Privacy Policy
What is this Privacy Policy for?
This privacy policy is for this website and served by The Housing Claims which is a panel of seven solicitors governing the privacy of the users who choose to use it.
The policy sets out the different areas where user privacy is concerned and outlines the obligations & requirements of the users, the website and website owners. Furthermore, the way this website processes, stores and protects user data and information will also be detailed within this policy.
This privacy policy also sets out the generic rights of individuals who retain the services of The Housing Claims.
Contact & Communication
Users can use this website and contact its owners by completing a webform with their personal details. This website and its owners will use any information submitted to contact you in relation to your enquiry. Personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer required. Every effort has been made to ensure a safe and secure form to the email submission process.
Where you separately opt-in to receiving information about our services, our legal basis for processing your personal data is Consent. You may withdraw your consent at any time and without any detriment to us providing you with legal services. We do not pass your personal details to any other person, agency or organisation for any reason.
Providing Legal Services
Where you have retained The Housing Claims solicitors to provide legal services, personal information which you supply to us will only be used to fulfil our contractual obligation to you in providing those legal services.
It is necessary for us to pass your personal data to other organisations to provide you with legal services. Examples of such organisations are for document signing, barristers, medical agencies, medical experts, courts, surveyors, government agencies and defendants such as insurance companies, local authorities, landlords or solicitors. We have to do so to comply with statutory legislation and court procedures.
Our website also collects digital information including computer and software hardware that is automatically detected and gathered by our website. This information includes; IP addresses, search engines, used, access times and computer software used. This information helps us to understand our audience demographic better, allowing us to tailor our business practices and services to the information we obtain. We will under no circumstances share this information outside of our group with the lone exception of our marketing agency for the sole purpose of analysing our social media spending.
Our legal basis for processing your personal data to provide you with legal services is jointly Contract and Legal Obligation.
We retain personal data for 6 years from the date we close your claim, except where data relates to a child or where it has been lodged with us for safekeeping.
We do not provide your personal information to any other person, organisation or agency for any other purpose, other than as described above. We do not use personal data to automate individual decision-making or profiling.
Individual Rights
You may request a copy of the personal data we hold on you. We would normally provide this information to you, usually at no charge and within 30 days, or refuse and explain why.
You may request that personal data is rectified where it is inaccurate or incomplete. You may also request that personal data processing is restricted. We would normally rectify this information, usually at no charge and within 30 days, or refuse and explain why.
You may request that personal data is erased, although this right is not absolute and applies in certain circumstances. We would normally consider this request, usually at no charge and within 30 days, or refuse and explain why. We may also extend the period to respond by a further two months if the request is complex.
You may object to the use of personal data, although this right is not absolute and applies in certain circumstances.
You may request that personal data is provided electronically or transferred, although this right is not absolute and applies in certain circumstances. We would normally consider this request, usually at no charge and within 30 days, or refuse and explain why.
Where a request is made we would normally deal with it at no charge, except where a request was unfounded or excessive, where we would request a reasonable fee.
The Website
This website and its owners take a proactive approach to user privacy and ensure the necessary steps are taken to protect the privacy of its users throughout their visiting experience. This website complies with all UK national laws and requirements for user privacy.
Use of Cookies
This website uses cookies to make the user experience better while visiting the website. Where applicable this website uses a cookie control system allowing the user on their first visit to the website to allow or disallow the use of cookies on their computer / device. This complies with recent legislation requirements for websites to obtain explicit consent from users before leaving behind or reading files such as cookies on a user’s computer / device.
Cookies are small files saved to the user’s computer’s hard drive that track, save and store information about the user’s interactions and usage of the website. This allows the website, through its server to provide the users with a tailored experience within this website. Users are advised that if they wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website on to their computers hard drive they should take necessary steps within their web browsers security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors.
This website uses tracking software to monitor its visitors to better understand how they use it. This software is provided by Google Analytics which uses cookies to track visitor usage. The software will save a cookie to your computer’s hard drive in order to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website, but will not store, save or collect personal information. You can read Google’s privacy policy here for further information [http://www.google.com/privacy.html ].
Other cookies may be stored to your computer’s hard drive by external vendors when this website uses referral programs, sponsored links or adverts. Such cookies are used for conversion and referral tracking and typically expire after 30 days, though some may take longer. No personal information is stored, saved or collected.
Adverts and Sponsored Links
This website may contain sponsored links and adverts. These will typically be served through our advertising partners, who may have detailed privacy policies relating directly to the adverts they serve.
Clicking on any such adverts will send you to the advertiser’s website through a referral program which may use cookies and will track the number of referrals sent from this website. This may include the use of cookies which may in turn be saved on your computer’s hard drive. Users should therefore note they click on sponsored external links at their own risk and this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.
Social Media Platforms
Communication, engagement and actions taken through external social media platforms that this website and its owners participate on are custom to the terms and conditions as well as the privacy policies held with each social media platform respectively.
Users are advised to use social media platforms wisely and communicate / engage upon them with due care and caution in regard to their own privacy and personal details. This website or its owners will never ask for personal or sensitive information through social media platforms and encourage users wishing to discuss sensitive details to contact them through primary communication channels such as by telephone or email.
This website may use social sharing buttons which help share web content directly from web pages to the social media platform in question. Users are advised before using such social sharing buttons that they do so at their own discretion and note that the social media platform may track and save your request to share a web page respectively through your social media platform account.
Shortened Links in Social Media
This website and its owners through their social media platform accounts may share web links to relevant web pages. By default, some social media platforms shorten lengthy URLs [web addresses].
Users are advised to take caution and good judgement before clicking any shortened URLs published on social media platforms by this website and its owners. Despite the best efforts to ensure only genuine URLs are published many social media platforms are prone to spam and hacking and therefore this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any shortened links.
