Last reviewed
In short
We use the details you give us through our forms to answer your enquiry and check how your case fits lender criteria. We pass your details to the leading, reputable specialist mortgage brokers and lenders we work with only if you agree, and to an insurance, currency or removals firm only if you ask for an introduction. Google Analytics runs only if you accept analytics cookies. You can ask for a copy of your data, ask us to correct or delete it and withdraw your consent at any time.
Who are we?
French Finance is a trading name of Propertas Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 09828477, 2nd Floor, 105 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3BU. Propertas Ltd is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Mortgages on property outside the UK are not currently covered by UK mortgage regulation.
French Finance is based in London and is part of the OverseasLend group. For UK data protection law the controller of your personal data is Propertas Ltd, company number 09828477. Our registered office is 2nd Floor, 105 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3BU.
You can contact us about this notice or your data through our contact page or by email to this address.
What personal data do we collect?
We collect only what you give us through our forms, plus a small amount of technical data described below.
When you send an enquiry
- Your name, email address, phone number and how you prefer to be contacted.
- What you are buying: the type of purchase and property, the region, whether you have found a property, the purchase price and your deposit.
- Your situation: your country of residence and of tax residence, the currency of your income, your type of employment, the age band of the oldest applicant and your timeline.
- Anything you write in the notes box.
- The consent choices you make on the form.
- If you accepted analytics cookies, the campaign details from the link you arrived by (utm tags, the Google Ads click ID known as gclid and any estate agent reference code) and the first page you landed on.
Our forms do not ask about your health. Please do not put health details or other sensitive information in the notes box.
When you are an estate agent working with us
- Your agency name and your contact details.
- Your carte professionnelle number, the licence French estate agents must hold, and the regions you cover.
- If you refer a buyer, the buyer’s contact details and anything you tell us about their purchase.
When an estate agent refers you to us
If you are a buyer and an estate agent passed your details to us, we received your name and contact details from that agent. We contact you directly to confirm you agreed before we do anything else with them.
When you use the contact form
Your name, your email address and your message.
When you use the website
- When you send a form we turn your IP address into a one-way code, called a hash, and use it only to limit how many forms can be sent from one connection. We do not store your IP address itself with your enquiry.
- One essential cookie that remembers your cookie choice, and Google Analytics cookies only if you accept them. The cookies section below lists them.
How do we use your data and on what lawful basis?
UK data protection law says we must have a lawful basis for each use of your data. These are ours.
| Why we use it | What we use | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| To answer your enquiry and check how your case fits lender criteria | Your enquiry details | To take steps you ask us to take before any agreement with you |
| To introduce you to the specialists we work with, who share your details with lenders in France to obtain a decision | Your enquiry details | Your consent |
| To introduce you to an insurance, currency transfer, removals or legal firm you ask for | Your name, contact details and the service you asked for | Your consent |
| To reply to a message sent through the contact form | Name, email address and message | Legitimate interests: answering your message |
| To consider an estate agent partner application and run the partnership | Agency and contact details, carte professionnelle number and regions covered | Contract, or steps you ask us to take before entering one, and our legitimate interests in running the partnership |
| To contact a buyer referred by an estate agent and confirm they agreed | The buyer’s contact details from the agent | Legitimate interests: contacting a buyer who has agreed to the referral, to check they want our help |
| To keep the site secure and limit repeated form submissions | A one-way hash of your IP address | Our legitimate interests in protecting the site and our forms from spam and abuse |
| To see how the site is used and which campaigns or agents bring enquiries | Google Analytics cookies and campaign details | Your consent, given when you accept analytics cookies |
Where we rely on your consent you can withdraw it at any time by contacting us. Withdrawing consent does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it. We do not send marketing emails.
Who do we share your data with?
- Specialist mortgage brokers. With your consent we pass your enquiry to one of the specialists we work with, who uses your details to assess your case and approach lenders.
- Lenders in France. With your consent your details are shared with lenders in France to obtain a decision on your case.
- Other suppliers, only if you ask. If you ask to be introduced, we pass your name, contact details and the service you asked for, and nothing else unless you ask us to, to one of these:
- an insurance broker for borrower or home insurance
- a currency transfer provider
- a removals and relocation firm
- an independent law firm
- IT and hosting providers who run our website, database and systems for us. Our website and database run on our own server in a UK data centre.
- Our email provider, which carries our emails. Our emails are sent through Everlytic. The alert emails our staff receive when you send a form contain only your reference, not your details.
- Google, which provides Google Analytics, only if you accept analytics cookies. We do not send any information to Google Ads.
- WhatsApp, if you message us there. Your messages travel through WhatsApp, which is part of Meta and handles them under its own terms and privacy policy. We keep the messages about your enquiry with your enquiry record, and a person on our team replies.
Each broker, lender and supplier we introduce you to is responsible for its own use of your data and should give you its own privacy notice. We may also share data where the law requires us to.
Is my data sent outside the UK?
Yes, if you agree to an introduction. Some of the suppliers we work with, and the lenders, are in France or elsewhere in the European Union, which is part of the European Economic Area (EEA). Transfers of personal data from the UK to the EEA are covered by UK adequacy regulations, so they can take place without extra safeguards. We do not send your details to suppliers outside the UK and the EEA.
If any of our IT, email or analytics providers process data outside the UK and EEA, we make sure the transfer is covered by UK adequacy regulations, such as the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework that Google relies on, or by the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.
How long do we keep your data?
- Enquiries: 6 years from the end of our dealings with you if your enquiry leads to a mortgage, and 2 years from our last contact if it does not.
- Contact form messages and estate agent partner records: 2 years from our last contact for contact messages, and 6 years after a partnership ends for estate agent partner records.
- The one-way code made from your IP address: kept with the form it came with and deleted with it.
- Your cookie choice is kept in your browser for 180 days. Campaign details held in your browser’s session storage are cleared when you close the tab.
How do we keep my data secure?
The site uses an encrypted connection. We do not store your IP address itself, only the one-way hash described above. The alert emails our staff receive contain only a reference, so your details are not spread across inboxes. Access to our admin system and database is limited to authorised staff and protected by login.
Which cookies do we use?
We set one essential cookie to remember your cookie choice. Google Analytics cookies are set only if you open Cookie settings and click Accept analytics, and nothing from Google Analytics loads unless you do. We do not use advertising or remarketing cookies.
| Name | Purpose | Type | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| ffi_consent | Remembers whether you accepted or rejected analytics cookies | Essential, set by this site | 180 days |
| _ga | Google Analytics. Tells one visitor from another so we can count visits | Analytics, only after you accept | 2 years |
| _ga_JF97PJ00JQ | Google Analytics. Keeps track of your current visit | Analytics, only after you accept | 2 years |
If you reject analytics, or change your mind later, we delete any Google Analytics cookies this site has set. If you accept analytics, the site also keeps the link you arrived from in your browser’s session storage until you close the tab, so an enquiry can show which campaign or estate agent brought it to us. You can also see and delete cookies in your browser’s settings.
What are my rights?
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- Access: ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you and who we have shared it with.
- Rectification: ask us to correct data that is wrong or incomplete.
- Erasure: ask us to delete your data. This right is not absolute, for example where we must keep a record.
- Restriction: ask us to limit how we use your data, for example while we check it is accurate.
- Objection: object to our use of your data where we rely on our legitimate interests.
- Portability: ask for the data you gave us in a common machine-readable format, where we rely on your consent or on steps you asked us to take.
- Withdraw consent: at any time, for sharing with the specialists or any other supplier we work with and for analytics cookies.
How do I use my rights?
Contact us through our contact page or email us at this address and tell us which right you want to use. We may need to check your identity before we act. We reply within one month. For complex requests we can extend this by up to two further months, and we will tell you if we need to.
The brokers, lenders and other suppliers we introduce you to hold their own copies of any data shared with them, so you can also contact them directly. To change your analytics choice, use the Cookie settings button at the foot of every page or the button in the cookies section above.
Do you make automated decisions about me?
No. We do not make decisions about you by automated means alone. The deposit check on our enquiry form and our calculators give an instant guide only and do not decide anything. A person reviews every enquiry, and any lending decision is made by a lender.
How do I complain about how you use my data?
Please tell us first through our contact page so that we can put things right. Our complaints page explains what happens next. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK data protection regulator: make a complaint to the ICO.
Will this notice change?
We will update this notice when our services, the suppliers we work with or the law change. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last reviewed.