PLEASE NOTE : PERCY SHORT & CUTHBERT LLP HAS CEASED TRADING FROM 31ST JULY 2024
PERCY SHORT & CUTHBERT LLP PRIVACY POLICY
(Last updated on 24th May 2018)
- INTRODUCTION
Percy Short & Cuthbert LLP are committed to safeguarding the privacy of your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. It informs you as to how we deal with your personal data which you choose to provide to us and when you visit our website, what data we hold about you, the basis on which we process your personal data, and tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
We may change this policy at any time, for example, as the result of government regulation, new technologies, or other developments in data protection laws or privacy generally. We reserve our right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions from this policy at any time, so you are encouraged to review this policy from time to time. We will, of course, notify you of any changes where we are required to do so. The date on which this version was last updated appears at the head of this policy.
It is important that you read this Privacy Policy, together with any Terms and Conditions that we may provide on our website and/or on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such personal information. This Privacy Policy supplements the other notices and/or terms and is not intended to override them.
It is your responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of your username and password. All uses of your username and password, whether authorised or not, are the responsibility of the user. Please do not ever disclose your password. You agree to immediately notify us of any unauthorised use of your username or password. We will not accept any liability for loss, damage or distress caused as a result of misuse of your username and password whether authorised or not.
- DATA CONTROLLER CONTACT DETAILS
Percy Short and Cuthbert is a registered as a Data Controller with the Information Commissioners Office. Your personal information will be held by us, both electronically and/or in paper form, at 608 Holloway Road, London N19 3PH and at our storage company’s premises from time to time. If you have any questions in relation to this Privacy Policy or if you would like to contact us to exercise your rights as stated in this policy, please contact our Data Protection Officer by post or by email at info@percyshort.co.uk, marking the subject matter as “Privacy Notice” or by telephone on 020 7700 0265.
The UK supervisory authority for data protection issues is The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF | https://ico.org.uk
- OUR WEBSITE
We will use the information you provide to us via our website to process your enquiry and may on occasion share your information with third parties who provide services on our behalf. We may also use the information you provide for internal recordkeeping. All email messages sent to and from Percy Short & Cuthbert may be monitored in compliance with our internal policies. Personal data submitted on this website will be used for the purposes specified in the relevant part of the website and for other purposes for which you give your consent.
We do not collect any identifiable or unidentifiable information of visitor’s on our website (including Google Analytics, Cookies etc)
By using and visiting our website and using our services you agree to our Privacy Policy. If you do not wish to accept this privacy notice, you should not continue to use our website.
Our website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data about children.
Third-party website links
Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, it is your responsibility to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.
- SHARING/DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We may have to share some or all of the personal information about you with the following third parties, in order to carry out legal services and/or performance of our contract with you and/or in our legitimate business interests and/or in compliance with a legal obligation:
- Our legal and professional advisers, acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, accountants, auditors, insurers, based in the UK who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services in relation to or advising on any of our business purposes;
- All employees and consultants we work with;
- providers of IT services and case management solutions;
- third party consultants, contractors or other service providers who may access the personal information when providing services including but not limited to IT support services to us;
- our regulators or other relevant statutory bodies;
- Third parties in connection with restructuring or reorganisation of our operations, for example if we merge with another firm. In such event we will take steps to ensure your privacy rights will be protected by the third party;
- the Legal Aid Agency (for clients under the public funding scheme);
- our LEXCEL and CQS quality assurance auditors;
- other professional third parties such as barristers, property search providers, experts, and others who we need to instruct to assist us with your matter. We will liaise with you during your case about which experts, barristers and other third parties we instruct on your behalf;
- Government bodies, law enforcement agencies, regulatory bodies, legal societies, and in response to other legal or regulatory requests from similar third parties such as, the Legal Ombudsman (if you complain about our services), the Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (the statutory body that regulates solicitors);
- If we are required to do so under any legal obligation and may use external data for the purposes of fraud prevention and credit risk reduction, or where doing so would not infringe your rights, but is necessary and in the public interest;
- Pali Ltd, our search providers. Pali Ltd will handle and store information and data on behalf of Percy Short & Cuthbert LLP. Pali Ltd confirm their compliance with all applicable data protection regulations and laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Pali Ltd also confirms their agreement to comply with GDPR requirements in handling and storing any information provided by you.
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
International transfers
We may need to share personal information with third parties in both the UK and internationally for a variety of reasons. We require third parties to respect the security of your personal information and to treat it in accordance with the law. We may transfer your personal information outside the EU. If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.
We may transfer the personal information we collect about you to countries outside the EU in order to process your personal information on one of the grounds listed above. It is possible that the European Commission will have deemed such countries adequate. This means we can transfer your personal information to those countries as they will provide an adequate level of protection for your personal information.
However, not all countries to which we may transfer your personal information will be deemed adequate by the European Commission. To ensure that your personal information does receive an adequate level of protection we will put in place standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission with those third parties wherever necessary. This ensures that your personal information is treated in a way that is consistent with and which respects the applicable laws on data protection.
- THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:
- Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth, national insurance number, gender and sexual orientation
- Contact Data includes current and billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone and mobile numbers.
- Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details.
- Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of services you have purchased from us.
- Profile Data includes purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
- Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, and services.
- Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
We do not collect any sensitive personal data about our clients (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual life or orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data), nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences, save for employees of this firm. In those circumstances, such sensitive personal data is held in strict confidence and securely, and used only for the purpose for which it was collected and/or in compliance with our legal and/or regulatory obligations (for example, in the case of our employees, to submit diversity data to the SRA).
- HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED
We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:
-
You directly. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email, via the internet, our website or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
- Send us enquiries;
- apply for our services;
- subscribe to our services or publications;
- request marketing to be sent to you;
- enter a survey;
- give us some feedback; or
- apply for employment with us
- Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources
- Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from you or providers of search information, payment and delivery services
- Identity and Contact Data from publicly availably sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register based in UK or inside the EU.
If you give us personal information regarding another person, you are confirming they have given you permission to provide their personal information to us to be able to process their personal information and also that you have advised them that their personal information will be passed to us.
- YOUR DUTY TO INFORM US OF CHANGES TO YOUR PERSONAL DATA
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us. We will update our records when you inform us that your details have changed.
- HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to, and for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:
- Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
- Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
- Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
- PURPOSES FOR WHICH WE WILL USE AND OUR LAWFUL BASIS FOR PROCESSING YOUR PERSONAL DATA
By submitting an enquiry by email directly to us, or via our “contact us”, "contact user", or any other online submission form, such as a request for a conveyancing quote, you have consented to us contacting you in response to your query and using your details for that purpose.
If you have opted into any of our mailings (events and/or updates), you have consented to us using your information for this purpose.
You can withdraw your consent to this at any time by contacting us by post to Data Protection Officer, Percy Short & Cuthbert, 608 Holloway Road, London N19 3PH, or by email to: info@percyshort.co.uk marking the subject matter as “Privacy Notice”, but your consent will remain valid until we receive the withdrawal notice from you. Should you choose to do so, we will not be able to respond to your enquiry. There will also be the option to unsubscribe from any of our mailings at the bottom of the email you receive.
Other than the above two described circumstances, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal information. We will process your personal information on the basis of the contract/agreement you enter into with us and/or in compliance with our legal obligations. We may process your personal data for more than one lawful basis, depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data
When we contact you to ask if you would like to participate in a survey, we treat this as a legitimate interest of the business – that interest being to seek views to improve our service. The rate at which we send these requests is infrequent, and there is no obligation to respond, therefore we consider any prejudice to you to be limited, and the legitimate need to seek views of our contacts on how we are performing so that we can deal with any issues that arise and improve our services, outweigh this.
We have set out in the table below, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and the basis on which we do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.
Purpose/Activity |
Type of data |
Lawful basis for processing your data |
|
To register you as a new client and verify your identity |
(a) Identity (c) Financial |
(a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Compliance with legal obligations |
|
To process and deliver legal services including: (b) Collect and recover money owed to us (c) Acting on your behalf and completion of transactions in accordance with your instructions |
(a) Identity |
(a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Compliance with legal obligations (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us) |
|
To manage our relationship with you which will include: (a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy (b) Asking you to leave a review or take a survey |
(a) Identity |
(a) Performance of a contract with you |
|
To enable you to partake in a survey |
(a) Identity |
(a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them and grow our business) |
|
To administer and protect our business and our website including:
|
(a) Identity (c) Financial
(d) Transaction (f) Usage |
(a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, to keep our records updated, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business re-organisation) (c) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (to prevent identity or other fraud) |
|
To deliver relevant website content and website services to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the content and services |
(a) Identity |
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and marketing strategy) |
|
To use data analytics to improve our website, services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences |
(a) Usage |
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and marketing strategy) |
|
To make suggestions and recommendations to you about services that may be of interest to you |
(a) Identity |
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business) |
10. ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING
We operate anti-money laundering (AML) policies in relation to all of our business. Due diligence enquiries are conducted on each new client and persons connected with them, as well as ongoing monitoring of existing clients. These enquiries are based on the EU Fourth Money Laundering Directive, and additional information required to comply with anti-money laundering regulations will also be obtained. Where necessary we obtain relevant information from third party data suppliers. Any personal data supplied by individuals will only be used for that purpose and we will retain it only as long as the relevant AML and data protection legislation requires.
Our internal procedures and training of all staff members ensures that any suspicions of money laundering are reported to the appropriate authorities.
- TRAINING OF STAFF
Our staff receive anti-money laundering and data protection training, and we have data protection policy and procedures which they are required to follow when handling personal data.
- YOUR RIGHTS
Under current data protection laws, you have certain rights in respect of the processing of your personal information, which may vary dependent on the legal basis for collection of your personal information and the uses made of this personal information.
For all uses made of your personal information you have the right to be informed about how we use your personal information, and this notice discharges that obligation. However, further rights may apply in different circumstances, as set out below:
- Right to request access to your personal data- you have a right to access your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
- Right to request rectification of your personal data- you have a right to request correction of the personal data that we hold about you, which may be incomplete or inaccurate, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
- Right to be forgotten- in certain circumstances you can ask for the personal information held about you to be erased. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request. Please also note our retention period set out below.
- Right to request restriction of processing your personal data- This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it. Please note this may impact on our ability to provide our services to you.
- Right to data portability of your personal data- you have the right to request the personal information held about you to be transferred to a third party in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
- Right to object to processing of your personal data- you have the right to object to certain types of processing, such as marketing (please note that we will only ever use your contact information for marketing purposes where you have provided express consent), or where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
- Right to withdraw consent at any time- where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent. To withdraw your consent, please contact us by post to: Data Protection Officer, Percy Short & Cuthbert, 608 Holloway Road, London N19 3PH or by email to info@percyshort.co.uk marking the subject matter as “Consent Withdrawal”
In the event you wish to exercise any of these rights, please make your request in writing to our Data Protection Officer
No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
What we may need from you
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
Time limit to respond
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
- IF YOU FAIL TO PROVIDE US PERSONAL INFORMATION
Where we need to collect personal data by law, when requested, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with legal services), or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations. In this case, we may have to cancel the legal service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.
If you are unable or not willing to provide personal information this may also impact our ability to progress conveyancing transactions via the Website.
- DATA RETENTION
We retain your personal data for as long as necessary in line with the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, statutory, regulatory, accounting, or reporting obligations.
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.
By law we have to keep basic information (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) about our clients for at least 6 years, and 7 years for our employees, after they cease being clients or employees for tax and other legal purposes.
In the event of a job application being unsuccessful your details will be retained for at least 12 months. In certain circumstances where applications have been refused, such as conviction of financial fraud, we may retain application information for up to 6 years.
We will implement and adhere to information retention policies relating to your personal information and will ensure that your information is securely disposed of at the end of the appropriate retention period other than your name, address and date of birth which we will be obliged to continue to hold for the purposes of ensuring that we never act for another client where doing so would conflict with our obligations of confidentiality to you.
Destruction of records will be suspended if it becomes apparent that there is any possibility of anticipated litigation or regulatory investigation.
- DATA SECURITY
The internet is not a secure medium but we are committed to ensuring that your personal information is secure. We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. These include the use of passwords and secure logins which are changed at regular intervals, limiting access to files to necessary personal use, anti-virus software and firewalls and cloud back up of our information.
In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
- MARKETING
We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what services we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which of our legal services and offers may be relevant for you. We call this marketing.
You will receive marketing communications from us only if you have given your consent for that purpose, or if you have requested information from us or purchased services from us or if you provided us with your details when you entered your email address to opt into our newsletters, and in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.
We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data for any third party marketing.
You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at info@percyshort.co.uk at any time.
Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a service purchase, service experience or other transactions.
- COMPLAINT
If you are not happy with the way in which we have processed or dealt with your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Further details about how to complain can be found at https://ico.org.uk/concerns.
TERMS OF USE
Percy Short & Cuthbert of 608 Holloway Road, London N19 3PH owns and operates this website and by using this website you will be deemed to have accepted and agreed to be bound by these terms and conditions. Please note that we may make changes to these terms of use from time to time and your continued access or use of this website will be deemed to be your acceptance of the modified terms and conditions. In addition, by using this website you agree to indemnify us harmless from any liability, loss, claim and expense (including reasonable legal fees) related to your breach of these terms and conditions.
The intellectual property rights in this website and all of the text, pictures, videos and other content made available on it are owned by Percy Short & Cuthbert and our licensors. You may not copy, modify, alter, publish, broadcast, distribute, sell or transfer any such content without our express prior permission. You may, however, download, print or copy parts of this website for your personal, non-commercial use.
We will use reasonable efforts to ensure that this website is available at all times but we cannot guarantee that this website or any individual function or feature of it will always be available and/or error free. We have included guidance notes to give a brief overview of the main issues within certain practice areas and as general information only. Your use of this website or any materials available on it is not a substitute for legal or professional advice and does not constitute the provision of legal services by us to you.
You agree that you will not use this website for commercial purposes; any fraudulent or unlawful purpose; to defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the rights of others, including without limitation others' privacy rights or rights of publicity; impersonate any person or entity, falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity in connection with this website or express or imply that we endorse any statement you make; interfere with or disrupt the operation of this website or the servers or networks used to make it available or violate any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of such networks; transmit or otherwise make available in connection with this website any virus or other computer code that is harmful or invasive or may or is intended to damage the operation of, or to monitor the use of, any hardware, software, or equipment; modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble any portion of this website.
This website may provide links to other websites and online resources. We are not responsible for and do not endorse those external sites or resources and your use of them is at your own risk.
Any dispute arising from the content of this website shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales and all parties agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.