Privacy

What we do with your information

Plainly, and without the usual hedging. If anything here is unclear, ask and we will explain it properly.

Last updated 10 September 2026.

Who we are

Philip Hurman, trading as Homeproof, a sole trader, is responsible for the information described here. In data-protection language we are the controller.

Our address is Bakersgate Cottage, Ash Road, Woking, Surrey GU24 0NA. Write to us at hello@homeproofuk.co.uk about anything on this page. We do not have a Data Protection Officer, and at our size we are not required to appoint one.

When you run a property check

You do not need an account to run a check. When you run one we handle:

• The address you typed, and the report we build from it.
• A random identifier stored in a cookie, so that the checks you ran in this browser are shown back to you.
• Your network address, held only in the server's memory for a few minutes, to stop one person running thousands of checks. It is never written to disk.

We do this because you asked for the report, and because we have a legitimate interest in keeping the service working for everyone. To build the report we send the address or its coordinates to the organisations listed under where the facts come from.

If you create an account

We store your name, email address, a scrambled version of your password that cannot be turned back into the original, and whether you signed up as a private individual, an estate agent or a conveyancer. We keep a record of which checks are yours, which you have marked as favourites, and what you have bought.

We do this to provide the account you asked for, which in legal terms means the processing is necessary to perform our contract with you.

If you buy something

Payments are taken by Stripe. Your card details go straight to Stripe and never reach us. We keep what you bought, how much you paid, the date, and Stripe's reference for the payment, so that we can deliver the certificate, answer questions about it, and keep the business records HMRC requires. Those records are kept for six years.

Emails we send you

We send a message to confirm your address when you create an account, when a check you started has finished, when a payment is received, and when you ask to reset your password. These are part of the service rather than marketing. We do not send newsletters and we do not sell or share your address with anyone for their own purposes.

Mail is delivered through Resend, which sends on our behalf.

Information about other people

A property report can contain information about people who are not our customers. Once our HM Land Registry connection is live, a purchased certificate will name the registered owner of the property. Reports also include past sale prices and dates, and where a seller has signed a declaration it carries their name and what they told us.

All of this comes from public registers that anyone may inspect, or from a seller who chose to provide it. We rely on our legitimate interest in providing property information, which is the ordinary basis on which conveyancers, estate agents and search companies work. If you are named in a report and want to know more, or object to it, write to us and we will deal with it.

Where the facts come from

To build a report we query HM Land Registry, planning.data.gov.uk, the Environment Agency, the Mining Remediation Authority, the energy performance register, Ofcom, police.uk, the Department for Education, the Department for Transport, Companies House, Ordnance Survey, Google and OpenStreetMap. Each query tells that organisation which address or location we are asking about. We do not tell any of them who is asking.

Who else sees your information

• Mythic Beasts, who host our server in London.
• Stripe, for payments.
• Resend and Amazon Web Services in Ireland, who deliver our email.
• Microsoft, who host our own mailbox, if you write to us.

We do not sell your information, and we do not use it for advertising. Some of these organisations are based outside the United Kingdom, principally in the United States. Where that is the case the transfer relies on the UK government's adequacy decisions or on standard contractual clauses, which are the approved routes.

Cookies

We use one cookie. It keeps you signed in and remembers which checks you ran in this browser. It is strictly necessary for the site to work, which is why you are not asked to consent to it: there is nothing to opt out of without breaking the service. We do not use analytics, advertising or tracking cookies of any kind.

How long we keep things

• Your account and your checks: until you delete them. You can close your account and erase everything yourself from your account page, without asking us.
• Checks run without an account: 90 days, then deleted automatically. The cookie that links them to your browser only lasts 30 days, so after that nobody could find them anyway.
• Purchase records: six years, because tax law requires it.
• Password reset links: one hour, then they stop working.
• Email confirmation links: two days. Links inviting a seller to sign a declaration: three days. Both work once.
• Network addresses: minutes, in memory only.
• Backups: fourteen days, after which they are overwritten.

One thing that cannot be undone

Every finished report is fingerprinted, and that fingerprint is recorded permanently in the Bitcoin blockchain so that anyone can later prove what the report said and when. That record cannot be removed by us or by anyone else.

If you ask us to delete a report we will delete it, and it will no longer be readable by anyone. What remains is the fingerprint, which is a one-way calculation. It cannot be turned back into the report and it does not reveal anything about you or the property.

Your rights

You can delete everything yourself at any time: your account page has a Close account option that erases your details and your checks immediately. You can also ask us to show you what we hold, correct it, delete part of it, restrict what we do with it, or provide it in a portable form. You can object to processing we carry out on the basis of legitimate interests. Write to hello@homeproofuk.co.uk and we will respond within one month. There is no charge.

If you think we have handled your information badly, please tell us first so that we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.

Automated decisions

A report is assembled automatically and the findings are produced by fixed rules, but nothing on this site makes a decision with a legal or similarly significant effect about you. A report is information for you and your advisers to weigh, not a decision about you.

Changes

If we change how any of this works we will update this page and change the date at the top. Where a change matters to you, we will tell account holders by email rather than relying on you noticing.