Legal
Privacy
We ask for very little and keep it for no longer than the work requires. This notice sets out exactly what that means.
Who is responsible
Alvara House of 14 Quarry Row, Cascara Point, WA 98110 is the controller of the information described here. Questions about this notice, or any request to see or delete what we hold, should go to studio@alvarahouse.com or +1 (360) 555 0148.
What we collect
Only what you hand us. There is no advertising network on this site, no behavioural profiling, and nothing is sold or shared for marketing.
- Enquiries. Your name and email, your telephone number if you choose to give it, the subject you select, and the message itself.
- The quarterly letter. Your email address, and nothing else, for as long as you stay subscribed.
- Viewings and instructions. Where an enquiry becomes a viewing or an instruction, the correspondence and file notes that go with it.
- Server logs. Our host records the IP address and user agent of requests for security and diagnostics. We do not combine these with anything above.
Why we hold it
To answer you, to carry out the work you ask us to do, and to keep the records a property transaction requires. Where you have subscribed to the quarterly letter we rely on your consent, which you may withdraw at any time using the link at the foot of every issue. Everything else we hold because it is necessary to provide the service you approached us for, or because we are obliged to keep it.
How long we keep it
- Enquiries that do not lead to an instruction: twenty-four months.
- Quarterly letter subscriptions: until you unsubscribe.
- Completed instructions: seven years from completion, which is the period our professional and tax obligations require.
- Server logs: thirty days.
Who else sees it
Our email provider and our web host process data on our behalf under contract, and may do so outside your country. Where a transaction requires it, we share what is necessary with the conveyancers, surveyors and photographers involved — and we tell you who they are first. We disclose information to anybody else only where the law compels us.
Cookies
One, and it is not really a cookie: the site stores your light or dark theme preference in your browser so the page does not flash the wrong way round on your next visit. It never leaves your device. There is no analytics, no advertising tag, and no cross-site tracking on this site, which is why you have not been asked to dismiss a consent banner.
Your rights
You may ask for a copy of what we hold, have it corrected, have it deleted, ask us to restrict what we do with it, object to our holding it, or ask for it in a portable form. Write to us and we will reply within thirty days, at no charge. If our answer does not satisfy you, you are entitled to complain to your data protection regulator.
Changes
If this notice changes materially we will say so on this page and date it below. See also our terms and our accessibility statement.