Privacy Policy | Settlement Cracks

This page explains what happens to the information you give us when you use this website. We have tried to keep the language straightforward. If anything is unclear, please contact us using the form on the site and we will answer properly.

1. The role this website plays

Settlement Cracks operates as an introducer. We do not carry out surveys, underpinning, resin work or insurance claims ourselves. What we do is match the enquiry you submit with one or more qualified specialist companies who work in your area and can deal with the issue you have described. Once we pass your enquiry on, the specialist becomes an independent controller of the information they receive from us and will contact you in their own right.

2. Information we collect

When you complete an enquiry form, send us an email, or speak to us by phone, we typically receive:

Your name and the best way to contact you (telephone number and email).
A postcode or rough address so we can match a specialist nearby.
A description of the issue, including any photographs you upload.
Property details you choose to share (age, type, recent works).
Whether you already have an insurance claim open.

Browsing the site also generates technical information automatically. This includes your IP address, browser type, the pages you look at, the page that brought you here, and basic device data. We use this to keep the site working, to spot abuse, and to understand which pages are useful.

3. Why we are allowed to use the information

The UK General Data Protection Regulation requires us to have a lawful basis for using your details. We rely on two:

Your consent. When you tick the box above the submit button on a form, you are agreeing to your details being shared with a specialist who can help. The notice next to that box explains in plain terms what you are consenting to. You can change your mind at any time.
Our legitimate interests. Running an introducer service depends on being able to match enquiries to suitable specialists, to keep simple records of those matches, and to defend ourselves if a complaint is raised. We have weighed these interests against your privacy and believe they are reasonable for the kind of website this is.

4. What we actually do with it

Pass your enquiry to a vetted specialist company that covers your area.
Reply to you ourselves where you have a question for us directly.
Keep an auditable record of the consent text you saw and when you submitted it.
Detect and block obvious spam, fraudulent or repeated submissions.
Improve the site, including which guides are most read and which forms convert.
Send you occasional marketing only if you have specifically opted in (we do not add a marketing tick-box to the standard enquiry form).

5. Who else sees your information

The categories of people and companies your information may be shared with are:

Specialist companies receiving the lead. Typically one, occasionally more than one if the first cannot help. They contact you directly and at that point handle your details as an independent controller, under their own privacy notice.
Service providers we use to run the site. This includes web hosting, the form-submission service that delivers your enquiry to our inbox, the email provider we send replies from, and a customer-record tool for keeping track of conversations.
Analytics providers. Aggregated traffic data so we can see how pages perform. This does not normally identify you personally.
Regulators, insurers and legal advisers. Only where we are obliged to disclose information, or where we need advice on a dispute.

6. Sending data outside the UK

Some of the providers we use store data on servers outside the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, for example in the United States. Where this happens we rely on the safeguards approved under UK GDPR, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum and the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, or on a country's adequacy status where one is in place. We will not transfer information to a country without an appropriate legal mechanism in place.

7. How long we keep the information

Enquiries and the surrounding correspondence are retained for up to twenty four months from the date of submission. This window lets us answer a follow-up question, evidence the consent that was given, and resolve any complaint. After that we remove the personal parts of the record. We hold accounting information for as long as HMRC requires.

8. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can ask us to:

Tell you what information we hold about you and provide a copy.
Correct anything that is wrong or out of date.
Delete information where there is no good reason to keep it.
Pause our use of it while a question is being resolved.
Provide a portable copy in a common format.
Object to use based on our legitimate interests.
Withdraw a consent you previously gave.

To use any of these rights, send a message through the contact form on this site and tell us which right you want to exercise. We will reply within the time limits set by the regulator. If you are not happy with how we have handled things, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

9. Withdrawing your consent

You can withdraw the consent you gave when you submitted a form by contacting us through the site at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of anything we did while the consent was in place. Please note that if a specialist has already received and started working with your enquiry, you may also want to contact them directly.

10. Cookies and similar technology

The site uses a small number of cookies. Essential ones make the site work and remember basic settings. Optional analytics cookies help us understand which pages are useful. We may also use a conversion pixel that tells an advertising platform a form was submitted, without disclosing the contents of the form. Where required, a cookie banner lets you choose which optional cookies to allow.

11. Children

This site is aimed at homeowners, landlords and property buyers. It is not directed at children under sixteen and we do not knowingly collect their information.

12. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect the information we hold, including encrypted form submission, restricted access to enquiry records, and regular review of the providers we rely on. No internet service can promise perfect security, but we take the protection of enquiry data seriously.

13. Changes to this policy

We review this policy from time to time and will update the date at the top if it changes. Material changes will be drawn to your attention on the page itself or by a notice on the homepage.

14. Contacting us

For any question about privacy, the easiest route is the contact form on this website. Mark your message clearly as a privacy enquiry and we will route it to the right person.