Your site – style over substance?

An attractive, engaging website is an essential element of any business in the property sector, but it must meet minimum legal requirements. Many businesses are unaware of the law on websites, mistakenly believing that the rules only apply to e-commerce sites and those selling to consumers. A UK registered company website must display the company name, place of registration, registered number and address, along with details of any regulator, with the VAT number where appropriate. For sole traders and partnerships, the principal business address must be shown. COOKIES In 2011, the laws governing the use of cookies changed, requiring users to now consent to their use and whilst certain ‘strictly necessary’ cookies do not require consent (such as those used for shopping baskets), it’s safer to assume permission is needed, even if it is just to count visitors. The law does not only apply to direct sales sites. It applies to you.” WEBSITES With more sites capturing contact details from visitors, to use in marketing campaigns, most compliance issues revolve around the collection, storage, use, sharing or selling of this personal data. Whilst there’s no problem emailing individuals in relation to their original enquiry, they must be able to unsubscribe…