Privacy Policy

Privacy Notice

As part of the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), we are required to provide certain details regarding Gullands and our Notaries, Alexander Astley and Dudley Cramp and how we collect and use your personal data; both from this website and in our day to day transactions. This is set out in more detail below.

Gullands offices are at 16 Mill Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6XT and 18 Stone Street Gravesend Kent. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office ( ICO) under number ZA851439

Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotection@gullands.com.

Your rights

At any stage if you have reason to believe that the information we are processing on you is incorrect you have the right to ask to see this information and to have it deleted. Complaints about how we have handled your personal data should be sent to the Data Protection Officer who will investigate the matter on your behalf.

If you are not completely satisfied with our response or you do not believe that we are processing your personal data in accordance with the law you can complain directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Obviously we need to collect some information about you in order to carry out the professional service that you have requested. However we will only collect personal data about you which is relevant to the legal matter which we are dealing with for you. This will include the likes of your name, work address, email address and job title. However we may need to include what the ICO call ‘sensitive personal data’ if it is relevant to your particular matter.

Your rights under GDPR are as follows:

The right to access the personal data we hold on you

The right to correct and update the personal data we hold on you

The right to have your personal data erased

The right to object to processing of your personal data

The right to data portability: to provide a copy of the data held on you in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format to another provider of the same or similar services.

The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time for any processing of personal data to which consent was sought.

The right to object to the processing of personal data where applicable.

The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office. You can contact the Information Commissioners Office via email, on 0303 123 1113, or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Please note we may have an overriding legitimate ground for continuing to keep or process your data and refusing some of the above requests.

Use of Data

We will only process personal data, in accordance with applicable law, for the following purposes:

responding to your queries, requests and other communications;

providing legal and Notarial services, including, where applicable, procuring acts from foreign organisations;

enabling suppliers and service providers to carry out certain functions on our behalf, including webhosting, data storage, identity verification, technical, logistical, courier or other functions, as applicable;

allowing you to use features on our website, when you choose to do so;

sending you personalised marketing communications requested by you, as well as serving personalised advertising to your devices, based on your interests in accordance with our Cookie Statement below. You have the right to disable cookies as set out above;

ensuring the security of our business and preventing or detecting fraud;

administering our business, including complaints resolution, troubleshooting of our website, data analysis, testing of new features, research, statistical and survey purposes;

developing and improving our services;

complying with applicable law, including Notary Practice Rules, guidelines and regulations or in response to a lawful request from a court or regulatory body.

The legal basis for our processing of personal data for the purposes described above will typically include:

processing necessary to fulfil a contract that we have in place with you or other data subjects;

your consent;

processing necessary for our or a third party’s legitimate interests;

processing necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, and

any other applicable legal grounds for processing from time to time.

This firm is a regulated entity and therefore has a duty to act as a data controller and is obliged to report certain matters to its regulators or law enforcement agencies. You warrant that any data you provide is accurate, complete and up to date. Failure to comply may result in notarised documents being rejected by the relevant certification authorities or held invalid in the destination country. It may also create difficulties in completing the legal services we provide.

Secondly we would like to be able to send information to you occasionally to keep you up to date with possible changes in the law and or what additional services we may be able to offer you as a firm. On this basis your data would always be collected as a result of a specific consent.

All the personal data we hold about you will be processed in the United Kingdom.

Your data will never be sold to third parties for marketing purposes.

Data Sharing

Your personal data will only be shared with third parties including other data controllers where it is necessary for the performance of our business, or where you first give us your prior consent. It is possible that we will need to share your data with;

Counsels, Expert Witnesses, Opposing Solicitors, Estate Agents (in connection with a property sale or purchase), Land Registry, Local councils, Courts or Tribunals

Our agents, suppliers and contractors. For example, we may ask a supplier to send out newsletters on our behalf, or to maintain our database software, or to provide us with administration, IT and other related services.

Those providing support services to us such as typing, PR and identity verification services

In relation to Notarial services public authorities, foreign organisations such as embassies, consulates etc.

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal data is processed securely.

In relation to Notarial services we may transfer your data to a third party outside of the UK. In particular your personal data may be transferred to organisations such as foreign embassies. Those organisations will process data in accordance with the laws to which they are subject and international treaties over which we have no control.

How long we keep data

Generally we would keep your personal data for a minimum of 6 years from the date the matter was concluded. It would then be destroyed if it is no longer legally required. If you have consented to receive marketing material from us then the information we use will be kept until you notify us that you no longer wish to receive this information.

In some circumstances data may be held for longer periods and you will be notified accordingly. In relation to Notaries Practice Rules, notarial acts in the public form shall be preserved permanently. Records of acts not in public form shall be preserved for a period of 12 years.

Privacy on Our Website

Gullands is dedicated to the protection of your privacy whilst and after using our website. However if you have any questions or concerns regarding your data and it’s security please contact the data protection officer at dataprotection@gullands.com.

Data Collection

We do not collect any data from users who visit our site unless it is voluntarily given. As a general rule data is collected in order to;

submit CV’s or vacancy applications

for the purpose of providing a quote for conveyancing services

Only limited information relevant to these purposes will be collected via our website. Sensitive information would never be requested online.

Cookie Policy for Gullands

What Are Cookies

As is common practice with almost all professional websites this site uses cookies, which are tiny files that are downloaded to your computer, to improve your experience. This page describes what information they gather, how we use it and why we sometimes need to store these cookies. We will also share how you can prevent these cookies from being stored however this may downgrade or 'break' certain elements of the sites functionality.

How We Use Cookies

We use cookies for a variety of reasons detailed below. Unfortunately in most cases there are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without completely disabling the functionality and features they add to this site. It is recommended that you leave on all cookies if you are not sure whether you need them or not in case they are used to provide a service that you use.

Disabling Cookies

You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see your browser Help for how to do this). Be aware that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites that you visit. Disabling cookies will usually result in also disabling certain functionality and features of the site. Therefore it is recommended that you do not disable cookies.

The Cookies We Set

Email newsletters related cookies

This site offers newsletter or email subscription services and cookies may be used to remember if you are already registered and whether to show certain notifications which might only be valid to subscribed/unsubscribed users.

Forms related cookies

When you submit data to through a form such as those found on contact pages or comment forms cookies may be set to remember your user details for future correspondence.

Site preferences cookies

In order to provide you with a great experience on this site we provide the functionality to set your preferences for how this site runs when you use it. In order to remember your preferences we need to set cookies so that this information can be called whenever you interact with a page is affected by your preferences.

Third Party Cookies

In some special cases we also use cookies provided by trusted third parties. The following section details which third party cookies you might encounter through this site.

This site uses Google Analytics which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solution on the web for helping us to understand how you use the site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging content.

For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the Google’s Privacy & Terms site

From time to time we test new features and make subtle changes to the way that the site is delivered. When we are still testing new features these cookies may be used to ensure that you receive a consistent experience whilst on the site whilst ensuring we understand which optimisations our users appreciate the most.
As we sell products it's important for us to understand statistics about how many of the visitors to our site actually make a purchase and as such this is the kind of data that these cookies will track. This is important to you as it means that we can accurately make business predictions that allow us to monitor our advertising and product costs to ensure the best possible price.
We also use social media buttons and/or plugins on this site that allow you to connect with your social network in various ways. For these to work the following social media sites including; {List the social networks whose features you have integrated with your site?:12}, will set cookies through our site which may be used to enhance your profile on their site or contribute to the data they hold for various purposes outlined in their respective privacy policies.

More Information

Hopefully that has clarified things for you and as was previously mentioned if there is something that you aren't sure whether you need or not it's usually safer to leave cookies enabled in case it does interact with one of the features you use on our site.

However if you are still looking for more information you can contact us through one of our preferred contact methods:

Email: dataprotection@gullands.com

Transfer of User Data outside the User Jurisdiction

User data will not be transferred outside of the EEA unless it concerns a notarial act as detailed above.

Links

We may provide links to third party websites for information or general interest purposes. These sites are not covered by our privacy policy and so we would urge you to look at the privacy policy of these sites.

Options

For general viewing you are not required to log in or register for our site. However there are options available to sign up for newsletters or submit information, for which we will require some basic information. If you choose to do this please be equally aware that you may choose to unsubscribe at any time. Information pertaining to the method for unsubscribing will be available on all mailings that you receive. Alternatively you could email dataprotection@gullands.com.

Subject Access Requests

You have the right of access to personal data you have submitted through this Site or indeed held generally by the firm. You also have the right to have this information deleted (the right to be forgotten).

Enquiries of this nature should be directed to dataprotection@gullands.com.

Changes to this policy

Gullands may need to modify or amend this statement from time to time. The effective date will be displayed at the beginning of this statement.

Terms of use

1. Welcome to www.gullands.com (“the Site”) By using the Site you agree to be legally bound by these terms, which shall take effect immediately on your first use of the Site If you do not agree to be legally bound by all the following terms please do not access and/or use the Site
Exclusion of Liability
2. While we have taken all reasonable steps to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information on the Site, we give no warranty and make no representation regarding the accuracy or completeness of the content of this website. Consequently, we accept no liability for any losses or damages arising out of errors or omissions contained in the Site.
3. No warranty is given that the website shall be available on an uninterrupted basis, and no liability can be accepted in respect of losses or damages arising out of such unavailability.
4. We accept no liability in respect of losses or damages arising out of changes made to the content of this website by unauthorised third parties.
5 . Access to and use of this website is at the user’s own risk and we do not warrant that the use of the Site or any material downloaded from it will not cause damage to any property, including but not limited to loss of data or computer virus infection.
6. Nothing in these terms and conditions shall attempt to exclude liability for death or personal injury, or for fraudulent misrepresentation.
Copyright
7. All rights, save as expressly granted, are reserved to Gullands Solicitors. Reproduction in any form of any part of the contents of the Site is prohibited.
Prohibited use
8. You agree to use the Site for lawful purposes only, and in a way that does not infringe the rights of, restrict or inhibit anyone else’s use and enjoyment of the Site.
9. You agree not to attempt to alter the content of www.gullands.com in any way.
Privacy and Confidentiality
10. By agreeing to be bound by these terms and conditions, you confirm that you have read, understood and agreed to our Privacy Policy.
Governing Law and Jurisdiction
11. You agree that the terms and conditions of use of this website are governed by English law and any dispute regarding this website shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in England.
Changes to Terms and Conditions
12. The contents of the Site, including these terms and conditions of use, are subject to change by us without prior notification to you.