Solicitors Privacy Statement
This is the Privacy Notice of Northern Ireland Co-Ownership Housing Association Limited (Co-Ownership) & its subsidiary OwnCo Homes Limited (Rent to Own). It tells you about the information we collect from you, what we ask others to tell us about you and what we do with your information and who we share it with.
At Co-Ownership & Rent to Own we treat your Data with the highest standards of security and confidentiality, in accordance with Data Protection Law.
When we collect Personal Data, about you and other people this Information will remain strictly confidential.
1. Why do we collect your Personal Data?
When you completed an application for registration to the Co-Ownership & Rent to Own Conveyancing Panel, we asked you to supply information about your firm, including details of your firm’s name and address, the type of legal entity of your firm and registration details thereof, details of storage facilities at your firm, your company or LLP registration number, names of partners, members, company secretary or directors of your firm, the name and email address of the appointed relationship partner, names of individual solicitors within your firm, a copy of the relationship partner’s practising certificate, professional indemnity cover, a current certificate of recognition by the Law Society (if Company or LLP) and your firm’s client account bank details.
We use the information you provide in order to register your firm on the Co-Ownership Conveyancing Panel which allows your firm to carry out conveyancing transactions on behalf of Co-Ownership & Rent to Own.
We may also use the information you supply for research and management information purposes, to help us improve
- our services to you
- the effectiveness and efficiency of our business
- how our managers make decisions, and
- how we look after public funds.
If your firm is selected to act on behalf of Co-ownership & Rent to Own we will use the information you give us in order to administer all aspects of the conveyancing transaction.
2. Consequences of failure to provide Information
If we cannot collect the necessary Information from you, it may make not be possible for your firm to be registered on the Co-Ownership & Rent to Own Conveyancing Panel.
3. The Lawful Grounds for Processing your Information
We process your information for lawful reasons. These are:-
- Legal obligation: this is so that we can comply with certain laws.
- Consent: when you have consented to us processing your information.
- Legitimate interests: this means that the processing is in our Legitimate Interests (We will not prejudice your rights when processing your information for our legitimate interests, but you have a right to object to this processing)
- Criminal Law Enforcement
4. The Purpose of Processing your Information and the associated Lawful Bases
| Why we process your information | The grounds we rely on to do this |
|---|---|
| In order to register your firm on the conveyancing panel | Legal obligation |
| We process and administer your registration and verify your identity, insurance and membership of the profession | Contract, Legal obligation and Criminal Law Enforcement |
| To comply with legal and regulatory requirements | Legal obligation, Contract, Legitimate interests and Criminal Law Enforcement |
| To share panel member’s information with applicants | Contract |
| Disclose data to any of the persons or organisations as set out in (6) below | Disclose data to any of the persons or organisations as set out in (6) below |
| Identify and prevent fraud and enhance the security of our network and systems Comply with legal requirements relating to Anti-Money Laundering compliance | Legal obligation and Criminal Law Enforcement |
| Understand how people interact with our websites Carry out and determine the effectiveness of advertising, and of marketing campaigns Run promotional campaigns Carry out analysis of customers to assess risk, model, and plan strategy & growth | Legitimate interests |
5. Criminal Convictions and Offences:
Co-Ownership & Rent to Own may hold, use, disclose and process Data relating to criminal conviction and offences where it is necessary for the assessment of risk or prevention of fraud.
6. Who Co-Ownership & Rent to Own share your Information with:
In order to provide our services and comply with legal obligations imposed on us we may share your Information with:
- Legal, financial, valuation & other professional advisors;
- IT Maintenance personnel;
- our funders – the Department for Communities and our own lender
- our auditors
7. Transfer of Information
We will not transfer your personal data outside of the EU.
8. How long do Co-Ownership & Rent to Own keep your Information?
When you apply for registration to the Co-Ownership & Rent to Own Conveyancing Panel, it may be necessary to retain your information for an extended period of time. We keep your information for as long as required for the purpose that you gave it to us for. For legal and best practice reasons we keep your information for 6 years after the date on which your contract with us ended. For more information please contact our Data Protection Officer.
9. Your Rights
Accessing your Information: You have the right to obtain a copy of your Data. If you would like a copy of your information, please write to our Data Protection Officer. Your request will be dealt with as quickly as possible and in any event you will not have to wait for more than a month for us to respond. If at that stage we are unable to provide the data you require (due to the complexity or number of requests) we can extend the period to provide the data by a further two months but shall explain the reason why.
Correcting your Information: You have the right to have your information corrected free of charge by contacting our our Data Protection Officer.
10. Automated Decision Making
An Automated Decision is a significant decision affecting you that is made using your Personal Data solely by automatic means, where no humans are involved in the decision-making process. We do not and will not make automated decisions affecting you based on profiling. An indicative conclusion may be reached on the basis of Personal Data you have provided, but a member of our team will always review this.
11. Who controls your Personal Data and how can you contact them?
Co-Ownership controls your Personal Data. Any questions or concerns you have can be addressed to our Data Protection Officer, Murray House, Murray St, Belfast, BT1 6DN. Tel. 028 903 7276 (In the interest of customer service and to ensure the accuracy of our records, calls may be recorded and monitored).
12. Your Right to Make a Complaint
If you are unhappy about the way we handle your Personal Data please contact our Data Protection Officer and we will do our best to address your concerns swiftly and resolve any issues you have.
If you have a concern about an organisation’s information rights practices, you can report it to the Information Commissioner’s office. Tel 03031231113
13. Cookies
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14. Changes to this privacy notice
We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated in July 2018.