Privacy Notice

1. Information we may collect

We only collect information that is reasonably required to respond to an enquiry, provide a quotation, carry out an agreed professional service or administer our business.

• Your name and contact details, including email address and telephone number.
• The address of the property or site connected with your enquiry or instruction.
• Information you provide about a property, project, defect or proposed building work.
• Photographs, drawings, reports, planning information and other documents you send to us.
• Correspondence, instructions, quotations, appointments and project records.
• Information required for invoicing, payments and accounting records.
• Technical information collected during surveys and inspections where it is relevant to the property or project.
• Basic website enquiry and technical information generated when you use our website or contact form.

We do not intentionally request special-category personal information unless it is genuinely necessary for a specific instruction.

2. How we obtain information

Most information is provided directly by you by email, telephone, our website enquiry form, during a site visit or through documents you supply.

Where relevant to an instruction, we may also obtain information from publicly available sources such as planning registers, Land Registry information supplied by a client, mapping services or other official property records.

3. Why we use your information

4. Our lawful bases for processing

Depending on the circumstances, we generally rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:

• Contract — where processing is necessary to provide a quotation at your request or to perform an agreed professional appointment.
• Legitimate interests — for reasonable business administration, responding to enquiries, maintaining project records, securing our systems and managing professional risk, where those interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Legal obligation — where we must retain or process information to comply with tax, accounting, company-law or other legal requirements.
• Consent — where consent is specifically required, for example certain optional website cookies.

5. Who we may share information with

We do not sell personal information. Where necessary and relevant to your enquiry or instruction, information may be shared with:

• Local Planning Authorities and Planning Portal services when submitting applications on your behalf.
• Building Control bodies where we are instructed to coordinate or submit information.
• Structural Engineers, specialist consultants or other professional advisers involved in your project, where appropriate.
• Our website, email, data-storage, backup and IT service providers where they process information on our behalf.
• Accountants, insurers, legal advisers, HMRC or other authorities where reasonably necessary or legally required.

We only share information that is relevant to the purpose concerned.

6. How and where information is stored

Project and client information may be stored in business email accounts, project files, computers, tablets and appropriate electronic storage or backup systems. Reasonable technical and organisational measures are used to protect information against unauthorised access, accidental loss or inappropriate disclosure.

Some technology providers may process or store information outside the UK. Where this occurs, we rely on the safeguards provided by those services and applicable data-protection requirements.

7. How long we keep information

We do not intend to keep personal information indefinitely. Retention depends on why the information is held.

• General enquiries that do not proceed: normally up to 12 months, unless there is a reasonable reason to retain the correspondence for longer.
• Client and project records: normally up to 6 years after completion of the relevant instruction, or longer where reasonably necessary for professional, contractual, insurance or legal purposes.
• Financial and accounting records: retained for the period required by applicable tax and company-law requirements, normally at least 6 years where relevant.

Records may be deleted sooner where they are no longer required, and may occasionally need to be kept longer where there is an ongoing dispute, claim, legal requirement or other justified reason.

8. Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, UK data-protection law may give you rights including the right to:

• ask for a copy of personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• ask us to erase information where there is no lawful reason for us to continue holding it;
• ask us to restrict certain processing;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• receive certain information in a portable format where applicable; and
• withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.

These rights are not absolute and may be subject to legal or professional record-keeping requirements.

9. Contacting us about your information

If you have a question about this notice or want to exercise a data-protection right, please contact:

Williams Survey & Design
Email: luke@williamssurvey.co.uk
Telephone: 07971 820 734
Office: Suite 3C, Bank Chambers, Belgrave Square, Darwen, Lancashire, BB3 1BU

10. Complaints

If you have concerns about how your personal information has been handled, please contact us first so that we have an opportunity to address the issue.

You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Information about making a complaint is available at ico.org.uk.

11. Changes to this notice

We may update this Privacy Notice where our services, systems or legal obligations change. The latest version will be published on this website.