Privacy Policy

Privacy Notice

R&R Urquhart LLP is a firm of Solicitors and Estate Agents, with our registered office at 117-121 High Street, Forres, IV36 1AB. The firm is regulated by the Law Society of Scotland.

This Privacy Notice sets out how we collect and uses any information that you give to us when you instruct us. It is important that you read this Privacy Notice, together with the terms of business issued to you.

R&R Urquhart LLP is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, and treating the personal information you provide us with correctly and lawfully.

R&R Urquhart LLP will be a “controller” of the personal information that you provide to use during the course of us acting for you.

Information we will or may require from you

We will ask all clients to supply the following information:

Full name and title
Contact information including email addresses and postal addresses, phone numbers
Photographic identification and proof of address

Depending on the legal matter, we may also require other information such as:

Date of birth
National insurance number
Bank details
Mortgage details
Details of your assets
Pension and insurance details
Details of your children or other family members
Employment information

Occasionally, we may need to collect “Special Category” Personal Information about you, as defined in the General Data Protection Regulation. This would only be if the matter required and your explicit consent would be sought in order to do so.

How is your personal information collected?

Directly – most of the information that we collect from you will be provided by you to us at client meetings, in writing by letter or email, over the telephone, or any other means.

From Third Parties – we may also be required to gather personal information from other sources, including:

Accountants and Financial Advisers
Land Agents or Agricultural Advisers
Solicitor “on the other side”
Local Authority

Why we need your personal information

In order to act for you, we require your personal information to carry out transactions, pursue or defend a court matter, or provide you with advice. The legal bases for us using your personal information are:

Contractual Purposes – to undertake the matter you have instructed us in, as set out and agreed by you in our Letter of Engagement and Terms of Business to you
Legal Obligation – to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation
Legitimate Interests – where it is necessary in pursuit of our legitimate interests to provide legal advice and assistance to you.
Consent – where you have given us specific consent to process your data for a specific purpose (for example, receiving our Property marketing email)

The most common uses of your personal information are in the following circumstances:

Purpose/Activity	Lawful Basis for Processing
General progression of your transaction or other instructed matter	Contractual Purposes (1)
Recording all communications and associated documentation with your matter on our online filing system and in our paper file	Contractual Purposes (1) Legal or Regulatory Obligation (2)
Sharing information with third parties for the progression of your instructed matter, such as: solicitors “on the other side”, Counsel, the Court, HMRC, Revenue Scotland, Lenders, experts, accountants, land agents and other professionals	Contractual Purposes (1) Legal or Regulatory Obligation (2)
Processing your bank details for payments from and to you	Contractual Purposes (1)
Undertaking anti-money laundering and identity checks	Legal or Regulatory Obligation (2)
Seeking further advice on your matter from Counsel or Accountant	Contractual Purposes (1)
Processing your mortgage or loan	Contractual Purposes (1) Legal or Regulatory Obligation (2)
Processing your Visa card payment (where applicable)	Contractual Purposes (1)
Negotiating a settlement or mediation	Contractual Purposes (1)
Representing you or your business in Court	Contractual Purposes (1) Legal or Regulatory Obligation (2)
Sending you emails of new properties listed with Urquhart Property (where you have specifically consented to receiving emails)	Consent (4)

Change of Purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purpose for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason, and that reason is compatible with the original purpose.

If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, In compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Who we share your personal information with

We may need to share your personal information with other parties in order to carry out the work you have instructed us to do, or to comply with our legal obligations.

We may also share personal information with professionals for the purpose of taking advice, for example to Counsel to obtain an Opinion or to Accountants for tax advice.

The third parties who we may share your information with include:

The Courts
Solicitors “on the other side”
Counsel
Financial Institutions
Surveyors
Land Agents
Expert Witnesses
Registers of Scotland
HMRC
Department for Work and Pensions
Revenue Scotland
Accountants and Financial Advisers
Law Society of Scotland
Scottish Legal Aid Board
Mediators or Arbitrators
Insurance Providers
Legal Expenses Insurance Providers
Sheriff Officers

Please note the majority of third parties who we need to share your information with will also be “data controllers” who are subject to the same strict regulations as we are.

If the third party is not, please note we have a contract in place with them to ensure they comply with our standards for looking after your data.

How we protect your personal information

Your personal information is stored on our electronic filing system and on our server based in the UK, and is accessed by our staff for the purposes set out above.

Your personal information is also stored in our paper files. These are retained in our filing cabinets during the lifetime of the matter, and then securely stored with our file storage company until the required file destruction date.

Your personal information will be stored on the mobile telephone of a Partner if you communicate with them by mobile. All devices are password protected.

We have high level cyber security programming in place and use a locally based IT Management Support service.

How long we will keep your personal information

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary.

We are guided by statutory requirements for data retention, as well as regulatory requirements and guidance issued by the Law Society of Scotland in relation to retention and destruction of client files.

The retention period will differ depending on the type of matter and the guidance provided by the Law Society of Scotland.

We also are required to keep certain records to comply with our legal obligations, such as in relation to Money Laundering Regulations, HMRC requirements, and Law Society Rules regarding cash room procedures.

Information about transfers to third countries

Very occasionally, depending on the nature of your matter, we may need to share your personal information with parties outside of the EU.

If that country outside of the EU has been deemed “adequate” by the European Commission in relation to their data protection rules, we can transfer your personal information to that country without further steps being required.

If the country we need to transfer your information to is deemed “not adequate” by the European Commission, we will put in place standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission when dealing with those third parties, to ensure your personal information is treated to the same standard as it would be within the EU.

Your rights

You can exercise any of the following rights by writing to us at:

R&R Urquhart LLP

117-121 High Street

Forres

IV36 1AB

Or emailing lesleylaughton@r-r-urquhart.com

Your rights in relation to your personal information are as follows:

Right of Access – You have a right to request access to the personal information we hold about you by making a “subject access request”;
Right of Rectification – If you believe that any of your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete, you have a right to request that we correct or complete your personal information;
Right to Restrict Processing – You have a right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information for specific purposes;
Right to data portability – you have the right to have the personal information held about you to be transferred to another organisation;
Right to be forgotten – If you wish us to delete your personal information, you may request that we do so;
Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing, such as marketing (please note that we will only use your contact information for marketing where you have provided express consent)
Right to withdraw consent – in the very limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact us at the above address or email.

Any requests received by R&R Urquhart LLP will be considered under applicable data protection legislation. If you remain dissatisfied, you have a right to raise a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk

Questions

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact:

Lesley Laughton

Managing Director

R&R Urquhart LLP

117-121 High Street

Forres

IV36 1AB

Or by email – lesleylaughton@r-r-urquhart.com

Law Relating to this Notice

“Data Protection Law” includes the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679; the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and all relevant EU and UK data protection legislation.

Changes to our Privacy Notice

We may change this Privacy Notice at any time by updating this page so you should therefore check the Website from time to time to ensure you are aware of any changes.