Privacy Policy - Magicbrick Estate Agents

1. Introduction

Welcome to the Privacy Policy of Magicbrick Estate Agents (“we”, “us”, or “our”).

We are an independent estate agency based in Harrow, London. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit it from), use our services as a buyer, seller, landlord, or tenant, and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Our Details (Data Controller):

Legal Entity: Magicbrick Estate Agents
Registered Address: 432 Alexandra Avenue Harrow HA2 9TW
Email: admin@magicbrick.co.uk
Telephone: 020 8004 4225
ICO Registration Number: ZA586520

2. The Data We Collect About You

Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. We may collect, use, store, and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:

A. Identity Data

First name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier.
Marital status, title, date of birth, and gender.
For AML Compliance: Copies of passports, driving licences, and utility bills.

B. Contact Data

Billing address, delivery address, email address, and telephone numbers.

C. Financial Data

Bank account details and payment card details (for collecting rent, deposits, or fees).
Salary and employment details (for tenant referencing).

D. Transaction Data

Details about payments to and from you.
Details of properties you have purchased, sold, let, or rented through us.

E. Technical & Usage Data

Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting, and location (when you use our website).
Information about how you use our website, products, and services.

F. Marketing and Communications Data

Your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences.

3. How Is Your Personal Data Collected?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including:

Direct Interactions: You may give us your Identity, Contact, and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email, or in person at our Harrow office.
Automated Technologies: As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns.
Third Parties: We may receive personal data about you from various third parties, including:
- Property Portals (e.g., Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket).
- Referencing Agencies (for tenants).
- Solicitors and Conveyancers (during sales progression).
- Publicly available sources such as the Land Registry or Companies House.

4. How We Use Your Personal Data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

Performance of a Contract: Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you (e.g., selling your house or managing your tenancy).
Legal Obligation: Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation (e.g., Anti-Money Laundering checks, Right to Rent checks).
Legitimate Interests: Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests (e.g., keeping our records updated, studying how customers use our products/services).
Consent: Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending third-party direct marketing communications to you. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time.

Purposes for which we will use your data:

To register you as a new customer: (Performance of a Contract)
To process and deliver your order: Managing payments, fees, and charges; collecting and recovering money owed to us. (Performance of a Contract)
To manage our relationship with you: Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy. (Legal Obligation)
To enable you to partake in a prize draw or complete a survey. (Legitimate Interest)
To verify your identity: For Anti-Money Laundering (AML) purposes. (Legal Obligation)
To administer and protect our business and this website: Data analysis, system maintenance, support, reporting, and hosting of data. (Legitimate Interest)

5. Disclosures of Your Personal Data

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in paragraph 4 above.

Service Providers: IT and system administration services, CRM software providers.
Professional Advisers: Lawyers, bankers, auditors, and insurers.
Contractors & Tradespeople: Plumbers, electricians, and maintenance contractors (specifically for Property Management).
Referencing Agencies: To conduct credit and suitability checks on tenants.
Deposit Protection Schemes: (e.g., DPS, TDS) to register tenancy deposits.
Utility Companies: To update utility records at the start/end of a tenancy.
Regulatory Bodies: HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), The Property Redress Scheme (PRS), and AML supervisors who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes.

6. Data Security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered, or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors, and other third parties who have a business need to know.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and the ICO of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

7. Data Retention

How long will you use my personal data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

Anti-Money Laundering (AML): By law, we must keep Identity and Transaction Data for a minimum of 5 years after the business relationship ends.
Tax Purposes: We must keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial, and Transaction Data) for 6 years after they cease being customers for tax purposes.

8. Your Legal Rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data, including:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”).
Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you.
Request erasure of your personal data (where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it).
Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest.
Request restriction of processing of your personal data.
Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party.
Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us at admin@magicbrick.co.uk

9. Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising.

Third-Party Marketing: We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside the Magicbrick group of companies for marketing purposes.
Opting Out: You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at any time.

10. Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and allows us to improve our site. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly.

11. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact our Data Privacy Manager/Owner:

Full Name: Mr Kartavya Trivedi
Email address: kartavya@magicbrick.co.uk
Postal address: 432 Alexandra Avenue Harrow HA2 9TW

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance