Merchant Homes' Privacy Policy

We understand that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your Personal Data is used and shared. We respect and value the privacy of every customer and prospective customer who provides us with Personal Data and we will only collect and use Personal Data in ways that are described here, and in a manner that is consistent with our obligations as a Data Controller and your rights under the law.

Personal Data means any and all data that relates to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified from that data. In this case, it means Personal Data that you give to us in connection with a potential purchase or purchase of one of our houses. This definition shall, where applicable, incorporate the definitions provided in EU Regulation 2016/679 – the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). The term “personal information” shall have the same meaning as Personal Data.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and ensure that you understand it. You should only use our website www.merchanthomes.co.uk if you agree to our use of information about you in accordance with this privacy statement. By using our website, you agree and understand that we will collect and process certain information from you

If you do not accept and agree with this Privacy Policy, you should not provide us with any Personal Data, reserve any of our houses, or enter into a contract to sell one of our houses to you.

1. INFORMATION ABOUT MERCHANT HOMES PARTNERHIPS LIMITED

1.1 Merchant Homes Partnerships Limited is a company registered under the Companies Acts (Company Number 346176 ) and having its registered office at Merchant House, Watermark Business Park, 365 Govan Road, Glasgow G51 2SE. We trade as Merchant Homes. In these terms, we refer to ourselves as “we”, “us” and “our”. Persons who provide us with Personal Data and / or in respect of whom we receive Personal Data are referred to “you” or “your”.

2. PRIVACY POLICY

2.1 This Policy sets out how we will use your Personal Data how we collect it, what it will be used for, how we store it and how long we will hold it for.

2.2 Personal Data will be collected and processed by us in both electronic and manual form.

3. PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED

3.1 We collect personal information you give to us when :-

you register with us
fill in a form or leave personal information on our website or a third party’s website (for example a property portal such as Rightmove or Zoopla)
email or write to us
visit or call our Sales Offices or our Head Office
arrange a property viewing and when requesting brochures.
request that marketing information be sent to you
enter into a reservation agreement or other transaction with us
when you apply for a job vacancy with us.
fill in a form either face to face when you visit one of our developments, or over the telephone

We collect the following information to provide the service to you:

The information collected may include the following:

Your full name

Postal address

Telephone number (home and mobile)

Email address

Details of type of house and / or location required by you.

3.2 If you provide to us any Personal Data relating to a third party individual, usually a joint buyer, you confirm and agree that you have the consent and agreement of that third party individual to (a) provide to us their Personal Data and(b) for us to process it in accordance with this Policy. You confirm that any such Personal Data supplied by you is accurate.

3.3 We will process information relating to you, any individuals purchasing a property jointly with you.

3.4 We do not collect any special categories of personal data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

3.5 We do not collect data for individuals under the age of 18 or provide services to those under the age of 18 as the nature of our business means that only those over the age of 18 can enter into a contract to buy a new home. If you are using our website and are under the age of 18, you should obtain your parents’ or guardians’ permission before you contact us.

4. BASIS FOR COLLECTION AND PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA

4.1 Under the GDPR, we must always have a lawful basis for using Personal Data. Our bases or reasons for collecting and processing data under the GDPR will include that it is necessary

for our performance of a contract with you as set out in paragraph 6 below;
because you have consented to our use of your Personal Data;
to comply with any legal obligations that we have.
or because it is in our legitimate business interests to use your Personal Data for the reasons such as those set out below in paragraph 5 below.

5. LEGITIMATE INTERESTS IN PROCESSING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We will in most cases require to process or use any customer or potential customer Personal Data on the legal basis that it necessary for our legitimate interests. Such legitimate interests include:-

selling and supplying our homes and services;
protecting customers, employees and other individuals and maintaining their health, safety and welfare;
promoting, marketing and advertising our products and services;
sending promotional communications which are relevant and tailored to individual customers;
understanding our customers’ behaviour, activities, preferences and needs;
improving existing products and service and developing new products and services;
complying with our legal and regulatory obligations;
preventing, investigating and detecting crime, fraud or anti-social behaviour and prosecuting offenders, including working with law enforcement agencies;
handling customer contacts, queries or disputes;
protecting ourselves, its employees and customers, by taking appropriate legal action against third-parties who have committed criminal acts or are in breach of legal obligations to us;
fulfilling our duties to our customers and employees
to manage our relationship with you;
to verify your identity;
to prequalify you for a house purchase
process and manage the sale and / or purchase of properties and provide aftersales service ;
notify utility suppliers for energy supply) and local authorities (for Council Tax purposes) about purchases and sales of a property;
carry out marketing analysis and make general improvements to our products and services;
measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;
obtain your views or comments on the products services we provide;
process applications or orders submitted by you for instance to order extras ;
send you information about our products and services;
notify you about changes to our products service;
send you information we think you might find useful or which you have requested from us, including information about our products and services or those of carefully selected third parties such as Independent Financial Advisors or Solicitors provided you have consented to being contacted for these purposes.
to ensure that contractors can contact you to carry out any additional works and repairs if required to your house after you have purchased it.
to facilitate the provision of warranties that come with a house you have purchased from us.
assist you to participate in any government assisted purchase schemes such as Help to Buy.
inform any factor or property manager appointed to the development of which the property you purchase forms part of your ownership of the property.
respond to any questions you submit to us as part of any public planning consultation process

6. Performance of Contract

Where you enter into a reservation agreement with us and a contract to purchase a house from us we will process your Personal Data the extent necessary to allow us to comply with our obligations under the reservation agreement and purchase contract and complete the sales process

7. Marketing.

We will only use your Personal Data and contact you for marketing purposes by email, phone or letter where you have agreed that we may do so and in response to any request received from you. You will not be sent any unlawful marketing or spam. We will always work to fully protect your rights and comply with our obligations under the GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, and you will always have the opportunity to opt-out of receiving any such marketing at any time. You can also exercise this right to opt out at any time by contacting us using the contact details in paragraph 16 of this Policy.

8. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

8 1 We may share your personal information with any member of our group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, as defined in section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006. This will include Merchant Homes Limited (company number SC302421) which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Merchant Homes Partnerships Limited.

8.2 We may share your personal information with selected third parties but will only do so with your consent where applicable, with the persons or bodies set out in paragraph 8.2.2, where we are legally required to do so or as otherwise set out in this paragraph.

8.2.1 Sharing of personal information prior to reservation of any property:-

Our Financial Advisor so that they may contact you for the purposes of pre-qualifying you for the purchase of one of our properties. We will only share your Personal Data with your consent in this instance.

8.2.2 Sharing of personal information on or after reservation of property and in connection with processing the sale of a property to you and any warranty provision:-

Your financial advisor
The solicitor you appoint to act for you in the sale of a property to you.
The solicitor we appoint to act for us in the sale of a property to you
The Administrators of government assisted purchase schemes such as Help to Buy should you choose to participate in such a scheme.
New Home Warranty Providers such as the NHBC and Premier Guarantee.
Warranty providers of items supplied with the property such as boilers and white goods
The Local Authority for Council Tax purposes
Utility suppliers for the development of which the property forms part
Factors or Property Managers appointed for the development of which the property forms part.
Providers of after sales services such as joinery, painting or plumbing contractors appointed by us who will attend to any snagging works or defects affecting the property including out of hours emergency service

8.2.3 With your consent, to carefully selected third parties who supply products / services that may be of interest to you e.g. financial and legal advisors and recommended suppliers.

8.2.4 In appropriate cases, personal data may also be shared with third parties for the prevention or prosecution of criminal activity.

8.3 We may also disclose your personal information to third parties:

8.3.1 in the event that we sell any of our business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective buyer of such business or assets;

8.3.2 if we or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by us about our customers will be one of the transferred assets;

8.3.3 if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or to protect our rights or our property, or the safety of our employees, customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

8.4 We will not sell, rent or trade your personal information.

8.5 Where we share your personal information with third parties we will take reasonable steps to confirm that that their security measures are adequate to protect your information, that they will comply with the GDPR and that they only process such Personal Data in accordance with instructions from us.

9. DATA STORAGE AND SECURITY

9.1 Only authorised personnel and contractors have access to your information. We will keep your personal information secure by taking appropriate technical and organisational measures against its unauthorised or unlawful processing and against its accidental loss, destruction or damage.

9.2 Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our Site; and any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use security procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

9.3 The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, stored at, and/or processed at a destination outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"). By way of example, this may happen if any of our servers are located in a country outside of the EEA or if one of our service providers is located in a country outside of the EEA. Data may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff maybe engaged in, among other things the provision of support services. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Policy.

9.4 Our IT and service providers may access our databases from time to time for maintenance purposes.

10. HOW LONG WILL YOU KEEP MY PERSONAL DATA?

We will not keep your Personal Data for any longer than is necessary in light of the reason(s) for which it was first collected. Where however we are required by any relevant law or regulation to retain your Personal Data for a fixed period of time, we shall retain we shall such Personal Data in accordance with such requirements.

Some specific areas include but are not limited to:-

Where personal data held following a sales enquiry made by you or consent to receive sale and marketing information, we shall delete your Personal Data after two years unless you confirm to us that you wish to remain on our mailing list for a further period.
Where we enter into a reservation agreement with you which expires or is cancelled we shall delete Personal Data three years after the date of such reservation unless any timeous complaint has been made under the Consumer Code for Housebuilders within such two year period.
Where you have completed the purchase of a house from us, we shall delete such Personal Data for up to 12 years after such completion unless any claim has been made under the new home warranty

11. YOUR RIGHTS

11.1 Under the GDPR, you have the following rights, which we will always work to uphold:

a) The right to be informed about our collection and use of your Personal Data. This Privacy Notice should tell you everything you need to know, but you can always contact us to find out more or to ask any questions using the details in paragraph 16.

b) The right to access the Personal Data we hold about you. Paragraph 15 will tell you how to do this.

c) The right to have your Personal Data rectified if any of your personal data held by us is inaccurate or incomplete. If you believe that any Personal Data we hold about you is incorrect or incomplete please contact us immediately using the contact details set out in paragraph 16

d) The right to ask us to delete or otherwise dispose of any of your Personal Data that we have. Please contact us using the details in paragraph 16 to find out more.

e) The right to restrict (i.e. prevent) the processing of your Personal Data.

f) The right to object to us or any member of our group using your Personal Data for a particular purpose or purposes.

g) The right to data portability. This means that you can ask us for a copy of your Personal Data held by us to re-use with another service or business in many cases.

10.2 Please note, as a customer or potential customer, your Personal Data is required as part of the reservation process and to complete the contract for sale if you wish to buy a house from us. If you do not provide this data, or request that we delete it or refrain from processing it, we will we will be unable to complete the reservation process and complete the contract of sale.

Further information about your rights can also be obtained from the Information Commissioner’s Office or your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your Personal Data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

We will aim to keep your Personal Data up to date, and accurate but rely on you telling us promptly if your name, address, telephone number or any other details change.

12. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to our business, website or to data protection legislation. Any changes we may make to this Policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to this Policy.

13. COOKIES

Cookies are small text files sent by us to your computer and stored by your browser or other internet access device. These are used to enable the website to identify who you are and provide you with a more personal service but they never contain personally identifiable information. Most browsers are automatically set to accept cookies, however you can usually override these settings to restrict or even disable them; however doing so may affect your use of this website.

If you want to stop cookies being stored on your computer in the future or delete existing cookies, please refer to your browser manufacturer's instructions. Further information on deleting or controlling cookies is also available at www.AboutCookies.org

14 CCTV USAGE ON OUR DEVELOPMENT SITES

We use CCTV on our housing development sites, for the safety of and prevention of any crimes committed against our staff, our customers, our equipment and our properties, not for other monitoring purposes. In the event of any criminal investigations, we may be required by law, to share the data captured with the relevant authorities.

15. HOW CAN I ACCESS MY PERSONAL DATA?

If you want to know what Personal Data we have about you, you can ask us for details of that Personal Data and for a copy of it (where any such personal data is held). This is known as a “subject access request”.

All subject access requests should be made in writing and sent to the email or postal addresses shown in paragraph 16. To make this as easy as possible for you, a Subject Access Request Form is available for you on request to use. You do not have to use this form, but it is the easiest way to tell us everything we need to know to respond to your request as quickly as possible.

There is not normally any charge for a subject access request. If your request is ‘manifestly unfounded or excessive’ (for example, if you make repetitive requests) a fee may be charged to cover our administrative costs in responding.

We will respond to your subject access request within a reasonable time and, in any case, not more than one month of receiving it. Normally, we aim to provide a complete response, including a copy of your personal data within that time. In some cases, however, particularly if your request is more complex, more time may be required up to a maximum of three months from the date we receive your request.

Upon receipt of a subject access request, we may require you to provide proof of identification (e.g. a copy of your passport or driving licence) and other documentation confirming your name and address (e.g. recent utility bill) before we comply with any request for personal information about you.

16. CONTACTING US

Questions, comments, requests and complaints regarding this Policy are welcomed and should be addressed to:

The Company Secretary, Merchant Homes Partnerships Limited.

Merchant House, Watermark Business Park, 365 Govan Road, Glasgow G51 2SE

Telephone 0141 420 2026

Email: privacy@merchanthomes.co.uk