Every form that sends an enquiry about a listing carries a consent checkbox, and the visitor cannot submit without ticking it. You write the wording once in the design settings, and the link beside it points at the privacy policy page WordPress already knows about.
The tick is enforced on the server as well as in the browser, so a submission that skips it is rejected rather than delivered.
Before you start
- You are in standalone mode. In a supported theme the enquiry forms are the theme’s own and carry the theme’s own consent handling.
- You have a privacy policy page published and selected under Settings → Privacy. Without one the consent text still shows, with nothing to click.
Where the checkbox appears
- Both tabs of the booking sidebar on a property page, Schedule a Tour and Ask a Question.
- All four property lead form sections, whether placed as a block, a shortcode or an Elementor widget.
- The Contact Form page block, when Show consent checkbox is switched on. It is off by default there because that form is general rather than tied to a listing.
The contact card on an agent’s own profile page is the exception. It carries no listing, shows no consent checkbox, and nothing is enforced on it.
Writing the wording
- Open MLS Import Design Settings and go to the Social & Contact tab.
- Put your lead in sentence in Text for the checkbox label. Leave it empty and the forms read “I have read and agree to the”.
- Put the link wording in Text for terms link. It defaults to Privacy Policy.
- Save. Every form on the site changes at once.
Expected result: the checkbox reads as one sentence, your text followed by the link, on every property form and on any contact form with the option enabled.
Both fields are plain text. HTML typed into them is printed as characters rather than rendered, so the link beside the label is the only link the checkbox can have.
The link target is always the page selected in Settings → Privacy, never an address you type into the settings. If your consent wording needs to point at terms of service rather than a privacy policy, either make that the selected privacy page or word the label so it matches the page you actually have.
What the tick is worth afterwards
The consent value travels with the enquiry and prints in the lead email as its own line, reading Consent: yes. Nothing is written to the WordPress database, on this or any other part of the form.
That makes the lead email the record. It carries the address, the timestamp your mail server applies, the listing and the consent line together, which is the reason to keep those emails or forward them into a system that does.
Change the wording before the site takes traffic rather than after. Old lead emails carry the consent line but not the sentence the visitor agreed to, so rewording later leaves you unable to say which text any given lead consented to.
If it does not work
- The old wording still shows. The settings saved but a page cache is serving the previous markup. Clear the cache and reload one property page.
- The link text is there but is not clickable. No page is selected under Settings → Privacy. The words print as plain text until one is.
- The form rejects a submission that had the box ticked. The form is a customised copy that no longer posts the consent field. The server rejects any property enquiry that arrives without it.
- The Contact Form block shows no checkbox. Show consent checkbox is off on that block. It is a per block switch, unlike the property forms where the checkbox is always present.
Frequently asked questions
Does this checkbox make my site GDPR compliant?
It gives you a mandatory, worded consent step and a record of it in each lead email. Whether your wording, your retention and your lawful basis meet your obligations is a question for your own legal advice, not something a plugin setting can answer.
Can I make the checkbox optional on property forms?
No. On any form that carries a listing the tick is required and checked again on the server. The only form where consent is optional is the Contact Form block.
Is the consent stored in the database with a date?
No. It is sent in the lead email and nowhere else. If you need dated consent records, forward those emails into a CRM or a ticketing system that keeps them.
Can I add a second checkbox, for example a separate marketing opt in?
Not on the property forms, which have one fixed consent field. The Contact Form block can carry an extra checkbox field of your own, and a ticked one arrives in the lead email as a line named after the row’s Field name, not its label.
Related
- Where property leads are sent
- Schedule a Tour and the booking sidebar
- The Contact Form block
- The Design Settings page
Send us the wording you plan to use and we will tell you how it renders on each form.