Purslows Building Surveyors Ltd
Website Privacy Statement text v0.1

 

The Purpose of this privacy statement is to explain how Purslows Building Surveyors Ltd processes personal data to fulfil our data protection responsibilities. This statement will be supplemented by ‘specific to client’ privacy notices when needed. The scope of this statement covers all related activities by the staff of Purslows Building Surveyors Ltd referred to as Purslows for the remainder of this document.

The Role of Purslows in data protection terms is that of a data controller where it determines the purpose and use of personal data collected. Once received it becomes the responsibility of the Purslows privacy manager (PM) to ensure that it is processed in accordance with the latest UK data protection legislation. You can contact the PM by email by using office@purslows-surveyors.co.uk.

The personal data processed by Purslows will be basic contact information for the purposes of responding to general enquiries, business development, setting up invoices and to label project plans and drawings. In some cases, it will also be necessary to collect financial data related to individuals. If Purslows is not given all of the required personal data, it may result in an incomplete service being provided.

Purslows’ duty of confidentiality means that Purslows’ staff will treat your personal data with due respect and in confidence. We will only disclose it to those that need to know it. Purslows uses reasonable organisational and technical measures to ensure personal data is kept secure. Purslows also expects the same duty of confidentiality of all third parties with whom it shares personal data. Sharing is kept to a minimum and is reviewed regularly.

Purslows processes personal data against a lawful basis as described below:

  • To respond to your general enquiries, to promote our services and to be able to stay in touch post project (if applicable), we will use our legitimate interests
  • To comply with our legal obligations, for example HMRC for tax records
  • To fulfil our contractual obligations including their prior preparation and to cover the agreed post project period of rectification/ liability period as agreed
  • When processing a pre-defined purpose for which your consent has been sought prior to that processing commencing

In all cases the processing of personal data by Purslows shall be:

  • Processed lawfully, fairly and transparently
  • Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes
  • Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary (and no more)
  • Accurate and, when necessary, updated • Kept for no longer than is necessary
  • Processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security

Purslows will share personal data, but only when absolutely necessary, with some or all of the following third parties:

  • The Inland Revenue (HMRC)
  • Solicitors appointed by Purslows
  • Accountants appointed by Purslows
  • Third-party IT support company (maintenance periods only)
  • Local authorities for planning and building regulation purposes
  • Specialist manufacturers/ agents but only in support of your project
  • Other property owners that share boundaries in support of your project
  • Self-employed contractors appointed by Purslows to support your project
  • Unspecified recipients but only when compelled to do so for legal reasons

Purslows follows a retention schedule to determine the length of time it holds different types of personal data. The retention schedule is shown below:

  • Routine correspondence for casual enquiries in hard copy or in emails will be stored for one year
  • Project related data will be retained for a total of 25 years from the start of the project which includes the rectification and liability periods
  • Contact data is stored indefinitely unless a valid request to erasure is received from the interested data subject
  • Financial records and invoices, which may include personal data, will be retained for 6 years after the end of the current tax year of processing
  • By exception, documentation that includes personal data may be retained by Purslows beyond the schedule, but only for a specific purpose and only when Purslows believes there is a legitimate interest or a legal obligation to do so

At the end of the retention schedule Purslows will either return, destroy, delete or anonymise your personal data and any associated emails or relevant documentation. If it is technically impractical to delete electronic copies of personal data, it will put it beyond operational use. In some cases, original drawings and plans will be anonymised such that they will relate to an address of a property but not to its owner at the start of the project.

It should be noted that Purslows allows up to 3 months after the retention schedule to complete the action.

The Purslows website uses cookies but visitors to the website are asked to consent to non-essential cookies before these are dropped – please see the separate cookie notice.

The Purslows website links to appropriate business websites of interest. If these are used, you should be aware that the Purslows has no responsibility for the control, content or handling of your personal data by these other websites.

The General Data Protection Regulation defines the rights that you have (although these do not apply in all situations), For convenience, these rights are shown below:

  • Right to be informed as to how your personal data is being processed by us and this is done through this statement or specific to customer privacy notices
  • Right to access your personal data held by us which is done by making a ‘Data Subject Access Request’ (DSAR) to the privacy manager
  • Right to rectification of your personal data if you believe we have collected it incorrectly or it needs to be updated
  • Right to erasure of your personal data for which we no longer have a legitimate purpose to process
  • Right to restrict processing under certain circumstances, during which time your personal data but will be out of operational use until the related matter is resolved;
  • Right to data portability of your personal data in a machine-readable version, as you have provided but only applicable to data provided with your consent or under contract
  • Right to object to our processing your personal data for which it does not have a legal or contractual obligation
  • Rights related to automated decision making and profiling (however Purslows does not use these techniques in its decision making)

Further details on data subjects’ rights can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website: https://ico.org.uk.

Raising concerns, exercising rights or making queries about our processing of your personal data can be done by contacting the privacy manager. Please be aware that we will need to determine your identity before responding fully, therefore, you may be asked for proof of ID or other material that, in context, will enable us to confirm your identity. Alternatively, you may wish to contact the ICO directly, using the details provided above.

v1.0
March 2021