Privacy Notice — What the Lot Checker Collects and Why
This notice describes exactly what happens to your information when you use this site, written from how the site is actually built rather than from a template.
The short answer
Nothing about you is stored until you choose to store your brief — and contractors see your brief only if you tick the quotes box
- While you use the checker: your answers stay in your browser. The one exception is your address, which is looked up (not stored) to find your jurisdiction.
- When you store your brief: we store your name, contact details, address, checker answers, the verdict you saw and the consent choices you made.
- Contractors: only if you tick “put my brief in line for quotes”, and only roster contractors for your territory. Today no contractor is signed, so no contractor has seen anyone’s details.
- We never sell your information and we never use it for advertising.
- Your choices: email adu@adubuildworks.com to see, correct or delete your record.
Version 1.1 · Effective November 5, 2026 · Operated by ADU Build Works · Contact: adu@adubuildworks.com
Step by step
What is collected, at which moment
| When | What | Who receives it | Kept? |
|---|---|---|---|
| You type your address | The address text | Our address-lookup function, which asks the US Census Bureau Geocoder for the county and city, and FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer for the flood zone at that point | Not stored by us. The Census Bureau and FEMA receive the address or coordinates in order to answer, under their own policies. |
| You answer the checker questions | Lot, project, purpose, timing and budget answers | Nobody — they stay in your browser | No |
| You store your brief (after your verdict) | Name; email and/or mobile number; preferred channel; whether you own the home; the address; your checker answers; the verdict shown to you; your consent choices and the version of the consent wording; the page you came from and any campaign tags in the link you followed | ADU Build Works, stored with our hosting provider (Cloudflare, in the United States) | Yes — see “How long” below |
| Spam protection | A bot-check token (Cloudflare Turnstile, which reads browser and device signals to tell people from bots), a one-way hash of your network address, and a check that your email domain can receive mail | Cloudflare (bot check and DNS) | The hashed address counter expires after about an hour; the record notes only whether the checks passed |
| Every page | Your browser requests web fonts from Google Fonts | Google receives your network address and browser details to deliver the fonts | Under Google’s policy |
| Site measurement | Anonymous events such as “verdict shown” or “brief stored”, with the town route and verdict tier — never your address, name or contact details | ADU Build Works only, and only if measurement is switched on | Aggregated counts |
We use no advertising cookies, no third-party advertising tags and no cross-site tracking. Because we do not track you across sites, browser “Do Not Track” and Global Privacy Control signals change nothing about how this site treats you — we already behave as those signals ask.
Use
What your information is used for
- Your plan. To contact you about your plan on the channel you picked — for example if something in it needs confirming — and to answer you if you write to us. Texts or calls, if you picked them, come from a person about your project only: no marketing texts and no automated dialling. Tell us to stop on any channel and we stop.
- Your bid checklist, only if you ticked that box.
- Quotes, only if you ticked “put my brief in line for quotes”. Your brief is then offered to the matched roster for your territory — at most three licensed contractors — and contractors are named to you before any introduction. If you told us you do not own the home, no quotes handoff happens.
- Running the service safely: stopping spam and duplicate submissions, fixing errors, and meeting legal obligations.
No sale, no advertising use. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. A roster contractor receives your brief only because you directed us to send it, by ticking the quotes box — and if ADU Build Works is ever paid by a contractor in connection with an introduction, we will tell you before the introduction is made. Beyond that, we disclose information only to the service providers named in the table above, or where the law requires it.
Retention and your rights
How long we keep it, and how to get it back or gone
How long: we keep a stored record until you ask us to delete it, and no longer than 24 months after your last contact with us. Submissions identified as spam are deleted.
Security: records are stored with access limited to the people who run the service, behind an access token, and transmitted over encrypted connections. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach ever affected your information, we would tell you as the law requires.
Your rights: wherever you live, you can ask to know what we hold about you, to receive a copy, to correct it, and to delete it — the rights California law gives its residents, extended to everyone. You can withdraw your quotes OK at any time before an introduction. We will not treat you differently for using these rights. You may use an authorised agent; we will ask the agent for your signed permission.
How: email adu@adubuildworks.com from the address you used in the checker (or tell us the address and phone number on the record) so we can confirm the request is yours. We reply by email, and act on verified requests within 45 days.
Children: this site is for property owners and is not directed to anyone under 16. We do not knowingly collect information from children; if you believe a child submitted a brief, email us and we will delete it.
Changes: when this notice changes, the version line at the top changes with it, and the consent wording you agreed to is recorded with its version number on your record. We will not use information already collected in a materially different way without asking you first.
Your lot
Check your lot — nothing is stored until you choose
Check my lot
FREE · FAST VERDICTStep 1 of 2 — your address and one tap on what you want to build. That is enough for a first verdict; sharpen it afterwards only if you want to.
Every type, answered — not just the one you picked
True cost — the planning band, the fees on record, and what the band leaves out
Not in the band — budget these separately; no honest source lets us put a number on them for your lot, so none is invented:
How long until someone can move in?
Dates that change this decision
What the permit record shows
What would change this answer
Lay your quotes side by side
Print this sheet and write each contractor's figures in a column. Every row is something a comparable bid has to state; a blank in a quote is a question for that contractor, not a saving. The first column is your brief, filled from your answers.
| Line every quote must state | Your brief | Quote A | Quote B | Quote C |
|---|
Check each contractor's licence number on the Contractors State License Board's public lookup (cslb.ca.gov) before you compare prices. Figures in your brief are the rule caps and planning estimates shown above, not bids.
Make your verdict more exact (optional)
Skip these — save my brief now ↓San Francisco screening — two questions that decide an SF project
In San Francisco, space a tenant uses can be a protected “housing service” — it changes what’s allowed, so we ask now, not later. Why this matters →
Stored and confirmed
Anything wrong in that summary? Email us at adu@adubuildworks.com and we'll correct the record.
We already have this brief from you
If something changed — a different project, a new budget — email us at adu@adubuildworks.com and we'll update the record. Your verdict itself is above, and it stays yours.
That didn't go through — nothing was sent
Your verdict is right here on this page, and it stays yours. Prefer to do this by email? Write to us at adu@adubuildworks.com with your address and what you'd like to build, and we'll set it up with you — no dead end.