Privacy Statement | Mountesque

Mountesque Privacy Notice

This privacy notice is to let you know how Mountesque will look after your personal information. This includes what you tell us about yourself, what we learn by having you as a customer, and the choices you give us about what marketing you want us to send you.

Identity

The only identity related to the functions presented here, on this website and other platforms, including social media and email, is of Mountesque Ltd. You can find out more about us at www.mountesque.com.

If you have any questions, or want more details about how we use your personal information, then please email Shakeel Awan, Director, at shakeel@mountesque.com.

This privacy notice explains our approach to data protection. In this privacy notice, “we”, “us”, “our” means Mountesque Ltd.

Legal Consumer Protection Regarding Data

Your privacy is protected by Data Protection Law which permits us to use personal information only if we have a legitimate reason to do so; including the sharing of information to outside entities. The law says we must have one or more reasons such as:

The fulfilment of contracts held with clients and customers;
When we have a legal obligation;
Necessities relating to establishing, exercising, defending a legal claim;
Having a legitimate interest;
By client or customer consent.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information. If we rely on our legitimate interest, we will tell you what that is. For example, it is in our legitimate interests to collect your personal information as it provides us with the information that we need to provide our services to you more effectively. Essentially, this requires us to carry out a balancing test of our interests in using your personal information (for example, in order to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us), against the interests you have as a citizen and the rights you have under data protection laws (for example, to not have your data sold to third party marketing companies without your knowledge, or store your personal data in insecure or unstable countries/regions). The outcome of this balancing test will determine whether we can use your personal information in the ways described in this Privacy Policy.

Applications in the Use of Personal Information.

Here is a list of all the ways that we may use your personal information, and which of the reasons we rely on to do so. This is also where we tell you what our legitimate interests are (where that is our reason for using your personal information).

How We Collect Personal Information

We may collect information about you via Mountesque Ltd and directly from you in a variety of ways including:-

- when you apply for our products and complete forms and contracts

- when you talk to us on the phone

- when you use our website

- in emails and letters, either from you or from third parties –for example, if you write to us or if someone else writes to us- on your behalf or in relation to your occupation of a property

- in customer surveys

- payment data (i.e. when you make payments to us)

Data from third parties we work with including:

companies that introduce you to us
financial advisers
credit reference agencies
fraud prevention agencies
agents or agencies or contractors working on our behalf
Government and organisations performing services on behalf of Government

We share information across the organisation; we may transfer information to our sister or partner companies that will require similar information about you but only via your expressed permission in order for you to access and for those companies to provide the services required.

It is important that you notify us of any changes to your personal information as soon as possible so that we can contact you easily. You should also notify us if any of the information we hold is inaccurate. Please let us know by contacting us at shakeel@mountesque.com; we will take reasonable steps to check its accuracy and correct it.

Who We Share Your Personal Information With

We may share your personal information across Mountesque Ltd, including it's agents, management and supports staff, as well as the following organisations:

Agents, contractors and advisers who we use to help run our relationship with you and collect what you owe and identify any changes that we can make to how we run our business
HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities
utility suppliers – to ensure that utilities are fully paid for by the correct party
Credit reference agencies (see 'Credit Reference Agencies' later in this policy)
Fraud prevention agencies (see 'Fraud Prevention Agencies' later in this policy)
Any party linked with you – for example, the person with whom you have taken out a mortgage or where that party has a financial link with you that is recognised by credit reference agencies.
Companies we have a joint venture or agreement to co-operate with
Organisations that introduce you to us - for example, housebuilders, estate agents, independent financial advisers.
Companies that we introduce you to – for example, housebuilders, estate agents, independent financial advisers.
Market researchers
Independent Financial Advisors
Companies you ask us to share your data with.

We may also share your personal information if:-

we are required to do so by law
in connection with legal proceedings or potential legal proceedings
if required to do so by any court, or any regulatory, compliance, governmental or law enforcement agency.

We share information across Mountesque Ltd, which may also include furture brands and entities as part of Mountesque Ltd, or companies part or wholly owned by Mountesque Ltd, if our services are provided by those companies which require similar information about you to allow those services your requested to be provided.

We may also share your personal information if the make-up of the Mountesque Ltd changes in the future:

we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business, our assets, or seek to acquire or merge with other businesses.
The result of any such process, may require that we share your data, in accordance with how we arrange and re-arrange the inner functions and structure of the business; especially where services and products are delegated to other entities that we own, or manage for the purpose of fulfilling our obligations to clients and customers. We’ll only do this if they agree to keep your data safe and private.
if the change to us happens, then other parties may use your data in the same way as set out in this notice.

HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR DATA FOR

'We will keep your information for a period of 6 years following the expiry or termination of our contract with you. Once this period expires, we will delete it in accordance with our Data Retention Policy.

Credit Reference Agencies

We carry out credit and identity checks when you apply for a product or services, such as short or long term leases; for both commercial and residential property (as properties may have persisting annual charges, such as Service Charge). We may use Credit Reference Agencies ("CRAs") to help us with this.

If you use our services, or enter into contracts with us, from time to time we may also search information that the CRAs have, to help us manage our relationship with you.

We will share your personal information with CRAs and they will give us information about you. The data we exchange can include:

- Name, address and date of birth

- Credit application

- Details of any shared credit

- Financial situation and history

- Public information, from sources such as the electoral register and Companies House.

We’ll use this data to:

- Make sure what you’ve told us is true and correct

- Help detect and prevent financial crime

- Manage your contractual relationship with us

- Trace and recover debts

We will go on sharing your personal information with CRAs for as long as you are a customer. This will include details about your settled amounts that were due to us and any amounts not fully paid on time. The CRAs may give this information to other organisations that want to check credit status. We will also tell the CRAs when you settle your outstanding contractual obligations with us.

When we ask CRAs about you, they will note it on your credit file. This is called a credit search. Other organisations, including lenders, may see this and we may see credit searches from other organisations.

If you apply for a product with someone else, we will link your records with theirs. We will do the same if you tell us you have a spouse, partner or civil partner.

You should tell them about this before you apply for a product or service. It is important that they know your records will be linked together, and that credit searches may be made on them.

CRAs will also link your records together. These links will stay on your files unless one of you asks the CRAs to break the link. You will normally need to give proof that you no longer have a financial link with each other.

You can find out more about the CRAs on their websites, in the Credit Reference Agency Information Notice. This includes details about:

Who they are
Their role as fraud prevention agencies
The data they hold and how they use it
How they share personal information
How long they can keep data
Your data protection rights.

Further information is available on the information notice for each of the three main Credit Reference Agencies (as follows) we may share your personal information with for the purposes set out above; Callcredit; Equifax; Experian.

Fraud Prevention Agencies (FPAs)

We may need to confirm your identity before we provide products or services to you. Once you have become a customer of ours, we will also share your personal information as needed to help detect fraud and money-laundering risks. We use Fraud Prevention Agencies to help us with this.

Data transfers out of the EEA (BY FPAS)

FPAs may send personal information to countries outside the European Economic Area (‘EEA’). When they do, there will be a contract in place to make sure the recipient protects the data to the same standard as the EEA. This may include following international frameworks for making data sharing secure.

Sending data outside of the EEA (BY US)

Keeping information about you secure is very important to us so we store and process your personal information in accordance with the high standards required under data protection legislation. From time to time and for operational reasons the personal information we collect from you may be transferred to and stored in countries outside of the European Economic Area ("EEA"). Your information may also be processed by some of our service providers which operate outside the EEA. Different countries have different data protection and security laws and some of these do not offer the same level of protection as you enjoy under UK data protection legislation. However, when we appoint our service providers to help us provide products and services to you (which may include some based in the USA), we take care to ensure that they have appropriate security measures in place. For example, we may put in place special contracts (which are approved by the European Commission and are known as "standard contractual clauses") with those services providers, or alternatively will ensure they have signed up to, and comply with, the EU-US Privacy Shield.

If you choose not to give personal information

We may need to collect personal information by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you.

If you choose not to give us this personal information, it may delay or prevent us from meeting our obligations. It may also mean that we cannot perform services needed to run your accounts or policies. It could mean that we need to cancel a product, contract or service you have with us.

Any data collection that is optional would be made clear at the point of collection.

Marketing

We may use your personal information to tell you about relevant products and offers. The personal information we hold for you is made up of what you tell us, and data we collect when you use our services or website, or from third parties we work with.

We study this to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you.

We can only use your personal information to send you marketing messages if we have either your consent or a ‘legitimate interest’ (as mentioned further above, a legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information). It must not unfairly go against what is right and best for you, your rights and your interests. Also, we will only be able to rely on legitimate interests if we have an existing relationship with you and you have not previously opted out of receiving marketing messages.

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages by contacting us at any time.

Whatever you choose, you'll still receive important information such as changes to your existing contracts and services.

If the law allows us to do so, we may ask you to confirm or update your choices, where you take out any new products, contracts or services with us in future. We will also ask you to do this if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

If you change your mind you can update your choices at any time by contacting us.

Your Rights

You already have certain rights under existing data protection legislation, including a right to access the personal information we hold on you, if you request it in writing. From 25 May 2018 you will have the following rights:

- Right to access your personal information: You will still have this right. More information about this right is set out below.

- Right to correct: the right to have your personal information rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete;

- Right to erase: the right to request that we delete or remove your personal information from our systems;

- Right to restrict our use of your information: the right to 'block' us from using your personal information or limit the way in which we can use it;

- Right to data portability: the right to request that we move, copy or transfer your personal information;

- Right to object: the right to object to our use of your personal information including where we use it for our legitimate interests, or where we use your personal information to carry out profiling to inform our market research and development of our business. If you raise an objection we will stop processing your personal information unless very exceptional circumstances apply (and we believe that there is a compelling reason to continue using your data in this way), in which case we will let you know why we're continuing to process your personal information.

More information about your rights is available at the ICO website.

We will honour your rights in accordance with data protection law, including by responding to you, in each case, within one month. There may be legal or other official reasons why we need to keep or use your data. But please tell us if you think that we should not be using it.

To make enquiries, exercise any of your rights set out in this Privacy Policy and/or make a complaint please contact us at please contact Shakeel Awan, shakeel@mountesque.com or write to me at 4 Old Park Lane, Mayfair, London, W1K 1QW.

If you're not satisfied with the way any complaint you make in relation to your personal information is handled by us then you may be able to refer your complaint to the relevant data protection regulator. In the UK, this is the Information Commissioner's Office. Find out on their website how to report a concern: https://ico.org.uk/

How to withdraw your consent

You can withdraw any consent you have given us at any time. Please contact Shakeel Awan, shakeel@mountesque.com or write to me at 4 Old Park Lane, Mayfair, London, W1K 1QW.

If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you.

You have the right to ask us in writing not to process your personal information if it is causing or likely to cause substantial damage or distress or is to be used for direct marketing. There may also be other specific circumstances where you may wish for us to stop processing your data, such as if you agreed to take part in a survey or signed up to an optional service. However, we need to maintain certain records to enable us to provide you with the services you receive.

How to Get a Copy of Your Personal Information

You have a right to access personal information we hold about you. The right to access the information is an individual one. This means that we cannot process joint requests (for example, by two purchasers of the same property) – the law requires us to treat them separately.

You can write to us to make your request and, if necessary, we may ask you for further information to help us locate the information you are requesting. Please write to Shakeel Awan, shakeel@mountesque.com or write to me at 13 St. James Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex, RH19 1DL.

We will require proof of your identity and address – we will let you know this when we receive your request.

When we receive your request and have confirmed your identity to our satisfaction, we shall respond and provide your information within one month.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

This privacy notice will be updated to reflect changes either to the way in which we operate or changes to data protection legislation. We will notify you by email where we make any significant changes to this Privacy Policy, or where we are doing something with your personal information which you might not expect based on what we have told you in this Privacy Policy. Otherwise, any updates to this Privacy Policy will be notified to you by a clearly highlighted banner on the homepage of our website.

Contacting us

If you have any data protection queries relating to our use of your personal information or any related data protection queries, please contact Shakeel Awan, shakeel@mountesque.com or write to me at 4 Old Park Lane, Mayfair, London, W1K 1QW.