Introduction
At April, we’re committed to respecting and protecting your privacy. To this end, we work to be completely open and transparent in the way we collect your personal information and how we use that information.
This notice is to inform you about how we collect, use, share and store your personal information - including personal information we already hold and further information we might collect in the future, either from you or from a third party - and how we uphold your data protection rights.
Who we are
April Mortgages Limited is registered in England and Wales (13514833), we are directly authorised by the FCA (989666), with our registered office at 158-160 North Gower Street, London, NW1 2ND.
We are what is known as the “data controller” of personal information we collect and use. This means that we are responsible for determining the purpose and the means of processing your personal data. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under number ZB227506.
What personal information does April collect and why?
We collect, use, store and transfer personal data. Personal data is any information which can (or could be used to) identify you. It doesn't include data which is not possible to relate to a specific person (anonymous data).
As a mortgage lender, it’s important we have the right information about you so we can assess whether our products are appropriate, suitable and affordable for your circumstances. This helps us ensure that any mortgage we offer is aligned to your financial objectives and can be sustainably maintained over time.
We collect, use, store, and transfer different types of personal data and they can be grouped as follows:
April may collect and process the following information about you:
Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, marital status, title, date of birth, gender, address and employment history, and citizenship.
Contact Data includes address, email address and telephone numbers.
Financial Data includes bank account details and bank statements, your income and outgoings, credit history including details of any history of bankruptcy or county court judgements, mortgages and protection products held, and payment/ direct debit details.
Special Category/Sensitive Data which includes physical and mental health conditions, racial / ethnic origin, and biometric data
Criminal Offence Data includes information about criminal offences and convictions.
Transaction Data includes details about the products and services you have bought from us
Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services.
Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us, and our business partners and your communication preferences.
Job Application Data includes data submitted throughout the recruitment process i.e. name, email address etc.
Employment Data includes any personal information you provide to April as part of the recruitment process or throughout your employment at April should you be a permanent employee, contractor, or 3rd party provider
Special category data and Vulnerable Customers
At April, we give special levels of care to those customers we might consider to be vulnerable. This is to ensure these customers are not disadvantaged when using our services. This is in line with regulations set out by the Financial Conduct Authority. If we think you’re vulnerable, we might record that information to help us give you the right service. That information could be special category data. That’s data that’s likely to be more sensitive - things like physical and mental health conditions.
When companies process special category data, they must have “legal basis” to use it, which means a legal reason from the UK GDPR. The legal basis we rely on is "legal obligation” (we must process your data because the law or regulations require us to).
Alongside that, companies also must meet one of the legal conditions in Article 9 of the UK GDPR. The conditions we rely on are “substantial public interest," “regulatory requirements” and “support for individuals with a particular disability or medical condition.” In plain English, that means we use this data to make sure we support you in the right way. For example, you might tell us that you’re deaf, and that you prefer us to not call you on the phone. We’ll use this information to support our communications with you.
Other Data
As part of our fact find, we may require information about criminal convictions and offences that you may have, for example for fraud detection. We also collect specific Special Categories of Personal Data about you to provide you with advice for your protection needs (i.e. details about your ethnicity and information about your health).
We collect data relating to the number of dependents as this affects our affordability calculations to provide you with the most appropriate recommendation. However, we'll only ask for further data relating to dependents if necessary. This data will be treated sensitively, and we won't use this data for marketing purposes.
How does April use your personal information?
The purpose we use your data:
We use your identity, contact, financial, transaction and related data to assess your mortgage application. This includes verifying your identity, assessing affordability and creditworthiness, and determining whether our mortgage products are appropriate, suitable and sustainable for your circumstances and financial objectives.
If your application is successful, we use this information to enter into and administer your mortgage, including setting up your account and managing repayments over time.
Where relevant, we may also use special category data (for example, health information) to support your application or meet your needs, including where this is required to comply with our regulatory obligations. We may also process criminal offence data for fraud prevention and financial crime purposes.
The legal basis:
Contract (to take steps at your request prior to entering into a mortgage contract and to perform that contract).
Legal obligation (to comply with applicable laws and regulations, including responsible lending, anti-money laundering and fraud prevention requirements).
Substantial public interest (for processing special category data, including regulatory requirements and supporting individuals with particular needs).
Legitimate interests (to recover money owed to us and to manage and develop our business).
Managing our relationship with you
The purpose we use your data:
We use your identity, contact, transaction and communications data to manage our relationship with you throughout the lifecycle of your mortgage. This includes providing updates, responding to queries, administering your account, and meeting our legal and regulatory obligations. We may also contact you to request feedback or invite you to take part in surveys.
The legal basis:
Contract.
Legal obligation.
Legitimate interests (to keep our records up to date, monitor service quality, and maintain an effective relationship with our customers).
Working with third parties
The purpose we use your data:
We use your identity, contact and financial data to work with third parties involved in your mortgage and property journey. This may include solicitors, conveyancers, valuers, surveyors, brokers and intermediaries, as well as other lenders where relevant. We only share the information necessary to progress your application, complete the transaction, or administer your mortgage.
The legal basis:
Contract.
Legal obligation.
Handling complaints
The purpose we use your data:
We use your identity, contact and communications data to investigate and respond to complaints, put things right where needed, and improve our services. Where relevant, we may also use financial, transaction, special category and criminal offence data where it relates to your complaint.
The legal basis:
Legal obligation.
Legitimate interests (to investigate complaints, improve our processes and prevent recurrence).
Customer insight and feedback
The purpose we use your data:
We use your identity, contact, technical and usage data when you provide feedback, complete surveys or take part in user testing. This helps us understand how our services are used and how we can improve them.
The legal basis:
Legitimate interests (to develop and improve our products, services and customer experience).
Running our business and systems
The purpose we use your data:
We use your identity, contact and technical data to operate, maintain and protect our business and systems. This includes troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting, as well as ensuring the security of our services.
The legal basis:
Legitimate interests (to run our business, maintain secure systems and prevent fraud).
Improving our products and services
The purpose we use your data:
We use technical and usage data to analyse performance, test systems and improve our website, products, services and customer experience.
The legal basis:
Legitimate interests (to develop our business and improve how we deliver our services).
Marketing
The purpose we use your data:
We use your identity, contact, technical, usage and communications data to send you information about products or services that may be relevant to you. We may tailor these communications based on what we know about your circumstances and how you use our services.
You can opt out of marketing at any time by using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in our emails or contacting us at hello@aprilmortgages.co.uk.
The legal basis:
Consent (where required).
Legitimate interests (to promote our products and services and grow our business, where this does not override your rights).
Recording communications
The purpose we use your data:
We may monitor or record communications between you and us, including phone calls and emails. We do this to confirm your instructions, support the administration of your mortgage, improve our service, train our staff and maintain quality assurance standards.
The legal basis:
Contract.
Legal obligation.
Legitimate interests (to improve our services, train our staff and maintain service quality).
Fraud prevention and financial crime
The purpose we use your data:
We use your identity, contact, financial, transaction and related data to prevent and detect fraud and financial crime. This includes carrying out identity checks, verifying documents, and monitoring activity to identify suspicious behaviour.
The legal basis:
Contract.
Legal obligation.
Legitimate interests (to protect our business, our customers and the wider financial system).
Recruitment
The purpose we use your data:
We use your identity and contact data to manage job applications, including carrying out background checks, vetting and right to work checks where applicable.
The legal basis:
Consent.
Legitimate interests (to assess your suitability and capability for a role).
Who does April share my personal information with?
We may share your personal information with trusted third parties where this is necessary to process your application, administer your mortgage, meet our legal and regulatory obligations, or operate our business. This includes:
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to process it in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
Credit reference agencies
In order to process your application, we will perform credit and identity checks on you with Experian, a Credit Reference Agency (CRA). We may also make periodic searches after your mortgage account is opened with a CRA to help us manage your account.
To do this, we will supply your personal information to the CRA, and they will give us information about you.
This will include information from your credit application and about your financial situation and financial history. The CRA will supply to us both public (including the electoral register) and shared credit, financial situation and financial history information and fraud prevention information.
We will use this information to:
If the CRA information relating to your credit commitments is different from the information you supply in your application, and this difference impacts our decision to lend to you, we will share this information with your mortgage broker.
This is shared so that your broker can advise you of the reason for our decision, which is in your legitimate interest.
We will continue to exchange information about you with the CRA while you have a relationship with us. We will also inform the CRA when you repay your mortgage. If you do not repay your mortgage in full, then the CRA will record the outstanding debt shortfall. This information may be supplied to other organisations by the CRA.
When a CRA receives a search from us, they will place a search footprint on your credit file that may be seen by other lenders.
If you are making a joint application, or you tell us that you have a spouse or financial associate, we will link your records together. Make sure you discuss this with your financial associate and share this notice before submitting your application. CRAs will also link your records together and these links will remain on your and their files until such time as you or your associate successfully files for a disassociation with the CRAs to break that link.
The identities of the CRA, their role also as fraud prevention agencies, the data they hold, the ways in which they use and share personal information, data retention periods and your data protection rights with the CRAs are explained in more detail in the CRA Information Notice at: experian.co.uk/crain/index.html
Automated decisioning
In order to be as efficient and streamlined as possible, we may perform automated processing (i.e. processing that is carried out without human intervention) on your personal information to evaluate certain things about you. In particular, we may do this to analyse or predict (amongst other things) your economic situation and credit history/behaviour.
This could mean that automated decisions (i.e. decisions that are made without human intervention) are made about you using your personal information.
For example, if you do not meet an element of our lending criteria (such as being over 18 or being a resident in the UK) any application for credit will be automatically declined. If you do meet our eligibility criteria, whether we lend will then be determined by your credit status.
When we do this, we take all necessary measures to ensure that your privacy and security are protected.
You have rights in relation to automated decision making; if you want to know more, please contact us using the contact information set-out in the “Who we are” section of this Privacy Notice.
Use of technology and artificial intelligence
We may use technology, including automated tools and artificial intelligence, to support our operations, improve our services and enhance customer experience. This may include assisting with data analysis, communications and internal processes.
Where we use these tools, appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data. They do not replace human decision-making in relation to your mortgage application or lending decisions.
Legal basis for processing personal information
Under the United Kingdom (UK) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful basis we rely on for the processing of personal information are:
Contract. That this is necessary for the performance of the Mortgage (contract) with you, including steps at your request prior to entering into the Mortgage during your Application; and or
Legal Obligation. That this is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that applies to us.
The legal bases on which we collect, process and transfer special categories of data relating to you in the manner described above are:
Consent. That you have given your explicit consent to such processing of any health or sexual orientation information; any withdrawal of your consent, would compromise the Application or the Mortgage and may prevent the processing to satisfy April’s regulatory obligations.
On occasion April may require processing of special category information in the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims, even if Consent has been removed.
If we ask you to provide personal information to comply with a legal requirement or to perform a contract with you, we will make this clear at the relevant time and advise you whether the provision of your personal information is mandatory or not (as well as of the possible consequences if you do not provide your personal information).
April conducts no direct marketing to mortgage applicants or customers. April sends new and existing product updates to its network of mortgage brokers. This is assessed to be a reasonable expectation for business-to-business activities and is therefore conducted under legitimate interest.
If you have questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your personal information, please contact us using the contact details provided under the “How to contact us” heading below.
Cookies and similar tracking technology
We use cookies and similar tracking technology (collectively, “Cookies”) to collect and use personal information about you. Please see our Cookie Notice for more information.
How does April keep my personal information secure?
We take the security of your personal information seriously and use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it in line with UK data protection laws.
Your information is stored securely on systems located in the United Kingdom or with trusted third-party providers. These providers are required to meet strict data protection and security standards and only process your data in line with our instructions and contractual requirements.
We use a range of security measures to protect your information, including access controls, encryption, system monitoring and regular testing. Access to your personal data is limited to those who need it to perform their role.
We also have processes in place to detect, investigate and respond to any potential data security incidents.
Storing your data
We aim to keep your personal information within the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area (EEA). However, in some cases, your data may be transferred outside of these areas where this is necessary to provide our services.
Where this happens, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your data, in line with UK data protection laws. This may include using approved contractual arrangements or transferring data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection.
For example, some of our trusted service providers may store or process data on servers located in the United States.
How long will April keep my data?
We’ll only keep your data for as long as we need it to do the thing we collected it for and to comply with the UK GDPR requirements. The length of time we keep your data may vary depending on the stage of the journey you reached with April.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
Here’s a more detailed breakdown:
Purpose of processing: Successful mortgage applications
Retention: For the life of the mortgage term plus a further 6 years.
Purpose of processing: Withdrawn, stalled, incomplete and failed mortgage applications
Retention: 6 years from the date the latest application was started, or 6 years from the application submitted date if application was submitted and subsequently rejected.
Purpose of processing: Affordability checks
Retention: 6 years from Decision in Principle if affordability check does not proceed to a full mortgage application
Purpose of processing: Job application data
Retention: Successful applicant: life of employment plus 6 years after the employment terminates. Unsuccessful candidate: up to one year
Purpose of processing: Complainant data
Retention: 6-years from the date the complaint was made
In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data, detailed in ‘Your data protection rights.’ In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
Your data protection rights
Under UK data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal information. These include:
You can exercise any of your rights by emailing us on the contact details below or by emailing us at dataprotection@aprilmortgages.co.uk
If you have any concerns or wish to make a complaint
If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal information, please reach out to us by;
phone on 0333 456 1471, email at dataprotection@aprilmortgages.co.uk, or writing to us at April Mortgages Ltd, 158-160 North Gower Street, London, NW1 2ND.
If you have a complaint and we cannot resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk or by telephoning 0303 123 1113 if the complaint relates to the way your personal information has been handled.
Updates to this Privacy Notice
We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time in response to changing legal, technical or business developments. When we update our Privacy Notice, we will take appropriate measures to inform you, consistent with the significance of the changes we make.
Last updated: 31st March 2026
April Mortgages Limited. Registered Office: 158-160 North Gower Street, London, NW1 2ND. Registered in England and Wales company number: 13514833. April Mortgages Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 989666).