1. Introduction

JW Wood Limited and the JW Wood Group of Companies (together referred to as "JW Wood", "we", "us" or "our") are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information responsibly.

This policy sets out how we collect, use, share and protect your personal information when you engage with us through any of our services or communication channels.

Our services ("Services") include:

• Property sales and lettings — residential, commercial, auctions, and land & new homes
• Surveying and valuations
• Conveyancing
• Mortgages and insurance products

Our communication channels ("Communication Channels") include:

• In person at any of our branch offices
• By telephone, post, SMS or email
• Via live web chat or social media (including Facebook, X/Twitter, WhatsApp)
• Via our website at www.jww.co.uk ("Website")
• Via property portals such as Rightmove, OnTheMarket and the Relocation Agent Network

2. Who We Are (Data Controller)

For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation ("UK GDPR") and the Data Protection Act 2018 ("DPA 2018"), as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, the Data Controller is:

The JW Wood Group includes, but is not limited to: Homemove (Durham) Limited, Homemove (Chester le Street) Limited, JW Wood Darlington Limited, Homemove (Property Management) Limited, Homemove (Professional) Limited, JW Wood Commercial Limited and Homemove Services North East Limited — each trading as JW Wood Estate Agents, JW Wood Lettings, JW Wood Student or JW Wood Chartered Surveyors as applicable.

3. Personal Information We Collect

"Personal information" means any information that identifies you, either alone or in combination with other information we hold.

3.1 Information you provide directly

We collect information you give us when you:

• Register an account or save property searches on our Website
• Fill in forms on our Website, third-party websites or property portals
• Contact us by telephone, email, web chat, post or in person
• Enter into any transaction or service agreement with us
• Respond to surveys or research requests

This may include your name, postal address, email address, telephone number, financial information (for mortgage or referencing purposes), employment details, and government-issued identity documents (where required by law).

Please note: all telephone calls to and from JW Wood may be recorded for training, quality assurance and monitoring purposes. Recordings are stored securely and processed in accordance with this policy.

3.2 Information collected automatically

When you visit our Website, we may automatically collect:

• Device and browser information (type, version, operating system)
• IP address and geolocation data
• Pages visited, time spent, and interactions performed
• Referral URL (the site that directed you to ours)
• Web logs and communication data

Please see our separate Cookie Policy for full details of how we use cookies and similar technologies.

3.3 Information from third parties

We may receive information about you from property portals, credit reference agencies, insurance reference agencies, your employer or previous landlord (for referencing), or other estate agents involved in a property chain.

If you provide us with details of a third party (such as a guarantor), you confirm that you have their permission to do so and will direct them to this policy.

4. How We Use Your Personal Information

We only collect and use your personal information where we have a valid legal basis to do so under UK GDPR. The lawful bases we rely on are:

• Contract performance — to carry out a transaction or service you have requested
• Legal obligation — to comply with legislation such as anti-money laundering, Right to Rent checks and tax obligations
• Legitimate interests — to operate our business efficiently and provide our services, where these interests are not overridden by your rights
• Consent — where we specifically ask for your agreement (e.g. for certain marketing communications)

4.1 Providing and improving our services

We use your information to fulfil your service requests, personalise the properties and services we present to you, improve our Website and internal processes, and build a profile of your requirements to provide you with the best possible experience.

Lawful basis: contract performance and legitimate interests.

4.2 Processing transactions

We use your name, address and relevant financial details to process transactions and may pass these to solicitors, surveyors, financial advisers, mortgage lenders and other parties as required to complete the transaction.

Lawful basis: contract performance.

4.3 Legal and regulatory compliance

We are required by law to carry out certain checks, including:

• Identity and anti-money laundering checks under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017
• Right to Rent checks under Section 22 of the Immigration Act 2014

Lawful basis: legal obligation.

4.4 Tenancy and lettings

For lettings purposes, we may use your information to:

• Assess your suitability as a tenant or guarantor
• Conduct credit and reference checks
• Arrange or administer tenancy deposits, insurance policies, and council tax, water and energy account transfers
• Recover unpaid rent or other debts

Lawful basis: contract performance and legitimate interests.

4.5 Staff safety

We collect contact details and residential addresses to help ensure the safety of our staff attending viewings and market appraisals.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests.

4.6 Marketing

We may send you marketing communications about our services, properties and promotions. The basis on which we do so depends on how you first contacted us:

• If you make an enquiry, contact us via our website or a property portal, or engage one of our branches, we will send you marketing emails unless you opt out. This is based on our legitimate interests as a business, and you can opt out at any time.
• For SMS and telephone marketing, we will only contact you where you have consented or where we have an existing client relationship and reasonably believe you may be interested in a related service.

You can opt out of all marketing at any time by contacting us at or by using the unsubscribe link in any email we send you.

4.7 Fraud prevention and debt recovery

We may use your information to assess creditworthiness, prevent fraud and pursue debt recovery. This may involve sharing data with referencing providers, credit reference agencies and debt collection agencies.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests and legal obligation.

4.8 Business analysis

We may use aggregated and anonymised data for internal reporting and performance analysis. Individual users cannot be identified from this data.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests.

5. How We Share Your Personal Information

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only as described below and require all recipients to handle it securely and in accordance with applicable law.

5.1 Within the JW Wood Group

We may share your information with other companies within the JW Wood Group, as defined in Section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006, for legitimate business purposes.

5.2 Third-party service providers

We share limited personal information with third parties who process it on our behalf ("Data Processors"). These include:

Sales — residential, commercial and auctions

• Solicitors and conveyancers
• Surveyors
• Mortgage and financial advisers
• Property auctioneers (including Agents Property Auction — see note below)
• Domestic energy assessors (EPC providers)
• Banks and lending institutions
• Local authorities
• Other estate agents in a chain
• Removal companies and contractors
• Dispute resolution services and insurers

Lettings — residential and commercial

• Tenant and credit referencing agencies
• Insurance reference agencies
• Housing benefit departments
• Solicitors
• Surveyors and domestic energy assessors
• Other estate agents and landlords
• Local authorities
• Contractors, gas and electrical engineers
• Utility companies and utility management services
• Dispute resolution services, Deposit Protection Schemes and insurers

Technology and software providers

Our technology partners include: i90 Ltd, Webdoers Ltd, Integrated Interest, Reapit Software, Sage, Google, Aspire Technology Solutions Ltd, SignatureSense Ltd, ReachLocal, Acaboom, Sprift, Microsoft and Meta (Facebook/WhatsApp). Our hosting and analytics providers include: Forge, Amazon AWS, Google Analytics and Google Ads.

Auction properties — important notice

JW Wood markets auction properties in partnership with Agents Property Auction. If you enquire about or express an interest in a property being sold by auction, your details will be shared with Agents Property Auction for the purposes of that transaction.

Viewings

To facilitate viewings and negotiations, relevant personal information will be shared between buyers, sellers, tenants and landlords as necessary. If we are conducting viewings at your property, please ensure any personal information you would not wish viewers to see is removed beforehand.

5.3 Legal and regulatory authorities

We will disclose personal information where required by law, court order, or regulatory authority — including for the administration of justice, law enforcement investigations, or to protect the safety and rights of individuals.

5.4 Business transfers

In the event of a sale, merger or acquisition of any part of the JW Wood business, personal data may be transferred to the relevant prospective buyer or successor entity.

6. International Data Transfers

Your personal information is stored in the UK on secure, encrypted servers. Some of our third-party service providers may process data outside the UK.

Where data is transferred to countries outside the UK, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with UK GDPR. This may include reliance on UK adequacy regulations (where the receiving country has been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection), International Data Transfer Agreements (IDTAs), or other approved transfer mechanisms.

For further information about the safeguards applied to any specific international transfer, please contact us at .

7. How Long We Keep Your Information

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, or as required by law. The specific retention period depends on the nature of the information and our legal obligations.

A copy of our full Retention Policy is available on request.

Website accounts

We may close and delete website accounts that we consider dormant. An account is considered dormant if any of the following applies:

• It has not been accessed for more than 12 months
• Emails to the registered address are undeliverable
• The account is in breach of our Terms of Use

8. Security

We take the security of your personal information seriously. All information is stored on password-protected, firewall-secured servers within the UK. All data transmitted between your device and our Website is encrypted using industry-standard TLS (Transport Layer Security). Paper-based records are stored securely in the UK.

We maintain strict internal procedures for preventing unauthorised access, including secure backup and data recovery processes. Where we engage third-party processors, we require them to maintain equivalent security standards.

No method of transmission over the internet is entirely secure. Whilst we take all reasonable precautions, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of data transmitted to our Website. Any such transmission is at your own risk.

9. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the following rights in relation to your personal information:

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at or write to:

Data Protection Officer
JW Wood Limited
7 Old Elvet
Durham
DH1 3HL

We may ask you to verify your identity before processing your request. We aim to respond within one month, though complex or multiple requests may take longer. We will let you know if this is the case.

Exercising your rights is free of charge unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, in which case we may charge a reasonable fee or decline to respond.

10. Automated Decision-Making

In certain circumstances, we use automated decision-making processes, including credit scoring, to assess your suitability to rent a property or act as a guarantor. These processes use information such as your credit history, employment details and previous tenancy records.

Where an automated decision produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you, you have the right to:

• Request human review of the decision
• Express your point of view
• Contest the decision

Your details may also be passed to the landlord, who may use them to make independent decisions. If you wish to exercise your rights regarding automated decisions, please contact us at .

11. Personal Data Breaches

We have procedures in place to detect, investigate and report personal data breaches in accordance with our obligations under UK GDPR (Article 33). Where a breach is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) within 72 hours. Where a breach poses a high risk to your rights and freedoms, we will also notify you directly without undue delay.

12. Third-Party Links

Our Website may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites and we encourage you to read their privacy policies before submitting any personal information to them.

13. Changes to This Policy

We review this policy regularly and will update it to reflect changes in law, our services or our data practices. If we make significant changes, we will notify you by posting a notice on our Website alongside an updated version of this policy.

14. Contact Us and How to Complain

If you have any questions about this policy, wish to exercise your rights, or have a concern about how we handle your personal information, please contact our Data Protection Officer:

Email:

Post: Data Protection Officer, JW Wood, 7 Old Elvet, Durham, DH1 3HL

We ask that you contact us in the first instance so that we can try to resolve your concern. However, you have the right to lodge a complaint at any time with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's supervisory authority for data protection matters:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
ico.org.uk