Privacy Policy — Novello Chartered Surveyors

1. Who we are

This policy covers the Novello group of RICS-regulated chartered surveyors providing residential survey services across England and Wales. The companies that provide our services, and which are each the controller of the personal data of their own clients, are:

• Novello Surveyors Ltd, trading as Novello Chartered Surveyors. Company number 12183449.
• Novello Private Office Ltd. Company number 15467391.

Both are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, are subsidiaries of NGRP Ltd, and share the registered office at Suite 4, West Hill House, West Hill, Epsom, KT19 8JD. References to “we” and “Novello” in this policy mean whichever of these companies you have instructed. Personal data is shared between group companies only for the purposes described in this policy.

Questions about this policy or your data: info@novellosurveyors.co.uk or 020 8064 1636.

2. Whose data we hold and what we collect

Our clients (typically homebuyers). Name, contact details, the property being purchased, quotation and booking details, correspondence, payment status, your survey report and everything captured to produce it: photographs of the property, our surveyor’s voice recordings and their transcripts, notes and condition ratings, plus account and access details where you use our online report portal.

Sellers, occupiers and other people connected with a survey. We survey homes that are usually still lived in. Photographs and recordings taken during an inspection may incidentally capture the occupier’s belongings, correspondence visible in the property, vehicles, or, rarely, people. We also process the names and contact details of estate agents, sellers and solicitors when arranging access and sharing reports. We minimise this data and use it only to deliver the survey. Because we usually cannot contact occupiers individually, this policy is our public explanation of that processing.

Website visitors and enquirers. Contact details you give us when requesting a quote, and technical data described in our cookie notice.

3. How we use personal data and our lawful bases

• Delivering your survey (quotation, booking, inspection, report production and delivery, the online portal): performance of a contract with you.
• Sharing your report and findings with your solicitor, mortgage adviser and estate agent, unless you ask us not to: legitimate interests (making your purchase run smoothly), as set out in our terms of engagement.
• Keeping survey files after completion: legal obligation and legitimate interests (RICS regulation, professional indemnity insurance, and defending legal claims).
• Improving our services and systems, including anonymising survey material as described in section 5: legitimate interests (developing the tools we use to deliver surveys), recorded in our Legitimate Interest Assessment.
• Marketing to past enquirers and clients: legitimate interests, with an opt-out in every message; we do not sell personal data.
• Processing data about occupiers and third parties incidental to an inspection: legitimate interests (delivering the survey our client has instructed).

4. How we use AI

Our surveys are produced with the help of artificial intelligence software developed by our group technology company, Speklr Ltd. During the inspection the surveyor records observations by voice and photograph; AI tools transcribe the recordings, help identify defects, draft the report text, summaries and indicative ratings, and generate commentary on published location and property data. Every report is reviewed in full and approved by the named RICS surveyor before it is issued, and the surveyor takes full professional responsibility for its content. We do not make any decision about you based solely on automated processing.

AI processing is carried out under commercial API agreements which prohibit the providers from using your data to train their models.

5. Improving our systems (anonymised data)

We and Speklr Ltd use data from completed surveys to develop and improve the systems used to deliver our services, including their AI features. Before any survey photographs or report content are used for this purpose they are anonymised: identifying metadata and location information are removed, faces and identifying features such as house numbers are blurred or masked, and the material is separated from any address, client or property record, so that no individual or property can be identified. Anonymised data of this kind is no longer personal data.

6. Who we share personal data with

• Speklr Ltd, our group technology company, which operates our survey and reporting platforms and processes data on our behalf under a written data processing agreement; and other NGRP Ltd group companies where needed for group administration, insurance and compliance.
• Your professional team: your solicitor, mortgage adviser and estate agent, unless you ask us not to (see our terms of engagement).
• Service providers acting on our instructions, including AI model providers (Anthropic and OpenAI), platform hosting providers (Google Cloud and Lovable/Supabase, hosted in the UK and EU), our CRM, email, messaging and telephony systems, payment processors, and our group’s technical development partner. All are bound by contract to process data only on our instructions.
• Property data suppliers (Searchland and Street Data) receive property addresses only, to return published data about the property.
• Our professional advisers, insurers, and regulators (including RICS and our redress scheme) where required.
• Any buyer, investor or lender in connection with a sale or financing of our business, under confidentiality obligations.

7. International transfers

Some of our service providers process data outside the UK, including in the United States. Where they do, we rely on UK adequacy regulations or put in place the ICO’s International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, together with any required risk assessment.

8. How long we keep your data

• Your survey file (report, photographs, transcripts, correspondence, instruction and payment records): for as long as you hold an account or subscription with us, so you can access your report and any property history we provide. After your account closes, or where you have no subscription, we keep the file for 16 years from the date the report was issued, reflecting the limitation period for professional negligence claims and our professional indemnity insurance requirements.
• After that period we delete your personal details. We may keep a property-level record (address, condition findings and photographs) with your identifiers removed, as a historic condition record for that property.
• Voice recordings made during the inspection: deleted 12 months after your report is issued. The transcript remains part of the survey file.
• Enquiries and quotes that do not become instructions: 24 months from last contact.
• Marketing preferences: for as long as you are on our list, plus a suppression record for 3 years after you unsubscribe.
• Anonymised data: indefinitely (it is not personal data).
• Full details are in our internal retention policy, available on request.

9. Security

Personal data is encrypted in transit and at rest, access is limited to named individual accounts with multi-factor authentication, and our platforms are subject to independent security testing. No system is perfectly secure, but we take the protection of your data seriously and will notify you and the ICO of any breach where the law requires it.

10. Your rights

You have the right to access your personal data, to have it corrected or (in some circumstances) erased or restricted, to object to processing based on legitimate interests (including marketing, which we will always stop on request), and to data portability where applicable. To exercise any right, contact info@novellosurveyors.co.uk. We will respond within one month. Note that we must retain survey files for the regulatory period in section 8 even where erasure is requested; in that case we restrict the file to legal and regulatory access only.

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk, though we would welcome the chance to resolve it first.

11. Cookies and analytics

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. Essential cookies are needed for the site to work (for example, to remember your quote or booking as you move between pages) and are set without consent. Analytics cookies, such as Google Analytics, help us understand how visitors use the site so we can improve it; these are set only if you accept them in our cookie banner. Advertising cookies, such as Google Ads and Meta remarketing, allow us to show you relevant adverts on other sites after you have visited ours; these are also set only with your consent. You can change your choices at any time through the cookie settings link at the foot of every page, or by adjusting your browser settings. Analytics and advertising providers process the data under their own privacy policies and may transfer it outside the UK under the safeguards described in section 7.

12. Changes to this policy

We will post any changes on this page and, where they are significant, flag them on our website or by email.