Privacy policy
This explains what we do with your information when you ask us for a valuation. It is written to be read, not to be skimmed past, so it is in plain English rather than legal language.
Who we are
Direct Property, company number [[COMPANY NUMBER]], registered at 62 Viewfiled Road, Ayr, KA8 8HH. We buy houses and flats directly from owners across Scotland.
We are the data controller for the information described here, which means we decide what is collected and why. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under number [[ICO NUMBER]].
For anything to do with your data, email [email protected].
What we collect
What you tell us
When you complete the valuation form, we collect:
- Your name, mobile number and email address
- The property postcode
- The type of property and the number of bedrooms
- Who is living there at the moment
- When you would like to sell
If you message us on WhatsApp instead, we collect whatever you choose to send us, along with the phone number you send it from.
What we work out from it
We do not just store your answers, we act on them. From what you give us we derive:
- The outward part of your postcode, and whether the property is inside the area of Scotland we buy in
- A priority score and grade, calculated from who is living at the property and how soon you want to sell. This decides how quickly someone contacts you and whether we open a file on the enquiry.
To be clear about that scoring: it is a simple points calculation, it only affects how fast we get back to you, and a person reads every enquiry either way. It is not an automated decision that produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you, and no offer is ever generated by it.
What is collected automatically
If you arrived from a Facebook or Instagram advert, the page records identifiers that let us tell which advert brought you here. These include a Facebook click identifier, the Facebook cookies _fbp and _fbc, and campaign labels such as utm_source and utm_campaign. The page also records the address of the page you filled in and generates a one-off reference number for the submission.
We do not collect your bank details, your date of birth, or anything about your health, beliefs or background. We have no use for it and we do not ask for it.
Why we use it, and what allows us to
| What for | What allows us to |
|---|---|
| Preparing your valuation and getting back to you by phone, text or email | Legitimate interests. You asked us for a valuation. Responding to that is the whole point of the enquiry, and you would expect it. |
| Continuing to contact you about selling after the first conversation | Legitimate interests, and you can tell us to stop at any time. Reply STOP to any text and it ends immediately. |
| Advertising cookies and telling Facebook that an enquiry came in, so we can see which adverts work | Your consent. You can withdraw it at any time, and withdrawing it is as easy as giving it. |
| Keeping records of a property we actually bought | Legal obligation. Conveyancing, tax and anti money laundering rules require it. |
Cookies and similar technologies
Alongside the Facebook cookies above, the page stores a small amount of information in your own browser. Advert identifiers are kept for up to 90 days so that an enquiry can be matched to the advert that led to it, and the thank-you page stores a single marker for the length of your visit so that refreshing it does not report the same enquiry twice.
You can clear all of it at any time by clearing your browser's site data for this website, and you can block cookies entirely in your browser settings. Doing so will not stop you using the form.
Who we share it with
- Our CRM provider. Your enquiry is stored in a customer management system that we use to keep track of enquiries and to send the texts and emails we have described. They only process your data on our instructions.
- Meta, who run Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. When an enquiry we can help with comes in, we tell Meta that a conversion happened, using an encrypted version of your email and phone number so they can match it to the advert. We do not send Meta your postcode or any details of the property. If you message us on WhatsApp, Meta handles that message the same way it handles any WhatsApp conversation.
- Solicitors and other professionals, but only where a sale is actually going ahead and only what they need.
We do not sell your information, we do not pass it to other property companies, and we do not add you to anyone else's marketing list.
Where your information goes
Our CRM provider and Meta are both based in the United States, so your information is transferred outside the UK. Those transfers are covered by the safeguards the UK requires for international transfers, which for both providers means the UK's international data transfer arrangements together with the standard contractual protections in their terms. You can ask us for more detail on this.
How long we keep it
- Enquiries that do not lead to a sale: 24 months from your last contact with us, then deleted.
- Where we bought the property: 6 years, because tax, conveyancing and anti money laundering rules require us to hold records for a set period.
- If you ask us to stop contacting you: we keep only enough to make sure we do not contact you again by mistake.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:
- Give you a copy of the information we hold about you
- Correct anything that is wrong
- Delete it, where we do not have a legal reason to keep it
- Stop using it, or restrict what we do with it
- Send it to you, or to someone else, in a portable format
- Stop contacting you for marketing, which we will action straight away and without asking why
Email [email protected] and we will respond within one month. There is no charge.
If you are not happy
Tell us first and we will try to put it right. If you are still unhappy you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK regulator for data protection, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113. Complaining to them is free, and you do not need to go through us first.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle your information we will update this page and change the date at the top. If the change is significant and we still hold your details, we will tell you directly.