Our Privacy Policy

The General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) seeks to protect and enhance the rights of data subjects. C Wilson Solicitors is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We recognise the importance of the correct and lawful treatment of personal information, and will only use personal information as set out in this Privacy Notice.

We have appointed a Privacy Officer to oversee compliance with this Privacy Notice. If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact Claire Wilson at our office.

It is important that you read this Privacy Notice, together with any Decision First terms and conditions that we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such personal information. This Privacy Notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your relationship with us.

As a solicitor in handling client’s data we are already bound by existing data protection rules but of course also we are bound by client confidentiality so we would only share client information where necessary. An example would be providing a client’s date of birth and National Insurance number to the Inland Revenue on Stamp Duty return or including an address on a contract.

We would rarely hold what is described as special data. We do not ask you for religious, political or ethical views and nor are we likely to hold medical records or information regarding children but we will hold and use information that is classed as personal data which will include name, contact details and identification. We may also hold details of a client’s bank account, proof of funds and information of how much a property has sold for.

The legal basis for holding this information straddles two categories of the GDPR legislation. The first is contractual. We need this information to fulfil the contract that we have been engaged to deal with . We have to check ID etc for the anti money laundering regulations and we obviously need client’s contact details on file to be able to communicate during a transaction. We will however seek to ensure that there is transparency and ask clients to sign a form for their consent for us to hold their data on the following basis.

We will ask clients for their contact details, proof of address, ID, photographic ID, date of birth and National Insurance number. Other information may be requested on a case by case basis. This information will usually be held on a physical file of papers kept in a filing cabinet. Clients may also e mail us this information which would therefore mean the information is held electronically.

Anti money laundering rules require us to be able to establish that we have seen client ID so this does have to be held on file as proof.

As solicitors we are required to hold a file of papers for at least six years following completion of a matter in the event a client or an insurance company or mortgage lender requires us to provide information from the file. There would be no particular reason however as to why we would need to hold date of birth and National Insurance numbers so if you do wish us to delete these from our file then please let us know.

Address, date of birth, marital status and National Insurance number are provided to the Inland Revenue.

Documents held electronically such as Stamp Duty returns will contain  address , date of birth and National Insurance number and may be held electronically for longer than six years.

We have a book keeper and an accountant, who will occasionally be privy to some information on a file but only for the purposes of auditing our office and client accounts. They are unlikely to see any personal data but would see reference to a client’s surname, possibly an address and details of the financial transaction in terms of mortgage monies, deposit contribution or amount of Stamp Duty paid. We will ensure that they have GDPR policies in place regarding the processing of personal data.

Other than the above we would never share client’s information with any third parties.

You have a right to request to know what data we are holding for you and to ask for it back.

You have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner (ICO) in the event you feel there has been a breach of privacy/security in respect of your personal data.

From third parties: Information provided by other solicitors in respect of their clients will be afforded the same rights of privacy as our own clients