Pearl & Coutts Privacy Notice
Effective Date: April 3, 2018
This Notice provides information about data we collect, use, and share, and our commitment to using the personal data we collect in a respectful fashion.
• Privacy Notice Overview
• Why Do We Collect Information and Data?
• What Kinds of Personal Information Do We Collect?
• How Do We Collect Information?
• How Do We Use Personal Information?
• When Do We Share Personal Information?
• What Security Measures Do We Have?
• What Choices Do You Have About Your Personal Information?
• Data Retention
• Children’s Privacy
• Contact Us
We at Pearl & Coutts Limited care deeply about privacy and security. This Privacy Notice (“Notice”) is designed to inform you about how we collect, use, and share your personal information.
This Privacy Notice applies to personal information we obtain from individuals through our application forms, website and other business activities (collectively, the “Services").
In applying to rent property from Pearl & Coutts Limited, you acknowledge that you have read this Notice and understand its contents. Your use of our Services and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Notice (including any applicable limitations on damages and the resolution of disputes).
As laws and regulations change our business changes too and we may update this Notice, at any time as we deem appropriate to reflect those changes. Where the changes are material, we will post them here in advance and, if the changes are likely to affect you personally, we will also attempt to contact you directly (such as via email if we have your email address). It is important that you check back from time to time and make sure that you have reviewed the most current version of this Notice on our website www.pearl-coutts.co.uk/privacy
Who we are?
Pearl & Coutts Limited is a commercial property agent
We are a registered company and our registration number is 00846950. The company’s registered address is 3rd Floor, 9 White Lion Street, London N1 9PD
For more information on Pearl & Coutts see our website: www.pearl-coutts.co.uk.
Why Do We Collect Information and Data?
We rely on a wide variety of information to run our business. In some instances, this information may include data that could be used to identify a particular individual, otherwise referred to as Personal Information. In this Notice, we will provide multiple examples of how Personal Information we collect may be used and why it is important. For example, when a consumer rents property from us we must collect, among other things, their name, email address, and payment information to complete the application. Some of the reasons that we collect Personal Information include:
• To contact you
• To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with the information and services which you request from us
• To notify you about changes to our service
• To verify your identity
• To provide customer support
• To comply with the requirements imposed by law or any court order
• To investigate, respond to, and manage enquiries or events
• Work with and respond to law enforcement and regulators
What Personal Information Do We Collect?
The following are examples of the type of Personal Information that may be collected. The specific kind of information collected will depend on the Services used, this may include, but is not limited to:
Renting Commercial Property
• Company Name
• Company Address (Trading and Registered)
• Company Registration
• Shareholders and Directors information including names, passport, home address
• Guarantor details
• Business bank account details and copies of bank statements
• Insurance certificates and regulations.
Renting Residential Property
• Contact information (such as name, email address, mailing address, and phone number);
• Payment information (including payment card numbers, billing address, and bank account information);
• Guarantors
• Bank details
• Previous rental information
• Internal credit sanity check
• Bank references and registration details
• Passport details for right to rent
• Job title
• Salary
How Do We Collect Information?
We collect information directly from you, we do not use third-party services for collection of personal information.
Information That You Give Us: Typically the information we collect directly from you is your contact details, payment or billing data, and relationship information like the content of customer service requests that you initiate. You decide how much information to share with us in most cases, but not sharing required information may limit your ability to engage in certain activities.
How Do We Use Personal Information?
We use Personal Information for other business purposes, including to:
• Establish and manage Pearl & Coutts accounts
• Collect and process payments and complete transactions
• Provide customer support, manage subscriptions, and respond to requests, questions, and comments
• Perform accounting, auditing, billing, reconciliation, and collection activities
• Prevent, detect, identify, investigate, respond, and protect against potential or actual claims, liabilities, prohibited behaviour, and criminal activity
• Comply with and enforce applicable legal requirements, agreements, and policies
• Perform other activities consistent with this Notice
Our legal basis for processing your information will generally be one or more of the following:
• it is necessary for the performance of a contract: where we have a contract with you or a third party on your behalf, we will process your information in order to fulfil that contract and provide you with our services;
• it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation such as the Right To Rent Act;
• it is in our legitimate interests: for example for running our business lawfully, managing our relationship with you, ensuring the safety of our property and clients and the prevention and detection of fraud, crime prevention; and
• we have your consent. If we require your consent, it will be made clear at the time your information is collected
Disclosure of your information
Pearl & Coutts will only use the information within the organisation for the purposes for which it was obtained. We will not under any circumstances, share or sell your data with any third party for their own purposes, and you will not receive marketing from any other companies or organisations as a result of giving your details to us.
From time to time it may be necessary to share your information with selected third parties, including but not limited to:
• Suppliers and sub-contractors, for the performance of any repairs maintenance or services relating to your rental property
• Local Authorities, for accurate collection of Council Taxes
• Utility Providers, for collection of Water, Gas and Electricity Charges
• Law Enforcement
• Third-party debt collection service providers
• Deposit Protection
These “data processors” will only act under our instruction and are subject to contractual obligations containing strict data protection clauses. We do not allow these organisations to use your data for their own purposes or disclose it to other third parties without our consent and we will take all reasonable care to ensure that they keep your data secure.
We may disclose your information to third parties:
• In the event that we buy or sell any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets;
• If Pearl & Coutts Limited or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its clients will be one of its transferred assets;
• If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property or safety of Pearl & Coutts Limited, our clients, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud and crime prevention.
Where we store your information?
The information we collect from or about you is stored and held solely in the United Kingdom. No personal data, whether physical on paper, of in the form of electronic data is stored or transferred outside of the UK. Pearl & Coutts Limited will take reasonable steps to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the GDPR.
Once we have received your information we will use strict procedures and security features to prevent unauthorised access.
What Security Measures Do We Have?
We use administrative, organizational, technical, and physical safeguards to protect the Personal Information we collect and process. Our security controls are designed to maintain an appropriate level of data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. We regularly test our website, data centres, systems, and other assets for security vulnerabilities.
Pearl & Coutts handles payment card data in a manner consistent with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS).
How Long do we Keep Your Data?
We will hold your personal data in our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity. These purposes are laid out in the section “How we will use your information”.
Your information will be held for at least six years for legal, regulatory and accounting purposes and thereafter for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes at: How we use your information.
Children’s Privacy
Pearl & Coutts Limited never obtain personal information relating to children.
Your rights relating to your personal data
There are specific rights enshrined in law that you have around your data. These rights are:
• Informed – you have the right to be informed about what data we hold and for what purpose
• Access – you have the right to have access to your personal data
• Rectification – you have the right to have your personal data corrected or removed if it is inaccurate
• Erasure – you have the right to have your personal data deleted from our systems
• Restrict processing – you have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data
• Right of objection – you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data for communications and marketing
• Portability – you have the right to have your personal data transferred
• Withdraw consent – where you have provided consent to process your personal data you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time
• Complain – you have the right to complain to the regulator and/or seek judicial remedy if your data has not been treated in accordance with the law
We will respond to you within one month of receiving a request related to anyone of the above rights unless the number and complexity of the requests made is deemed sufficiently high in which case we may extend this time by a further two months. We will inform you if we need to make use of this additional time and why we need to do so.
We will not charge you for responding to any of these requests unless it can be demonstrated that you are making an excessive number of repetitive requests or that your request is not based on fact or realistic considerations. In such exceptional cases we may charge you a reasonable fee or choose to refuse your request.
If you disagree with our approach you may raise your concerns with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.
To assist us in responding to these requests, we may ask you to verify your identity to make sure we do not give your personal data to the wrong person, update your data with details you did not provide or take action you did not request.
Right to be Informed
Pearl & Coutts has published this Privacy Notice along with additional notices when we collect personal data from you to explain what personal data we collect and process. We aim to be as open and transparent as possible about how we use your personal data.
Right of Access
You have the right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal data please email to privacy@pearl-coutts.co.uk; or by writing to: Personal Information Protection Manager, Pearl & Coutts Limited. The ICO provides additional information on how to request your data with a template which you may find helpful.
Right of Rectification
It is important to us that the information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. If you believe that the information we hold is inaccurate or incomplete you have the right to ask us to rectify it. To request the rectification of your data please email to privacy@pearl-coutts.co.uk; or by writing to: Personal Information Protection Manager, Pearl & Coutts Limited with details of your request.
Right of Erasure
This is sometimes referred to as the “Right to be forgotten”. You can request that we delete your personal data from our systems if you:
• Believe the data is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected
• Withdraw your consent (subject to the requirement for us to retain data to process your request)
• Believe we have processed your data unlawfully
• Believe we should delete your data to comply with other laws or regulation.
We may choose to refuse your request if we believe:
• We have a legal obligation to keep your data
• It is required for the legitimate interests and purposes of Pearl & Coutts
• It is required for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims
To request the erasure of your data please email to privacy@pearl-coutts.co.uk; or by writing to: Personal Information Protection Manager, Pearl & Coutts Limited with details of your request.
Right of Restriction
You have the right to ask Pearl & Coutts to restrict how we process your data. This provides for a temporary halt to processing your data. You may make the request if you believe that
• We should not process your data whilst we are in discussions with you regarding a disagreement over the accuracy of your personal data, or;
• We have processed your data in a manner you believe to be unlawful but rather than asking for the erasure of the data you would prefer another course of action to rectify your issue, or;
• We no longer require the data but you do not wish us to dispose of it as you require it to establish or defend a legal claim
If such as restriction is put in place we shall limit the processing of your data to storage with the following exceptions
• Where the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims
• We must process it to protect the rights of another person
To request the restriction of processing of your data please email to privacy@pearl-coutts.co.uk; or by writing to: Personal Information Protection Manager, Pearl & Coutts Limited with details of your request.
Right of Objection
You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data.
If your data is being used for direct marketing purposes you have the right at any time to stop us from contacting you as outlined in this notice.
We may reject your request
• Where we are processing data for research and statistical purposes where there is a public interest in the continued processing of the data
• Where we believe we have compelling legitimate grounds for continuing to process your data which outweighs any harm or damage to you through the continued processing of the data
• Where the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims
To object to the processing of your data please email to privacy@pearl-coutts.co.uk; or by writing to: Personal Information Protection Manager, Pearl & Coutts Limited with details of your request.
Right of Portability
Pearl & Coutts must allow you to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes. This applies to personal data you have provided to us and is processed in our computer systems. You can request that we provide you with a copy of this data in a format that can be read by another person’s or organisation’s computer system.
You have the right to transfer that copy of your data to another organisation or request that we do it for you where it is technically feasible for us to do so.
This right of transfer can be refused where we feel it may adversely affect the rights of another person.
To request the transfer of your data please email to privacy@pearl-coutts.co.uk; or by writing to: Personal Information Protection Manager, Pearl & Coutts Limited with details of your request.
Right to withdraw consent
Where we rely on your consent for the processing of your data you have the right to change your mind and withdraw your consent at any time. If you withdraw your consent we must stop processing your data.
To withdraw your consent for processing your data please email to privacy@pearl-coutts.co.uk; or by writing to: Personal Information Protection Manager, Pearl & Coutts Limited with details of your request.
Right to Complain
You have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if:
• We do not take action on your request within one month of receipt and do not provide you with reasons why
• You believe that the way we are processing your data is not in keeping with the requirements of the law
• You believe your rights have been infringed because of the way we have processed your data
Please see the following section for contact information.
How to contact us or raise a concern or complaint
Contacting Pearl & Coutts
If you have any concerns about how your personal data is being collected and processed, or wish to exercise any of your rights detailed in this Privacy Notice please contact:
Personal Information Protection Manager
3rd Floor
9 White Lion Street
London N1 9PD
Email: privacy@pearl-coutts.co.uk
Telephone: 020 7843 3788
Contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office
If you have wider concerns about how Pearl & Coutts manages information or wish to make a complaint please contact the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).
The ICO can be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/.
Concerns can also be logged via the ICO website https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.
Future changes
If our information practices change at some point in the future we will update this policy. If material changes are made to this notice we will notify you by placing a prominent notice on the website and where we communicate with you through digital media..
We keep our Privacy Notice under regular review. This Privacy Notice was last updated on 01/06/2018
