Privacy Policy

1.1 We take your privacy very 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, your rights in relation to your personal information and on how to contact us and supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

1.2 When we use your personal data we are regulated under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). We are also subject to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) in relation to services we offer to any individuals in the European Economic Area (EEA).

1.3 We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal data for the purposes of the UK GDPR and EU GDPR. Our use of your personal data is subject to your instructions, the UK GDPR and EU GDPR, other relevant UK and EU legislation and our professional duty of confidentiality.

The table below sets out the personal data we will or may collect in the course of dealing with your enquiry and then advising and/or acting for you.

• Your name, address and telephone number
• Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, e.g. your date of birth or passport details
• Electronic contact details, e.g. your email address and mobile phone number
• Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation
• Information to enable us to undertake a credit or other financial checks on you
• Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions, e.g. the source of your funds if you are instructing on a purchase transaction
• Information about your use of our IT, communication and other systems, and other monitoring information, e.g. if using our secure online client portal

• Your National Insurance and tax details
• Your bank and/or building society details
• Details of your professional online presence e.g. LinkedIn profile
• Details of your spouse/partner and dependants or other family members, e.g. if you instruct us on a family matter or a Will
• Your employment status and details including salary and benefits, where relevant, records relating to sickness and attendance, performance, disciplinary, conduct and grievances e.g. if you instruct us on a matter related to your employment or in which your employment status or income is relevant
• Details of your financial situation e.g. if we are giving you investment advice
• Details of your pension arrangements, e.g. if you instruct us on a pension matter or in relation to financial arrangements following the breakdown of a relationship
• Your racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs, e.g. if you instruct us on a discrimination claim
• Your trade union membership, e.g. if you instruct us on discrimination claim or your matter is funded by a trade union
• Your medical records, e.g. if we are acting for you in a personal injury claim; or giving you investment advice

This personal data is required to enable us to provide our service to you. If you do not provide the personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing services to you.

We collect most of this information from you, direct or via our secure online client portal. However, we may also collect information:

4.1 from publicly accessible sources, e.g. Companies House or HM Land Registry;

4.2 directly from a third party, e.g.

4.2.1 HM Home Office Sanctions screening providers;

4.2.2 credit reference agencies;

4.2.3 client due diligence providers;

4.3 from a third party with your consent, e.g.

4.3.1 your bank or building society, another financial institution or adviser;

4.3.2 consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to your matter;

4.3.3 your employer and/or trade union, professional body or pension administrators;

4.3.4 your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals;

4.4 via our website—

4.4.1 when you contact us through our online enquiry and subscription forms and live chat facilities.

4.4.2 When you use our website for acquiring information including but without limitation conveyancing quotations

4.4.3 Website links – our website may contain links to other websites. Please note that we are not responsible for the privacy practice of such other websites and advise you to read the privacy statements of each website you visit which collects personal data;

4.5 via our information technology (IT) systems, e.g.

4.5.1 case management, document management and time recording systems;

4.5.2 door entry systems and reception logs;

4.5.3 automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, CCTV and access control systems, communications systems, email and instant messaging systems;

4.5.4 telephone recording by us

5.1 Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so, e.g.

5.1.1 to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;

5.1.2 to facilitate the performance of our contract with you, to deal with your enquiry or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;

5.1.3 for our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or

5.1.4 where you have given consent.

5.2 A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

5.3 The table below explains what we use (process) your personal data for and our reasons for doing so:

5.4 This table explains what, in addition to the above, we use (process) your special category personal data for and our reasons for doing so:

6.1 We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about legal developments that might be of interest to you and/or information about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services or products.

6.2 We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data for promotional purposes (see above ‘How and why we use your personal data’). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you promotional communications. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.

6.3 We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never share it with other organisations outside our group for marketing purposes unless you have specifically consented to this.

6.4 You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by:-

6.4.1 emailing us

6.4.2 using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in emails you receive from us or ‘STOP’ number in texts

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or structure of our business.

7.1 We routinely share personal data with:-

7.1.1 professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, e.g. barristers, medical professionals, accountants, tax advisors or other experts;

7.1.2 other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions e.g. your mortgage provider or HM Land Registry in the case of a property transaction or Companies House;

7.1.3 our group companies;

7.1.4 credit reference agencies;

7.1.5 our insurers and brokers;

7.1.6 external auditors, e.g. in relation to accreditations and the audit of our accounts;

7.1.7 our bank;

7.1.8 external service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient, e.g. typing services, support services, marketing agencies, document collation or analysis suppliers;

7.2 We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.

7.3 We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

7.4 We may also need to share some personal data with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a re-structuring. Usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

8.1 Information may be held at our offices and those of our Group, third-party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see ‘Who we share your personal data with’).

8.2 Some of these third parties may be based outside the European Economic Area. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal data when this occurs, see below: ‘Transferring your personal data out of the EEA’.

9.1 We will keep your personal data after we have finished dealing with your enquiry, advising or acting for you. We will do so for one of these reasons:-

9.1.1 to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;

9.1.2 to show that we treated you fairly;

9.1.3 to keep records required by law.

9.2 We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data.

9.3 For the avoidance of doubt, any personal data obtained solely to comply with anti-money laundering legislation and regulations may be used for any or all of the purposes outlined in paragraph 5 above and may be held for such period as our Terms and Conditions provide to which you have expressly or impliedly consented in accordance with those Terms and Conditions.

9.4 When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.

10.1 To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside the UK and/or European Economic Area (EEA), e.g.

10.1.1 with your and our service providers located outside the UK and or EEA;

10.1.2 if you are based outside the EEA;

10.1.3 where there is an international dimension to the matter in which we are advising you.

10.2 These transfers are subject to special rules under European and UK data protection laws.

10.3 Under data protection laws, we can only transfer your personal data to a country outside the UK/EEA where:

10.3.1 In the case of transfers subject to UK data protection law, the UK government has decided the particular country ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (known as an ‘“adequacy regulation”’) further to Article 45 of the UK GDPR. A list of countries the UK currently has adequacy regulations in relation to is available on application. We rely on adequacy regulations for transfers to the countries in the EEA and some others.

10.3.2 In the case of transfers subject to EEA data protection laws, the European Commission has decided that the particular country ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (known as an ‘“adequacy decision”’) further to Article 45 of the EU GDPR. A list of countries the European Commission has currently made adequacy decisions in relation to is available on application.

10.3.3 There are appropriate safeguards in place, together with enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for you; or​ a specific exception applies under relevant data protection law.

10.4 Where we transfer your personal data outside the UK, we do so on the basis of an adequacy regulation or (where this is not available) where legally-approved standard data protection clauses recognised or issued further to Article 46(2) of the UK GDPR are in place. In the event we cannot or choose not to continue to rely on either of those mechanisms at any time, we will not transfer your personal data outside the UK unless we can do so on the basis of an alternative mechanism or exception provided by the UK data protection law and reflected in an update to this policy.

10.5 Where we transfer your personal data outside the EEA we do so on the basis of an adequacy decision or (where this is not available) legally-approved standard data protection clauses issued further to Article 46(2) of the EU GDPR are in place. In the event we cannot or choose not to continue to rely on either of those mechanisms at any time, we will not transfer your personal data outside the EEA unless we can do so on the basis of an alternative mechanism or exception provided by applicable data protection law and reflected in an update to this policy.

10.6 Any changes to the destinations to which we send personal data or in the transfer mechanisms we rely on to transfer personal data internationally will be notified to you in accordance with the section on ‘Changes to this privacy policy’ below.

You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us or 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 those rights, please:-

11.1 Make a written data subject request

11.2 Email, call or write to us and in either case ensure you:

11.2.1 let us have enough information to identify you g. your full name, address and client or matter reference number);

11.2.2 let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill); and

11.2.3 let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.

12.1 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.

12.2 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.

12.3 If you want detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your computers and devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and many other online problems, please visit www.getsafeonline.org. Get Safe Online is supported by HM Government and leading businesses.

13.1 We hope that our Privacy Standards Team can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information.

13.2 The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authoring in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or by telephone: 0303 123 1113.

14.1 This privacy notice was published in January 2023.

14.2 We may change this privacy notice from time to time. You should check this policy occasionally to ensure you are aware of the most recent version.

15.1 Please contact our Data Protection Officer if you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information, we hold about you.

15.2 Contact details are as follows:

By email: info@rmzlaw.co.uk

By letter:

Data Protection Officer
RMZ Law Offices
Highlands House Offices
165 The Broadway
Wimbledon
SW19 1NE

By Phone: 020 8138 3898 – ask for the Data Protection Officer

If you would like this notice in another format (for example, audio, large print, braille) please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ above).