Privacy Notice

Who we are

The data controller for the ARO landlord portal is Choices Estate Agents Limited, registered office Ground Floor, 1/7 Station Road, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 1HT, trading as the Advanced Rent Option (ARO™) through its group company Advanced Rent Option Ltd (company number 12953174). Choices Estate Agents Limited is registered with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office under number Z5841460. For anything about your data, email [email protected] or call 01342 840 050.

What we collect

Your name, email address and mobile number so we can set up and reach you about your case; your correspondence address; details of the property or properties you ask us to manage; and the compliance and identity documents your ARO team requests (for example gas safety and electrical certificates, EPCs and proof of identity).

Why we use it, and our lawful bases

To provide the rent-guarantee and management service you asked for and to meet our legal and compliance obligations as a letting agent — our lawful bases are performance of a contract with you, and compliance with legal obligations. Where we send optional reminders or updates that aren’t essential to your case, we rely on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time in your settings. Marketing emails are off unless you switch them on.

Who we share it with

We never sell your data. We share it only with the service providers that help us run the portal, each under a data-processing agreement:

• Our hosting & database provider (Supabase) — stores your account and documents on encrypted servers in the United Kingdom.
• A document-reading service (Mistral AI, in the EU) — reads the dates and reference numbers from your proof of ownership, landlord licence and safety certificates so we don’t have to key them in by hand, and tells us whether the name and address on them match your case. It never receives your photo ID or proof of address. We don’t keep the text it returns, nor the names or address it read — only whether they matched.
• An e-signature provider (Adobe Sign) — handles signing your agreement.
• A customer-relationship service (GoHighLevel, in the United States) — receives only your name and email so we can send the reminders and updates about your case. See international transfers below.

International transfers

Your name, email and phone number are transferred to our communications platform (MovePal, built on GoHighLevel) in the United States, so that the emails and calls you receive from us are kept in one place. Where we transfer personal information outside the UK we take steps to ensure it is protected in accordance with UK data protection law, relying on the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or another lawful transfer mechanism. All other data stays in the UK or the EU.

How long we keep it

We keep your information for as long as your case is active and then for up to 6 years after the end of the relationship or contract, in line with our legal and regulatory obligations. Enquiries that do not go ahead are kept for up to 2 years after our last meaningful contact. Records we must hold under anti-money-laundering rules are kept for the period the law requires, commonly 5 years. After that, information is securely deleted.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us for a copy of your data (access), to correct it (rectification), to have it deleted (erasure), to receive it in a portable form, and to object to or restrict certain uses. To exercise any of these, email [email protected] and we will respond within one month. You can update your name, phone and address, and your reminder preferences, directly in your portal settings.

Cookies

We use only strictly-necessary cookies — to keep you signed in and to secure the site. We don’t use cookies for analytics, advertising or tracking, so there’s no cookie banner to accept.

Complaints

If you’re unhappy with how we handle your data, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.