Privacy Policy 1. Who We Are

Nest in Essex Limited Company number: 09557035 Registered address: Unit 17 Lubards Farm, Hullbridge Road, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6 9QG

In this Privacy Policy, "we", "us", or "our" refers to Nest in Essex Limited.

We are a residential estate agent providing property sales, lettings, and property management services. We are the data controller for the personal data we collect and process.

2. Why This Policy Exists

This Privacy Policy explains:

  • What personal data we collect

  • How and why we use it, including how we use artificial intelligence (AI)

  • How we store and protect it

  • Who we share it with, including the technology providers who process data on our behalf

  • Where your data is processed

  • Your rights under UK data protection law

We process personal data in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and, where we send electronic marketing, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

3. The Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following types of personal data:

a) Identity and Contact Information

  • Name

  • Address

  • Email address

  • Telephone number

b) Property Information

  • Property addresses

  • Ownership or tenancy details

  • Property preferences and requirements

c) Financial and Transaction Data

  • Offer details

  • Rental values

  • Bank details (for rent payments or refunds)

  • Proof of funds

  • Agreements in principle, decisions in principle, or similar documents

d) Legal and Compliance Information

  • Proof of identity

  • Right to Rent documents

  • Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks

  • Credit referencing information

e) Website and Technical Data

  • IP address

  • Browser type

  • Device information

  • Pages visited and interaction data

f) Communication Data

  • Emails

  • Messages, including WhatsApp messages

  • Call notes

  • Feedback and enquiries

  • Transcripts of conversations you have with our AI assistant (see Section 7)

4. How We Collect Your Data

We collect data when you:

  • Contact us by phone, email, WhatsApp, or online forms

  • Request a valuation, including through an online valuation tool

  • Register as a buyer, seller, landlord, or tenant

  • View, offer on, buy, rent, or let a property

  • Use our website

  • Engage with our marketing or reply to a message from our AI assistant

Some of the data we hold was provided directly by you in the past. This includes details given by people who used our online property valuation tool between 2020 and 2022 (name, contact details, and property address). We may use this data to offer you a related service, as described in Sections 6 and 7.

Some data may also be provided by third parties, such as:

  • Solicitors

  • Mortgage brokers

  • Referencing agencies

  • Government-approved AML providers

5. Why We Use Your Data (Legal Bases)

We only process your data when we have a lawful reason. These include:

a) Contractual Necessity To provide estate agency and letting services, including marketing property, arranging viewings, negotiating offers, and managing tenancies.

b) Legal Obligations To comply with laws and regulations, including Anti-Money Laundering, Right to Rent, and HMRC requirements.

c) Legitimate Interests To respond to enquiries, run and improve our services, maintain records, prevent fraud, and to re-engage past users of our services (such as past valuation-tool users) with relevant property information. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we balance our interests against your rights and you can object at any time.

d) Consent and Soft Opt-In For certain marketing communications. Where we send electronic marketing (including by email, SMS, or WhatsApp), we do so either with your consent or under the PECR "soft opt-in" where you are an existing or past client and the message relates to similar services. You can withdraw consent or opt out at any time.

6. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data to:

  • Provide sales, lettings, and management services

  • Arrange viewings and appointments

  • Progress transactions

  • Carry out compliance checks

  • Communicate with you, including through our AI assistant

  • Send property updates, market reports, and marketing (where permitted)

  • Manage our internal systems, including our internal business tool ("Nest Brain")

  • Improve our website and services

7. Our Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

We use AI tools to help us work more efficiently and to communicate with you. We want to be transparent about this.

a) AI-assisted messaging ("Hollie")

We use an AI assistant, known as Hollie, to send and respond to certain WhatsApp messages, for example when offering past valuation-tool users our free monthly property report. When you interact with Hollie:

  • Hollie is clearly identified as an assistant, and if you ask, she will confirm she is an AI and offer to connect you with a member of our team.

  • A real person is available at any point, and sensitive or complex matters are passed to our team.

  • Your messages are processed to generate a relevant reply, and the conversation may be stored so we can keep track of our communication with you.

  • You can opt out at any time by replying STOP. We will then stop messaging you and suppress your number from future contact.

To provide this service, your message content and contact details are processed by trusted technology providers (see Section 9), including WhatsApp messaging and AI language-processing providers.

b) AI within our internal systems ("Nest Brain")

We use a secure internal tool called Nest Brain to manage our work, including valuation tracking, client management, and customer relationship management. Nest Brain includes an AI assistant that helps our authorised staff find information and answer business questions. This assistant operates on a read-only, permission-limited basis, and we have designed it to limit the personal data made available to it.

c) Our commitments on AI

  • We do not use AI to make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you without human involvement (see Section 8).

  • Our AI assistants do not provide legal, financial, or formal valuation advice, and any property valuation is always carried out by a qualified person.

  • We do not sell your data, and we do not allow our providers to use your personal data to train their own AI models for their own purposes, other than as needed to deliver the service to us.

8. Automated Decision-Making and Profiling

We may use limited automated processing to help us prioritise our work. For example, our AI assistant may categorise an enquiry by how interested a person appears (such as cold, warm, or hot) so that our team can follow up appropriately.

This does not involve decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you, and a member of our team remains responsible for any decision about your enquiry, sale, tenancy, or application. You have the right to object to this profiling and to ask for human involvement. Contact us using the details in Section 15.

9. Who We Share Your Data With

We only share data when needed. This includes:

  • Solicitors and conveyancers

  • Mortgage brokers and financial advisers

  • Referencing and credit check providers

  • IT, CRM, software, and communications providers who process data on our behalf, including our website, customer relationship management, messaging, and AI providers

  • Government or regulatory bodies where required

Our technology providers act as our processors under contract and may include, among others: cloud hosting and database providers, our property CRM provider (Street), messaging providers (such as Twilio and WhatsApp/Meta), workflow automation providers, and AI language-processing providers (such as Anthropic). All such providers are required to handle your data securely, only on our instructions, and in line with data protection law. We do not sell your data to third parties for marketing.

10. Where We Process Your Data (International Transfers)

We are based in the UK and store data on secure systems. Some of our technology providers process data outside the UK, including in the United States. Where data is transferred outside the UK, we ensure an appropriate safeguard is in place, such as UK "adequacy" regulations or the International Data Transfer Agreement (or equivalent standard contractual clauses), so that your data continues to be protected.

11. How We Store and Protect Your Data

We take data security seriously.

Your data is stored on secure systems, with access limited to authorised staff. We use appropriate technical and organisational measures, including access controls and multi-factor authentication on our internal systems, to protect data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, or disclosure.

12. How Long We Keep Your Data

We keep personal data only for as long as needed. Typical retention periods include:

  • Transaction records: up to 6 years

  • Compliance records: as required by law

  • Marketing and contact data: until you opt out or it is no longer relevant

  • AI conversation records: kept only for as long as needed to manage our communication with you

Data is securely deleted when no longer required.

13. Marketing Communications

We may send you marketing communications if you have asked for them, or if you are an existing or past client and we believe the information is relevant to you (for example, a property market report). This may be sent by email, SMS, or WhatsApp, including via our AI assistant.

You can opt out at any time by:

  • Clicking "unsubscribe" in emails

  • Replying STOP to a WhatsApp or SMS message

  • Contacting us directly

We do not sell your data to third parties for marketing.

14. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

  • Access your personal data

  • Correct inaccurate data

  • Request deletion of data

  • Restrict processing

  • Object to processing, including direct marketing and profiling

  • Data portability

  • Withdraw consent

  • Ask for human involvement in any automated processing

To exercise your rights, contact us using the details below.

15. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, or wish to exercise your rights, contact:

Nest in Essex Limited Unit 17 Lubards Farm Hullbridge Road Rayleigh Essex SS6 9QG

Email: hello@nestinessex.co.uk Telephone: 01268 500988

16. Cookies

Our website uses cookies to improve functionality and user experience. You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings. For more detail, see our Cookie Policy (if applicable).

17. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, please contact us first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) or the Property Ombudsman.

18. Updates to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The latest version will always be published on our website.

Last updated: 23 June 2026

Copyright Nest In Essex 2026
Built with Spectre, powered by Street.