Privacy Policy

Data is collected, processed and stored by Barrett Move; and we are what is known as the ‘data controller’ of the personal information you provide to us.  Barrett Law is a Limited Company, registration number 13029724.  Our Data Protection Officer is Leanne Barrett who can be contacted by email – leanne@barrettmove.co.uk

What we need

The exact information we will request from you will depend on what you have asked us to do or what we are contracted to do for you.

There are two types of personal data (personal information) that you may provide to us:

• Personal data: is the general information that you supply about yourself – such as your name, address, gender, date of birth, contact details, financial information etc. 
• Sensitive personal data: is, by its nature, more sensitive information and may include your racial or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, political opinions, health data, trade union membership, philosophical views, biometric and genetic data.

In the majority of cases personal data will be restricted to basic information and information needed to complete ID checks. However some of the work we do may require us to ask for more sensitive information.

Sources of information

Information about you may be obtained from a number of sources; including:

• You may volunteer the information about yourself
• You may provide information relating to someone else – if you have the authority to do so
• Information may be passed to us by third parties in order that we can undertake your legal work on your behalf. Typically these organisations can be:
  • Banks or building societies
  • Panel providers who refer legal work to law firms
  • Organisations that have referred work to us
  • Medical or financial institutions – who provide your personal records / information

Why we need it 

The primary reason for asking you to provide us with your personal data, is to allow us to carry out your requests in relation to your property work.

The following are some examples, although not exhaustive, of what we may use your information for:

• Verifying your identity
• Verifying source of funds
• Communicating with you
• To establish funding of your matter or transaction
• Processing your property transaction including:
  • Providing you with advice;
  • Keeping financial records of your transactions and the communications we make on your behalf
  • Seeking advice/information from third parties; such as legal and non-legal experts
  • Responding to any complaint

How will we process your data?

a) as necessary to perform and fulfil our contract with you:

• to take steps at your request prior to entering into it;
• to exercise rights set out in agreements or contracts;
• to deliver our products and services;
• to update our records;
• to collect and recover money that is owed.

b) as necessary to comply with legal obligation, e.g.:

• when you exercise your rights under data protection law and make requests;
• for compliance and to obey laws and regulations that apply to Us;
• to verify your identity, make credit, fraud prevention and anti-money laundering checks;
• to manage risk for Us and our customers;
• to detect, investigate, report and seek to prevent financial crime;
• to run our business in an efficient and proper way;
• to manage how we work with other companies that provide products and services to Us and our customers.

c) as necessary for our own legitimate interests, or those or other persons and organisations, e.g.:

• to run our business in an efficient and proper way;
• to respond to complaints and seek to resolve them;
• to manage how we work with other companies;
• to monitor emails, calls, other communications and activities;

d) based on your consent, e.g.:

• to manage our relationship with you;
• to develop and carry out marketing activities;

You are free at any time to change your mind and withdraw your consent.

Who has access to it?

We have a data protection regime in place to oversee the effective and secure processing of your personal data. We will not sell or rent your information to third parties. We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

There will be circumstances, in carrying out your property work, where we may need to disclose some information to third parties; for example:

• Other estate agents to verify a chain
• Solicitors in the chain
• The vendor or buyer of the properties you are selling or buying
• Non-legal experts to obtain advice or assistance, such as surveyors, architects etc
• Contracted Suppliers
• External auditors or our Regulator;
• Bank or Building Society; or other financial institutions
• Insurance Companies
• Providers of identity verification
• Any disclosure required by law or regulation; such as the prevention of financial crime and terrorism
• If there is an emergency and we think you or others are at risk

In the event any of your information is shared with the aforementioned third parties, we ensure that they comply, strictly and confidentially, with our instructions and they do not use your personal information for their own purposes unless you have explicitly consented to them doing so.

There may be some uses of personal data that may require your specific consent. If this is the case we will contact you separately to ask for your consent which you are free to withdraw at any time.

How do we protect your personal data?

We recognise that your information is valuable and we take all reasonable measures to protect it whilst it is in our care.  We have exceptional standards of technology and operational security in order to protect personally identifiable data from loss, misuse, alteration or destruction. Similarly, we adopt a high threshold when it comes to confidentiality obligations and both internal and external parties have agreed to protect confidentiality of all information; to ensure all personal data is handled and processed in line with our stringent confidentiality and data protection policies.

We use computer safeguards such as firewalls and data encryption; and we enforce, where reasonably possible, physical access controls to our building and files to keep data safe.

How long will we keep it for?

Your personal information will be retained, usually in computer or manual files, only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which the information was collected; or as required by law; or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you may hold with us. For example:

• As long as required to facilitate your property transactions;
• For a period of 7 years from the conclusion or closure of your property work; in case you, or we, need to re-open your case for the purpose of defending complaints or claims against us
• Until such time as you formally request for us to remove your details from our database.

What are your rights?

Under GDPR, you are entitled to access your personal data (otherwise known as a ‘right to access’). If you wish to make a request, please do so in writing addressed to our Data Protection Officer Leanne Barrett; or contact the person dealing with your matter.

A request for access to your personal data means you are entitled to a copy of the data we hold on you – such as your name, address, contact details, date of birth, information regarding your health etc.- but it does not mean you are entitled to the documents that contain this data. 

Under certain circumstances, in addition to the entitlement to ‘access your data’, you have the following rights:

1. The right to be informed: which is fulfilled by way of this privacy notice and our transparent explanation as to how we use your personal data

2. The right to rectification: you are entitled to have personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete

3. The right to erasure / ‘right to be forgotten’: you have the right to request the deletion or removal of your personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing. This right only applies in the following specific circumstances:

• Where the personal data is no longer necessary in regards to the purpose for which it was originally collected
• Where consent is relied upon as the lawful basis for holding your data and you withdraw your consent
• Where you object to the processing and there is no overriding legitimate interest for continuing the processing
• The personal data was unlawfully processed
• Where you object to the processing for direct marketing purposes

4.       The right to object: you have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests; and direct marketing. This right only applies in the following circumstances:

• An objection to stop processing personal data for direct marketing purposes is absolute – there are no exemptions or grounds to refuse – we must stop processing in this context
• You must have an objection on grounds relating to your particular situation
• We must stop processing your personal data unless:
  • We can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms; or
  • The processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

5. The right to restrict processing: you have the right to request the restriction or suppression of your data. When processing is restricted, we can store the data but not use it. This right only applies in the following circumstances:

• Where you contest the accuracy of the personal data – we should restrict the processing until we have verified the accuracy of that data
• Where you object to the processing (where it was necessary for the performance of a public interest or purpose of legitimate interests), and we are considering whether our organisation’s legitimate grounds override your right
• Where processing is unlawful and you request restriction
• If we no longer need the personal data but you require the data to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim

Complaints about the use of personal data

If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact our Data Protection Officer who will investigate further.  If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. It has enforcement powers and can investigate compliance with data protection law: www.ico.org.uk

Marketing data

We may in the future contact you using your personal data that we have collected in accordance with this privacy policy about our products or services, etc. which we feel may interest you. The communications may be provided to you by social media channels, email or post. We will never pass on or sell your details to a third party.

How we collect personal data

The following are examples, although not exhaustive, of how we collect your personal information:

• Submitting an online, telephone or in person enquiry
• Following/liking/subscribing to our social media channels
• Agreeing to fill in a questionnaire or survey on our website
• Asking us a question or submit any queries or concerns you have via email or on social media channels
• Post information to the our website or social media channels, for example when we offer the option for you to comment on, or join, discussions
• When you leave a review about us online

How we may use your details

The following are examples, although not exhaustive, of how we may use your personal information for our legitimate business interests:

• fraud prevention
• direct marketing
• network and information systems security
• data /analytics /enhancing, modifying or improving our services
• identifying usage trends
• determining the effectiveness of promotional advertising.

We may use your personal information for legitimate interests such as direct marketing or under reasonable expectation to provide you with information you would expect to receive or that would benefit and enhance our relationship. This information will help us review and improve our products, services and offers.

How we protect your personal information

We will only ever use non sensitive personal information to contact individuals with marketing materials; such as name, address, telephone, email, job description. Sensitive information or specific details will never be used. 

Opting Out

You have the right, at any time, to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes and any additional services that you have consented to receive.  To request that we don’t continue to contact you, please contact us by emailing hello@barrettmove.co.uk with your name and email address. Your details will be removed as soon as practicably possible and no later than 72 hours from your request. Once unsubscribed, you would only continue to receive transactional emails from us regarding your property matter if one is in progress.

Any questions regarding this notice and our privacy practices should be sent by email to leanne@barrettmove.co.uk