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Data Protection - Privacy Policy

D&S respect your privacy, and want to be clear about how we handle information about you.
What information may we collect about you?
We may collect personal data about you in the course of our work. That may include things like:
  • Your contact details.
  • Your date of birth.
  • Where you work.
  • Your wishes and criteria in any transaction you are considering.
  • Financial information, for example about your income and capital resources, your National Insurance Number.
Usually we will have received this directly from you. However we may also receive personal data about you from others, such as from the other party to a transaction you are engaged in or from joint agents or associates. Family members also sometimes provide information about each other.
How will we use the information?
Our use of such personal data is subject to data protection law.
  • We mainly use your personal data to provide you with information or services you have requested or contacted us about in the delivery of a contract we have entered into with you (in either selling or helping your buy a property or letting or renting a property to you).   
  • We may also use your personal data for other parties’ vital interests’ (i.e. prior to arranging property viewings we will hold your data as security for staff and the protection of our client’s property under our contract with them).
  • With your consent, we may send you additional information about our firm and services, if you have consented to us doing so.   Where you have given consent to D&S using your data we shall continue to do so for that purpose until your notify us differently.
  • We may also use personal data for other normal purposes connected with our work. For example we will use your information to update our own business records, complete statutory returns, and otherwise comply with our regulatory and legal obligations.
In terms of professional contacts, we process your data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) we hold professional contact details including Accountants, Agents, Architects, Bankers, Financial Advisers, Planning Consultant, Property Consultants, Building Contractors, Surveyors and Solicitors, etc, for the purpose of fulfilling a contract.
We will only use your personal information for the purpose for which we collected it.  If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose we will notify you and explain the legal basis for which we justify our use of your data at that time.  
Will we share information about you with anyone?
We take your privacy seriously. We will never sell your personal data to anyone, and only share it with third parties that are undertaking a service that is and we take precautions to keep it secure.
It will sometimes be a normal and necessary part of our work to pass on information to third parties. For example:
  • We may pass on information about you to solicitors to help them proceed with a transaction in which you are involved.
  • With your consent, we may pass information on to our Financial Services Provider J Finance Ltd for the purpose of providing you with help and information on mortgage finance and other financial services and related products.
  • If you are a prospective tenant, we may pass on references about you to our landlord and credit reference companies.
  • We may inform service providers of changes in the occupiers of property.  These would include council tax, utilities (water, gas, electric, LPG gas or oil) media (telephone, TV, satellite/cable, broadband). With your consent we may share your information with our utility management partners Hallmark Corporate Services Ltd, Tenant Shop and Inchora Group for the purpose of providing you with a quote for a competitive provider. D&S may receive a small sum of commission should you decide to sign up with these providers.
  • It is our legal obligation as part of our contract with the legal owner(s) either vendor(s) or landlord(s) to pass on information to maintenance and repair contractors, in respect of any property where we have contractual responsibilities.
  • We may also share your information with:
  1. Our contractual credit reference agency LetAlliance, our legislative anti-money laundering reference agency CreditSafe and other companies for use in credit decisions, for fraud prevention and to pursue debtors and;
  2. Other third parties (including law enforcement bodies and Government agencies) if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal details in order to comply with any legal obligation, or to defend or exercise our legal rights.
  3. If you are a tenant we may also share your information with Fixflo in connection with servicing maintenance issues on a property that we manage.
You may be assured that we and any company associated with us treat all personal data and sensitive personal data as confidential and do not process it other than for a legitimate purpose associated with the service we provide you.  Steps are taken that the information is accurate and up to date and not kept longer than necessary.
In addition our firm may be audited or checked by third parties such as our accountants, which may enable them to see some information about you. Such third parties are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your information.
Your rights
  • You have a right of access under data protection law to the personal data that we hold about you.
  • We seek to keep that personal data correct and up to date. You should let us know if you believe the information we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.
  • You have a right to request erasure of personal information.  Unless there is a compelling reason for the data to be keep (for example if we are required to keep your data to fulfil a contract or we have a legal obligation, such as Anti-Money Laundering Regulations), personal data will be deleted upon request.
  • You have a right to restrict processing of your data under certain circumstances.  This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your data, for example if you have requested us to confirm the accuracy or reason for processing
  • Under certain circumstances you have a right to request your data be transferred to another party
  • You have a right to withdraw previously given consent for a specific processing purpose such as receiving general marketing for example
 
Data Retention
We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collect it for, such as contractual responsibilities, legal, accounting and reporting requirements.  In determining the duration of these retention periods we have considered the type, nature and sensitivity of the information provided, the purposes for which we process your information and if it is possible to achieve these purposes by any other means.  We are also bound in certain circumstances by legal and regulatory responsibilities.
In some circumstances where there is a minimum retention period required by Law we may hold data longer than this period, by anonymising the personal data or deleting information as part of our own data management process.  If we are required to retain your information longer than a standard retention period we will let you know (unless we have a legal reason that prevents us from doing so). If we anonymise your personal information so it can no longer be associated with you, we may continue to use such information without further notice to you.
 
Security
D&S take data protection seriously and have processes and systems in place to protect client data from loss, misuse or unauthorised access or disclosure.  We work closely with our IT provider to ensure our hardware is encrypted and we follow best practice throughout our use of IT with password policies that is enabling us to work towards Cyber Essentials Certification in this area.  All our staff are trained in Data Protection and have received comprehensive guidelines that they adhere to in this area.
 
Data Breaches
D&S has a clear policy that is adhered to in terms of how we would handle a data breach.  Where appropriate, should a breach occur, D&S will promptly notify any clients affected should an unauthorised access to their data have occurred.
 
Complaints
If you have a complaint with regards to how we are processing your personal information, please make contact with our office and raise your complaint.  Should you remain dissatisfied with our response to your complaint, you can gain further advice from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

 

"We want to thank all of the wonderful team at D&S for their exceptional service in selling our home. We have never known better in over 20 house moves. Your approach was informed, optimistic and encouraging. In only 4 months since we came to you we have completed a very satisfactory sale. We are delighted to recommend Douglas & Simmons as the best we know."
Sue and Paul W