Legal
Privacy policy
Last updated: 14 November 2026
Instructwell helps independent estate agencies win more instructions from the enquiries they already get. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why, who we share it with and the rights you have.
Items in [square brackets] need filling in before publishing.
Summary
Privacy at a glance
This short summary covers the main points. The full policy below gives the detail.
- Who we are: Instructwell helps independent estate agencies win more instructions from the enquiries they already get. We are the controller of the personal data described here.
- What we collect: your name, contact details, role, agency details and what you tell us when you request an audit, book a call or become a client. We also look up publicly available information about your agency, such as its branches and reviews.
- Why: to respond to your request, run your free branch audit, hold calls with you, provide our service, and send you relevant updates if you've agreed or we're allowed to.
- Who sees it: our trusted suppliers, such as our booking, messaging, email and hosting providers. We never sell your data.
- How long: usually up to 24 months after we last hear from you if you don't become a client, and 6 years after a contract ends if you do.
- Automated decisions: we use simple automated rules to decide which enquiries we can help with first, and AI to help prepare audit findings. A person always reviews the results, and you can ask for a person to look again.
- Your rights: you can ask to see, correct, delete or move your data, object to how we use it, and withdraw consent at any time.
- Complaints: contact us first using our complaint form. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
1. Who we are and how to contact us
Instructwell is the trading name of Instructwell LTD, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17574747. Our registered office is 19 Harvington Crescent, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom MK19 7FS.
We are the controller of the personal data described in this policy. That means we decide how and why it is used.
Contact us about privacy:
- Email: ariel@instructwell.co.uk
- Post: [Privacy, Instructwell, 19 Harvington Crescent, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom MK19 7FS]
- Phone: +44 7508 468619
Data Protection Officer: we are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer and have not done so. Ariel, Director is responsible for data protection and can be reached using the details above.
2. What we collect and where it comes from
Most of what we hold, you give us directly. We also collect some information about your agency from public sources.
Information you give us
| When | What we collect |
|---|---|
| You fill in our form on Facebook or Instagram, or on our website | Name, work email, phone number, job role, agency name, the town of your main branch, roughly how many valuation enquiries you get, your contact preferences |
| You book a call | Call date and time, number of branches, website address, whether a co-owner will join, your consent to the branch audit |
| We speak or message | Notes from our calls, your replies to texts and emails, whether you confirmed a booking, and anything else you choose to tell us |
| You become a client | Contract details, billing contact, payment details (handled by our payment provider), the baseline figures we agree, and your monthly results |
| You refer someone | Your details and the referred agency's name, so we can pay your referral reward |
| You make a complaint or request | The details you give us and our correspondence |
Information from other sources
| Source | What we collect |
|---|---|
| Meta (Facebook and Instagram) | Which ad and campaign you responded to |
| Google (Google Maps and Places) | Your agency's branch addresses, postcodes, opening hours, rating and public reviews |
| Your agency's website | Publicly available information, such as how to request a valuation and staff names shown there |
| Companies House | Your company's registered details and officers |
| The branch audit (with your consent) | How your branch responds to our test call and test enquiry: whether calls were answered, response times, and the content of any replies, which may include staff names |
Website and booking pages: if you agree to cookies, we collect information about how you use our pages, including whether you watch our pre-call video (see section 10).
We do not buy contact lists, and we do not knowingly collect special category data, such as health information.
3. Why we use it and our lawful basis
We only use your data where the law allows. Each purpose below has its own lawful basis.
| Purpose | Lawful basis | Our legitimate interest, where relevant |
|---|---|---|
| Responding to your request: calling, texting and emailing you about your free branch audit and booking a call | Legitimate interests; and steps you ask us to take before a contract | Responding to businesses that have asked to hear from us |
| Checking whether we can work with your agency (enquiry volume, branch locations, whether your area is available) | Legitimate interests | Focusing on agencies we can genuinely help, and keeping our one-agency-per-area promise to clients |
| Booking calls and sending reminders about them | Steps you ask us to take before a contract; legitimate interests | Making sure calls you've booked actually happen |
| Running the branch audit you asked for, and showing you the results | Legitimate interests | Giving you an accurate picture of how your branch handles enquiries, which you asked for |
| Providing our service once you're a client | Contract | |
| Sending you marketing by email or text, such as updates, guides and case studies | Consent, where the law requires it (for example, sole traders and partnerships); otherwise legitimate interests, with an opt-out in every message | Telling businesses that have shown interest about services relevant to them |
| Measuring and improving our adverts, including telling Meta which enquiries became booked calls or clients | Consent | |
| Website analytics and pre-call video tracking | Consent (through our cookie settings) | |
| Paying referral rewards | Contract (our referral terms) | |
| Keeping financial and tax records | Legal obligation | |
| Handling complaints and data protection requests | Legal obligation | |
| Keeping our systems secure and preventing misuse | Legitimate interests | Protecting our business and the people whose data we hold |
| Establishing or defending legal claims | Legitimate interests | Protecting our legal position |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have checked that our interests are not outweighed by your rights. You can ask us for details of that assessment, and you can object at any time (section 8).
4. Automated decisions and AI
We use simple automated rules to decide what happens after you contact us, and AI to help prepare audit findings. None of these decisions has a legal or similarly significant effect on you, and a person can review any of them.
Automated rules after you enquire
| What we check | The logic | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| How many valuation enquiries your branch gets | If you tell us fewer than 10 a month, we're unlikely to make a big enough difference, so we don't call you straight away | You receive our occasional updates instead of a sales call; you can still book a call yourself at any time |
| Whether your area is available | We look up your branches' postcode districts and check whether we already work with an agency there | If every branch is in an area we already cover, we tell you and add you to a waitlist |
| Whether you've booked a call | If you haven't booked within a few minutes, we start a short series of calls, texts and emails to help you book | You can tell us to stop at any time |
How we use AI
- Desk review: AI reads your agency’s public website and Google listing and answers set questions, such as whether a “book a valuation” option is easy to find.
- Audit replies: AI sorts the replies your branch sends during the audit into personal or automatic, and notes how quickly and fully they answered.
- Choosing comparison agencies: AI helps pick two local agencies for the comparison in your audit.
- Writing up findings: AI drafts a plain-English summary of the audit. Any cost estimate is calculated by fixed rules, not by AI.
A person reviews every audit before you see it. AI is not used to make decisions about you, and its outputs are never the only basis for any decision.
Your choice: you can ask us to explain any automated decision, ask a person to look at it again, or object to it (section 8).
6. How long we keep it
We keep data only as long as we need it, then delete or anonymise it.
| Data | How long |
|---|---|
| Enquiries that don't become clients | 24 months after we last had contact with you |
| Branch audit results | 12 months after the audit, unless you become a client |
| Client records, contracts and invoices | 6 years after the contract ends, for tax and legal purposes |
| Referral reward records | 6 years after payment |
| Marketing preferences and opt-outs | Kept as a short “do not contact” record for as long as needed, so we don't contact you again |
| Complaints and data protection requests | 3 years after they're closed |
| Website analytics and video tracking | [14] months |
If the law or a dispute requires us to keep something longer, we keep it only for that reason.
7. Do you have to give us your data?
No law requires you to give us your data, but some of it is needed for us to help you.
- To request an audit: we need your name, a way to contact you, your agency and its location. Without them, we can’t reply or run the audit.
- To run the audit: we need your consent to test your branch. Without it, we won’t run the audit, but we can still talk to you.
- To become a client: we need contract, billing and baseline details. Without them, we can’t provide the service or the guarantees.
- Everything else, such as marketing and cookies, is optional. Saying no doesn’t affect anything else we do for you.
8. Your rights
You have the rights below. To use any of them, contact us using the details in section 1. We’ll respond within one month, and it’s normally free.
| Right | What it means |
|---|---|
| Access | Ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you |
| Correction | Ask us to fix anything inaccurate or incomplete |
| Erasure | Ask us to delete your data, where we no longer have a good reason to keep it |
| Restriction | Ask us to pause using your data, for example while we check it's accurate |
| Objection | Object to us using your data based on legitimate interests. You can always object to marketing, and we'll stop |
| Data portability | Ask for data you gave us in a format you can move to someone else, where we use it under consent or contract |
| Withdraw consent | Where we rely on consent, withdraw it at any time. This doesn't affect what we did before |
| Automated decisions | Ask for a person to review any automated decision (section 4) |
Quickest ways to stop messages: reply STOP to any text, or click “unsubscribe” in any email.
We may need to confirm your identity before acting on a request. Some rights have exceptions, and if one applies we’ll tell you why.
9. How to complain
You have the right to complain to us about how we use your personal data, and we’d like the chance to put things right.
How to complain to us
- Use our complaint form: [link to complaint form]
- Or email ariel@instructwell.co.uk with “Data protection complaint” in the subject line
- Or write to [Privacy, Instructwell, 19 Harvington Crescent, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom MK19 7FS]
Tell us your name, how to contact you, what happened and what you’d like us to do. If you need help making a complaint, or need it in another format, tell us and we’ll help.
What happens next
- We acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days, and always within 30 days.
- We investigate and keep you updated if it takes longer than expected.
- We tell you the outcome and what we’ve done about it without undue delay, normally within one month.
Complaining to the ICO
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection. The ICO usually expects you to raise the matter with us first.
- Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
- Phone: 0303 123 1113
- Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF