How Phillip James collects, uses and protects your personal data — under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Last updated: 30 May 2026
Phillip James Estates Ltd (trading as Phillip James and Phillip James Letting Agents) is a residential letting and property management agent based in Worthing. We are the “controller” of the personal data described here, which means we decide how and why it is used.
If you have a question about your data, or want to exercise any of your rights, email us at the address above.
Depending on your relationship with us, we may hold personal data about:
What we hold depends on who you are and the service involved. It may include:
We only ask for what we need to provide our service or to meet a legal duty.
Occasionally we may handle more sensitive information — for example, health information where a tenant needs an adaptation, or where vulnerability is relevant to a tenancy. We only handle this where it is necessary and where the law allows, usually because it is needed in connection with a legal claim or with your explicit consent.
Most of the data we hold comes directly from you. We may also receive information about you from:
We only use your data where we have a lawful basis to do so:
| What we use it for | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Providing letting, rent-collection and management services under our agreement with you | Performance of a contract |
| Referencing applicants and assessing affordability | Performance of a contract / steps before a contract |
| Carrying out Right to Rent immigration checks | Legal obligation |
| Protecting deposits with a government-approved scheme | Legal obligation |
| Collecting rent and keeping financial and tax records | Legal obligation / contract |
| Arranging repairs, maintenance and safety compliance | Contract / legitimate interests |
| Operating the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme for overseas landlords | Legal obligation |
| Anti-money-laundering checks, where an instruction brings us within those rules | Legal obligation |
| Responding to your enquiries | Legitimate interests |
| Establishing, exercising or defending legal claims | Legitimate interests |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, our interest is in running our business efficiently, managing properties properly, and protecting our clients, tenants and ourselves — balanced against your rights.
We do not send marketing emails or text messages. We use your contact details only to provide our services and to respond to you.
We do use advertising and analytics cookies on our website (for example, the Meta Pixel) to measure and improve how we reach people online. These run only with your consent and are explained in full on our Cookies page.
We share data only where necessary to provide our service or meet a legal duty. Depending on the situation, recipients may include:
We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it for other organisations’ marketing.
Our referencing process (through LetAlliance) includes an automated assessment that produces a recommendation — for example, whether an applicant meets affordability criteria. The final decision on whether to grant a tenancy is always made by a person (the landlord, or us on their behalf), so it is not a decision made solely by automated means. If you would like to understand a referencing outcome, contact us and we will help.
All of the personal data we hold to run our lettings and management service is stored and processed in the UK.
The analytics and advertising tools on our website (such as Google and Meta products) may process limited website data outside the UK. Where they do, that processing relies on the safeguards those providers have in place, and it only happens with your cookie consent. See our Cookies page for detail.
We keep personal data only for as long as we need it. As a general guide:
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Enquiries and unsuccessful applications | 6 months |
| Tenancy and management records | Duration of the tenancy, then 6 years |
| Financial and accounting records | 6 years |
| Right to Rent documents | Duration of the tenancy, then 1 year |
| Anti-money-laundering records (where applicable) | 5 years after the relationship ends |
When data is no longer needed, we securely delete or anonymise it.
Under data protection law you have the right to:
To exercise any of these, email worthing@phillip-james.co.uk. We will respond within one month, and there is normally no charge.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the ICO at ico.org.uk/concerns or on 0303 123 1113 — though we’d appreciate the chance to put things right first.
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. Non-essential cookies (analytics and advertising) run only with your consent. You can read what we use, and change your choice at any time, on our Cookies page.
We may update this notice from time to time. The date at the top shows when it was last changed.
