Bishop SureLets: Privacy Notice
Bishop SureLets, hereafter referred to as “the Company”, is committed to protecting and respecting the privacy of its clients and customers. This notice sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from our clients and customers, or that is provided to us, will be processed by us (i.e. collected, used, secured, transferred and/or shared).
Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
The Company is a specialist provider of long-term Residential Lettings services in Brighton, Hove and the surrounding areas of East and West Sussex. Full details can be found at our website: www.bishopsurelets.co.uk.
For the purpose of applicable data protection legislation, Bishop SureLets, (Company No. 9309619) is the Data Controller.
1. Types of Personal Data Collected
You may give be required to provide us with your personal data when using our services or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you register to subscribe to any of our services as a Landlord or Tenant. Your personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer required or has no use, in accordance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Company uses any information submitted by you to provide you with further information about the services we offer or to assist you in answering any questions or queries you may have submitted. This includes using your details to subscribe you to any service the Company operates (e.g. email marketing), but only if this was made clear to you and your express permission (your consent) was granted. Examples of the types of personal data required for Landlords and Tenants are outlined below. Furthermore, we have given examples of a Next of Kin’s personal data which would be required for all Tenants (and relates to the Tenant’s Deposit Agreement), along with examples of the personal data required for a Tenant’s Guarantor if a Guarantor is required for a Tenancy. | |
Examples of Personal Data Collected | |
Landlord Enquiry |
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Current Landlord / Past Landlord |
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Examples of Personal Data Collected (continued) | |
Applicant Tenant Enquiry (registering to view a property or carry out a property search) |
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Tenant |
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Tenant’s Next of Kin |
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Tenant’s Guarantor |
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2. Methods of Data Collection
In the general conduct of business, Bishop SureLets collects information relevant to the Residential Lettings services it offers from current and/or prospective Landlords and Tenants, the Tenant’s Next of Kin and Tenant’s Guarantor (if required).
At the prospective Landlord or Tenant enquiry/registration stage, such information will generally be collected directly via email to lettings@bishopsurelets.co.uk, by telephone or via the use of standard forms over the internet via the Rightmove or Zoopla websites.
When contact is made via the Rightmove or Zoopla websites, please be advised that users of these websites will provide any such personal details requested at their own discretion. While every effort has been made to ensure a safe and secure form to email submission process, users are strongly advised that they do so at their own risk. Please refer to the Rightmove and/or Zoopla privacy notices for further details:
Rightmove: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/this-site/terms-of-use-and-privacy-policy.html Zoopla: https://www.zoopla.co.uk/privacy/
Furthermore, an individual may choose to submit information to the Company directly via several alternative methods, detailed below:
in response to any email marketing communications such as sending property details
by signing up for a service provided by Bishop SureLets
in connection with an actual or potential business or employment relationship with us
For Tenants: Please be advised that at the point an offer to rent a property has been accepted by a Landlord, in order to progress the Tenancy, we will be contractually obliged to send limited personal data to third party service providers who are required to act on our behalf prior to the commencement of, during, or at the end of your Tenancy.
Most third party service providers will only need your basic contact details (e.g. your name, email address and telephone number) in order to fulfil the service they have been instructed to undertake (e.g. an inventory clerk to meet you at the property on the day you move in to carry out the check in service).
However, for Tenant referencing purposes, the third party service provider, Homelet, will seek your consent to collect and process further personal data which may typically include, but is not limited to, your:
When submitting their personal information for any or all of these purposes, Landlords, Tenants and associated Next of Kin and/or Guarantors will submit any such personal data via email to lettings@bishopsurelets.co.uk or by telephone.
Date of Birth
Current and Previous Addresses
Landlord’s Name
Landlord’s Contact Details
Job Title
Salary
Employer’s Name
• Employer’s Contact Details
• Employment Start Date
• Accountant’s Details if you are self-employed • Bank Details
• Credit / adverse credit history
• Records of any CCJs / Bankruptcy
If a Guarantor is required for a Tenant, they will also be referenced by Homelet and will be required to submit similar personal data about themselves.
As a Tenant (or Guarantor), you may also be required to agree to other third parties disclosing information about you to us that those third parties have collected, in particular, Homelet.
We, along with our service providers, collect certain information by using automated means, such as cookies and web beacons, when you visit our website or use our mobile phone app. The information we collect in this manner may include: IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs and information on actions taken or interaction with our digital assets.
We may use third-party web analytics services on our website and mobile app. The analytics provider that administers this service uses technologies such as cookies and web beacons to help us analyse how visitors use our website and mobile app.
The “Your Rights and Choices” section of this Privacy Notice specifies the ability for all clients and customers to opt out or limit the usage of the information collected.
3. Purposes of Collection
In general we will collect, use and hold your information for the purposes of:
Providing services to prospective and current Landlords and Tenants
Conducting our business
Processing payments and/or transactions including: Accounting, Authorisation, Clearing,
Chargebacks, Auditing, Billing, Reconciliation, Collection, Complaints, Enquiries, Credit Checks
and related dispute resolution activities
Protecting against and preventing fraud, unauthorised transactions, money laundering, (please
see below), tax evasion, claims, other liabilities and manage risk exposure and agent quality,
integrity, compliance and security of business processes
Creating and managing any accounts, associated authentication criteria (IDs and passwords) for
the PropertyFile app
Providing, administering and communicating with you about services or promotions
Compiling business directories, including business contact information
Operating, monitoring, evaluating and improving our services, website, mobile app and any other
digital assets and business
Developing new services
Managing communications, assessing the effectiveness and optimisation of advertising
Functionality of our website, mobile app, and other digital assets
Enforcing the Company’s “Terms of Use”, and any other legal rights as may be required by
applicable laws and regulations or requested by any judicial process or governmental agency
having or claiming jurisdiction over the Company
Complying with industry standards and Company policies
3.1 Compliance with Relevant Legislation and Regulations (Legal Obligation)
In order to help you with a residential lettings service we must comply with certain legislation and regulations.
The Company is required to obtain certain personal information from you in order to comply with these regulations. The information provided will only be used by the Company in relation to complying with these regulations and will not be shared with any other party outside of the Company unless we are required to do so under law.
3.1.1 Right to Rent Act 2016 (for all Tenants)
Acceptable documents that a tenant can use to demonstrate their identity and Right to Rent are dependent on their nationality.
Options for British citizens are:
1. combination of valid UK driving licence & original UK birth certificate, or
2. valid passport
Options for all other nationalities are:
1. proof of settlement status granted under the EU Settlement Scheme* or the points-based immigration system, or:
2. combination of passport and valid visa or Biometric Residence Permit (BRP)
*Countries in the EEA are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain & Sweden
3.1.2 Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (for all Landlords, Tenants and Guarantors)
If you decide to enter into a business relationship with the Company (as a Landlord, Tenant or Guarantor), below is a list of acceptable identity documents which you will be required to provide to comply with these regulations. You will be required to provide one document from List A and one recent document from List B. Depending on individual circumstances, further/other documentation may be required and the information may be required at various stages of the process.
Bishop SureLets requires one document from List A and one document from List B.
List A: Identity Document
• Current signed passport • Valid UK driving licence
List B: Proof of Address
UK/EU/EEA Drivers Licence (if UK Drivers Licence not used as ID)
Bank or Building Society Statement
UK Mortgage Statement
Utility Bill.
Council Tax
Tenancy Agreement
HMRC Tax Notification
Home or Motor Insurance Certificate
NHS Medical Card or letter from GP confirming registration
Official confirmation of Electoral Register entry or official poll card
4. Lawful Basis of Data Processing
Bishop SureLets processes your information under the following categories:
Performance of a Contract: Where e.g. a Landlord or Tenant enters into a contract with the Company and we need to process their information as part of this contract
Legal Obligation:
Consent:
Legitimate Interest:
Public Interests:
Where we process information under consent we will seek a potential Landlord or Tenant’s clear and unambiguous consent prior to processing their data, e.g. for marketing purposes
Some information is processed by the Company as part of its legitimate interests which include: fraud, due diligence, managing opting out of communications, profiling, direct marketing, monitoring, cloud storage, updating customer details, lettings and other core services provided by the Company
Where we need to process personal data in order to comply with a common law or statutory obligation, e.g. carrying out Right to Rent or
Money Laundering checks
Where we need to perform a specific task in the public interest that is
set out in law, e.g. reporting anti-social behaviour of a Tenant
5. Information We Share
We do not sell or otherwise disclose any personal information we collect about you, except as described in this Privacy Notice or as indicated via the consent process at the time the data is collected.
We share the information we collect with, but not limited to:
(i) Landlords and landlord associates and sub-processors
(ii) Third party service providers, as follows:
Referencing agency – for Tenant referencing purposes
DocuSign – an electronic document signature service provider (for e.g. Tenant Application
Letters, Landlord’s Terms of Business, Tenancy Documentation etc.)
The Tenancy Deposit Scheme – to register the Tenant’s deposit
Utility managing agent – to help set up/close down utility and Council Tax bills/accounts
Inventory clerk – to carry out a check in/check out service with the Tenant at the beginning or
end of a Tenancy
(iii) Formally contracted service providers to perform services on our behalf, as follows:
Hosting datacentre
Lettings and Property Management software (infrastructure)
Applications – development / support
Cloud storage
We contractually require these service providers to safeguard the privacy and security of personal information they process on our behalf and authorise them to use or disclose the information only as necessary to perform services on our behalf or comply with legal requirements.
Bishop SureLets reserves the right to transfer your information in the event of a sale or transfer (wholly or partially) of our business or assets, with reasonable efforts for the acquirer to protect / use your information consistent with our Privacy Notice. You can exercise your rights to contact the acquiring entity with questions concerning the protection and processing of your information if applicable.
6. How Long Do We Keep Information For?
We will keep information for a reasonable amount of time in order to perform the purposes listed above, or until you notify us that you no longer wish to receive this information.
We only keep your information for as long as necessary. We generally keep personal information for six years after a Tenancy has ended. However, we reserve the right to keep information for longer if we feel that this is in the legitimate interests of the Company.
7. International Data Transfers
The Company may transfer the personal information collected about you to recipients in countries other than the country in which the information was originally collected. Please be advised that those countries may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which you initially provided the information. When we transfer your information to other countries, we will protect that information as described in this Privacy Notice or as otherwise disclosed to you at the time the data is collected (e.g. via program specific privacy notice).
Please be advised that we currently engage a company called DocuSign who are based in the United States of America for the electronic signing of Tenancy-related documentation. DocuSign ensures the required privacy and security requirements via “Binding Corporate Rules” which is one of three approaches to ensure adequate privacy protection for personal data exported from the EU to countries such as the United States. BCR is regarded by some as the gold standard for data transfers, because it entails regulator review of an organisation’s data protection practices and is explicitly mentioned in the GDPR. DocuSign has completed the approval process from the EU Data Protection Authorities (DPA) for Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs) both as a data processor and as a data controller. BCRs are global, company- wide privacy policies that ensure personal data is granted a uniform level of protection and security wherever it travels within a group of companies. These approved BCRs demonstrate DocuSign’s strong commitment to data protection and robust internal data protection practices. Please find full details of their Privacy Policy at the following link: www.docusign.com/company/privacy-policy.
8. How We Protect Personal Information
The security of your personal information is very important, and the Company is committed to protecting the information we collect. We maintain administrative, technical and physical processes and procedures designed to safeguard and protect the personal information you provide or that we collect against accidental, unlawful or unauthorised destruction, loss, alteration, access, disclosure or use.
We use SSL encryption on our website from which we transfer certain personal information.
The Company stores personal information only for as long as it is necessary for the fulfilment of the purpose for which the personal information was collected, unless otherwise required or authorised by applicable law. We take measures to destroy personal information if required by law or if the personal information is no longer required for the purpose for which we collected it.
9. Profiling
For the purposes of business conduct, enhancement, identification of fraud, money laundering and other potential un-authorised activities, the Company engages profiling activities via direct use or anonymisation of sensitive personal information.
9.1 Direct Profiling
Direct profiling is engaged for the fair and lawful purposes, to provide the Company with the ability to enforce the Company’s “Terms of Use”, legal reporting as may be required by applicable laws, regulations, policies / standards or requested by any judicial process or governmental agency having or claiming jurisdiction over the Company; including, but not limited to:
Background checks for existing and new Landlords and Tenants
Tenant credit checking as part of the referencing process
Right to Rent and Anti-Money Laundering checks
Tax reporting
Credit defaulting / exposure
9.2 Indirect Profiling
Indirect profiling via anonymisation of personal information is also used for preparing and furnishing aggregated data reports showing anonymised information, including, but not limited to, the following:
Compilations, analyses, analytical and predictive models and rules, and other aggregated reports for the purpose of advising other customers regarding past and potential future patterns of service usage, spending, fraud, and other insights that may be extracted from this data
Compiling and communicating promotional and marketing information about e.g. lettings services, properties to rent etc., that Bishop SureLets have and that may be of interest to you
Conducting market research
Facilitating our internal business operations, including the fulfilment of any legal requirements
10. Your Rights and Choices
Your rights regarding the personal information we maintain about you enable you to exercise choices about what personal information we collect from you, how we use that information and how we communicate with you.
10.1 Access and Correction You may:
obtain confirmation that we hold personal information about you
request access to and receive information about the personal information we maintain
about you
receive copies of the personal information we maintain about you
Please be advised that access personal information may be limited in some circumstances by local law requirements.
To exercise these rights, please contact us following the process outlined below in Section 11 “How to Contact Us”.
10.2 Update and Correct Inaccuracies in your Personal Information
If you feel that the personal information we hold about you in incorrect or inaccurate you can contact us outlining the information you feel is incorrect of inaccurate.
To exercise these rights, please contact us following the process outlined below in Section 11 “How to Contact Us”.
If we refuse to correct your personal information, we will provide you with a written notice which sets out the reasons for our refusal (unless it would be unreasonable to provide those reasons) and provide you with a statement regarding the mechanisms available to you to make a complaint. We will provide you with access to information we hold about you.
10.3 Object to the Processing of your Personal Information
If you would like to object to any processing of your information by the Company you can contact us outlining what processing of information you would like to object to.
To exercise these rights, please contact us following the process outlined below in Section 11 “How to Contact Us”.
10.4 Have the Information Blocked, Anonymised or Deleted
If you would like the Company to delete, block or anonymise information we hold about you, you can contact us outlining what information you would like deleted, blocked or anonymised.
To exercise these rights, please contact us following the process outlined below in Section 11 “How to Contact Us”.
10.5 Opting Out of Processing
You can instruct us not to send you marketing communications at any time by:
Unsubscribing via the “unsubscribe link” within the marketing e-mails you receive from us, or
Contacting us as indicated in Section 11 “How To Contact Us” below
10.6 Withdrawal of Consent
If we obtain your personal information by consent you have the right to withdraw any consent you previously provided to us.
If we process your information under legitimate interest you can object at any time on legitimate grounds, to the processing of your personal information.
The Company will apply your preferences going forward. Doing so will mean that you will not be able to take advantage of certain services.
In order to do so, please contact us following the process outlined below in Section 11 “How to Contact Us”.
11. How to Contact Us
11.1 Updating your Preferences
To update any or all of your preferences for Sections 10.1 to 10.6 outlined above, please:
(1) Email us at: (2) Write to us at:
(3) Call us at:
11.2 Complaints and Feedback
If we fall short of your expectations in processing your personal information, or if you wish to make a complaint about our privacy practices, please:
(1) Email us at: (2) Write to us at:
(3) Call us at:
lettings@bishopsurelets.co.uk; or
Selina Bishop, Operations Manager Bishop SureLets ,Office 280 Regency House
91 Western Road
Brighton East Sussex BN1 2NW
01273 646 426
lettings@bishopsurelets.co.uk; or
FAO Selina Bishop, Operations Manager Bishop SureLets
Office 280 Regency House
91 Western Road
Brighton East Sussex BN1 2NW
01273 646 426
To assist us in responding to your request, please give full details of the issue/s. We will attempt to review and respond to all complaints within a reasonable time.
If we cannot for lawful reasons complete your request, we will explain this to you to the extent that we lawfully can.
11.3 How to make a Data Subject Access Request (“DSAR”)
If you would like to make a Data Subject Access Request (“DSAR”), please follow the procedure as outlined below:
(1) Email us at: (2) Write to us at:
lettings@bishopsurelets.co.uk; or
Selina Bishop, Operations Manager Bishop SureLets
Office 280 Regency House
91 Western Road
Brighton East Sussex BN1 2NW
To assist us in responding to your request, you might find it useful to complete a Data Subject Access Request Form (please feel free to request a form from us at your convenience).
The Company may request that you provide sufficient information to validate your identity (to ensure that the person requesting the information is the data subject or their authorised person).
12. Updating this Privacy Statement
We will update this statement from time to time and we suggest that you review this statement at regular intervals. Where we undergo substantial changes to our privacy statement we will endeavour to inform you directly about these changes.
Privacy Notice: Version 2.0 February 2022
