How we use your information.

Who we are

House Structural Engineers is a trading name of PF & Co Holdings Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 16649319, registered office 2 Queens Drive, Guildford, GU2 9PP. The company decides how your information is used. ICO registration reference ZC113778. Questions go to hello@housestructuralengineers.co.uk.

What we collect, and why

The enquiry form sends nothing. Finish opens your own email app, and nothing reaches us until you press send. In brackets, the legal basis for each use.

• Your email: your name, email address, town, answers, notes, photos and drawings, or the same details sent by your architect. We use them to reply and quote, as you asked (contract). Without a name and email we cannot reply. Please keep people, especially children, out of photos where you can.
• The job: your address, drawings, calculations, site notes, photos, the fee letter and our emails, to do the work we agreed (contract).
• Invoices and accounts, which tax law makes us keep (legal obligation).
• Job records after the job, so we can answer any claim about our work (our legitimate interest).
• Job applications from the careers page, to consider you for work, as you asked (contract).
• Page requests: our host logs your IP address, browser and the page, to keep the site working and secure (our legitimate interest).

What stays on your device

This site sets no cookies. The enquiry form saves your progress in your browser, never with us. The law allows this without asking, because it is strictly necessary for the form you are filling in: it keeps what you chose or typed, so you can carry on where you left off (PECR Schedule A1, paragraph 4).

• In this tab: every answer, including your name, email, town and notes. Your browser normally clears it when you close the tab.
• On this device: your choices only, never your name, email, notes, town or practice, for up to 30 days from your last answer. Older ones are deleted when you next open the form.
• To clear both, press Start again when the form offers it, or clear this site’s data in your browser.

Counting visits

We count visits so we can see which pages help people and make the site better (our legitimate interest). Our host, Vercel, does the counting with its Web Analytics service, under the same data processing terms as the rest of the site. It sets no cookies and writes nothing to your device. Its small script comes from this site, not from anywhere else, and it checks your browser’s storage for one setting that this site never creates.

• What is recorded for each page you view: the page, the site that sent you here, your country, region and city, whether you are on a phone, tablet or computer, your browser and operating system, and the time.
• Repeat visits on the same day are recognised by a code made from the details your browser sends with every page request. Vercel discards the code after 24 hours, so it cannot follow you from one day to the next, or onto other websites. Vercel says the records are anonymous and are not tied to you or to your IP address.
• We see only totals: visits, pages, where visitors came from, and devices. We keep no copy of the records.
• How long: we can see the totals for 12 months. Vercel guarantees to keep them that long, says it may keep them longer, and does not publish a deletion date. It processes them mainly in the United States, under the UK international data transfer addendum.

Turning it off. You can object to the counting at any time, and it is free. Press the button and this browser will not be counted again. To remember your choice, it saves one setting, hse-count-off, on this device until you clear this site’s data. We also do not count you if JavaScript is off, if your browser blocks this site’s storage, or if your browser sends the Global Privacy Control signal.

Who else sees it

• The companies behind our email and our software, including the AI tools we use to read drawings and organise paperwork. AI never makes a decision about you or your job.
• Our website host, Vercel, which keeps the request logs, mainly in the United States, under data processing terms that include the UK international data transfer addendum. It also uses some itself, for example for security, under its own privacy notice.
• Building Control, and your architect or builder, when your job needs it.
• Our insurer and legal advisers, only if there is a claim about the work.

We also share it where the law requires. We never sell your information.

How long we keep it

• Enquiries that do not become a job, and applications: 12 months from our last contact.
• Job records: 15 years from the end of the job, the longest period in which most claims about the work can be brought.
• Invoices and accounts: 6 years from the end of the financial year, as the law requires.

Then we delete them. Our host keeps its logs for its own set periods; we keep no copy.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of what we hold about you, and ask us to correct it, delete it, limit its use, or stop using it. Where it applies, you can take it elsewhere in a common format. Email hello@housestructuralengineers.co.uk. It is free.

How to complain

Please tell us first, by email or by post to our registered office. We will confirm we have it within 30 days, look into it, keep you updated and tell you the outcome. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, 0303 123 1113, or Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.