Your personal data when selling: what they can ask for and what they can't

To sell your flat you're going to hand over your ID, your phone number, your email, copies of deeds and maybe even your account number. It's normal to wonder: is all this necessary? What do they do with my data? Can they pass it on to just anyone? Let's take it step by step.

Important note: this is general, educational information about data protection. It's not legal advice; if you have doubts about your case, consult a professional.

Why they need your data (the basis, in plain English)

Data protection rules (the European RGPD — the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, the GDPR — and the Spanish law that develops it) don't forbid a company from holding your data: they require it to have a legitimate reason, to ask for only what's necessary and to look after it.

In a sale, that reason exists and is obvious: without your identification details they can't draft the mandate contract, without your phone they can't tell you about viewings, and without the property's data they can't advertise it. Data is the raw material of the service you've commissioned from them.

What data is reasonable

• Identification: name, ID, address. Essential for any contract.
• Contact: phone and email for viewings, offers and day-to-day management.
• Property data: deeds, referencia catastral (the cadastral reference), energy certificate... without them there's no advert and no sale (review the documents for selling).
• Bank details: only when they're genuinely needed, for example to manage a holding deposit or the arras (the earnest-money deposit contract). If they ask for the IBAN "just in case" on day one, ask what for.

What they should NOT ask for or do

• Data that has nothing to do with it: your state of health, your political ideas, your religion... None of that belongs in a sale. If they ask, don't give it.
• Passing your data to third parties without reason: your agency can't sell your database or hand your data to companies outside the transaction without a lawful basis or your permission.
• Harassing you with marketing: giving them your phone to sell your flat doesn't authorise them to bombard you with offers for other services. For that they need your consent, and you can withdraw it whenever you want.
• Keeping them for ever: when the relationship ends, they can't keep your data indefinitely "just in case". They have to delete it or anonymise it after a reasonable time (except what the law obliges them to keep, like anti-money-laundering documentation).

Your rights, without jargon

You have the right to:

1. Know what data they hold on you and what they use it for.
2. Correct what's wrong.
3. Ask for it to be deleted when it's no longer necessary.
4. Object to certain uses, such as direct marketing.
5. Take your data elsewhere in a usable format.

They're exercised with a simple written request to the agency (email is fine). They have to answer you within a reasonable time.

The special case of photos and viewings

Selling means exposing your home: photos on portals, visits from strangers, signs. Here you put in the caution and the agency must too:

• Photos must show the home, not your life: avoid documents, identifiable family photos or sensitive data appearing in the images that get published.
• The agency shouldn't publish your full name, your ID or identifying details next to the advert. They manage the commercial contact.
• At viewings, it's reasonable for the agency to always accompany and not to give your direct phone to interested parties without your permission.

None of this is paranoia: it's the same care you'd take showing your home to a stranger, applied to the digital world.

What happens to your data when the sale closes

Once the flat is sold, the commercial relationship ends, but some data has to be kept by legal obligation: invoicing (the tax office rules), the transaction documentation (anti-money-laundering regulations require keeping it for a few years) and the signed contract. What must disappear is everything else: your contact details in marketing databases, the photos of your home on portals, your file as an "interested owner". If months later you keep getting commercial calls from the agency, exercise your right to object.

Three gestures that protect you

• Read the privacy clause of the mandate contract before signing. It's where it says what they'll use your data for and to whom they can pass it. If you don't understand it, ask: a serious agency explains it to you straight (questions before signing).
• Ask "what do you need it for?" about any data that feels off. It's your right and a legitimate question.
• If in the end you don't sell with them, ask in writing for your personal data to be deleted. Leave it on record.

Golden rule: your data is yours. Handing it over to sell your flat is necessary; handing it over without control is not.

Selling in Cullera or La Safor? At Llevant Patrimonial we show you our privacy policy before asking you for the first piece of data. Opening soon.