Privacy Policy
Last updated: 9 August 2026
This privacy policy explains how Castle Surveyors Limited collects and uses personal information when you visit our website, contact us, request a quotation or survey, or become a client.
1. Who we are
Castle Surveyors Limited (trading as Castle Surveyors) is the controller of the personal information described in this policy.
- Company number: 05117824
- Registered office: 2 Southwood Close, Walkford, Christchurch, Dorset, BH23 5RW
- Email: enquiry@castle-surveyors.co.uk
- Telephone: 0800 246 1002
- Website: https://www.castle-surveyors.co.uk/
2. The information we collect
Depending on how you deal with us, we may collect:
- Identity and contact information, such as your name, address, email address and telephone number.
- Property and service information, such as a property address and postcode, purchase price, property type, reason for the survey, intended use, survey required, concerns about the property and appointment information.
- Other people’s contact information, such as the name and telephone number of an estate agent, vendor, representative or other person involved in the proposed transaction or instruction.
- Enquiry, client and professional records, including correspondence, quotations, terms of engagement, instructions, inspection notes, photographs, reports, valuations, invoices, payment records and complaint records.
- Technical and website information, such as IP address, browser and device information, pages viewed, approximate location, referring website, security events and cookie or consent choices.
- Information you choose to provide in a telephone call, email, form or other communication.
Please do not provide special category information (such as detailed health information) unless it is genuinely needed for your enquiry or instruction. If you provide it, we will use it only where the law permits and only for the relevant purpose.
3. Where we obtain information
We normally obtain information directly from you. We may also receive it from someone acting for you, an estate agent, vendor, landlord, tenant, solicitor, lender, other professional adviser, publicly available property or company records, or our website and IT service providers.
If you give us personal information about another person, please make sure you are entitled to do so and, where appropriate, tell them that their information may be passed to us for the enquiry or instruction.
4. Why we use information and our lawful bases
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| To respond to an enquiry, discuss requirements, prepare a quotation and take steps requested before entering a contract. | Taking steps at your request before entering a contract; and our legitimate interests in responding to enquiries and operating our surveying practice. |
| To accept, manage and perform an instruction, arrange access, carry out surveying or valuation work, issue reports, communicate about the work and collect fees. | Performance of a contract; taking steps before entering a contract; and our legitimate interests in delivering and administering professional services. |
| To communicate with an agent, vendor, representative or other relevant person where reasonably necessary to arrange or perform the work. | Performance of a contract and our legitimate interests in managing the enquiry or instruction efficiently. |
| To keep business, accounting, tax, regulatory, insurance, complaint and professional records. | Compliance with legal obligations and our legitimate interests in maintaining accurate records, meeting professional and insurance requirements, resolving disputes and establishing, exercising or defending legal claims. |
| To operate, maintain, secure and troubleshoot the website, email and IT systems; prevent spam, fraud and misuse; and protect users and our business. | Our legitimate interests in running secure and reliable systems and, where applicable, compliance with legal obligations. |
| To measure and improve website use through non-essential analytics. | Your consent. Non-essential analytics should not be activated unless and until you choose to accept them. |
| To send direct electronic marketing, if we decide to offer it. | Your consent or the limited existing-customer exception permitted by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, where applicable. You may opt out at any time. |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider whether the use is necessary and balance it against your rights and reasonable expectations. You may ask us for more information about that assessment.
5. Information needed to provide services
Information marked as required on a form is needed so that we can respond or take the requested steps. If you do not provide information that is necessary for an enquiry, quotation, contract or legal requirement, we may be unable to respond fully or provide the service.
6. Website forms and spam protection
Our contact and survey enquiry forms use Cloudflare Turnstile to distinguish genuine users from automated abuse and spam. When a protected form is used, Cloudflare may process technical information and signals from your browser and device, including your IP address, in order to provide the security check. This processing is necessary for the security and availability of our forms and is based on our legitimate interests in preventing spam, fraud and misuse.
Turnstile may automatically decide whether a form submission appears to be made by a person or an automated system. This can prevent a form submission, but it is not used to make a legal or similarly significant decision about you. If a genuine enquiry is blocked, please contact us by telephone or email.
For more information, see the Cloudflare Privacy Policy.
7. Cookies and similar technologies
Cookies are small files stored on a device. Similar technologies may store or read information from a browser or device.
Strictly necessary technologies may be used without consent where they are required to provide a service you request, secure the website, remember privacy choices or support essential administration. Non-essential analytics or marketing technologies will be used only after you give consent through the website’s cookie controls. You can refuse non-essential technologies without losing access to the main website and can change or withdraw your choice at any time using those controls.
| Service or category | Purpose | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress and website security | Core website operation, administration, security and remembering relevant choices. | Strictly necessary. |
| Cloudflare Turnstile | Protects forms from bots, spam and abuse. | Strictly necessary for form security. |
| Google Analytics 4 | Provides statistics about visits and how pages are used so that we can understand and improve the website. Google Analytics may set identifiers such as _ga and _ga_*. | Consent required before activation. |
Images may be delivered through ShortPixel’s image optimisation network. This causes the visitor’s browser to request the image from ShortPixel, which may receive technical request information such as an IP address and browser details. We use this to deliver and optimise website images efficiently.
You can also control cookies through your browser, although blocking strictly necessary technologies may affect parts of the website. For information about Google’s use of information, see Google’s Privacy Policy. For ShortPixel, see ShortPixel’s Privacy Policy.
8. Who we share information with
We do not sell personal information. Where necessary for the purposes described above, we may share information with:
- website hosting, email, IT, security, analytics, image delivery and other service providers acting for us;
- estate agents, vendors, landlords, tenants, solicitors, lenders, contractors or other professionals involved in an enquiry or instruction, but only where authorised or reasonably necessary;
- accountants, auditors, insurers, brokers, legal advisers and other professional advisers;
- RICS, courts, law-enforcement bodies, regulators, tax authorities or other public bodies where required or permitted by law; and
- a purchaser, successor or adviser in connection with a genuine sale, restructuring or transfer of the business, subject to appropriate confidentiality and data-protection safeguards.
Our service providers are permitted to use personal information only for the agreed service or as otherwise allowed by law.
9. International transfers
Some technology suppliers may process information outside the United Kingdom. Where a restricted transfer occurs, we use a method permitted by UK data-protection law, such as UK adequacy regulations or appropriate contractual safeguards, and carry out any assessment required by law. You may contact us for more information about the relevant safeguard.
10. How long we keep information
We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. The period depends on the nature of the record, whether an instruction proceeds, contractual and legal limitation periods, tax and accounting rules, RICS or other professional obligations, insurance requirements, and whether the information is needed for a complaint, dispute or legal claim.
In particular:
- routine enquiries that do not result in an instruction are reviewed and deleted when they are no longer reasonably needed;
- client files, reports, inspection records and related correspondence are normally kept for at least seven years after completion and may be kept longer where the contract, law, insurer, professional requirement or nature of the work requires it;
- financial and tax records are kept for the applicable statutory period;
- security and technical records are kept only for the period reasonably needed to investigate incidents and protect the service; and
- analytics information is retained according to our analytics settings and your consent choice.
When information is no longer required, we delete it securely or anonymise it.
11. Security
We use proportionate technical and organisational measures intended to protect personal information from unauthorised access, loss, alteration or disclosure. These include access controls, security software, backups, encryption in transit where appropriate, service-provider controls and measures to reduce spam and malicious submissions. No internet or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
12. Your data-protection rights
Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:
- ask for access to your personal information;
- ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
- ask us to erase information;
- ask us to restrict how information is used;
- object to processing based on legitimate interests;
- object at any time to direct marketing;
- receive certain information in a portable format or ask for it to be transferred;
- withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing that was lawful before withdrawal; and
- challenge a decision based solely on automated processing where it has legal or similarly significant effects.
These rights are not absolute and exemptions may apply. To exercise a right, email enquiry@castle-surveyors.co.uk. We may need to confirm your identity. We will normally respond within one month, although the law allows more time in some circumstances. We do not normally charge a fee.
13. Complaints
Please contact us first if you have a concern about our use of your personal information so that we can try to resolve it.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):
- Website: Make a data-protection complaint
- Telephone: 0303 123 1113
- Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
14. Children
Our services and website forms are not directed at children. If you believe a child has provided personal information to us inappropriately, please contact us.
15. External links
The website may link to external websites. Their operators are responsible for their own privacy practices. Please read their privacy information before providing personal information to them.
16. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when our services, suppliers or legal obligations change. The latest version will be published on this page with its update date. If a change materially affects how we use information already collected, we will take reasonable steps to notify affected people where required.
17. Contact us
For questions about this policy or the way we use personal information, contact:
Castle Surveyors Limited
2 Southwood Close
Walkford, Christchurch
Dorset, BH23 5RW
Email: enquiry@castle-surveyors.co.uk
Telephone: 0800 246 1002