Cookie Policy

What Are Cookies

Cookies are tiny files that are downloaded to your computer to improve your experience, and are stored inside your browser. Most sites on the internet use cookies to enable features and functionality which would not be possible without them.

This page describes how this site uses cookies and why they are needed. This page also describes how you can prevent these cookies from being stored, however please note that this will prevent certain elements of the site from working correctly.

For more general information on cookies see Wikipedia’s article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie

How We Use Cookies

We use cookies for a variety of reasons detailed below. There are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without completely disabling the functionality and features they add to this site. It is recommended that you allow all cookies on this site if you are not sure whether you need them or not.

We do not use cookies to collect or store your personal information.

Disabling Cookies

You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser. Be aware that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites that you visit. Disabling cookies will result in also disabling certain functionality and features of this site. Therefore, it is recommended that you do not disable cookies.

If you still wish to disable cookies, information on doing so can be found on the following sites:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/196955 - Cookie settings in Internet Explorer

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Cookies - Cookie settings in Firefox

http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95647 - Cookie settings in Chrome

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Safari/3.0/en/9277.html - Cookie settings in Safari

The Cookies We Set

Google Analytics

This site uses Google Analytics which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solutions on the web. This helps us to understand how you use the site and provides us insight into ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to optimise and improve the site over time.

Google Analytics does not store any personal information; we’re able to see statistical information on how this site is used, but we are not able to relate that information to a specific person or device.

Data is retained in Google Analytics for 26 months, and is not shared with any third parties.

For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the official Google Analytics page.

Privacy Policy

Introduction and General Terms

This website is operated by Premier Property Lawyers Limited, a registered company in England and Wales under company number 03130071 and with our registered office at 1 Frances Way, Grove Park, Enderby, Leicester, LE19 1SH (“PPL”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this policy).

PPL is committed to complying with the UK’s Data Protection law and the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) for the protection of personal data, as well as the principles of data security in the configuration of our service. Where we decide the purpose and means for which personal data you supply through this website is processed, we are the “data controller.”

If you have any questions or comments about this privacy policy or how we use your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer:

The Data Protection Officer
Premier Property Lawyers Limited
1 Frances Way
Grove Park
Enderby
Leicester
LE19 1SH
Email: DataProtection@premierpropertylawyers.com

This privacy policy relates to our use of any personal information you provide to us through this website and any other electronic communications networks such as emails, social media, web chat, SMS etc.

The types of personal data we collect and use

Customers

Whether or not you become a customer of PPL, we may use your personal data for the reasons set out below. If you become a customer PPL will use it to either provide the conveyancing services to you or to fulfil our contract with you. PPL will collect most of the data directly but information collected both directly and indirectly are mentioned in this statement.

• Full name and personal details including contact information (e.g. work and home address, email addresses, telephone numbers (home and work), job title and company details and comments);
• IP address/location.
• Personal data about other individuals involved in the transaction. You must have their authority to provide their personal data to us and share this data protection statement with them beforehand.

Providing your personal data

We will tell you if providing some personal data is optional, including asking for your consent to process it. In all other cases you must provide your personal data to enable PPL to provide services to you.

Monitoring of communications

Subject to applicable laws, we may monitor and record your calls, emails, text messages, social media messages and other communications in relation to your dealings with us. PPL will do this for regulatory compliance, for self-regulatory practices, crime prevention and detection, to protect the security of our communication systems and procedures, to check for obscene or profane content, for quality control and staff training. PPL also monitors activities on your file where necessary for these reasons and this is justified by PPL's legitimate interests and legal obligations.

Using your personal data: the legal basis and purposes

PPL processes your personal data for the following reasons:

1. As necessary to perform its contract with you for the relevant conveyancing service:
   (a) To take steps at your request prior to entering into it;
   (b) To allow you to decide whether to enter into it;
   (c) To manage and perform that contract;
   (d) To update your records; and
2. As necessary for PPL’s own legitimate interests or those of other persons and organisations, for example:
   (a) For good governance, accounting and managing and auditing of our business operations;
   (b) To monitor emails, calls, other communications, and activities on on the website;
   (c) For market research, analysis and developing statistics;
   (d) To send you marketing communications;
   (e) To monitor the progress of the Conveyancing service provided to you; and
   (f) To enable satisfaction surveys to be conducted.
3. As necessary to comply with a legal obligation, for example:
   (a) When you exercise your rights under data protection law and make requests;
   (b) For compliance with legal and regulatory requirements and related disclosures;
   (c) For establishment and defence of legal claims;
   (d) For activities in relation to the prevention, detection, and investigation of crime;
   (e) To monitor emails, calls, other communications, and activities.
4. Based on your consent, for example:
   (a) When you request PPL to disclose your personal data to other people or organisations, such as a company handling a claim on your behalf, or otherwise agree to disclosures;
   (b) When PPL process any special categories of personal data about you at your request (e.g. your biometric data, data concerning your health); and
   (c) To send you marketing communications where we have asked for your consent to do so.

Please note that you are free at any time to change your mind and withdraw your consent. The consequence might be that we cannot do certain things for you.

Sharing of your personal data

Subject to applicable data protection laws we may share your data with:

• The Simplify group of companies which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries.
• Sub-contractors and other persons who help us provide the website, conveyancing service and quote;
• Companies and other persons providing services to us;
• Our rewards provider e.g. my rewards.
• Our legal and other professional advisors, including our auditors and insurers;
• Courts, to comply with legal requirements, and for the administration of justice;
• In an emergency or to otherwise protect vital interests;
• To third parties in order to protect the security or integrity of our business operations;
• To third parties when we restructure or sell our business or its assets or re-organise or merge;
• Market research organisations who help to improve our services;
• Anyone else where we have your consent or as required by law.

How you use our website (analytics)

You can visit our website without giving away your personal information. PPL uses Google Analytics and Cookies in order to improve our service, user experience and analyse how the website is used. Aside from the approximate location (IP address), the information collected by Google Analytics is mostly anonymous traffic data including browser information, device information, language.

We do not collect additional information, such as your age, gender, interests or bank details. We use cookies to profile some of the data we collect to enable us to test and analyse how audiences interact with the PPL website and to make informed decisions about how to provide a better experience for visitors to our website.

International transfers

Your personal data may be transferred outside of the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA). While some countries have adequate protection for personal data under applicable laws, in other countries steps will be necessary to ensure appropriate safeguards apply to it. These include imposing contractual obligations of adequacy or requiring the recipient to subscribe or be certified with an ‘international framework’ of protection. Where we transfer your personal data outside of the UK and EEA appropriate safeguards will be put in place to protect that data. Further details can be obtained by emailing DataProtection@premierpropertylawyers.com.

What if I am aged 18 or under?

If you are aged 18 or under please get your parent/guardian’s prior permission whenever you provide personal information through the website. Users without this consent are not allowed to provide us with personal information. Please note that individuals under 18 are unable to purchase a property in the United Kingdom.

Direct Marketing Communications

If you have chosen to opt-in to our direct marketing communications, we will use your information to tell you about products and services available from us which may be of interest to you. We may also use your information to tell you about products and services we can introduce from selected businesses.

You have a right to opt-out of our direct marketing communications at any time. You can opt out by following the Unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of the communication or by emailing DataProtection@premierpropertylawyers.com.

Links to websites of other providers third parties

Please note that this data privacy policy only applies to PPL and we are not responsible for, and have no control over, information that is submitted to or collected by third parties, such as those where our websites may provide links and banner advertisements to third party sites. Since we do not control those websites, you are responsible for reviewing and abiding by the privacy policies of these third party sites to ensure they comply with the applicable data protection regulations.

We accept no responsibility or liability for the contents of any website to which a links exists and give no representation or warranty as to the information on such websites. We accept not responsibility or liability for any loss arising from any contract entered into with any website to which a link exists.

Survey and Competitions

We will treat any survey or competition information you provide with the same high standard of care as we do all personal data, using any details provided strictly within the terms of the competition and this Privacy Statement.

Cookies

Please refer to our cookie policy for information about cookies, what they are used for and your rights to object to them.

How long will the data be stored for?

Where possible, we will take steps to erase any personal data that is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it is collected or otherwise processed, or if you have withdrawn consent for it’s processing and retention.

The following criteria are used to determine data retention periods for your personal data:

• Retention in accordance with legal and regulatory requirements. PPL will retain your personal data based our legal and regulatory requirements.
• Retention in case of claims: PPL will retain your personal data for as long as you may bring a legal claim.
• Retention in case of queries: PPL will retain your personal data for as long as they are legally able to do so to enable us to deal with any queries you may have.

Your responsibility

It is your responsibility to ensure that your computer is virus protected. We accept no responsibility for any loss you may suffer as a result of accessing and downloading information from this site.

Your rights under applicable data protection law

Your rights are as follows (please note that these rights do not always apply in all circumstances):

• The right to be informed about how we are processing your personal data;
• The right to have your personal data corrected if it is inaccurate and to have incomplete personal data completed;
• The right to object to processing of your personal data;
• The right to restrict processing of your personal data;
• The right to have your personal data erased;
• The right to request access to your personal data and information about how we process it;
• The right to move, copy, transfer your personal data (“data portability”); and
• Rights in relation to automated decision making including profiling.

If you would like to exercise any of the above rights, please contact our Data Protection officer in writing:

Data Protection Officer
Premier Property Lawyers Limited
1 Frances Way,
Grove Park,
Leicester
LE19 1SH
Email: DataProtection@premierpropertylawyers.com

Right to Complain

You have the right to complain about Data Protection to PPL’s supervisory authority the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). It has enforcement powers and can investigate compliance with data protection laws. You can contact the ICO on 0303 123 1113 or by visiting their website: https://ico.org.uk.

Data Anonymisation and aggregation

Your personal data may be converted into statistical or aggregated data which can not be used to identify you, then used to produce statistical research and reports. This aggregated data may be shared and used in all the ways described above.

Group Companies

For more information on the Simplify group companies, please contact DataProtection@premierpropertylawyers.com.

Changes to the Privacy Policy

This policy will be reviewed, and may change, from time to time as a result of further development of our website, changes to legislation or the implementation of new technologies. PPL reserves the right to change this data protection information at any time with effect for the future. The revised policy will be posted to this page so that you are always aware of the information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we disclose it. We therefore recommend you read the current data protection information again from time to time.

Accessibility

Website accessibility

Simplify is committed to providing information and services that are fully accessible to everyone. This website strives to achieve "Double-A" accessibility as set out by the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0).

We are committed to maintaining and monitoring the accessibility of this website. The site is reviewed at regular intervals.

Please contact groupmarketing@simplify.co.uk if you have any problems accessing this site.

Preventing Fraud

You and your property transaction are a potential target for fraud and you MUST protect yourself.

Property transactions are always a potential target for cybercrime and fraudulent activity, such as email hacking, because of the significant amounts of money involved.

How to protect yourself:

• Only ever make payments to the official Premier Property Lawyers Ltd named account with NatWest Bank plc ending 293
• We will NEVER notify you of a change to our bank details by phone, email or text – our bank details will not change during your transaction. Payments by bank transfer will always be made to the same account throughout.
• Check email addresses very carefully and tell us if you think you have been sent an email that is not genuine. Emails from us will be from a team email address or the individual conveyancer and use the domain name: premierpropertylawyers.com
• When you send a payment electronically, check that the account name matches. The account name will always be Premier Property Lawyers Ltd, never anything else. If the account names do not match, do not send the payment without checking with us first.

If in any doubt, contact your conveyancer before transferring any funds!

When we will request a payment:

There are normally three payment touchpoints where you will be asked for a payment during your purchase:

Outset – When you complete and return your Starter Pack, you will be asked to make a payment for Searches. This will be a relatively small payment (under £500) and will be requested at the beginning of your purchase.

Exchange – Only once we have received the contract, received the results of searches, received satisfactory responses to enquiries and received and checked your mortgage offer (if applicable) will we be ready to exchange. At this point only, a deposit of 10% of the purchase price will need to be paid in readiness for exchange.

Completion – Just before the day on which you are to complete your purchase, we will ask you to send us any further moneys needed. We will never ask you to pay this until a completion date has been agreed and is imminent.

If Exchange and Completion are to take place on the same day, or within a few days, we may ask you just to make one payment to cover both the deposit and completion monies.

Remember...

We will NEVER ask you to make the payments to anyone other than us and will only ask you to make payments at these stages or for the reasons described above/on the previous page.

NEVER make a payment towards your property purchase other than to the official Premier Property Lawyers Ltd named account with NatWest Bank plc ending 293.

If in any doubt, contact your conveyancer before transferring any funds!

Top tips:

If you have a related sale case with us, we may be able to use the deposit paid to us on your sale for the deposit on your purchase. If we can, we will not need to ask you to pay deposit moneys, only any balance needed to complete.

Do not send sensitive personal information, such as ID, bank statements or payment instructions, to us by email.

If you use our online client portal eWay, always use eWay to check our bank details if you are unsure of the details or amount to be sent.

Be on the lookout for minor spelling variations in email addresses, e.g.: @premierproppertylawyers.com or @premierspropertylawyers.com

Please keep this information close to hand throughout your purchase, as a reminder of how to spot the signs of fraudulent activity.

Useful contacts

• Premier Property Lawyers - 0345 234 0240
• National Cyber Security Centre www.ncsc.gov.uk
• Action Fraud - 0300 123 204 www.actionfraud.police.uk

Complaints procedure

If you have a concern regarding our service, we will do our best to resolve it with you, so please contact your conveyancer or the conveyancing manager.

Please download our complaints procedure for more information.

If you need to access the services of the Legal Ombudsman, you can do so here: https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk

If you need to make an application for a grant out of the CLC Compensation Fund, you can get further details here: https://www.clc-uk.org/consumers

Media Enquiries

For media enquiries please contact media@simplify.co.uk.