1. Introduction

HOUSE FORM ARCHITECTS LIMITED, referred to in this policy as “House Form”, “we”, “us” or “our”, is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information fairly, lawfully and securely.

This policy explains how we collect and use personal information when you visit our website, make an enquiry, book an appointment, communicate with us or engage us to provide architectural and related professional services.

2. Who we are

HOUSE FORM ARCHITECTS LIMITED is a company registered in England and Wales under company number 15794072.

Our registered office is:

Belmont Suite
Paragon Business Park
Chorley New Road
Horwich
Bolton
England
BL6 6HG

For data protection purposes, HOUSE FORM ARCHITECTS LIMITED is the controller of the personal information described in this policy.

Our Information Commissioner’s Office registration reference is ZB854186.

If you have a question or complaint about how we use your information, please contact us at office@houseform.uk.

3. Information we collect

When you contact us or use our website, we may collect your name, email address, telephone number, postal address and any information you include in an enquiry or appointment booking.

If you discuss or undertake a project with us, we may also collect information about you, your property and your project. This may include the property address, ownership details, photographs, surveys, drawings, project requirements, budget, programme, planning history and records of our communications.

We may collect financial and transaction information where this is necessary to prepare quotations, manage our appointment, issue invoices or maintain accounting records.

When you use our website, we may collect technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device information, pages visited and the way you interact with the website. Some of this information is collected through cookies and similar technologies, as explained in our Cookie Policy.

We do not normally seek to collect sensitive personal information. If you voluntarily provide information about health, accessibility or another personal circumstance relevant to your project, we will only use it where reasonably necessary and in accordance with data protection law.

Project information may be commercially or personally confidential even where it is not classed as sensitive personal data. We will take reasonable steps to respect any confidentiality restrictions that you bring to our attention.

4. How we obtain information

We normally obtain personal information directly from you through our website, by email, during telephone or video calls, at meetings, through appointment bookings or during the delivery of our services.

We may also receive relevant information from a joint client, property owner, consultant, contractor, estate agent or another member of a project team.

Where necessary for a project or enquiry, we may obtain information from publicly accessible sources such as local authority planning records, Companies House, Land Registry information, property listings and mapping services.

5. How we use your information

We use personal information to respond to enquiries, arrange appointments and provide information about our services. We normally do this because it is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract or because we have a legitimate interest in operating and developing our architectural practice.

Where you appoint us, we use your information to provide and manage our services, communicate with you, coordinate project information, maintain records and administer fees and invoices. This processing is normally necessary to perform our contract with you.

We may process and disclose information to prepare or support applications and submissions to planning authorities, Building Control bodies and other relevant organisations. We will normally do this where it is necessary to perform our services, comply with a legal or professional obligation, or pursue our legitimate interests in properly managing the project.

We also retain appropriate records to meet legal, taxation, insurance and professional obligations and to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

We use website information to maintain security, operate the website, understand how visitors use it and improve its content. Necessary website processing is based on our legitimate interests in providing a functional and secure website. Where consent is required for analytics or other non-essential technologies, we will request it through our cookie banner.

We may occasionally send information about our architectural services to prospective clients. We will only send electronic marketing to individuals where they have consented or where the limited “soft opt-in” permitted by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations applies. Every marketing message will provide a straightforward way to opt out.

We do not sell your personal information.

6. Sharing your information

We only share personal information where there is a proper reason to do so and will limit the information shared to what is reasonably necessary.

Where required for a project, information may be shared with other members of the professional team, including surveyors, planning consultants, structural engineers, building services engineers, energy consultants, ecologists, heritage consultants and other specialists.

Information may also be shared with prospective or appointed contractors, subcontractors, product suppliers, planning authorities, Building Control bodies, statutory consultees, utility providers and other organisations involved in delivering or approving the project.

Some planning and statutory applications become publicly accessible. Where we make a submission on your behalf, information forming part of that submission may be published by the relevant authority. We will seek to avoid including unnecessary personal or confidential information.

We may share information with our professional advisers, insurers, accountants, auditors, regulators or law-enforcement bodies where reasonably necessary or required by law.

7. Service providers

We use third-party services to support our business and website. These currently include Squarespace for our website, Microsoft 365 for email and business administration, Dropbox for document storage, Autodesk Revit for design information, Google Analytics for website analysis and Google Maps for mapping.

Our website also provides an online appointment-booking facility and links to House Form’s social-media accounts. The organisations operating these services may collect information under their own privacy policies when you use their services or follow an external link.

Where a supplier processes personal information on our behalf, we will take reasonable steps to ensure appropriate contractual and security arrangements are in place.

8. International transfers

Some of our technology providers may store or process information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the transfer is protected by an appropriate legal safeguard. This may include a UK adequacy regulation, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses or another lawful transfer mechanism.

9. How long we retain information

We normally retain enquiry, client and project information for up to six years after our last meaningful interaction with you or completion of our services.

Some information may be retained for longer where this is reasonably necessary to comply with a legal, contractual, insurance or professional obligation, or to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim. This may apply where a professional appointment is executed as a deed or where the nature of the project creates a longer potential liability period.

Financial records will normally be retained for at least six years in accordance with applicable accounting and taxation requirements.

If you unsubscribe from marketing, we may retain a limited record of your email address on a suppression list. This helps ensure that your preference is respected and that further marketing is not sent inadvertently.

10. Security and confidentiality

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, loss or destruction.

These measures include access controls, password protection, appropriate cloud-storage arrangements and restrictions on who can access project information. Although we take reasonable precautions, no email, website or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

If particular project information is confidential or subject to a separate non-disclosure obligation, you should inform us so that suitable arrangements can be considered and agreed.

11. Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to ask us for a copy of your personal information, correct inaccurate or incomplete information, delete information, restrict its use, object to certain processing or receive information in a portable format.

You may withdraw consent at any time where our processing relies on consent. This will not affect processing that took place before consent was withdrawn.

You have an absolute right to object to the use of your personal information for direct marketing.

These rights are not absolute and may be limited by applicable exemptions, contractual requirements, professional record-keeping obligations or the need to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

To exercise your rights, contact office@houseform.uk. We may ask for information needed to verify your identity before responding.

12. Data protection complaints

If you are concerned about how we have used your personal information, please contact office@houseform.uk and clearly state that you wish to make a data protection complaint.

We will acknowledge a data protection complaint within 30 days and will investigate and respond without undue delay.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Information about making a complaint is available at www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, or you can telephone the ICO on 0303 123 1113.

We would appreciate the opportunity to address your concern directly before you approach the ICO, although you are not required to contact us first.

13. External websites

Our website may contain links to social-media platforms and other external websites. We do not control those websites and are not responsible for their privacy practices. You should review the relevant provider’s privacy information before submitting personal information to it.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy to reflect changes to our services, website, suppliers or legal obligations. The current version will be published at houseform.uk and will show the date on which it was last updated.