Garwood & Tan Ltd

OUR PRIVACY POLICY

 

Introduction

 

Garwood & Tan Ltd are committed to protecting your personal data. Our Privacy Policy details how we collect, use, and disclose your personal data. This includes all data supplied to us upon instructing us to act and throughout the course of the transaction, along with any data you may provide whilst navigating our website. Please take a few minutes to read through the Policy.

 

1. Data protection principles

 

2. When and how we collect and use your data

 

3. Disclosure of your personal data

 

4. Data security

 

5. Data retention – How long will you hold my personal data for?

 

6. Your legal rights

 

1. Data protection principles

 

As we hold your personal data then we are bound by strict ‘data protection principles’

Accordingly, we will ensure your personal information held is:

 

• used fairly, lawfully and transparently.

• used for specified, explicit purposes

• used in a way that is adequate, relevant and limited to only what is necessary

• accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date

• kept for no longer than is necessary

• handled in a way that ensures appropriate security, including protection against unlawful or unauthorised processing, access, loss, destruction or damage

 

2. When and how we collect and use your data

 

In order to provide legal services to you we will collect, use, and store your personal data. This will happen when:

 

• You contact us with an initial enquiry. At this stage your contact details will be required.

 

You instruct us to act on your behalf. At this stage client care terms of business will be sent out to you requesting various, personal data relevant to the matter enabling us to comply with our obligations, and carry out the transaction on your behalf.

 

If you fail to provide personal data

 

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of our engagement but are unable to do so, we will not be able to continue to act. As such, we may have to terminate our engagement with you. We will notify you if this is the case at the time.

 

3. Disclosures of your personal data

 

Third-parties are bound by the ‘data protection principles’ and are only permitted to use your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

We use local storage providers to securely store archived client files which contain personal data. These files will be stored in line with our retention periods. The legal basis for this is our legitimate business interests, namely, to allow us to store and archive client files securely.

 

4. Data Security

 

To prevent your personal data from being accessed and subsequently used in an unauthorised way we have in place appropriate security measures. These are designed to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, altered, or disclosed. This includes (but is not limited to), Antivirus and firewall systems which are in place to constrict access to our systems remotely. Should a breach of your personal information occur you will be notified along with the regulator where we are legally obliged to do so.

 

5. Data Retention - How long will you use my personal data for?

 

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we initially collected it for, including the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, insurance, or other reporting requirements and for as long as we are legally obliged to do so.

• Conveyancing sale files are held for a period of 7 years

• Conveyancing purchase files are held for a period of 10 years

• Wills and Probate files are held for a period of

 

6. Your Legal Rights

 

The Data Protection Act 2018 provides you with rights over the information we hold.

You have the right to:

• Be informed about how your data is used.

• Access personal data.

• Have incorrect data updated.

• Have data erased.

• Stop or restrict the processing of your data.

• Data portability (allowing you to get and reuse your data for different services)

• Object to how your data is processed in certain circumstances.

 

We do not charge a fee should you choose to exercise any of the above rights. However, if we consider that such request will take considerable time or resources then we may need to charge for the same. We will respond to your request in a timely fashion. If you require any clarification in the above we are happy to provide the same.