Privacy policy

Expert Surveyors Limited provides Chartered Surveyors expert witness services. This privacy notice provides information about the personal information we process about you as a data controller, in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Please contact Amanda Mason at contact@xsurv.co.uk with any questions or requests about the personal information we process.

Your rights

We are committed to protecting your rights to privacy. They include:

  • Right to be informed about what we do with your personal data;
  • Right to have a copy of all the personal information we process about you;
  • Right to rectification of any inaccurate data we process, and to add to the information we hold about you if it is incomplete;
  • Right to be forgotten and your personal data destroyed;
  • Right to restrict the processing of your personal data;
  • Right to object to the processing we carry out based on our legitimate interest;
  • The personal data we process, why we process it, where it comes from and the legal basis for doing so

Legal cases

We process the personal data of individuals who are obtaining legal advice or are engaged in a legal dispute, and also the personal data of witnesses and others with links to the issues in the case.

The personal data may include:

  • Names, contact details and dates of birth;
  • The personal data is generally provided by the person instructing us in relation to the legal issues, who is usually a solicitor.
  • We process the data because it is in our legitimate interests as an expert witness to do so. We need to see and analyse documents containing this information in order to provide our expert advice.
  • In relation to any special category personal data, such as health records or information concerning, race, ethnic origin, or sex is, we rely on the legal claims basis for processing this data, in addition to our legitimate interest.
  • In many cases, an individual has consented to the transfer of their personal data to us. Where an individual has consented, he or she may easily withdraw it by notifying Amanda Mason at the email address above.

Other personal data

We also process personal data pursuant to our legitimate interests in running our business such as:

  • Invoices and receipts;
  • Insurance policies and related documents;
  • As an employer, we process personal data further to contracts of employment with our employees. The information includes:
  • Names, addresses and contact details;
  • Pay and bank details, pay slips;
  • Curricula vitae, contracts of employment, references and appraisals;
  • Health information (in reliance on the occupational health exemption contained in the Data Protection Act 2018)

Finally, we run a client relationship management system. Any personal data on the system is held in accordance with the consent of the data subject which can be withdrawn at any time by contacting Amanda Mason above.

Retention period

Personal data in legal cases is retained, where necessary, for six years in compliance with our professional indemnity obligations. Where this is not necessary, it is destroyed on the conclusion of the case.

Administrative data is retained for up to six years as necessary, in the unlikely event there are queries from HMRC and the VAT commissioner. Where it is not necessary to retain the data for six years, it is destroyed as soon as possible.

Personal data relating to employees who have left our employment is also retained for up to six years as necessary. This is the time limit for bringing a breach of contract claim. In some case we destroy it as soon as the employee leaves.

Whom do we share personal data with?

We share personal data internally strictly on a need to know basis.

We do not share personal data with anyone external to the organisation, other than with:

  • Those who have instructed us as an expert witness
  • Outsourced service providers such as associated Chartered Surveyor Expert Witnesses, pursuant to GDPR compliant written contracts
  • HMRC and the VAT Commissioner as they require
  • With others pursuant to a court order

As Chartered Surveyors, we are regulated by the RICS and its privacy rules.

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