Your information. Treated with care.

The organisation responsible

The Property Portal is operated by Devonports Group Limited, which is responsible for personal information processed through this website and its public “Ask Nick” assistant.

Where a separate company provides your Sales, Lettings or Stays service, we identify that company and explain its responsibility for your information when you enquire, apply, instruct us or enter a contract.

What we may collect

Information may come directly from you, an authorised representative, a property owner or host, public records, professional advisers, referencing or identity providers, and organisations involved in your transaction or service.

Why we use information

We do not make a solely automated decision with legal or similarly significant effect unless we tell you, identify the lawful basis and provide the protections required by law.

Ask Nick — our optional AI property assistant

Ask Nick helps with advertised properties and general moving questions. It uses OpenAI’s API to generate answers.

When you choose to send a question, we send your current question and selected published property details to OpenAI. If you request spoken playback or enable voice mode, we also send the answer text to OpenAI to generate audio. The voice is AI-generated.

Optional hands-free voice. When you choose on-device mode, enable voice and grant microphone permission, supported browsers recognise speech on your device while this tab is visible. A language pack may need to be downloaded. We do not switch to cloud speech recognition automatically. Where the site operator has enabled browser speech, that mode is selected by default and disclosed above Start Nick. Clicking Start Nick agrees to the displayed recognition mode and public AI processing. In browser mode, your browser may send microphone audio, including nearby speech before a wake phrase, to its speech provider (for example Microsoft, Google or Apple). The browser provider’s privacy terms apply to that processing; it is separate from our OpenAI agreement. You can instead use local-only mode where supported or type your question. Saying “Hey Nick” opens a short window for your next question; questions containing “Nick” are sent to OpenAI under your processing choice. A separate optional setting detects likely property questions and offers help, sending the detected question only after you confirm. Unaddressed speech is discarded; a question awaiting confirmation is held briefly in page memory. The plugin does not upload microphone recordings to WordPress or OpenAI or save background transcripts. The separately chosen browser-speech service may transmit audio to its provider as described above. Public AI-generated spoken answers use OpenAI and count towards usage. Quick greetings and generic account prompts use the saved OpenAI voice. Private account details appear as text only; they are not included in speech requests. Fixed prompts are reused in page memory after their first generation. Mute stops listening and playback. Hiding the tab pauses listening; returning to the same page resumes it if you previously started voice. A new page requires Start Nick. Preferences are remembered in this tab session for up to eight hours; recordings and account briefings are not saved in browser storage. False triggers are possible, so use a quiet setting and avoid discussing personal information while listening is on.

We rely on your consent for this optional processing. You can use the website and contact our team without using Nick. You can stop further questions being sent by stopping use of the assistant, and contact us to withdraw consent or exercise your rights. Withdrawal does not affect processing that was lawful before withdrawal.

Please do not include names, contact details, financial information, health information, passwords or identity documents in your questions. We filter some common personal details, but cannot reliably detect or remove everything.

The public AI chat does not access your private property file, uploaded documents or customer records. A separate, site-generated account briefing reads connected journey records using your verified customer sessions. It shows a short selection of tasks, viewings, stays, offers and public property updates, without sending those account records to AI or cloud speech. Comparison markers (record identifiers, completion flags, status hashes and public listing prices/statuses) are retained for up to 30 days to describe changes since your last Nick briefing. The briefing transcript is not stored. On shared devices, sign out of all connected journeys when finished. It does not submit offers, make bookings or make decisions about your eligibility for a property. Chat history and your account identity are not included in the requests sent by this feature.

The Nick feature does not save question-and-answer transcripts in the website database. OpenAI may retain information for abuse monitoring, normally for up to 30 days, with exceptions described in its data-handling terms. Technical caching and other service-specific retention may also apply. We do not promise immediate deletion or zero retention. OpenAI does not use API content for model training by default.

Processing may take place outside the UK. Our agreement with OpenAI includes contractual safeguards for UK international transfers. Contact us for information about those safeguards.

AI answers can be incomplete or incorrect. Confirm property details with the agent and obtain appropriate professional advice before relying on legal, financial or tax information.

Who may receive information

Only where relevant, we may share information with property owners, landlords and hosts; approved agents and branches; buyers, sellers and counterparties; contractors and suppliers; referencing, identity and anti-money-laundering providers; payment, email, hosting and IT providers; solicitors, conveyancers, surveyors, insurers, accountants and other advisers; utilities and deposit-protection services; regulators, courts, law enforcement and public authorities.

For optional Ask Nick chat and spoken playback, OpenAI receives the information described in the Ask Nick section above.

Suppliers processing personal information on our behalf must protect it and act on our documented instructions, subject to applicable law. Some recipients, including professional advisers and public authorities, may act as independent controllers and have their own privacy notices and legal responsibilities.

If information is transferred outside the UK, we use an applicable adequacy decision or recognised safeguards and assess the protection available. You can contact us for information about the safeguards relevant to your information.

We do not keep everything forever

These are normal periods, not a promise to keep every record for that long. We may delete information earlier or retain it longer where law, litigation, safeguarding or regulatory duties require it.

Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may ask for access, correction, erasure, restriction, portability or an objection to processing. You may withdraw consent at any time. Some rights are not absolute—for example, we may need to retain information to comply with law or establish or defend legal claims.

We may ask for information to confirm identity before responding. We normally respond within one month, subject to the extensions permitted by law.