Privacy Notice

Montgomery & Sons Ltd is the controller of the personal information covered by this notice.

Company: Montgomery & Sons Ltd
Company number: 16967262
Registered office: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, United Kingdom, WC2H 9JQ
Telephone: 020 7088 8301
Privacy contact: info@montgomeryandsons.co.uk

Through this website

• your name, telephone number and email address;
• the property postcode, the reason for the inspection and anything you tell us in the enquiry notes;
• the page you enquired from and campaign information (for example a Google Ads click identifier) so we know which advertising generated the enquiry; and
• limited technical information generated when you use the site, such as request and security logs.

Through the inspection service and any portal

• contact details for the client, and where relevant the landlord, letting agent or property manager;
• the property address, access arrangements and property details;
• limited occupier or tenant contact information where it is needed to arrange access;
• inspection answers, observations, recommendations and remedial information;
• photographs and, where applicable, videos of plumbing installations and their condition;
• readings and diagnostic information such as water pressure, flow and moisture-meter readings, and the locations of water shut-off controls at the property (historic records may include thermal-imaging observations taken before this was removed from the standard inspection);
• written and PDF inspection reports;
• account and login information for anyone we give portal access to, and activity or audit records of important actions; and
• records of calls, emails, messages, appointments, invoices and payments.

We aim to collect only the information reasonably necessary to deal with your enquiry or provide the service.

• responding to enquiries and callback requests;
• providing quotations, arranging appointments and carrying out inspections;
• recording inspection findings and producing reports and photographic evidence;
• making reports and records available to the client and other authorised users;
• administering accounts, invoices and payments;
• maintaining business, accounting and insurance records;
• handling complaints, disputes and legal claims;
• keeping our systems secure and detecting misuse; and
• where you have asked, introducing you to an independent contractor for remedial work.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use inspection photographs for advertising, marketing, social media or case studies without separate, documented permission.

Contract, and steps taken before entering a contract

Responding to an enquiry, quoting, arranging and carrying out an inspection, producing and delivering the report, and taking payment.

Legal obligation

Keeping accounting and tax records, and complying with lawful requests.

Legitimate interests

Keeping an accurate and evidenced record of each inspection (including photographs) so that findings can be substantiated; operating and securing our systems; preventing fraud; handling complaints; and establishing, exercising or defending legal claims. Where an inspection is booked by a landlord or agent, we also rely on legitimate interests to process the limited occupier information needed to arrange access safely.

Consent

Non-essential cookies and any optional marketing messages. Consent is always separate, optional and never pre-ticked, and you can withdraw it at any time.

Photographs and readings are taken where reasonably necessary to document plumbing installations, defects, condition, readings, recommendations and completed work. Our inspectors are instructed to photograph the plumbing, not people’s lives, and to avoid capturing faces, documents, screens, correspondence and unrelated belongings wherever reasonably possible.

Where a landlord, agent or property manager commissions an inspection of a tenanted property, the occupier should be aware that: an inspection is taking place; photographs may be taken of plumbing installations; we try to avoid unrelated personal information; the photographs and findings form part of the property inspection record; and the record and report are provided to the person or company that commissioned the inspection. Occupiers can ask us for privacy information or raise a concern using the contact details in this notice.

If a photograph has captured something unrelated and personal, tell us and we will review and, where appropriate, crop or delete it.

We use service providers who process personal information on our instructions under appropriate contract terms. The categories we use are:

• our website and application platform, hosting and database providers, which store enquiry, account, inspection and file data;
• our email delivery provider, used to send enquiry notifications and reports;
• analytics and advertising measurement providers, used only where you have consented to those cookies;
• accounting, payment and professional advisers, including our insurers and legal advisers;
• specialist fire risk assessors, where you have asked us to arrange a fire risk assessment. We share only the building and contact details needed to prepare the quotation and carry out the booked assessment;
• independent contractors, where you have asked us to introduce one and only to the extent needed to understand or quote for the work; and
• regulators, courts or law-enforcement bodies where we are legally required to disclose information.

The report and the inspection record are made available to the client who commissioned the inspection and to users they authorise.

We aim to keep customer data within the UK or European Economic Area. Some providers, for example analytics and advertising services, may process information in other countries. Where personal information is transferred outside the UK, we rely on a transfer mechanism recognised under UK data protection law, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, together with appropriate safeguards.

If you would like details of the providers and storage regions currently used for a particular part of the service, contact us and we will confirm the position at that time.

We do not make decisions about you by automated means that produce legal or similarly significant effects. Inspection findings and recommendations are made by a qualified person.

Where any AI-assisted tooling is used to help draft or format documents, we minimise the personal information involved. We will update this notice if AI processing of identifiable customer or property data is introduced.

• Website enquiries that do not lead to a booking: normally up to 12 months.
• Customer and property records, inspection records, reports and inspection photographs: normally up to 6 years after completion of the service, so that findings can be evidenced and claims defended.
• Accounting and tax records, including invoices: at least 6 years after the end of the relevant accounting period, as required by law.
• Draft or abandoned inspections and duplicate or unusable photographs: deleted once they are no longer needed, normally within 12 months.
• Portal accounts: for as long as the account is in use, then closed after a prolonged period of inactivity.
• Marketing consent records: kept while consent is in force and for a short period afterwards to evidence the withdrawal.
• Security, access and audit logs: normally up to 12 months, unless needed for an investigation.

Information may be kept longer where a complaint, insurance matter, legal dispute or legal requirement makes this necessary.

Enquiry data submitted through this website is transmitted over an encrypted connection and written to a private database that is not readable by website visitors. Inspection records and files are held in access-controlled systems, and files such as photographs and reports are kept in private storage rather than publicly accessible locations.

Access is restricted to those who need it for their role, accounts are individually identified, and important actions are logged. No system can be guaranteed completely secure, but we review our controls and act promptly on any incident.

Depending on the circumstances you may ask us to:

• give you access to the personal information we hold about you;
• correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
• delete information where there is no longer a good reason for us to keep it;
• restrict how we use information while a concern is resolved;
• stop processing based on legitimate interests where you object;
• provide certain information in a portable format; or
• withdraw consent, where we rely on consent.

These rights are not absolute. We may need to keep inspection records, reports and photographs where they are required for accounting, insurance or the defence of legal claims; if so, we will explain why.

To make a request, email info@montgomeryandsons.co.uk with “Data request” in the subject line, telling us what you want and which property or inspection it relates to. We may ask for proof of identity or authority. We respond within one month, and will tell you if the request is complex and needs longer. Requests are free in normal circumstances.

Please contact us first so we can look into any concern. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

We use strictly necessary cookies to run this website. Analytics and advertising technologies are loaded only after you consent, and Google Consent Mode defaults are set to denied beforehand. Full details are in our Cookie Policy.

We may update this notice when our services, systems or legal obligations change. The current version is always published here with the date it was last updated.