Last updated: 22 October 2026
Your privacy matters to us. This policy explains what personal information Younes Group collects, why we need it, how we look after it, and the choices and rights you have. It applies to everyone we deal with: owners, landlords, sellers, buyers, tenants, occupiers, guarantors, applicants, contractors and visitors to our website.
Younes Group is a trading name of Younes Estates Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17535539) whose registered office is at 4th Floor, Flat 3, 182 to 184 Edgware Road, London W2 2DS.
1. Who we are
Younes Group looks after fine homes in central London, principally in Marylebone, Mayfair, South Kensington, Knightsbridge and Belgravia. We provide property management, maintenance, sales and lettings, we act for buyers and tenants who are searching for a home, and we care for homes on behalf of their owners.
For the purposes of data protection law, Younes Estates Ltd, trading as Younes Group, is the controller of the personal data described in this policy. This means we decide why and how it is used, and we are responsible for looking after it.
When we let or manage a home on behalf of a landlord, the landlord is usually also a controller of information about the tenants and occupiers. We share information with the landlord so that they can meet their own legal obligations.
The laws that apply include the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.
If you have any question about this policy or about your personal data, please contact us:
- Email: Show email address
- Telephone: +44 7411 555 851
- Post: 4th Floor, Flat 3, 182 to 184 Edgware Road, London W2 2DS
2. The personal data we collect
What we collect depends on how you deal with us. We ask only for what we need for the service in question. It may include:
- Identity details: your name, title, date of birth, nationality and signature and, for companies and trusts, details of the directors, shareholders, trustees, beneficial owners and others who control them.
- Contact details: home and correspondence addresses in the UK or overseas, email addresses and telephone numbers.
- Financial and payment information: bank account details; records of rent, deposits, fees and other payments; income and employment details used for referencing; your tax residence, for the purposes of HM Revenue and Customs rules on landlords who live overseas; and information about the source of the money used in a purchase or letting and the source of your wealth.
- Property and tenancy information: details of the home and its ownership, title documents, agency and tenancy agreements, inventories, inspection reports, photographs, safety certificates, maintenance records, meter readings, council tax and utility details, records of who holds keys, and the names of the people who will live in the home.
- Identity and money laundering checks: copies of passports, identity cards, driving licences and proof of address; company and trust documents; the results of electronic identity verification; and the results of screening against sanctions lists, lists of politically exposed persons and adverse media.
- Referencing and credit checks: employment and income references, references from previous landlords, credit history, county court judgments and insolvency records, and the same information about any guarantor.
- Right to Rent: copies of the documents, or the results of the online checks, used to confirm that each adult occupier has the right to rent a home in England.
- Communications: emails, letters and messages you send us, and our notes of telephone calls, meetings and viewings.
- Website and technical data: your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you visit and the date and time of your visit, as recorded in our website's server logs, and anything you send us through an enquiry form.
- Marketing preferences: whether you have asked to hear from us, and how you prefer to be contacted.
If you give us information about someone else, such as a joint owner, a family member who will live in the home, a guarantor or a colleague, please make sure they know you are doing so and point them to this policy.
3. Special category and criminal offence data
We do not ask for special category data, such as information about health, ethnic origin, religious belief or sexual orientation, unless it is unavoidable. An example would be information about a disability or health condition that you choose to share so that we can make adjustments for you, or so that a home can be chosen or adapted to suit your needs. Identity documents and Right to Rent checks also reveal nationality and immigration status, which we treat with the same care.
The sanctions, politically exposed person and adverse media screening that the law requires as part of money laundering checks can occasionally reveal information about criminal allegations or convictions.
We handle information of this kind only where the law allows it, for example where it is necessary to meet our legal obligations to prevent money laundering and other unlawful acts, or where you have given your explicit consent. Access is limited to the people who need it, and we keep an appropriate policy document setting out how we protect it wherever the law requires one.
4. Where we get your personal data
Most of the information we hold comes from you. We may also receive information about you from:
- property portals and other websites on which we advertise homes, when you make an enquiry through them;
- referencing agencies and credit reference agencies;
- HM Land Registry and Companies House;
- identity verification providers, and sanctions and politically exposed person screening providers;
- the Home Office, when an online Right to Rent check is carried out;
- other agents, including agents acting for the other party to a transaction and relocation agents;
- solicitors and conveyancers;
- introducers, and people who recommend us to you;
- your employer, or the company paying for your home, in the case of a company let or a relocation;
- landlords, tenants, the managing agents and freeholders of the building, and contractors working at the home; and
- publicly available sources, such as the press and the internet, as part of our due diligence.
5. How we use your personal data, and our lawful basis
We may use personal data only where the law gives us a lawful basis to do so. The table below sets out the main purposes for which we use it and the basis we rely on for each.
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Responding to your enquiries, arranging viewings and sending you details of homes you have asked about | Steps you have asked us to take before entering into a contract; our legitimate interests in responding to people who contact us |
| Providing the services set out in your agency agreement or engagement letter, including selling, letting, managing and caring for a home, and searching for a home on your behalf | Performance of our contract with you |
| Dealing with you where you are not our client, for example as a buyer when we act for the seller, or as a tenant when we act for the landlord | Our legitimate interests, and those of our client, in completing the transaction and managing the home properly |
| Identity and money laundering checks, including sanctions and politically exposed person screening and checks on the source of funds and source of wealth | Legal obligation under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 |
| Right to Rent checks on adult occupiers | Legal obligation under the Immigration Act 2014, where we carry out the checks on a landlord's behalf |
| Referencing and credit checks on prospective tenants and guarantors | Steps you have asked us to take before entering into a tenancy; the legitimate interests of the landlord, and our own, in confirming that a tenancy is affordable and suitable |
| Collecting rent and other money, holding it in our client account, paying landlords and suppliers, and keeping accounts | Performance of our contract; legal obligation, including accounting and tax rules and the rules of any client money protection scheme we belong to |
| Protecting tenancy deposits and giving tenants the information the law requires | Legal obligation under the Housing Act 2004 where it applies; otherwise performance of our contract |
| Operating the HM Revenue and Customs scheme for landlords who live overseas | Legal obligation |
| Arranging maintenance, repairs, safety checks, inspections, keys and access to the home | Performance of our contract; legal obligation, for example gas and electrical safety rules; our legitimate interests, and those of our client, in keeping the home safe and in good order |
| Telling the local authority, utility providers and the managing agents of the building about a change of occupier | Legal obligation where one applies; otherwise our legitimate interests in managing the home properly |
| Keeping records, handling complaints, and establishing, exercising or defending legal claims | Our legitimate interests; legal obligation where the law requires records to be kept |
| Sending you news about homes and services that may interest you | Your consent or, where you are a client or have asked us about a similar service, our legitimate interests (see section 12) |
| Running, securing and improving our website and IT systems | Our legitimate interests in operating a secure and reliable business |
| Preventing and detecting crime and fraud, safeguarding vulnerable people, and responding to requests from the police, regulators and other public bodies | Legal obligation; the recognised legitimate interests set out in the UK GDPR, as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, for crime prevention, safeguarding and responding to public bodies |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered whether they are outweighed by your interests, rights and freedoms, and we are happy to explain our reasoning. Where we rely on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time.
If you do not give us information that we need to meet a legal obligation, such as information needed for money laundering or Right to Rent checks, we may not be able to act for you or to proceed with a sale or letting.
6. Who we share your personal data with
We share personal data only where it is needed for the purposes described above, and only as much as is needed. Depending on your circumstances, we may share it with:
- landlords and tenants, so that a tenancy can be arranged and managed;
- buyers and sellers and their agents, so that a sale can proceed;
- solicitors and conveyancers;
- contractors and suppliers we instruct for maintenance, repairs, cleaning, inventories, safety inspections and certificates;
- referencing agencies and credit reference agencies;
- identity verification and screening providers;
- government approved tenancy deposit protection schemes;
- any client money protection scheme or redress scheme we belong to, for example if you make a claim or a complaint;
- HM Revenue and Customs;
- local authorities, including for council tax and property licensing;
- utility and communication providers, when the occupier of a home changes;
- the managing agents and freeholders of the building, where access or consent is needed;
- insurers and insurance brokers;
- our professional advisers, such as accountants, auditors and lawyers;
- the providers of our IT, email, website hosting, document storage, property management software and electronic signature services; and
- the police, the National Crime Agency, regulators, courts and other public bodies, where the law requires or permits us to share information.
Suppliers who handle personal data on our behalf act only on our instructions, under contracts that require them to keep it secure and confidential.
We never sell personal data, and we do not share it with other organisations for their own marketing.
7. International transfers
Many of our clients live outside the United Kingdom, and some of the organisations that provide services to us store data abroad. Where we send personal data outside the UK, we make sure it remains protected to a standard that is not materially lower than the protection it receives here, as the law requires. We do this by:
- sending data to countries that the UK has recognised as providing adequate protection;
- using the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the European Commission's standard contractual clauses, together with any additional measures that are needed; or
- relying on an exception permitted by law, for example where a transfer is necessary to perform our contract with you, such as when we send documents to you, or to your adviser, overseas at your request.
You may ask us for more information about the safeguards we use.
8. How long we keep your personal data
We keep personal data only for as long as we need it for the purposes for which it was collected, including to meet legal, accounting and regulatory requirements. When it is no longer needed, we delete it securely or anonymise it.
| Information | How long we keep it | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Identity and money laundering check records | Five years from the end of our business relationship with you, or from the completion of the transaction | Required by the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, after which the records are deleted unless the law requires us to keep them, you agree, or they are needed for legal proceedings |
| Accounting, tax and client account records | Six years from the end of the financial year to which they relate | Required by company and tax law |
| Agency agreements, tenancy and management files, and correspondence | Six years from the end of our relationship with you or the end of the tenancy, whichever is later | So that we can answer questions and deal with disputes or claims, for which the usual time limit is six years |
| Right to Rent records | For the length of the tenancy and one year after it ends | Required by the Home Office rules on Right to Rent checks |
| Referencing information about applicants who do not go on to rent | Six months from the decision | So that we can answer any questions about the decision |
| Enquiries that do not lead to an instruction or transaction | Two years from our last contact with you | So that we can help you if you return to us |
| Complaint records | Six years from the date the complaint is closed | To show how complaints were handled, and in case of later claims |
| Marketing preferences | Until you ask us to stop contacting you | After that, we keep only a short record so that we do not contact you again |
| Website server logs | No longer than 12 months | For the security and proper running of our website |
9. How we keep your personal data secure
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse and unauthorised access. These include limiting access to the people who need it, two step verification and encryption where appropriate, secure storage of paper records and keys, confidentiality obligations for everyone who works with us, and careful selection of the suppliers we trust with information.
No system is completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs that is likely to put your rights and freedoms at high risk, we will tell you without undue delay, and we will report breaches to the ICO where the law requires.
Protecting you from payment fraud. Criminals sometimes impersonate property firms in order to divert payments. We will never tell you about a change to our bank details by email alone. Before you send money to us, please confirm our bank details by telephone, using a number you already hold for us.
10. Your rights
You have the following rights over your personal data. Some apply only in certain circumstances.
- Access: to ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Rectification: to ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or to complete information that is incomplete.
- Erasure: to ask us to delete your personal data where we no longer have a good reason to keep it.
- Restriction: to ask us to pause the use of your personal data, for example while we check its accuracy.
- Portability: to receive personal data you have given us in a structured, commonly used electronic format, or to ask us to send it to another organisation.
- Objection: to object to our use of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests. You may object to direct marketing at any time, and we will then stop.
- Withdrawing consent: where we rely on your consent, to withdraw it at any time. This does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it.
- Automated decisions: we do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects. Referencing agencies may use automated tools when preparing a report, but the decision whether to proceed with a tenancy is always made by a person. If this changes, we will tell you, and you will be able to make representations, ask for a person to review the decision, and contest it.
To exercise any of these rights, please email Show email address. There is normally no charge.
We will respond within one month. If your request is complex, or you have made several requests, we may extend this by up to two further months, and if so we will tell you why within the first month. If we need to confirm your identity, or need more information to find what you have asked for, the time limit is paused until we receive it. We will carry out reasonable and proportionate searches for the information you request.
11. Complaints about how we use your personal data
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please tell us first so that we can put things right. You can complain by email to Show email address, by telephone on +44 7411 555 851, or by post to 4th Floor, Flat 3, 182 to 184 Edgware Road, London W2 2DS. We will gladly send you a complaint form if you would find one helpful, but you do not need to use it.
We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days of receiving it, and we aim to do so within three working days. We will then look into it without undue delay, keep you informed of our progress, and tell you the outcome.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commission, the UK regulator for data protection, which continues to be known as the ICO:
- Website: ico.org.uk
- Telephone: 0303 123 1113
The ICO usually expects you to raise your concern with us first, but you may contact it at any time.
12. Marketing
We would like to keep you informed about homes and services that may interest you, but only in a way that you are comfortable with.
We will send you marketing emails or text messages only if you have agreed to receive them or, if you are a client or have asked us about a similar service, where the law allows us to contact you about our own similar services. In that case we will give you the chance to refuse when we first collect your details.
Every marketing message we send includes a simple way to unsubscribe. You may also ask us to stop at any time by emailing Show email address. We will never pass your details to other organisations for their own marketing.
13. Children
Our services and website are intended for adults, and we do not knowingly collect personal data directly from children. We may hold limited information about children who will live in a home, such as their names, where it is needed to arrange or manage a tenancy. We collect no more than is necessary, and we handle it with particular care.
14. Cookies
Our Cookie Policy explains how our website uses cookies and similar technologies, and how you can control them.
15. Changes to this policy
We review this policy regularly and will update it when the law or our practices change. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated. If we make a significant change that affects you, we will let you know directly where we are able to do so.
16. Contact us
If you have any question about this policy, or would like to exercise any of your rights, please contact us by email at Show email address, by telephone on +44 7411 555 851, or by post to Younes Group, 4th Floor, Flat 3, 182 to 184 Edgware Road, London W2 2DS.