Privacy Policy

1. Who are we?

Wilks Head & Eve LLP (“We”) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This policy (together with our terms of use https://www.wilks-head.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/ and any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, whether via this website or otherwise, will be processed by us.  Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

For the purpose of UK data protection  and e-privacy legislation (Data Protection Legislation), the data controller is Wilks Head & Eve LLP of 3^rd Floor, 55 New Oxford Street, WC1A 1BS.

2. Information we collect from you

We will collect and process the following data about you:

• Information you give us. This is information about you that you give us by filling in forms on our website www.wilks-head.co.uk(our website) or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. It includes information you provide when you make any enquiry via our website, search for a service, engage us to provide services and when you report a problem with our website. The information you give us may include your name, position, company, contact details (such as address, e-mail address and phone number), your personal preferences, choices and requirements specific to particular requests or services, financial and credit card information, personal description and photograph.
• Information we collect about you.

With regard to each of your visits to our website we will automatically collect the following information:

• technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;
• information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from our website (including date and time), products you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call us.
• Information we receive from other sources. This is information we receive about you from third parties or other sources. We are working closely with third parties (including, for example, business partners, sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers, credit reference agencies).

If our client for valuation services is a local authority (including where the resident wishes to exercise a right to buy), they may give us the occupant’s name and home address for the purpose of arranging an appointment to inspect the property for valuation purposes.

Where we otherwise receive information from third parties, we will notify you when we receive information about you from them and the purposes for which we intend to use that information.

3. Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our website. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our Cookie policy https://www.wilks-head.co.uk/cookie-policy/

4. Legal grounds for collection and use of your personal information

We will only collect, use and otherwise handle your personal information when:

• We have your consent for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes (see section 5); and/or
• it is necessary for our legitimate interests in connection with operating the website and for our business, in particular:
• responding to your queries;
• carrying out direct marketing to develop our services and grow our business;
• providing services and/or information to you;
• recovering debts due to us;
• keeping our records updated and studying how customers use our services;
• transmitting personal information between our group companies for internal administrative purposes;
• hosting and maintaining our website;
• providing technical support to you;
• administering and protecting our business and our website;
• studying how customers use our services, developing them, growing our business and informing our marketing strategy;
• in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise;
• preventing and detecting fraud and other criminal offences; and/or
• ensuring network and information security,

as long as, in each case, these interests are in line with applicable law and your legal rights and freedoms; and/or

• where this is necessary for legal obligations which apply to us, for example, where we are a statutory appointee under the Party Wall etc Act 1996; and/or
• where this is necessary for the performance of a contract we have with you (for example to provide goods and/or services to you, manage payments, fees and charges and collect and recover money owed to us) or that you have with a third party; and/or
• where this is necessary to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract.

5. Uses made of the information

We use information held about you in the following ways:

• Information you give to us. We will use this information:
• to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, respond to your queries and to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us;
• if you register for one of our business- focused events, we will share your name, professional title and your professional address with other people that are attending the same event;
• where you have provided us with your contact details, to provide you with information about goods or services we feel may interest you. This may be by post, telephone or electronic means (e-mail or SMS). We will only contact you by electronic means (e-mail or SMS) with information about goods and services similar to those which were the subject of a previous sale or negotiations of a sale to you. If you do not want us to use your data in this way, please tick the relevant box situated on the form on which we collect your data (the website enquiry form or opt out using the link in our welcome email).  If you opt out of marketing communication, your visit to and use of the website and your use of our services will not be affected;

Marketing Opt-Out – you are entitled to opt-out of marketing communication at any time and free of charge by emailing us at general@wilks-head.co.uk or by using the “unsubscribe” option included in any marketing e-mail or other marketing material received from us.

• to notify you about changes to our service;
• to ensure that content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
• to manage payments, fees and charges; and collect and recover money owed to us
• to use data analytics to improve our website, services, marketing, client relationships and experiences.

We may also use any personal information that you provide to us:

• where legally permitted for specific purposes made clear at the point of collection; and/or
• where we otherwise have legal grounds for collection and use of your personal information as explained in more detail in clause 4.

If you choose not to provide personal information requested by us, we may not be able to provide you with the information and/or services you have requested or otherwise fulfil the purpose(s) for which we have asked for the personal information. Aside from this, your visit to the website will remain unaffected.

• Information we collect about you. We will use this information:
• to administer and protect our business and our website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting, hosting of data, research, statistical and survey purposes;
• to improve our website to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
• to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the content or advertising;
• to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
• as part of our efforts to keep our website safe and secure;
• to measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;
• to use data analytics to improve our website, services, marketing, client relationships and experiences;
• to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our website about goods or services that may interest you or them.
• Information we receive from other sources. We will combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We will use this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive), where those purposes are compatible.

6. Disclosure of your information

Some services that we provide require the involvement of third parties.  We have carefully selected these third parties and taken steps to ensure that your personal information is adequately protected.

You agree that we have the right to share your personal information with the following third parties:

i).         Google Analytics

Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service provided by Google Inc. (“Google“). Google Analytics works using cookies.

Google Analytics cookies collect your IP address, however because IP anonymisation is used on this website, your IP address will be shortened (and therefore anonymised) as soon as technically possible and before it is stored or otherwise used in connection with Google Analytics.

The anonymisation process takes place within the European Union or the European Economic Area, except in exceptional cases, where your full IP address may be sent to a Google server in the USA and shortened there.

We use the information collected by Google Analytics cookies to find out about how visitors use our website.

The IP address sent by your browser in connection with Google Analytics will not be combined by Google, with other data.

You can prevent Google Analytics cookies from being stored by setting your browser software accordingly (see our Cookie Policy https://www.wilks-head.co.uk/cookie-policy/ for further information). However, please note that you may not then be able to make full use of all the website’s functions.

You can also opt-out of Google Analytics by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

1. ii) HM Revenue & Customs

If you are our client for the purposes of challenging a commercial rating and you instruct us to proceed to challenge the rating, we are obliged to submit a fully evidenced document to the Valuation Office Agency, an executive agency sponsored by HM Revenue & Customs, which may contain personal data and commercially sensitive information about your business.  This is necessary for legal obligations which apply to us and imposed by HM Revenue & Customs for the process of challenging a commercial rating.  It is also necessary for the performance of the contract we have with you.  Once submitted, any personal data will be processed by the Valuation Office Agency and HM Revenue & Customs in accordance with its privacy policy.

iii)        Sharing with our group companies

The personal information you provide on the website is collected by Wilks Head & Eve LLP. However where you ask or indicate that we should do so (e.g. in an online form) or where we are otherwise legally permitted to do so in accordance with this privacy policy, we may transfer your personal information between and to our group companies.  We will usually do this where the service you have asked us to provide is a service we refer or delegate to one of our group companies and will be either an empty rate recovery service or a rate retention service.  Group companies are our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, as defined in section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006.  These are named Lane Saville Limited and Rates Plus Limited.  We will usually tell you if the service is to be carried out by a group company.

When a group company intends to use your personal information for a new purpose, they will let you know about this.

iv) Sharing with our service providers

We may share your personal information with our third party service providers based in the UK or the European Economic Area (“EEA”) who we engage to process the information that we collect from you on the website or otherwise, and/or to host and maintain our website, content or services, on our behalf and in accordance with this privacy policy.

We will only share your personal information with our third party service providers based in the EEA if one of the following conditions applies:

• The UK Government has issued a regulation confirming that the country where the third party service provider is based ensures an adequate level of protection for your personal information;
• Appropriate safeguards are in place with our third party service provider;
• You have provided your explicit consent to the sharing of your personal information with our third party service provider after being informed of any potential risks;
• The transfer is necessary for one of the other reasons set out in the data protection legislation including the performance of the contract between you and us.

We will let you know if we need to transfer your personal information to any third party service providers located outside of the UK. If you would like any further information about the basis upon which we will share your personal information with our third party service providers, please contact us at general@wilks-head.co.uk.

Where we employ third party companies or individuals to process personal information provided by us (and not collected by them), they only use this personal information on our behalf and in line with our instructions and this privacy policy.

v) Sharing with other selected third parties

We may share your personal information with selected third parties including:

• business partners for the performance of any contract we enter into with you;
• analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our website;
• credit reference agencies for the purpose of assessing your credit score where this is a condition of us entering into a contract with you;
• our website may offer the possibility to share content on social media channels, e.g., Facebook. The respective social media provider will directly gather personal information only after you click on the corresponding sharing button. Please refer to the privacy policy of the social media providers to learn more about what personal information is collected and used.

We will disclose your personal information to third parties:

• To whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.
• If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of use https://www.wilks-head.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/ or our terms of business and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Wilks Head & Eve LLP, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations, regulators and law enforcement agencies for the purposes of preventing and detecting fraud, other criminal offences, credit risk reduction and/or to ensure network and information security.

7. How long do we store personal information?

It is our policy to retain your personal information for the length of time required for the specific purpose or purposes for which it was collected, which are set out in this privacy policy.  Where you have purchased our services, this will usually be 7 years from the date we last provided any services to you.  Otherwise, this will be 7 years from when we last received any correspondence or calls from you.  Where you have submitted a CV to us but have not been employed or engaged by us, we will keep this for 6 months from the date you submitted the CV.  However, on occasion we may be obliged to store some data for a longer time, for example, where a longer time period is required by applicable laws.  In this case, we will ensure that your personal data will continue to be treated in accordance with this privacy policy.

For more information on how long cookies are stored, please refer to our cookie policy https://www.wilks-head.co.uk/cookie-policy/

8. Where we store your personal data

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

9. Your rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data.  You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us at general@wilks-head.co.uk.

Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates.  If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies.  Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

If you wish to:

• Access, confirm, correct, rectify, update, supplement, anonymise, block, restrict or delete your personal information;
• Object to our use of your personal information;
• Withdraw your consent;
• Ask any questions about our processing of your personal information; or
• Transfer your personal information from us to another person or business,

please contact us at general@wilks-head.co.uk.

Where you request access to your personal information, the information will be provided in writing. In order to comply with your request, we may ask you to verify your identity.  We will fulfil your request by sending your copy electronically, unless the request expressly specifies a different method. For any subsequent access request, we may charge you an administrative fee.

We will provide you with all rights in relation to your personal information to which you are entitled under applicable law.  If you are unhappy with the way that we have handled your personal information, you can make a complaint to the authority responsible for data protection in the country that you are based.  In the UK this is the Information Commissioner’s Office, www.ico.gov.uk.  Contact details are typically available online, or alternatively you may ask us for assistance by emailing us at general@wilks-head.co.uk.

11. Changes to our privacy policy

Any changes we make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

12. Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to general@wilks-head.co.uk.

Issue Date: June 2022