Privacy notice

This Privacy Notice tells you what data we collect, why we collect it and what we do with it. You can also find information on the rights you have to manage your data.

Who we are

Legal for Lettings, is a trading name of Barbon Legal Services Limited, who are part of PIB Group Limited. At Legal for Lettings our mission is to provide practical and straightforward legal solutions without the jargon, fuss or excessive prices. We value your business and therefore recognise that privacy is an important issue. As part of our dedication to being transparent we have developed this Privacy Notice to explain what data we collect and how we manage your data.

This Privacy Notice is relevant to anyone who uses our services or whose data is processed by us, including Tenants, Landlords, Letting/Managing Agents, Insurers, and debt collection agencies.

This Privacy Notice provides details of the personal data we collect from you or from other sources, what we do with it, how you might access it and who it might be shared with.

Our contact information and Data Protection Officer

Barbon Legal Services Limited is a subsidiary of PIB Group Limited
Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted directly here:

Data Protection Officer
PIB Group Limited
1 Minster Court
Mincing Lane
London, EC3R 7AA
[email protected]
0330 058 9700

What we do with your personal data

We process your personal data as a data controller only for the purpose of providing our services. As the data controller we will not collect any information from you or about you that we do not need for the purpose of fulfilling our services.

We may use your personal data for other similar purposes, including marketing and communications, but that will only occur if we have your consent or where, as a current or previous user of our services, we rely on a legitimate interest justification for doing so. You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes. Please contact us to do so – see above.

We may use your information to help develop our products and improve our services to you as a customer because it is in your interest and our legitimate interest to provide efficient services. This may include asking you for feedback on the service we provide you.

The way our services work means that, If you have a contractual or service relationship with us, or we are processing your data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, your information may be shared with, and used by, a number of third parties in the tenant services, legal and debt collection sector; for example, Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service, Court Advocacy providers, Counsel Chambers, Debt Recovery Agents, Tracing Agents, High Court Enforcement Agents, other providers of legal services, payment gateways, regulators, law enforcement agencies, fraud and crime prevention and detection agencies, AML and sanction checking agencies, credit reference agencies, tenant services providers and, where applicable, your letting agent. We will only disclose your personal information in connection with the contract or service that we provide or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, and only to the extent required or permitted by law.

Your data will mainly be held on secure digital platforms serviced and maintained by the technical team at PIB Group Limited and any sub-contractors providing IT support services.

Your data will be held securely in the UK and the EEA. Any other data processing outside of these geographical areas will be undertaken only in locations that are covered by UK data protection adequacy regulations or where UK GDPR compliant appropriate safeguards are in place.

The personal information we process may be shared with fraud prevention agencies who will use it to prevent fraud and money-laundering and to verify your identity. If fraud is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance, or employment.

What personal data do we collect?

The personal data we collect depends on whether you just visit our website or use our services. If you visit our website, you do not need to provide us with any personal data. However, your browser transmits some data automatically, such as the date and time of your visit, your browser type, your operating system, the last web page you visited and your IP address. You can control your cookie settings in your browser and using controls on our website.

If you use our services, personal data is required to fulfil the requirements of a contractual or service relationship, which may exist between you and our organisation. We will also grant access to relevant personal data to our staff for example to provide training and staff development. This is on the basis that this is in both our mutual legitimate interests to improve our services and your customer experience. However, we will ensure this is in a secure environment.

In addition, special categories of personal data such as data about your health and criminal convictions may be collected and processed on a consent, public interest or legal claims and judicial acts basis if this is necessary for the purpose of providing our services.

If you provide us with personal data about other people, for example; family members you wish to act on your behalf, we expect you to ensure that they know you are doing so, and they are content with their information being provided to us.

If you use the chat function on any of our websites, your discussion will be captured by our third-party web chat provider, and retained by them for a short period of time and by us, as necessary.

We may record or monitor calls for training purposes, to improve the quality of our service and to prevent and detect fraud. We may also use CCTV recording equipment in and around our premises.

The type of data we collect and specific use of this data is outlined below dependent on the services we are providing to you. This is not an exhaustive list:

Legal services

If we are acting for you in legal proceedings, providing one of our services to you or processing your data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, the personal data we will collect may include your name, current, previous addresses, date of birth, contact details including telephone number and email address, and possibly information relating to your financial circumstances. If you are instructing us in a business capacity, we may collect information relating to your business and employees including names, addresses, business telephone numbers and business email addresses.

Information we collect from third parties

We may also collect information about you from third parties that are lawfully entitled to share your data with us. This may include your letting agent, insurer, broker, and any credit referencing agencies where you have instructed us to act for you and we are required to carry out identity and address checks to satisfy our professional obligations.

Overview of personal data we may collect

In addition to the above and as an overview, we have grouped together the personal data that we may collect, use, store, and transfer as follows:

  • Identity Data includes, your first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth, gender, whether you have been subject to any County Court judgments or Individual Voluntary Arrangements, details of any bankruptcies and insolvencies, National Insurance number, bank details, passport number, credit or debit card details and voice recordings (where recorded during a telephone call with us).
  • Contact Data includes residential address, previous addresses, e-mail address and telephone numbers.
  • Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details.
  • Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
  • Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, 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 this website.
  • Profile Data includes your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
  • Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services.
  • Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the services or contract we have or are trying to enter into with you. For example, if you fail to provide us with your full name and residential address, we will not be able to act on your behalf.

Legal claims and judicial acts

Where we are processing your data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, the purpose of the processing is to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. ‘Legal claims’ in this context is not limited to current legal proceedings. It includes processing necessary for:

  • actual or prospective court proceedings;
  • obtaining legal advice; or
  • establishing, exercising or defending legal rights in any other way.

Fraud prevention agencies data usage

Before we provide services, goods or financing to you, we undertake checks for the purposes of preventing fraud and money laundering, and to verify your identity. These checks require us to process personal data about you.

The personal data you have provided, we have collected from you, or we have received from third parties will be used to prevent fraud and money laundering, and to verify your identity.

Details of the personal information that will be processed include, for example: name, address, date of birth, contact details, financial information, employment details, device identifiers including IP address and vehicle details.

We and fraud prevention agencies may also enable law enforcement agencies to access and use your personal data to detect, investigate and prevent crime.

We process your personal data on the basis that we have a legitimate interest in preventing fraud and money laundering, and to verify identity, in order to protect our business and to comply with laws that apply to us. Such processing is also a contractual requirement of the services or financing you have requested. In addition we process data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Fraud prevention agencies can hold your personal data for different periods of time, and if you are considered to pose a fraud or money laundering risk, your data can be held for up to six years.

Consequences of processing

If we, or a fraud prevention agency, determine that you pose a fraud or money laundering risk, we may refuse to provide the services or financing you have requested, or to employ you, or we may stop providing existing services to you. A record of any fraud or money laundering risk will be retained by the fraud prevention agencies, and may result in others refusing to provide services, financing or employment to you. If you have any questions about this, please don’t hesitate to contact us (see above).

Data transfers

Whenever fraud prevention agencies transfer your personal data outside of the European Economic Area, they impose contractual obligations on the recipients of that data to protect your personal data to the standard required in the European Economic Area. They may also require the recipient to subscribe to ‘international frameworks’ intended to enable secure data sharing.

How do we look after personal data?

We only collect personal data that is required for the purposes of providing our service, as described above. We restrict, secure and control all of the data we hold, against unauthorised access, damage, loss or destruction; whether physical or electronic. We retain personal data only for as long as is necessary to perform the functions above and to respond to your requests, or longer if required by law, or if we need to retain the data to perform a contract. In practice this means that we retain data for seven years after the end of a service. This allows us to retain accurate records of transactions and allows these records to be used in any potential legal claims or complaints from any party in the contract.

Whilst in our possession, together with your assistance, we try to maintain the accuracy of your personal data.

If we retain your personal data for historical or statistical purposes, we will ensure that the personal data is anonymised and cannot be used for any other purpose

How can you access your personal data?

You have the right to request access to any of your personal data we may hold. If any of that information is incorrect, you can request that we change it. If we are not using your information correctly, you can request that we stop using it or that we delete it completely.

Some of our platforms may provide automatic quotes and decisions. In these cases, you always have the ability to contact our customer services team or Data Protection Officer (details above) to request a review of a decision.

If you would like to make a request to see what personal data of yours we hold, you may make a request to our Data Protection Officer using the details above.

Where we have asked for your consent to use your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. If you withdraw your consent, we will stop using your personal data where legally possible. Any processing undertaken before your withdrawal remains valid and lawful.

Changes to our privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review, and we will place any updates on our web site. This privacy notice is version 1.00

Our supervisory authority

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), contact details below:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Web: https://ico.org.uk/

LAST UPDATED: 07/07/2022

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