Privacy notice

Architect Search is operated by Lamb Building Consultancy Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 14819400), International House, 64 Nile Street, London N1 7SR, which is the data controller for the personal information described here. Contact us at hello@architectsearch.co.uk.

Homeowner enquiries. Your name, email address, project postcode, project type, budget range, timescale and the description you write. We use this to send your enquiry to the practice you chose, to send you a copy for your records, to support both of you if there is a query about the enquiry, and to operate and improve the enquiry service.

Professional accounts. The email address used to sign in, information needed to keep the account secure, and the practice the account belongs to. We use this to run the account and to send service messages about the listing and any subscription.

Listing information. The practice details, description, coverage area, project types, specialisms, budget information, website, credentials and images submitted for a listing, together with a private contact email that is not published. We use this to review and publish listings and to pass enquiries to the practice.

Subscriptions and payments. Where a practice buys a paid plan, payment details are handled by Stripe. We keep limited subscription information, such as the current plan, subscription status, the billing relationship and accounting records. We do not store full payment card details.

Technical information. Limited technical information such as IP address, browser and device information, service logs and error information, used for security, prevention of abuse, reliability and troubleshooting.

Usage measurement. We record which steps happen in the service — for example that a search ran, how many results it returned, that a profile was viewed, that an enquiry was sent, or that a listing was published — together with the time, the practice involved, and coarse details such as project type, budget band and the first part of a postcode.

This measurement is first party and deliberately limited. We do not record your name, email address, full postcode or anything you type into an enquiry, we do not store anything on your device for it, we do not use third party analytics services, and we do not use it for advertising or to build a profile of you. Visits within a single page load share a random identifier that is discarded when you leave the page.

Contract, and steps taken at your request before a contract. Running professional accounts, publishing listings, providing paid plans and other services a professional user asks for.

Steps taken at your request and our legitimate interests. Sending a homeowner enquiry to the practice chosen, and keeping an operational record of it.

Legitimate interests. Operating the directory, preventing fraud and abuse, keeping the service secure and reliable, measuring how the service and visibility products perform, and dealing with support requests. We consider the effect on you when we rely on this basis, and you can object (see "Your rights").

Legal obligation. Accounting and tax records, and responding to lawful requests.

Consent. Where the law requires consent — for example for future non-essential cookies or certain marketing activity — we will ask for it separately, and you can withdraw it at any time.

Information submitted for a public listing appears on the internet once the listing is published. This may include the practice name, professional type, public location, description, project types, specialisms, typical budgets, website, portfolio imagery and displayed credentials.

Private account and contact information — the sign-in email, the private contact email used for enquiries and the precise base postcode — is not published.

The practice you send an enquiry to, so that it can reply to you directly. That practice is a separate data controller and handles your information under its own privacy notice.

Service providers acting on our instructions, including providers who host and operate the service, email delivery providers, Stripe for payments, and a location lookup provider. We also share information with our professional advisers, and with regulators or law enforcement where we are legally required to.

We do not sell your information and we do not share it for advertising.

Some of our service providers may process personal information outside the UK. Where that happens, we rely on recognised safeguards, such as UK adequacy regulations or standard contractual protections approved for UK transfers.

Homeowner enquiries are kept for up to 24 months, or until the professional they were sent to deletes their account, whichever comes first. Professional accounts and listings are kept while the account is open. Listings that are never published, or are declined or suspended, are kept for a limited period after the last activity on them.

A professional can delete their account at any time from their account page. When they do, we permanently delete their sign-in account, their listing, their photographs, their contact details and the enquiries their listing received, and we cancel any paid visibility subscription. This happens straight away and cannot be undone. Homeowners who sent those enquiries keep the copy we emailed them at the time. We keep a minimal record that the listing was deleted, together with billing and accounting records.

Billing and accounting records are normally kept for up to six years, or longer where the law requires. Usage measurement contains no contact details and is kept in a form that is no longer linked to a deleted listing. Technical and security logs are kept for a short period. Support correspondence is kept for a limited period after the matter is closed.

We currently use only technologies that are necessary to provide the functionality you ask for, such as keeping you signed in, remembering choices you have made and protecting the service. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.

Our usage measurement does not use cookies and does not store or read anything on your device, so no consent banner is needed for it. If we introduce non-essential analytics, advertising or similar technologies that require consent, we will ask you before using them.

You can ask us for a copy of your personal information, ask us to correct it or delete it, ask us to restrict how we use it, object to processing we carry out on the basis of legitimate interests, ask for a portable copy where that right applies, and withdraw consent where we rely on consent.

These rights depend on the circumstances and on the lawful basis we rely on — for example, we may need to keep billing records to meet a legal obligation. Email hello@architectsearch.co.uk and we will respond within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk.

Architect Search is for adults arranging residential projects and for professional users. Accounts and enquiries are intended for people aged 18 or over.

We do not ask for sensitive personal information, such as health or financial details. Some fields, like a project description, are free text — please avoid including sensitive information there unless it is genuinely necessary.

We do not make decisions about individuals by solely automated means that produce legal effects or similarly significant effects. Search results are ordered, and paid placement is shown, as part of operating the directory; that is not a decision about you in that sense.

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information, including access controls and secure transmission of data.

We may update this notice as the service develops, and the date above will change when we do. If we make a material change we will make that clear on this page and, where appropriate, tell account holders directly. Where a change requires your consent, we will ask for it rather than assume it.

Questions, or to exercise your rights: hello@architectsearch.co.uk, or write to Lamb Building Consultancy Ltd, International House, 64 Nile Street, London N1 7SR.