TheHouseShop Privacy Policy

We care deeply about your privacy. Find out how we use, maintain, share and protect your data below.

This Privacy Notice describes our collection, use, disclosure, retention, and protection of your personal information. It applies to our Site (www.thehouseshop.com) and affiliated partners where this Privacy Notice appears in the footer, and to any application, service, or tool (collectively "Services") where this Privacy Notice is referenced, regardless of how you access or use them, including through mobile devices.

TheHouseShop.com is committed to protecting your privacy. We respect our users' right to privacy and are fully compliant with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As part of this commitment we are a registered data controller with the ICO; our registration number is ZA172484.

PROPERTIES ADVERTISED ON SITE

1.1 What we collect and where it comes from

In the course of providing our services, we collect property data such as images of properties, property asking prices, sales history and sold prices, property addresses, property locations and property descriptions.
The property data is provided to us by our members or other third parties on behalf of those members.

1.2 Why we collect it

We will use this information for a number of reasons including:

to provide the Site;
to enable our members to advertise their properties to the largest online audience available;
to enable potential purchasers or tenants to see detailed descriptions and images of properties that they may be interested in;
to allow users to see current property trends such as the prices of houses for sale in their local area; and
for our own commercial purposes such as to identify trends in the property market, automated survey and valuation tools, and to build property databases.

1.3 Our lawful basis for processing this personal data

We have a legitimate interest to process this information. These legitimate interests are:

providing a service to our members by helping them to market properties;
providing a service to our members by advertising properties to potential purchasers or tenants;
providing a service to potential purchasers and tenants so that they know what properties are currently on the market and the price of those properties; and
to provide data services to third parties such as banks, building societies, insurance companies and other financial institutions so that they can process this property data for their purposes, including using the data in services such as property valuation models or surveyor comparison software.

1.4 How long we will keep it for

We will stop advertising a property when we are instructed to do so by our members.
However, the property information will remain available on the Site as historical property information to allow users to benefit from services such as identifying previous for sale or sold prices (please see the historical property data section below for further information).

HISTORICAL PROPERTY DATA

2.1 What we collect and where it comes from

If a property has previously been actively marketed on the Site, we will continue to display it on the Site as historical property information. If you have any concerns about any historical property information available on the Site, please see the section of this Policy entitled "Removing Property Data from the Site" (below).
We also have data about historical property listings on the Site which we collect from other third parties. For example, we obtain the sold prices of the properties from the Land Registry (or the Land Register of Scotland) and display those sold prices on the Site.

2.2 Why we collect it

We will use this information:

to assist potential purchasers and tenants when forming a view about historical market trends and potential property values;
to assist vendors when researching the approximate value of their property;
to enable users to see detailed property descriptions and images of properties in areas that they may be interested in;
to allow users to see property trends that they may be interested in, such as the previous sale and sold prices of houses in their local area; and
for our other commercial purposes, such as to identify trends in the property market and automated survey and valuation tools, and to build property databases.

2.3 Our lawful basis for processing this personal data

We have a legitimate interest to process this information. These legitimate interests are:

to enhance the service that we provide on the Site and providing a service that benefits our members, Site users, vendors, landlords, potential purchasers and tenants;
to provide a service to our members by assisting them to more accurately value other properties;
to provide a service to vendors and landlords to form a view about the value of their properties;
providing a service to potential purchasers and tenants in understanding what properties have been on the market and the prices of those properties; and
to provide data services to third parties such as banks, building societies, insurance companies and other financial institutions so that they can process this historic property data for their purposes, including using the data in services such as property valuation models or surveyor comparison software.

2.4 How long we will keep it for

To the extent that property data is also personal data, it is generally the case that it ceases to be personal data over time. The historic property data is retained by us in accordance with our property database and remains necessary in order for us to provide the services summarised in the "why we collect it" box. If you have concerns about historical property information featured on our Site and you can prove to us that you have a valid association to the property you are concerned about, please contact us at soldprices@TheHouseShop.com

INFORMATION YOU GIVE TO US
1. 1. What we collect and where it comes from

We will collect the information that you give to us when using our Site:

3.1.1 Property Enquiries:

a member can be a business or a private individual
if you choose to access a particular search feature or to fill in a form on the Site you may be asked to provide information about yourself, such as your name and contact details. We may also collect other information about you at the same time, such as details of the sort of property you are interested in, the cost and location of the property, and your current address;
if you choose to contact us using the member telephone number on Site, calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes.

3.1.2 Registered Users and Property Alerts:

information that you provide to us when you register as a TheHouseShop user and/or request property email updates such as Property Alerts about when a property is placed on the market in your chosen postcode and meeting your search parameters;

3.1.3 Advertising your property privately on our Site:

Any identifying information such as your name, addresses, telephone numbers or email addresses when you register for an account with us.
The information you provide during a transaction, or other transaction-based content that you generate or is connected to your account as a result of a listing you have created. This includes any messages sent by you or messages from any other users received by you via email, on-site enquiry system or text message.
Other content that you may generate or that is connected to your account and your use of our Site.
Financial and billing information (such as credit card or bank account numbers) in connection with a transaction which is held by our trusted payment processing service providers.
Additional information we are required or authorized by applicable national laws to collect and process in order to authenticate or identify you or to verify the information we have collected.

3.1.4 Using our Valuation Service, our Estate Agent Comparison Service, our Online Agent Comparison, RentScore, Tenant Referencing, Home Improvement Services, End of Tenancy Cleaning, EPC, Gas Certificate or other services delivered by our service providers

Any identifying information such as your name, addresses, date of birth, telephone numbers or email addresses when you register for an account with us.
The information you provide during the user journey, or other content that you generate or is connected to your account as a result of a usage of one of these services.
For certain services, we collect your bank details or other payment details provided by You
information about you which is collected via technical means such as cookies, webpage counters and other analytics tools

3.1.5 General Site Use and information we collect automatically when you use our Services or register for an account with us:

information that you provide when participating in discussion boards or other social media functions on our Site and enter into competitions, promotions or surveys available on the Site, use our chats, provide feedback or report a problem with our Site or apps;

3.1.6 Communications:

information that you provide to us by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise

3.1.7 Investors

information that you provide to us when browsing our investor pages.

3.2 Why we collect it

We process your personal data for various purposes and based on several different legal bases that allow this processing. For example, we process your personal data to provide and improve our Services, to provide you with a personalised user experience on this website, to contact you about your TheHouseShop account and our Services, to provide customer service, to provide you with personalised advertising and marketing communications, and to detect, prevent, mitigate and investigate fraudulent or illegal activity. We also share your information with third parties, including service providers acting on our behalf, for these purposes. In addition, we may share your personal data among TheHouseShop's Affiliates in order to fulfil our contract with you under the User Agreement

We will use this information:

3.2.1 Enquiries to our members:

to make sure that you receive the benefit of the TheHouseShop service. This may include transferring your property enquiry to our member advertising that property so that they can respond to your enquiry;
for training and monitoring purposes where calls are recorded;

3.2.2 Registered Users and Property Alerts:

to provide you with the benefit of services for registered users only;
to provide Property Alerts to you of new properties marketed on our Site that meet your search criteria;

3.2.3 Using our Valuation Service, our Estate Agent Comparison Service, our Online Agent Comparison, RentScore, Tenant Referencing, Home Improvement Services, End of Tenancy Cleaning, EPC, Gas Certificate or other services delivered by our service providers

If you are a user of our site and request a quote, a valuation, or our comparison service of estate agents, we will send details of your property, and information about you, to Netanagent.com and also to some estate agents and online estate agents (including YOPA. Emoov, Settled, Doorstep.co.uk, Purplebricks, Easyproperty). They will then use that information to provide a quote and will contact you directly by email, telephone or other electronic communication.
If you request a professional property valuation, either by using our site or by telephone or any electronic communication, including electronic mail and text message, we will provide your information to the estate agent, as requested by them, so that they can contact you directly to move forward with your transaction Any estate agents whom we provide your details to (whether pseudonymised or not) are data controllers in their own right, and have direct responsibilities to you regarding how they use and store your information. You should refer to their privacy policies for details of how your information will be used.
If you are a landlord using our tenant referencing service, our Rentscore service or our RentScore plus service, we will communicate your data to our supplier(s) including credit agencies and other referencing agencies we may use to perform our Services; you also confirm that you have the necessary permission to communicate the personal data of your tenants and that they have consented to their data to be shared with us and our suppliers
If you are a landlord using our tenant referencing service, we will provide you with insurance quotation and we will share your data with Paymentshield to do so.

3.2.4 Rentscore and Rentscore plus for Tenants: Rental Exchange

Not only will we be able to work with you more closely to manage your existing tenancy agreement, but your track record as a tenant will also enable Experian to use the information supplied to them to assist other landlords and organisations to:

assess and manage any new tenancy agreements you may enter into;
assess your financial standing to provide you with suitable products and services;
manage any accounts that you may already hold, for example reviewing suitable products or adjusting your product in light of your current circumstances;
contact you in relation to any accounts you may have and recover debts that you may owe;
verifying your identity, age and address, to help other organisations make decisions about the services they offer;
help to prevent crime, fraud and money laundering;
screen marketing offers to make sure they are appropriate to your circumstances;
for Experian to undertake statistical analysis, analytics and profiling,
and for Experian to conduct system and product testing and database processing activities, such as data loading, data matching and data linkage.

If you would like to see more information on these, and to understand how the credit reference agencies each use and share rental data as bureau data (including the legitimate interests each pursues) this information is provided in this link: www.experian.co.uk/crain (Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN)).

3.2.5 General Site Use:

to provide the Site to you;
to enhance the services that you select on our Site;
to process any queries that you have about TheHouseShop or its members;
to customise and enrich your experience on our Site;
to contact you for your views on our services and to notify you occasionally about important changes to our Terms of Use or this Policy or developments to this Site or our services;
to deliver relevant advertising to you whilst you are on the Site;

3.2.6 Communications:

to process and resolve any queries that you may have;

3.2.7 Investor Relations:

to allow you to subscribe for relevant TheHouseShop regulatory alerts;
to process and respond to any queries that you might have.

3.3 Our lawful basis for processing this personal data

We have a legitimate interest to process this information. These legitimate interests are:

Enquiries to our members: to provide a service to our members and to you;
Registered User and Property Alerts: to provide you with our services;
Tenant Referencing: to provide you with our services;
RentScore: to provide you with our services;
RentScore Plus: to provide you with our services;
Property Management: to provide you with our services;
General Site Use: to gain information about the use of our Site and any improvements that can be made as well as providing advertising space to our members and third parties;
Communications: to ensure that your queries are addressed; and
Investor Relations: to allow you to access TheHouseShop regulatory alerts and to ensure that your queries are addressed.

3.4 How long we will keep it for

Our service providers and we will store your data in accordance with applicable data protection laws to the extent necessary for the processing purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. Subsequently, we will delete your data in accordance with our data retention and deletion policy or take steps to correctly render the data anonymous unless we are legally obliged or permitted to keep your data longer (e.g. for legal compliance, tax, accounting or auditing purposes, or to detect and prevent fraudulent or illegal activity on TheHouseShop). In the UK, the retention periods are generally between 6 and 10 years (e.g. for contracts, notifications and business letters). As far as legally permissible or required, we restrict the processing of your data instead of deleting it (e.g. by restricting access to it). This applies in particular, to cases where we may still need the data for the execution of the contract or for the assertion of or defence against legal claims, AML checks, fraud investigations, or where such retention is otherwise required or permitted by law. In these cases, the duration of the restriction of processing depends on the respective statutory limitation or retention periods. The data will be deleted after the relevant limitation or retention periods have expired.

3.4.1 Enquiries to our members

all enquiry data will be kept for two years from the date on which the enquiry is sent at which point it will be erased or anonymised so that the data no longer identifies you. This does not apply to call recordings which are stored for a shorter period of the three months from the date of the recording, at which point they are deleted.

3.4.2 Registered Users and Property Alerts:

information that you provide to us when you register as a TheHouseShop user will be kept for as long as you have an account set up on TheHouseShop. The personal data relating to your account will be deleted when you delete your account.

3.4.3 Users of our Valuation Service, our Estate Agent Comparison Service, our Online Agent Comparison, RentScore, Tenant Referencing, Home Improvement Services, End of Tenancy Cleaning, EPC, Gas Certificate or other services delivered by our service providers

This data will be retained for as long as you maintain it on your existing account, or as long as the law requires us to keep it, whichever is greater

3.4.4 General Site Use:

information that you provide when participating in discussion boards, enter into competitions, promotions or surveys will be retained for two years.
information that is provided when you interact with us through social media functions will only be retained on the social media platforms which you use to contact us - we will not copy or store it separately. This data will be retained for as long as you keep it on your social media accounts.

3.4.5 Communications:

information that you provide to us by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise will be retained for the period of 18 months from the date of communication or until your query is resolved.

3.4.6 Investors

Information that you provide to us when browsing our plc investor pages will be kept for as long as you maintain a user account on our plc investor pages. Any data which we hold will be deleted when you delete your account.

PERSONAL INFORMATION FROM OTHER SOURCES
1. 1. What we collect and where it comes from

We may supplement the personal information we collect with information from third parties and add it to your account information including but not limited to demographic information that is publicly available, additional contact information, credit check information, and information from credit bureaus, as allowed by applicable national laws.
We may allow you to share information with social media sites, or use social media sites to create your account or to connect your account with the respective social media site. Those social media sites may allow us to automatically access certain personal information retained by them about you (e.g., content viewed by you, content liked by you, and information about the advertisements you have been shown or may have clicked on, etc.). If you provide us with access to any site with video content, then you agree that we may share your video viewing with, or obtain information about your video viewing from, third-party social media sites for at least two years or until you withdraw consent. You control the personal information you allow us to have access to through the privacy settings on the applicable social media site and the permissions you give us when you grant us access to your personal information retained by the respective social media site about you. By associating an account managed by a social media site with your account on the Site and authorizing us to have access to this information, you agree that we may collect, use and retain the information provided by these social media sites in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
If you give us personal information about someone else, you must do so only with their explicit and prior consent. You must inform them of how we collect, use, disclose, and retain their personal information according to our Privacy Policy.
1. 2. Why we collect it

We will use your information:

to allow you to participate in the interactive services available on our Site or to participate in competitions or promotions via our Site;
to pass your searches and messages on to our members to help them communicate with you directly and to provide a more personalised service to you. This may include contacting you about other relevant properties, adding you to their enquiry database for future contact and offering you their additional services;
to provide services and information to our members, which they can use to benchmark their performance;
to customise and enrich your experience on our Site, and
to contact you for your views on our services and to notify you occasionally about important changes to our Terms of Use or this Policy or developments to this Site or our services
1. 3. Our lawful basis for processing this personal data

We have a legitimate business interest to process this information. These legitimate interests are:

enhancing the service that you receive on the Site;
to provide a service to our members so they can respond to enquiries; and
providing information necessary to enable us to provide competitive, cost-effective services
1. 4. How long we will keep it for

We will store this personal data for two years from the date of collection at which point it will be erased or anonymised so that the data no longer identifies you

INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU
1. 1. What we collect and where it comes from

we automatically collect information about your device, including your Internet Protocol (IP) address, information about your visit (including how you got to our websites) and how you use our Services, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform. This may also include statistics on your page views, traffic to and from sites, referral URL, ad data, your browsing history and your web log information. We may combine this information with other information you have provided to us or which we have received from other sources.
we automatically collect information about your visit, including the full uniform resource locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our Site (including date and time), products you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks and mouse-overs) and methods used to browse away from the page; and
We also collect information about your interaction with our Services, your advertising preferences, and your communications with us. This is information we receive from the devices (including mobile devices) you use when you use our Services, register for an account with us, provide information on a web form, update or add information to your account, participate in community discussions, chats, or dispute resolution, or when you otherwise correspond with us regarding our Services. This information includes the following: device ID or unique identifier, device type, ID for advertising, and unique device token.
Geo-location information, including location information from your mobile device. Keep in mind that most mobile devices allow you to control or disable the use of location services by any application on your mobile device in the device's 'Settings' menu.

2. Why we collect it

We will use the information summarised above:

to provide the Site to you;
to conduct reviews that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our Site;
to ensure that content from our Site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device;
to administer our Site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
as part of our efforts to keep our Site safe and secure; and
to customise and enrich your experience on our Site

3. Our lawful basis for processing this personal data

We have a legitimate interest to process this information. These legitimate interests are:

to help ensure the on-going security of the Site;
enhancing the service that you receive on the Site; and
providing information necessary to enable us to provide competitive, cost-effective services

4. How long we will keep it for

We will store this personal data for two years in order to allow us to review and monitor normal traffic patterns and trends on the Site

USE OF YOUR DATA FOR MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Sometimes we may use your personal information to provide marketing messages to you. We will always seek your consent before doing so and you can opt out of marketing and other communications at any time by contacting support@thehouseshop.com. You can always make use of the Site without having to agree to receive marketing communication. The types of things that we may do include:

1. Marketing and advertising

Providing you and others, via email, text, post or telephone, with information about goods and services that we and selected third parties offer that may interest you or them, which may be based on inferences about your or their likely interests based on your activity on websites operated by THS Group Limited or third parties;
making suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our Site about goods or services that may interest you or them;
Customising or enhancing your experience of our services, which may use inferences about your likely interests based on your activity on websites operated by THS Group Limited or third parties;
Delivering relevant advertising to you on websites operated by THS Group Limited or third parties or indirect communications from us, which may use inferences about your likely interests based on your activity on websites operated by us or third parties.
Measuring and understanding the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others; communicating with you on third-party social media platforms; and
monitoring the effectiveness of our direct marketing communications and your responses to it;
1. 2. Service improvement and account management
Ensuring that our content is presented in the most effective manner for you and your device.
Administering our websites and apps and for internal business administration (for example, troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes).
Protecting our interests and those of third parties and as part of our efforts to keep our services safe and secure.
Managing and operating your account with us.

WHERE DO WE STORE YOUR PERSONAL DATA?

We process data at our registered offices at Suite 001, 6 Owen Street, London, EC1V 7JX, UK and (under contract) at the sites of data processors and third parties appointed by us.

We may transfer, store or process your personal information outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”). The laws in some countries may not provide as much legal protection for your personal information as in the EEA.
By submitting your personal information, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. Where we use service providers outside the EEA, we rely on approved data transfer mechanisms (for example, the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-US Privacy Shield) to ensure that your personal information is adequately safeguarded in the recipient country.
Where you have a password to enable you to access some parts of our websites or apps, you are responsible for keeping that password confidential. You must not share your password with anyone.
Unfortunately, transmission of information over the internet is not completely secure. We will do our best to protect your personal information, but we cannot guarantee its security and any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your personal information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
We keep your personal information for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it is processed. These periods vary depending on the nature of the information and your interactions with us.

If you wish to confirm that TheHouseShop is processing your personal data, or to have access to the personal data TheHouseShop may hold about you, please contact us on support@thehouseshop.com.

If you would like to delete your account, please contact us using the details below in section 11 below.

COOKIES

We use cookies and other similar technologies to distinguish you from other users of our websites and apps (including when you browse third-party websites). This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you use our services (for example, to remember your login details and improve our services). We also use cookies and similar technologies to show you more personalised advertising, including TheHouseShop ads on other websites. You may adjust the settings on your browser to refuse cookies but some of our services may not work if you do so. For detailed information on the cookies we use and why we use them, please read our Cookie Policy. If you wish to revoke your consent to the use of cookies on TheHouseShop Site you can either delete the cookies in your browser’s memory or clear your cache. If you wish to prevent cookies being set before you visit this website, you can set your browser to block cookies in your browser’s ‘Settings’ section.

We use Google Analytics to collect information about visitor behaviour on our Site. Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the Site, how you got here and what you click on. This Analytics data is collected via a JavaScript tag in the pages of our site and is not tied to personally identifiable information. We, therefore, do not collect or store your personal information (e.g. your name or address) so this information cannot be used to identify who you are. Learn more here about Google Cookie Privacy Policy

OPTING OUT OF COLLECTION OF INFORMATION BY THIRD PARTIES

Our third-party advertisers and advertising network providers (“Ad Providers”) may provide you with ads on our websites and apps or on other websites. To make those ads more relevant and help measure their effectiveness, the Ad Providers may use cookies and similar technologies. They record your activity (including pages visited) and estimate what information interests you the most. They use this information in accordance with their own privacy policies. For a link to each of those policies and for information about how to opt out, please read our Cookie Policy.

10. SECURITY

We protect your personal data through technical and organisational security measures to minimise risks associated with data loss, misuse, unauthorised access and unauthorised disclosure and alteration. To this end we use network security services and data encryption, for example, as well as physical access restrictions for our data centres and logical access controls for data and systems access.

11. YOUR RIGHTS

If you wish to confirm that TheHouseShop is processing your personal data, or to have access to the personal data TheHouseShop may hold about you, please contact us at support@thehouseshop.com or using the contact details provided in section 11 below.

You may also request information about: the purpose of the processing; the categories of personal data concerned; who else outside TheHouseShop might have received your data, what the source of information was (if you did not provide it directly to TheHouseShop); and how long it will be stored. You have the right to correct the record of your personal data maintained by TheHouseShop if it is inaccurate. You may also request that TheHouseShop ceases using your data for direct marketing purposes, you can do this at any time by updating your email preferences in your account on TheHouseShop.com site (https://www.thehouseshop.com/user/login) or by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link in any marketing communication we send to you.. Reasonable access to your personal data will be provided at no cost to TheHouseShop users.

Data protection law gives you the right to access your personal information, to object to the use of your personal information for certain purposes, and the right to erase, restrict or receive a machine-readable copy of your personal information. You can access, update and delete your TheHouseShop account information by logging into your account on the Site. If you cannot fulfil your request using these tools, please email support@thehouseshop.com or contact us using the address listed in the ‘CONTACT US’ section below.

We will handle your request in accordance with the law. This means there may be legal reasons why we cannot fulfil all requests.

12. LINKS TO THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES AND SERVICE PROVIDERS

Our website and apps may contain links to other websites or provide access to third-party services via iframes installed on our site. This privacy policy does not apply to these other sites or services providers and we do not accept liability for the content of any other website. Please check the privacy policy of any other website before submitting your personal information to it.

13. CONTACT US

If you have questions about this privacy policy or the way in which TheHouseShop processes your personal information, you can contact us using the details below:

THS Group Ltd (“Us”/”We”), Company Number 09952974, registered 85 Great Portland Street, First floor, London W1W 7LT

Post: Data Protection Manager, THS Group Limited, 85 Great Portland Street, First floor, London W1W 7LT

Email: support@thehouseshop.com

TheHouseShop has appointed an overall Data Protection Manager who is responsible for:

Acting as a key point of contact for data protection queries and the reporting of breaches for all Data Owners, employees, customers and Data Subjects;
Monitoring and ensuring the compliance with this Policy across the company and dealing with any disputes which may arise concerning data protection issues;
Conducting reviews of internal procedures to ensure that they continue to provide adequate protection of Customer Data and Confidential Information;
Liaising with Data Owners to deliver training, improve security awareness and communicate information relating to this Policy to employees;
Updating this Policy to reflect any changes in data protection laws;
Registering with government agencies (such as the UK Information Commissioners Office)

We hope that we will be able to resolve any questions or concerns you have. However, you may at any time raise your concern with the UK Information Commissioner.
You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office if you feel unhappy with the way we process your data. Please visit www.ico.org.uk for more information.

14. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

Any changes we may make to this Policy in the future will be posted on this page. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to this Policy.

Last updated on February 18^th 2023