will not be shared.
• Your personal information will not be sold, traded, or rented to others.
• In some situations, we may be required to share information with legal or regulatory bodies, for example if necessary to assist with crime prevention.
• We use third party systems and software in order to communicate, run the website, carry out services and market our services. We expect our third party system suppliers to maintain security levels and data protection measures that are appropriate and mitigate risks. We only share a level of information with third party suppliers that’s necessary for the intended use of the information.
• We use methods of storage, data collection, processing and security in a strict manner in order to prevent disclosure, destruction, alteration or any unauthorised access. This applies to your personal information, transactional information and any data stored via our website, databases and systems.

Please note that Hough Gould is a RICS Regulated company and external organisations may conduct audit or quality assurance reviews on our practice. For customers and clients that engage in our services, your files (including some of your information) may be subject to monitoring and review, and we will need to provide this to RICS on request in accordance with RICS Rules of Conduct for Members and/or RICS Rules of Conduct for Firms.

GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (GDPR)

Hough Gould follows General Data Protection (GDPR) guidance strictly and only retains data for its intended use, that is necessary and fair under UK legislation.

YOUR RIGHTS UNDER GDPR

GDPR gives you certain rights regarding your personal information. You may contact us, if you would like to know what personal information we have stored about you and also if you would like us to remove your personal information from our systems. Any enquiries regarding personal information will be responded to within 30 days of receipt.

GDPR rights for individuals are:

• The right to access your personal information.
• The right to update or to erase your personal information.
• The right to withdraw consent.
• The right to rectify.
• The right to object.
• The right to restrict.
• The right to data portability.

BASIS FOR COLLECTING AND PROCESSING YOUR DATA

The legal basis for collecting and processing your personal information depends on the type of information we collect and the specific reason for collecting your personal information. Reasons for collection your personal data could be:

• You have entered into a contract with Hough Gould.
• You have consented to Hough Gould collecting and processing your data.
• Hough Gould has a necessity or legitimate interest based reason for collecting and processing your data.
• There is a lawful basis for the collection of your data.

DATA SOURCES AND INFORMATION COLLECTION

Hough Gould may collect, maintain, process, use and disclose information. The data may be collected from various sources, including:

• Clients and customers, who have entered into a contract with us.
• Website users.
• Third parties necessary for us to provide services, for example, The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
• Our directors, employees and subcontractors.

RETENTION PERIOD

For website visitors, Hough Gould will retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary to provide our services and only for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. We will hold and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our policies.

Due to our RICS Regulated status, for clients who have entered into a contract with Hough Gould, we will retain all files and documents for a reasonable period, which will, in any event, be not less than 6 years after completion or termination of the service(s).

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

These are the circumstances under which we may use your information:

• To communicate and provide customer service: we may answer enquiries, provide support and respond to emails and messages with the information you provide.
• To carry out our services: this covers all services mentioned on our website and also additional services we may discuss and agree to.
• To resolve complaints. We have a complaints procedure in place that can be provided upon request and we may use your information in order to communicate with you and resolve your complaint.

LOG FILES

Similar to many other websites, our website utilises log files. These log files record data from visitors to our website.  The data collected can include things such as your: internet protocol (IP) address, internet service provider (ISP), entry and exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, browser type, and number of clicks.  Please note that this data is non-personal and cannot be used to personally identify you. It is used to analyse trends, track user’s movements on our website (to see which pages are getting most clicks) and gather broad demographic information.

COOKIES AND WEB BEACONS

The Hough Gould website uses ‘cookies’, in the same way as most other websites. These cookies can save data including website visitors’ preferences, and the pages on our website that you access. Visitors’ experience on the website can be optimised, by employing cookies, that can customise our website content based on each visitor’s browser type and any other relevant information.

YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY

Your use of our website and/or our services and products, signifies your acceptance of this privacy policy. By continuing to use our website, services and/or products after changes have been made to this policy, you display proof of your continued acceptance of the policy and those changes.

CONTACTING US

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our services, please contact us