Effective 20 October 2026. This notice explains what personal data Budgy collects, why, and what rights you have.
Who we are
Budgy is a trading name of Lightning Riders Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 13514853), registered office Fora, 1 Lyric Square, London W6 0NB. We are the controller of your personal data. We're registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under number 00012797771.
Contact us about anything in this notice at hello@getbudgy.co.uk.
Who this notice covers
- Landlords who use Budgy to compare letting agents or find a better deal
- Letting agents and their staff whom we contact, or who subscribe to Budgy
- Tenants whose details appear in documents a landlord uploads, or whom we contact during a switch
What we collect
From landlords:
- Your name and email address, and the fact you've verified it
- Your property's address, type and details (bedrooms, rent, current fees)
- Your choices: agents you do or don't want considered, and whether you have an existing agent
- Any agency agreement you upload, and the terms we extract from it
- Messages between you and us
- Technical data: IP address, browser, device, and how you use the site (where you've allowed this through our cookie banner)
About letting agents: business contact details (names, work email addresses, phone numbers), information they publish (fees, services, branch locations), public reviews and ratings, and our correspondence with them.
About tenants: only what appears in an uploaded agreement or what's needed to manage a switch. That's usually a name, contact details, tenancy dates and deposit details. We never ask landlords to give us more.
How we use it, and our legal basis
| What we do | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Verify your email and run your account | To provide the service you asked for | Contract |
| Show you local agents and their prices and reviews | To provide the service | Contract |
| Contact agents for quotes on your behalf | You've asked us to | Contract |
| Read and analyse uploaded agreements, including with AI | To compare your current deal with alternatives | Contract (your data); legitimate interests (tenant data) |
| Manage a switch between agents | You've asked us to | Contract |
| Collect and publish information about agents | So landlords can compare agents fairly | Legitimate interests |
| Contact agents about offering deals or subscribing | To run our business | Legitimate interests |
| Send you marketing emails | Tips, updates and offers | Consent (you can withdraw it at any time) |
| Analytics and improving the site | To understand what works | Consent (via cookie banner) |
| Keep records, handle complaints, meet legal duties | To comply with the law and defend claims | Legal obligation; legitimate interests |
| Show you Budgy ads on Google, Meta and LinkedIn, and measure how well they work | To reach landlords who might benefit from Budgy | Consent (via cookie banner) |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we've weighed our interests against yours. You can ask us for details of that assessment.
What we share with letting agents
When we first approach agents, we share only headline details: the area and property type. Once you ask us to negotiate, we share the property's full details. We don't give agents your name or contact details unless you approve a deal and want to proceed. If you then switch, the new agent will need your details to sign you up.
Use of AI
We use AI tools to read uploaded agreements, pull out the key terms, and help us draft messages to agents. A member of our team oversees this work. AI doesn't make decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you. You decide whether to accept any deal.
Our AI providers process your data on our instructions only. They aren't allowed to use it to train their models.
Who else we share data with
We use service providers who process data for us under contract:
| Provider | What they do | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Loops | Sends our emails | USA |
| Cloudflare (incl. Turnstile) | Website security, bot protection, hosting infrastructure | Global |
| Anthropic (Claude) and Google (Gemini) | Reads uploaded agreements; drafts messages | USA (Anthropic); USA, UK or EU (Google, depending on our settings) |
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Stores account data | Ireland (EU) |
| Amplitude | Product analytics: how people use the site (only with your consent) | EU |
| Google (Analytics and Ads) | Website analytics; showing and measuring our ads (only with your consent) | USA |
| Meta (Facebook and Instagram) | Showing and measuring our ads (only with your consent) | Ireland and USA |
| Showing and measuring our ads (only with your consent) | Ireland and USA |
We may also share data with professional advisers, with regulators or law enforcement where the law requires it, and with a buyer if our business is sold. We never sell your personal data.
International transfers
Some providers process data outside the UK, including in the USA. Where they do, we rely on UK adequacy regulations (including the UK–US Data Bridge, where the provider is certified) or the ICO's International Data Transfer Addendum.
How long we keep data
| Data | How long |
|---|---|
| Account and property details | While your account is open, then 2 years |
| Uploaded agreements | Deleted within 90 days after we finish negotiating for you; we keep the extracted terms with your account |
| Records of a switch | 6 years after the switch (in case of disputes) |
| Marketing preferences | Until you unsubscribe, plus a suppression record so we don't email you again |
| Agent business contacts | While relevant to our service; reviewed every 2 years |
Your rights
You have the right to:
- see the data we hold about you
- correct it
- have it deleted
- restrict or object to how we use it
- receive a copy in a portable format
- withdraw consent at any time
Email hello@getbudgy.co.uk to use these rights. We'll respond within one month.
Tenants
If you're a tenant and your landlord uses Budgy, we'll only have your details if they appear in a document your landlord uploads, or if we contact you during a switch to arrange the handover. We use them only for that purpose. You have the same rights listed above.
Cookies
We use essential cookies to make the site work and keep it secure. With your agreement through our cookie banner, we also use analytics cookies (Amplitude) and advertising cookies and pixels (Google Ads, Meta and LinkedIn). Advertising tools let those platforms see that you visited our site, so we can show you our ads and measure them. Meta, LinkedIn and Google also use this data under their own privacy policies. We never use them to share your property details or uploaded documents. You can change your choice at any time via our cookie settings.
Complaints
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please tell us first. You can also complain to the ICO at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes
We'll post any updates here and change the effective date. If the changes are significant, we'll email you.