Privacy policy

We will collect and use your personal information to conduct our business, to provide access to our on-line portals, to enable you to set up and operate an account with us, in order to enable you to access, use and/or purchase our services and products, to undertake surveys and for the purposes set out in more detail in this section.

Your information may be shared with other members of the NHBC Group and some third parties.

Vulnerability data – information about health, life events, resilience and capability that helps us identify if you might be a vulnerable person so that we can better meet your needs.

We use Worldpay and Global Iris for payment services. If you purchase anything from us via Worldpay or Global Iris they will collect your payment information. You provide this information directly to Worldpay or Global Iris and we do not collect or store this data. Worldpay and Global Iris also collect identifying information about the devices that connect to their services. Worldpay and Global Iris use this information to operate and improve the services they provide to us, including for fraud detection. You can learn more about the how Worldpay processes your personal information at www.worldpay.com/uk/worldpay-privacy-notice and how Global Iris processes your personal information at https://www.globalpaymentsinc.com/en-gb/privacy-statement. 

We also work closely with third parties such as various analytics providers and search information providers and may receive information about you from them.

We may receive your data and information if you use services provided by other members of the NHBC Group.

We may also collect information and content which you make publically available on your social media accounts.

We collect and use your personal information for a variety of reasons.

We need some information to enter into and perform our contract with you – for example your property details and any claims details in connection with claims under our Buildmark products, contact and payment details and registration details for builders and developers to ensure compliance with the NHBC Rules.

Some information processing is required to comply with a legal obligation due to our anti-fraud and anti-money laundering screening obligations or in the public interest such as making sure we verify our customers' identities. We are also required to process certain data in order to comply with the legal requirements placed upon us by the Insurance Distribution Directive ((EU) 2016/97). Your personal information may also be processed if it is necessary on reasonable request by a law enforcement or regulatory authority, body or agency, to enforce or apply the terms of any contract or legal obligation with us or in the defence of a legal claim. We will not delete personal information if relevant to an investigation or a dispute. It will continue to be stored until those issues are fully resolved.

Other information we collect because we have legitimate business interests, for example, in:

• providing you with up-to-date policy information

• keeping you updated with regard to our fees and charges

• ensuring that our regulatory and legal obligations are complied with

• telling you about the various products and services that we provide

• providing communications updating you as to the developments and training in connection with the areas which we regulate

• making sure our records are up-to-date

• operating incentive programmes to encourage excellence

• making sure our products and services are paid for promptly and in full

• understanding how you use our products, services, training and materials

• obtaining and distributing feedback relating to quality of parties on the NHBC Register’s performance

• understanding and responding to your feedback

• providing communications relating to market and industry issues

• analysing the services our customers want

• improving our services

• receiving information from other entities in the NHBC Group about shared customers

Some information is processed because you have given your consent. This includes our sharing your personal information with third party organisations where you specifically consented to us sharing your data with such organisations. This consent can be withdrawn at any time through the NHBC Preference Centre which can be found at www.nhbc.co.uk/my-preferences

You can manage your personal data on a day to day basis through the NHBC preference centre. The preference centre is a portal for you to manage how we communicate with you and what we communicate to you.

We will keep your information for as long as it is reasonably necessary. It will depend on factors such as statutory requirements which specify that certain data must be retained for specific periods (e.g. information provided in connection with Building Control), whether you have any outstanding claims, an account with us or have interacted with us recently. We will also routinely refresh our information to ensure we keep it up-to-date.

Where possible, we rely on your consent to document any vulnerabilities you have declared which helps us to better meet your needs and to comply with regulatory requirements about how we treat vulnerable people. In some cases, where it is not possible to obtain consent, we believe that it is in your best interests and there are substantial public interests in us helping our customers in this way.

If personal information is not provided we may not be able to provide information which you have requested or provide the relevant product or service for you.

Certain types of personal information are more sensitive than others. This is known as "special information" and includes information about health and disability issues, ethnicity and religion.

We may in certain circumstances collect or receive such special information. We have identified below details of the special information we may collect or receive and how we will use it.

When you provide us with this information you are consenting that we may collect and use it in the way we have set out above.

We will keep your information for as long as it is reasonably necessary in connection for the purpose for which such information is being processed. We will also routinely refresh our information to ensure we keep it up-to-date.

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, and to provide information to help us improve the website user experience and deliver a better service. Some of the cookies we use are essential for the site to operate.

What do we use cookies for?

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. Without these cookies, the website may not be able to provide many services that the users expect from it.

Preferences cookies

Preference cookies enable a website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the region that you are in.

Statistics cookies

Also known as “performance cookies,” these cookies collect information about how you use a website, like which pages you visited, and which links you clicked on. None of this information can be used to identify you. It is all aggregated and, therefore, anonymised.

Advertising & marketing cookies

Cookies are used for advertising and marketing purposes and track visitors across websites. These cookies are used to identify your interests and display ads that are relevant and engaging to you by understanding how you interact with our websites and third-party advertisers.

These cookies track your online activity to help advertisers deliver more relevant advertising or to limit how many times you see an ad. These cookies can share that information with other organisations or advertisers. These are persistent cookies and almost always of third-party provenance.

Managing your cookie preferences

We don’t give you the option to turn off essential cookies when you manage your cookie preferences because these cookies are necessary to make our sites function properly. For the other categories of cookies, you can control how they are used on NHBC site.

Other ways to manage your cookie preferences

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most internet browser software automatically accepts cookies, but you can usually modify your browser software setting to decline cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored, if you prefer. Please refer to your internet browser's instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions.

You can disable or remove cookies from your computer by using your browser settings. Remember, deleting your cookies or accessing our website from a different browser or device will effectively ignore your existing preferences for using our website. In a few cases, blocking cookies may reduce the functionality of some websites or prevent access to them altogether.

For further information about cookies, visit www.allaboutcookies.org

To find information relating to other browsers, visit the browser developer's website.

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

We will take all reasonable care to keep your data secure and prevent unauthorised access to it. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

We may disclose your personal information within NHBC including to other members of the NHBC Group so that we can provide the best service across the NHBC Group.

We may also share your personal information with certain contractors, suppliers or service providers. They may process your personal data for us, for example, remedial works contractors, loss adjustors and construction professionals. Our suppliers and service providers will be required to meet our standards on processing information and security. The information we provide them, including your information, will only be provided in connection with the performance of their function.

Where we operate courses on behalf of third party training providers and principals we will pass your enrolment information and details of your performance to such third parties.

Homeowner specific information from completed homeowner surveys may be passed to the relevant builder to the extent that you as the homeowner have elected to allow this in the survey form.

We may also share your information with certain third parties either when we receive your consent (see above – "Why we collect and how long we keep your information") or because we need them to see your information to provide services or products to you. These include credit reference agencies, payment gateway providers, anti-fraud databases, screening agencies and other partners we do business with.

We will only transfer data to jurisdictions within the European Union as appropriate safeguards are in place to provide an adequate level of protection for your information.

We may also disclose your personal data to third parties in the following circumstances:

• if there is a requirement for personal data to be passed to others involved with a claim made under the Buildmark policy such as the original builder, or a consultant or remedial works contractor that NHBC may employ in connection with your claim(s) and related claim(s)

• in the event that we sell or transfer any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective buyer of such business or assets

• if NHBC or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets

• if we are defending a legal claim your personal data may be transferred a required in connection with defending such claim

• if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligations, and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of NHBC, our customers or others

Your personal data may be shared if it is made anonymous and aggregated, as in such circumstances the information will cease to be personal data.

We set out below the rights you have over your information and how you can exercise those rights.

Some of the rights listed below will only apply in certain circumstances. In particular, they will generally not be available if there are outstanding contracts between us, if we are required by law to keep the information or if the information is relevant to a legal dispute.

• we need your consent for some of the ways we use your information e.g. for marketing. You can withdraw that consent at any time

• you can ask us to confirm if we are processing your information

• if we are processing your information, you can ask for access to your information

• you can ask to correct your information if it is wrong

• you have a right to be forgotten and you can ask that our systems stop using your information

• you can ask us to restrict how we use your information

• you can ask us to stop using your personal information

• you have the right to complain to the relevant supervisory authority which in the United Kingdom is the Information Commissioner's Office (www.ico.org.uk)

To exercise your rights you can email your request to our Data Protection Officer at dpo@nhbc.co.uk.

Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of third parties as a service to our users. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

This policy will be changed from time to time.

If we change anything important about this policy (the information we collect, how we use it or why) we will highlight those changes at the top of the policy and provide a prominent link to it for a reasonable length of time following the change.

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy can be directed to the Data Protection Officer at dpo@nhbc.co.uk.