Privacy Policy

Why we have this policy 

Archer, Evrard & Sigurdsson (referred to as ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’ in this policy) take your privacy very seriously and we are committed to handling and protecting your data in accordance with the highest standards and applicable laws. 

This policy sets out how and why we may collect, use, store and share your personal data in the course of acting for you. 

It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you, so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy policy supplements any such other privacy notices and does override them. 

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Data controller  

Under the data protection legislation, the data controller exercises overall control over what and why data is collected and what is done with it. 

Archer, Evrard & Sigurdsson is the data controller of your data when we act for you. We are responsible for the ways in which we collect, store, use and share your personal data 

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Our Data Protection Officer 

We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) who is responsible for this privacy policy and all questions that may relate to it. 

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact our DPO by post at: Data Protection Officer, Archer, Evrard & Sigurdsson LLP, Forfar House, 97 Balham Park Road, London SW12 8EB or by email at: dpo@aeslawyers.com.

If you have any concern about this privacy policy or about the way in which we handle your data, please let us know. You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the UK regulator for data protection issues, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) - www.ico.org.uk. 

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What is personal data  

Personal data means any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

There are special category data that include information revealing or concerning racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic and biometric data, information concerning a person’s health, sex life or sexual orientation. This does not include data about criminal allegations, proceedings or convictions.

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What data do we collect about you 

We may collect the following personal data about you in the course of advising you: 

• Your contact data, including title, first name, last name, address, telephone number and email address;
• Your identity data, including names, date of birth and all other data that may be included in the identity document you provide to us (e.g. passport, identity card, driving licence) and your National Insurance and tax details;
• Your residency data, including home address and all other data that may be included in the proof of residence document you provide to us (e.g. utility bill, council tax); 
• Your financial data, including bank or building society account details and other information we may need to verify the source of your funds if you are instructing us on a purchase or to enable us to undertake a credit or other financial checks on you; 
• Your family details, including dependants or other family members, when you instruct us on a family matter or a will; 
• Your marketing and communications data, including your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences; 
• Your technical data, including internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access our website; and 
• Any other personal data that relates to the matter in which you are seeking our support, advice or representation.   

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How we collect your data 

We will collect most of this information from you directly, through direct interactions with you, either orally or via email. 

We may also collect information in the following manners: 

• from publicly available sources such as Companies House, the Electoral Register, HM Land Registry and social media; 
• from third parties such as search information providers, client due diligence and sanctions screening providers; banks or payment services providers; or consultants, experts or other professional we may engage in relation to your matter;
• via cookies on our website (see our Cookies Policy);
• via our IT systems such as our file management system (Leap) and our communications systems and email;
• via analytics providers such as Google (based outside the UK).

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How we use your personal data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Under those laws, we must identify to you the lawful basis on which we collect and use your data. 

Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• where we need to perform the agreement we are about to enter into or have entered into with you;
• where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (this is when we gave a business or commercial reason to use your information) so long as your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests; 
• where we need to comply with a legal obligation.

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Purposes for which we will use your personal data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the lawful bases we rely on to do so. 

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful basis, depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please let us know if you need details about the specific lawful basis we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below. 

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Marketing 

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. 

You can opt out of receiving promotional communications from us at any time by using ‘unsubscribe’ link in the emails you receive.

Change of purpose 

We will only use your personal data 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 you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us. 

If we need to use your personal data 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 data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

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Who we share your personal data with 

We may share your personal data with: 

• professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf in a matter or that we refer to such as barristers, accountants, tax advisers and other professional experts;
• third parties that need some of your personal data to carry out your instructions such as a mortgage provider or HM Land Registry;
• our management software provider company, Leap;  
• external auditors;
• our banks;  
• external service suppliers and agents that we may use for typing and copying services, document collation, analysis suppliers or marketing services
• third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy policy. 

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.

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Where your personal data is held 

Your personal data may be held at our offices or those of third parties described above, as well as on our electronic systems. 

Some of these third parties may be based outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring that we use specific contracts approved for use in the UK which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK. 

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK. 

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Data security

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. 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.

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Data retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. By law we have to keep basic information about our clients for six years. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

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, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in our retention policy which you can request from us by contacting us. 

Your legal rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Those rights are: 

• Request access to 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.
• Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
• Request erasure of your personal data. 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. 
• Object to processing of your personal data 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. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
• Request restriction of processing of 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. 
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data 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. 
• 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.

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What we may need from you if you want to exercise your rights 

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.

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Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could 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. 

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Changes to the privacy policy and your duty to inform us of changes

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. This version was last updated on 28 May 2021. 

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.