Privacy policy

We’re committed to respecting and protecting your privacy.

This Privacy Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about our website visitors, customers, tenants, landlords, and people who contact or interact with us, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

About Benham & Reeves

Benham and Reeves is the trading name of Benham and Reeves Limited whose registered number is 1633981 and registered office is 28 Church Road, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4XR

Contact us

For questions relating to this Privacy Policy, you may contact us on 020 7435 9681 or via email or in writing to the Marketing Department, Benham and Reeves, 51-53 Heath Street, London NW3 6UG.

How do we collect personal information about you?

We obtain personal information about you that you provide to us through our website, emails, telephone conversations, documents you provide to us or when you visit one of our branches, for example when you:

• Enquire about specific properties to buy or rent
• Enquire about our services in relation to letting or selling your property
• Register for our email newsletters
• Participate in one of our surveys
• Interact with us on our social media sites
• Engage with us in a transaction where you are a landlord, tenant, vendor or purchaser

We also obtain personal information relating to you using automated technical means when you visit our website or call us.

What type of personal information do we collect?

The information we collect from you might include (but is not limited to) your name, address, email address, phone number, date of birth and financial details and any other information you choose to provide to us or are required to provide to us, in order for us to carry out our services.

The information we collect through our website using automated technical means includes: the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, identification number, online identifier and location data. We also collect information about your website visit including which website pages are accessed, page response times and length of visits to pages.

The information we collect through our phone system include your phone number. In addition, in limited circumstances our phone system may also take audio recordings of the call, for the purpose of training and quality assurance. We may also transcribe voicemails that you leave.

How long do we retain your personal information?

We review our retention periods for personal data on a regular basis.

We are legally required to hold some types of information for certain prescribed periods to fulfil our regulatory and statutory obligations. Outside of specific obligations, we will hold your personal data on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant purposes for which we use it, or in accordance with any retention periods set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

The period for which we will keep your personal data will depend on the type of information you have provided to us and the service (if any) that you have requested from us.

How do we use your personal information?

We may use the information that you directly provide to us in the following ways:

• To manage our relationship with you. We may use your personal information, such as your contact details, for the purpose of providing you with services you have requested from us, including visiting and arranging viewings of your property or prospective properties that you are interested in. Our legal basis for this use is that we have a legitimate interest in managing our portfolio of properties.
• To managing our lettings.
  • Landlords: We store and use your information for the purposes of managing your letting with tenants and to manage your property. We will process the information of our individual landlords only as necessary to manage the relevant properties. This will include, collecting your bank account details to arrange onward payment of rent due to you, using your phone number to get in touch with you about organising viewings and to update you on any offers received or rental applications for your property, or to arrange contact between you and your tenant. Our legal basis for this use is performance of a contract to which you are a party, or where we have a legitimate interest in managing your property for you.
  • Tenants: We store and use your information for the purposes of managing our relationship with residential tenants. We will process the information of our tenants, such as your contact information and information about your tenancy, only as necessary to manage the relevant properties. This includes using your personal data to contact you about your property, to collect rent and service charge payments, to manage building administration and repairs of the property you are renting, to seek your feedback through surveys, to manage lease negotiations with you, to deal with arrears and rent collection disputes, to record accidents, to liaise with utility suppliers in relation to your property, and to handle emergency access to the property you are renting. We also share your information with your landlord, as may be required to manage your property or other third Parties (as mentioned below). Our legal basis for this use is our legitimate interest in managing your tenancy.
• To manage our purchase and sales. We will use your personal information if you are purchasing or selling a property with us. This includes using your contact information, address, employment and financial history, mortgage information, and any other information required to manage the purchase or sale of your property. Our legal basis for this use is our legitimate interest in helping you sell or buy your property.
• To communicate with you. We may use your personal information to provide you with information you have requested from us, respond to enquiries or requests from you, communicate with you in relation to those enquiries or requests and arranging visits to your property by our staff or to handle any complaints you might have. Our legal basis for this use is our legitimate interests, namely carrying out activities in the course of our business, in response to customer enquiries or requests.
• Call/Video recording. In very limited circumstances, we record calls for training and quality purposes to help us evaluate our performance. We rely on legitimate interests to record these calls.
• To let you know about properties we think you may be interested in. We may use your personal information to provide you with information regarding similar properties to those you have already enquired about or indicated that you are interested in. Our legal basis for this use is our legitimate interests, namely the ongoing marketing of our services to individuals with whom we have an existing relationship in connection with our services and/or who have expressed an interest in those services.
• To let you know about things we think you might be interested in. We may use your personal information to send you marketing communications from us and our group entities listed in this privacy policy, if you have chosen to receive these. These may include information about properties for rent or for sale, the current property market, promotions or offers. Our legal basis for this use is consent.
• To detect and reduce fraud and credit risk. We may also use any of your personal information that we collect from you directly where necessary to detect and reduce fraud and credit risk. These sources include publicly accessible sources. Our legal basis for this use of your personal information is our legitimate interests in preventing our business being subject to fraud or credit risk.
• To verify your identity in line with applicable requirements. We may use your personal information to verify your identity, including, in relation to right to rent checks or other checks required to comply with anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing requirements. If we are dealing with an entity such as a company, trust or charity, we may need to obtain personal information for the beneficiaries of the entity and those in a position of control Our legal basis for this use is compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject and / or our legitimate interests in ensuring we meet industry standards.

We may use the information that we automatically collect using technical means through our website to:

• Administer our site and for troubleshooting, testing, research and statistical purposes. We use Google Analytics, a third-party website monitoring tool. Our legal basis for this is our legitimate interests, namely monitoring the use of our software and IT systems, improving our website, or consent, where this is required by law.
• Measure or understand the effectiveness of our own advertising activity. Our legal basis for this use is our legitimate interests, namely improving the relevancy of our advertising;
• Measure or understand the effectiveness of our marketing emails. Our legal basis for this use is consent.

This automated collection of information may involve the use of cookies. Please see our Cookies Policy below for further detail.

We may analyse the personal information we collect directly from you and obtain using automated technical means to create a profile of your interests and preferences so that we can contact you with information relevant to you (if you have chosen to receive marketing communications from us).

Who has access to information?

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.

We may pass your information to third party service providers and our group entities, including but not limited to business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors working on our behalf for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you. Any third parties with whom we share personal data have contractual obligations to meet our safeguarding requirements.

These include:

• InStyle Direct Limited - for the purpose of referring you to their service and providing furniture, furnishing packs or refurbishment works.
• MG Accounting & Tax Services Limited - for the purpose of preparing and submitting Tax Returns.
• Utility providers, such as Inventory Hive & Muuvo - for the purpose of servicing our tenants and applicants.
• Photographers - for the purpose of arranging appointments to undertake photography, videography and floorplans to bring a sales or rental property to market.
• IT Service providers, including IS Software Solutions and Prospector Pro - and any other third-party IT service providers that support our business – for the purpose of digital marketing, outsourced administration tasks, customer relationship management, and other business critical IT systems.
• Benham and Reeves overseas offices - for the purpose of managing international client relationship. Including:
  • Benham and Reeves (Hong Kong) Ltd;
  • 蓓司商务咨询（上海）有限公司 (China);
  • Benham and Reeves Residential Lettings (Singapore) Pte Ltd;
  • BR Property Sales (Singapore) Pte Ltd;
  • Benham and Reeves Let SDN BHD;
  • Benham and Reeves Property Consultants India Pvt Ltd;
  • Benham and Reeves LLC;
  • Benham and Reeves South Africa; and
  • Any other overseas offices that we may acquire or open.
• Group entities - We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group of companies (this means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and all its subsidiaries) insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.
• Property management - where we are managing property or you are living in a property managed by us, we may need to pass your personal information from time to time on to third parties. This may include: the landlord of the property, contractors that we have engaged to carry out maintenance at the property, the building manager in case of an emergency and security teams that are active at the property, and any other third parties that we engage as part of our role as Property Manager.
• Joint agents - We may be jointly instructed to act in the sale or lease of a property with another agent. In these situations, we may share details of tenants of the property with the other agent to facilitate property viewings and other activities related to the joint listing of the property.
• Landlords and tenants - Where we act as an agent in the arrangement of leasing of a property where you are the landlord or tenant, we may need to pass on your information to the landlord or tenant of the property (as applicable). We may do this to assist with property viewings, lease onboarding and termination processes, property management where the landlord manages the property directly, to manage rent collection and upon reasonable request from the other party.
• Reference agencies - if you are renting a property we are acting as letting agents of, we will share your personal data with third party referencing agencies for the purposes of the prevention and detection of crime, fraud and/or money laundering and checking your suitability to rent that property.
• Professional advisors - We may disclose your personal information to our insurers, lawyers and /or other professional advisers insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes of obtaining and maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, obtaining professional advice and managing legal disputes.
• Entities involved in the sale of business - We may transfer your personal information to a third party as part of a sale of some or all of our business and assets, or as part of any business restructuring or reorganisation. However, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.
• Entities with which we have a duty to disclose - If we’re under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to enforce or apply our terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our customers. However, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.
• Entities that we are required to share data with for compliance with laws and obligations - In addition to the specific disclosures set out in this section, we may disclose your personal information where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person, or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative out-of-court procedure.

Your rights

In this section we have summarised the rights that you have under data protection law. Some of the rights are complex, applying only in certain circumstances and subject to certain exceptions, and in the interests of keeping this policy concise, not all of the details have been included in our summaries. Accordingly, you should read the relevant laws and guidance from the regulatory authorities for a full explanation of these rights.

You have the right:

• To object to us processing your personal information for marketing purposes. If you object, we will stop processing your personal information for this purpose. When we collect your data, you can choose whether you wish to receive marketing communications from us. If you wish to stop receiving marketing communications, you can opt out at any time by clicking an ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of one of our emails.
• To access the information we hold about you and certain information about our processing of it and your rights in relation to it.
• In certain circumstances, to obtain erasure of the personal information we hold about you, subject to certain exceptions.
• To rectification of the information we hold about you.
• In certain circumstances, to restrict our processing of your personal information or object to us processing it. If you object, we will stop processing your personal information unless certain exceptions apply.
• Where our legal basis for processing your personal information is your consent or the performance of a contract and we process it by automated means, to be provided with the personal information we hold about you in structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and to transmit the information to another controller.
• To not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly affecting you, subject to certain exceptions.
• Where our processing of your personal information is based on your consent, to withdraw that consent at any time. If you withdraw your consent, we will stop the relevant processing, but it will not affect the lawfulness of our processing before the withdrawal.

To exercise any of these rights, email us or write to us at Marketing Department, Benham and Reeves, 51-53 Heath Street, London NW3 6UG. In addition, you can exercise your right to object to direct marketing at any time by clicking an ‘Unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of one of our emails.

You have the right to lodge a complaint to a supervisory authority responsible for data protection. In the UK the relevant authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). More information about lodging a complaint with the ICO can be found at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.

If you are in the EU, you may do this in the EU member state of your habitual residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged infringement. If you are based in the EU, you can find your relevant supervisory authority at https://www.edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en.

Security precautions in place to protect your information

We take appropriate technical and organisational precautions to secure your personal information and prevent its loss, misuse or alteration. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

The transmission of unencrypted (or inadequately encrypted) data over the internet is inherently insecure, and for this reason we cannot guarantee the security of data sent between us over the internet.

Use of cookies

Like many other websites, our website uses cookies. ‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns.

Cookies allow us to provide important site functionality so you don’t have to re-enter lots of information. They also allow us to remember what links and pages you have been or viewed during a session. This helps us deliver a better, more personalised service to you.

The table below lists the cookies used by this website and provides a description of how each cookie works.

Most of the cookies we use are essential for parts of the website to operate. You may delete and block all cookies from this website, but please be aware that restricting or deleting cookies may impact on the functionality of the website.

Your web browser may allow you to restrict or delete cookies set by this website. The Help function within your browser should tell you how. Alternatively, you can visit www.allaboutcookies.org which provides general information about cookies and how you can manage cookies on your computer.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those organisations or the content of their websites. You should read the privacy policies of these organisations before providing them with any personal information.

Transferring your information outside of European Economic Area (“EEA”)

If you use our services while you are outside the EEA, your information may be transferred outside the EEA in order to provide you with those services.

Whenever we transfer your personal data outside of the UK and the EU, we ensure it receives additional protection as required by law (for example, we will typically make sure standard contractual clauses and/or the UK addendum are in place for such transfers). Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK.

Review of this policy

We keep this Policy under regular review, the last review was on 31/08/2024 and the Policy was last updated on 31/08/2024.

If we change our Privacy Policy we will post the changes on this page and may place notices on other sections of the website and/or notify you by email.

Further information

You can obtain further information about data protection laws by visiting the website of the relevant supervisory authority for your jurisdiction or if you are based in the UK the Information Commissioner’s Office website at www.ico.org.uk.