Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Oliver James Surveyors Ltd ("we", "us", "our") is a RICS-regulated firm of chartered surveyors registered in England & Wales, company number 15457088, trading as Oliver James Chartered Surveyors. Our registered office is 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ; our trading office is Windsor Road, Chobham, Surrey, GU24 8LA. We are the data controller for the personal data described in this notice.

This notice covers all of our services, including residential surveys, Red Book valuations, new-build snagging, building defect reports, drone roof surveys and business rates advice and appeals.

2. What we collect

• Contact details you provide via our quote and contact forms, by email, by phone or in writing - name, email address, phone number and the property address.
• Instruction information - property details, your purchase or ownership position, your solicitor's details, any concerns you ask us to investigate and, for rating work, the commercial property address and billing authority reference.
• Correspondence with us, including emails, call notes and feedback.
• AI concierge messages. If you use the AI chat tool on this website, the content of your messages is sent to our AI gateway provider so that a response can be generated. Messages are processed in real time and not used to train any model.
• Website usage data. We use Plausible Analytics, a privacy-friendly, cookieless service that records aggregated, anonymous data (page views, country at country-level, referrer and device type). We do not set advertising or tracking cookies.
• Server logs. Our hosting provider automatically records technical information including IP address, user agent and timestamp for the purpose of serving the site, diagnostics and abuse prevention. Logs are retained for a short period and are not combined with any other personal data.

3. How we use it

• To prepare quotations and respond to enquiries (lawful basis: steps to enter into a contract).
• To carry out and deliver surveys, valuations, rating advice and related professional services (lawful basis: contract).
• To meet our regulatory and statutory obligations, including those of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and HMRC (lawful basis: legal obligation).
• To maintain client records, manage our business and improve our services (lawful basis: legitimate interests).
• To respond to AI concierge messages and improve the quality of those responses (lawful basis: legitimate interests).

4. Who we share it with

We do not sell your data. We share it only where necessary with:

• Your solicitor, conveyancer or mortgage lender, where you have asked us to copy them in.
• For rating work, the Valuation Office Agency and your billing authority, where we are acting on your behalf.
• Our professional indemnity insurer (Hiscox Insurance Company Limited) and legal advisers where required.
• The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and HMRC where they have a regulatory or legal right to request information.
• Our website and infrastructure providers, under written processing terms:
  • Lovable Technologies Oy (hosting, transactional email and AI gateway for our website and quote forms).
  • Supabase Inc. (database for contact form submissions and the serverless functions that send our acknowledgement emails).
  • Plausible Insights OÜ (privacy-friendly website analytics).
• Our professional support services (accountants, IT support, file storage and office software), under written processing terms.

5. International transfers

Where any of our processors store or process data outside the UK, those transfers are protected either by a UK adequacy regulation (for example the EU and the EEA) or by the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) or International Data Transfer Addendum (IDTA Addendum) to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, together with any supplementary measures required for the destination country.

6. How long we keep it

We retain client files, survey reports and valuation reports for a minimum of 15 years from the date of delivery, in line with RICS guidance and the limitation period for professional negligence claims. Rating case files are retained for the duration of the rating list in question plus seven years. Enquiries that do not result in an instruction are typically deleted within 24 months. Server logs are retained for 30 days.

7. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to access, correct, erase, restrict or object to our processing of your personal data, and to data portability. You also have the right to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent. To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected]. We will respond within one month, as required by Article 12(3) UK GDPR, and will extend that period by up to two further months where the request is complex (we will tell you why).

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk, though we would ask that you raise any concerns with us first so we can try to resolve them.

8. Cookies

This website does not set marketing or tracking cookies. Plausible Analytics is cookieless. The only cookies the site may set are strictly necessary - for example, to maintain session state during an AI chat conversation or to remember whether you have accepted a notice. These cookies are first-party, short-lived and expire when you close your browser or shortly after.

9. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice from time to time, for example to reflect new services, changes to our processors or changes in the law. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page tells you when the notice last changed in substance.

10. Complaints

As a RICS-regulated firm we operate a formal complaints handling procedure. If you are unhappy with any aspect of our service, please read our procedure and follow the steps set out in it:

Download our Complaints Handling Procedure (PDF)↗

11. Contact

For any privacy questions or to exercise your rights, contact us at:

Oliver James Surveyors Ltd
Windsor Road, Chobham, Surrey, GU24 8LA
[email protected]
01276 300 365