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Privacy policy and Cookies

The Leasehold Advisory Service and its subsidiary Lease Conferences (collectively LEASE) collect personal information when you request advice or register to acquire a product or service from us.  We regard the privacy of our users as very important.  All personal information we receive is treated confidentially.  We will use this information to provide the service(s) requested and, if you agree, to send you information about other services we think you might be interested in.  LEASE will not share your information with companies other than the Leasehold Advisory Service or Lease Conferences.  You will not receive unsolicited telephone calls or mail from us or any third parties as a result of personal data being provided to us

This privacy policy explains how LEASE uses and protects any personal information that we collect about you when you use this website or contact LEASE.

We do not store credit card details nor do we share customer details with any 3rd parties.

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU?

If you make an enquiry to LEASE, we will ask for your name, telephone number, address, email address and some information about the property related to your enquiry.  We need this information so that we can carry out a conflict check before we answer your enquiry.  We also collect information about you when you place an order for products or services in order that we can fulfil the order.  In all cases, you will you will be asked to confirm that you give your explicit consent to us to hold the necessary data, without which we may not be able to assist you with your enquiry or to supply you with the requested products or services.  We also collect information when you voluntarily complete customer surveys or provide feedback.  .

We hold any information you give to us on a secure, confidential database, accessible only by authorised LEASE staff.  In the event that your contact us once and once only, then your details will be removed from our records in keeping with our Destruction Policy.

Website usage information is collected using cookies, about which see the paragraph headed COOKIES, below.

HOW WILL WE USE THE INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT YOU?

We use this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service.

We may, in particular, use the information you supply for the following reasons:

  • to improve the content and design of our website
  • to improve our products and services;
  • We may periodically send promotional emails about new products, services or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided. If you have consented to receive information from us, you may opt out at a later date.
  • From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone or mail.
  • From time to time, we may also share your data in an aggregated and anonymised manner with our Governmental sponsors to assist in guidance of Governmental policy
  • In all cases, the information collected will only be collected and processed lawfully, in a transparent manner, for the reason(s) specified, be adequate, relevant and limited to only the purpose for which it is processed. The information will be kept for no longer than is necessary.

We will never share your information with other organisations for marketing, market research or commercial purposes.  We do not pass on your personal information to any other websites.  However, our website does allow links for you to post and share items on our site with external social networking groups (such as Facebook and Twitter).  These websites are not controlled by us but by using the links, you accept the privacy policies of those external sites.

We use aggregated automatically generated non-personal user data to improve our service.  For example, we analyse automatically generated information to assess matters such as where in the country users come from, what type of questions users are asking, which part of the website they have visited and whether we were able to give them information that was useful.  We also use automatically generated data (by cookies) to ensure that the information we send to that user’s web-browser is relevant to that user’s needs.

In the event that you correspond with us, we may use your personal information to reply to any correspondence you have sent us, for quality, training and evaluation purposes, to help us monitor and improve LEASE, to provide the services you have requested (such as an order for printed publications) or to provide you with information concerning matters that are relevant to your circumstances.  By corresponding with us, you agree to us using your personal information in these ways.  We will not use your personal information for any other purposes.

If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes please email us with “unsubscribe” in the subject line.

ACCESS TO YOUR INFORMATION AND CORRECTION

Under the General Data Protection Regulations, you have the right to request a copy of the information which we hold about you.  If you would like a copy of some or all of the personal information we hold about you please email foi@lease-advice.org or write to us at FOI, LEASE, Fleetbank House, 2-6 Salisbury Square, London, EC4Y 8JX.  We take the security of your personal information seriously and you may be asked to provide proof of address and/or your identity before we can act on your request.  There is also a small charge for this service.

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data-sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner at: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Phone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 54 57 45 Fax: 01625 524510 Website: ico.org.uk

SECURITY

We are committed to ensuring that your information is accurate, up-to-date and secure.  In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.  We make every effort (through appropriate physical, organisational and technological measures) to ensure that your personal information is held securely and to safeguard against unauthorised access to your personal information.  Unfortunately, no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  We strive to protect your personal information after we have received it, however you acknowledge that the privacy of your communications and personal information can never be completely guaranteed when it is being transmitted.  Any data you transmit is at your own risk, but we will make every effort to keep your data secure once we receive it.

COOKIES

When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable.  Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone.  These include small files known as cookies.  They cannot be used to identify you personally.  Cookies track, save and store information about your interactions and usage of our website.  This allows the website, through its server, to provide you with a tailored experience within this website.

These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:

  • enabling a service to recognise your device so you don’t have to give the same information several times during one task
  • recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don’t need to do it for every web page requested
  • measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and make sure there is enough capacity to ensure they are fast

You can manage these cookies yourself and learn more about them through www.allaboutcookies.org.  You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above website tell you how to remove cookies.  However, some of our website features may not function as a result.

OUR USE OF COOKIES

This website uses the following cookies:

  • Google Analytics. This is the primary method we use to measure the number of visitors, and to understand what visitors want to use and not to use, so we can improve the service you receive. Google Analytics 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.
  • SurveyMonkey. We sometimes use SurveyMonkey for online surveys. Information gathered through their cookies helps them measure use of their site.  Cookie data allows SurveyMonkey to track usage behaviour and compile data that they can use to improve their service.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest.  However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website.  Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement.  You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

CONTROLLING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

  • whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for the box that you can click to indicate that you do not want to be contacted for direct marketing purposes
  • if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to us;
  • when you first call our helpline, explain that you only wish to provide enough personal information to properly identify you and the property at issue, eg your surname and the full property address.

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your explicit permission or are required by law to do so.  That is, we may pass on your personal information if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation or in order to enforce or apply our website terms and conditions or for the purposes of the prevention or detection of a crime.

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please contact us at info@lease-advice.org or 020 7832 2500 as soon as possible.  We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and any updates will be made to this page. This policy was last updated 25 May 2018.

LEASE is governed by a board, appointed as individuals by the Secretary of State for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities.