PRIVACY POLICY — Jane Hartley Associates
We take your privacy and that of your clients and suppliers seriously and we ask that you read this privacy notice carefully as it contains important information on who we are, how and why we collect, store, use and share personal information, you and your clients’ rights in relation to personal information and on how to contact us and supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.
This Privacy Policy is provided in a layered format with a Table of Contents allowing for quick and easy reference to the relevant sections of the policy.
Jane Hartley Associates Limited (Company number 09624993) with its registered office at the Waterhouse 4th Floor, 41 Spring Gardens, Manchester, England, M2 2BG, collects, uses and is responsible for processing certain personal information about you, your clients, your investors and your suppliers in order to provide legal services to you which may include property conveyancing, drawing up loan agreements, obtaining solicitor certificates, updating Land Registry records, initiating court proceedings to recover unpaid debt, verifying the identity of your clients, suppliers and other third parties, checking contracts with and making draw-down payments to, contractors whom you use, and other related services. When we do so, we are regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018 and we are responsible as the ‘Controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of those laws. We are authorised and regulated in the UK by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (www.sra.org.uk) and our SRA ID is 627844. You can find contact details in the Contact Us section of our website.
In the course of providing legal services which may include conveyancing, loan agreements, checking contractors whom you use and other related services, we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:
- Your personal information including proof of identity in order to verify your identity for anti-money laundering purposes (legal obligation)
- Your personal details including contact details and bank account details in order to pay your bills for third party services such as Counsel costs, HMRC/Land Registry fees, drawdown payments to contractors - where applicable (performance of a contract / pursuance of our legitimate interests as a business which provides legal advice and services).
- Your personal details including bank account details in order to receive monies on your behalf from 3rd parties and investors (performance of a contract / pursuance of our legitimate interests as a business which provides legal advice and services).
- Details or properties which you own or intend to buy (performance of a contract / pursuance of our legitimate interests as a business which provides legal advice and services / in limited circumstances consent which you are fully welcome to withdraw at any given time).
We also obtain personal information from other sources i.e. not collected directly from you ‘the data subject’, as follows:
- Credit reports from agencies regarding clients and potential purchasers credit rating.
- Identity, contact details and other parties Solicitor’s certificates concerning identity of clients and demonstrating their understanding of our client’s loan agreement.
- Details of names and addresses of other mortgagees on properties, found from the Land Registry
- Contact details of guarantors to lenders from our clients
- Contact details of Counsel instructed for legal proceedings
- Contact details and bank account details of other party’s solicitors
- Contact details and bank account details of contractors doing work for our clients
- Contact details of Director/Trustees for loans involving companies
- Details of your clients contact details and properties which they are using as security for loans when providing paralegal services.
- Details of financial commitment and interest payable and penalties pertaining to individuals or companies.
We also obtain personal information from other sources i.e. not collected directly from you ‘the data subject’, as follows:
- We use the personal information of you and your clients, potential purchasers of your property(s), and suppliers in order to provide legal services for conveyancing, creating loan agreements, for debt recovery and for the monitoring compliance to contract by contractors and paying drawdown payments.
- We use it to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights or for the purpose of legal proceedings
- We use it to look into any complaints or queries you may have, and use it to prevent and respond to actual or potential fraud or illegal activities
- Where we provide debt recovery services, we process information such as client contact details, their properties used as security, their financial commitment to you, guarantors (if any) and details of missed payments in order to provide support to you and your clients in the recovery of monies owed.
- We share your personal information and that of our clients and lenders with HMRC, the Land Registry and other authorities as required by applicable law.
- We may share credit rating information with Estate Agents but only with your express permission.
- We share your personal information with third party solicitors in order to perform conveyancing services
- We may share your personal information with Counsel where we instruct them on your behalf and the Court where we initiate proceedings on your behalf.
- We share your personal information with external service suppliers, such as our book-keepers and accountants, representatives and agents, that we use to make our business more efficient.
- We share other personal information as instructed by you only for the purposes listed above.
- We do not use you or your suppliers’ personal data for marketing purposes.
- We retain detail of identity checks and AML (anti-money laundering checks) for duration of the relationship with our client plus 6/12 years (depending on data type) and this is re-validated periodically
- We retain all correspondence and documents pertaining to our clients, including personal data for duration of the relationship with our client plus 6/12 years (depending on data type)
- Deeds stored on behalf of our clients in our fireproof safes are held for the duration of the relationship with the client and then returned to them.
- Bank statements for our Bridging client(s) are held for the duration of the relationship with the client plus 12 years electronically and paper copies are shredded once reconciled.
- Details of our clients’ contractors are held for the duration of the relationship with the client plus 12 years
- Details of legal charge deeds, loan agreements, proof of ID Charges on properties and details of activities to recover debts are held for the duration of the relationship with the client's client i.e. until loan repaid plus 6 years
- Purchase Ledger invoices, Sales invoices and Expense receipts are retained for 7 years for HMRC requirements
We do not transfer your personal information or that of your clients or suppliers outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). Should this situation change then we will always ensure you are made aware prior to the commencement of international transfers. In the event personal data is sent outside of the EEA we will ensure that we safeguard your privacy rights and that such transfers:
- Will only be made to recipients where the European Commission has issued an “adequacy decision” (this is a European Commission decision that confirms a country has adequate safeguards in place for the protection of personal data);
- Carried out under standard data protection contractual clauses that have been approved by the European Commission or by the adoption of EU-US Privacy Shield.
Under the General Data Protection Regulation you and your clients/suppliers about whom we may hold data have a number of important rights free of charge. In summary, those include rights to:
- Access
access to your personal information - Rectification
require us to correct any mistakes in your information which we hold - Erasure/ *Right to be forgotten*
require the erasure of personal information concerning you (in certain situations) - Restrict processing
otherwise restrict our processing of personal information (in certain circumstances) - Data portability
receive the personal information concerning you which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and in certain circumstances have the right to transmit those data to a third party - Object
object at any time to processing of personal information concerning you for direct marketing - Automated processing and profiling
object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you
For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer at privacy@janehartleyassociates.co.uk
We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.
We hope that can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information. If you would like to contact us, please email our Data Protection Officer at privacy@janehartleyassociates.co.uk
If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction and you wish to make a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) you can contact them on 01625 545745 or 0303 123 1113.