Privacy Policy
Who are we?
Estatesearch Limited (We, Us, Our) take data privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as, together with our Terms & Conditions, it contains important information on who we are, how and why we collect, store, use and share personal data. It also explains rights in relation to personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.
Estatesearch Limited is a limited company registered in England & Wales company number 09417760, whose registered address is Delmon House, 36-38 Church Road, Burgess Hill, RH15 9AE. .
Our use of personal data is regulated by the Data Protection Act 2018 which includes the UK GDPR (GDPR). We are registered as a Data Controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) registration number ZA104965 and are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal data. Our use of personal data is subject to your instructions, GDPR and our professional duty of confidentiality.
Services
Estatesearch Limited and its affiliate companies provide data, technology and insurance services direct to consumers and to professionals in the legal and financial services industries. Our Services include the purchase and provision of reports. Further details of our Services can be found at www.estatesearch.co.uk/services (Services). Our Sites include www.estatesearch.co.uk, www.app.estatesearch.co.uk and www.uat.estatesearch.co.uk (Sites).
Estatesearch Limited is an Appointed Representative (AR) of Clear Insurance Management Limited (Clear) for insurance mediation. Clear is the principal firm authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). An AR is a firm who runs regulated activities and acts as an agent for a principal firm directly authorised by the FCA.
What information do we collect?
In order to provide our Services we will need to collect information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual (Personal Data) and other information including in relation to a deceased individual (Non-Personal Data).
We collect information regarding the Subject of the report who may be a) a deceased individual for whose estate the Client is acting, or b) a living individual lacking mental capacity for whose estate the Client is acting, or c) a living individual with mental capacity who has given consent to the Client to procure the Service, or d) a living individual in relation to whom the Client has instructed us to complete an Identity or insolvency search (Subject).
We also collect information about the Client who may be a) the Personal Representative or next of kin of the Subject for probate and estate administration, or b) the Attorney or Deputy authorised by the Court of Protection under oversight of the Office of the Public Guardian for the Subject, or c) the Subject themselves, or d) an otherwise appointed representative with a legal obligation or legitimate interest (Client, You, Your).
The Client may either be acting in a personal capacity (Consumer) or acting in a professional capacity either as the Client themselves or as the agent of a Consumer in the procurement of the Services (Professional Representative).
In respect of the Subject, we collect information enabling us to provide our Service including their full name, previous or alias names, address history, date of birth, date of death, date of appointment of attorney or deputy, national insurance number, employer and previous employers.
We also collect information relating to the Client’s legitimate interest in the Subject including the death certificate, coroner’s certificates, wills, Grants of Probate, Letters of engagement, Court of Protection Orders, Lasting Powers of Attorney and genealogy (family history including spouse/partner, dependants, parents, siblings, other family members, other third parties with financial connections).
We collect information relating to financial records including assets, benefits, pension, bankruptcies, independent voluntary arrangements, and county court judgements.
In respect of the Client, we collect information to enable us to create and manage your user account including full name, address, email address, telephone number, employment details, company name, role, qualifications, billing information, and bank details (for making refunds).
We may also collect information to enable us and third parties (e.g. banks or building societies, pension administrators, other organisations receiving legal notices) to check and verify your identity including date of birth, address, passport details, national insurance number, driving licence number, gender and copies of identity documents or address verification documents.
We also keep a record of correspondence between you and us, and may also collect details of transactions you complete through our Sites and information about your computer including your IP address, operating system, and browser type. This is statistical data helping us identify visitors as robots or otherwise, and better understand website visitors browsing actions and viewing patterns.
This information is required to enable us to provide our Services to you. If you do not provide information when we ask for it in relation to you or the Subject, it may delay or prevent us from providing services to you.
How do we collect data?
We collect information directly from you through any forms completed on any our Sites and details of any interaction with our Sites, along with any telephone, email or other such correspondence provided when registering to use our Sites, to request Services or in our fulfilment of the Services.
We may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
We may also collect information from:
– Publicly accessible sources e.g. Companies House or HM Land Registry;
– Other third parties e.g.
– Identity, sanctions and document validation screening providers;
– Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs);
– Banks or building societies, pension administrators, other organisations;
– Consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to the provision of Services to you.
Cookies
We use Cookies and similar technologies on our Sites for various purposes including to recognize you and keep track of your preferences so we can provide you with a better experience. A Cookie is a small text file placed on your computer or device by our Sites when you visit certain parts of our Sites and/or when you use certain features of our Sites. These are stored on your computer either temporarily for that session only or permanently on the hard disk (Cookies).
How Our Sites use Cookies
The main cookies used on our Sites are as follows:
Analytics
These cookies help us to improve our Sites over time, by giving us insights into how the various sections of the website are used and how users interact with the website. The information collected is anonymous and statistical.
Affiliate Lead Tracking
We use a range of third parties to promote our Sites. We use these cookies so that, when you reach our Sites because of one of those third parties, we can identify the third party and therefore meet our contractual commitments to that third party.
Session
These are cookies that are designed to ensure that your visit to our Sites is as smooth as possible, they expire after 30mins of inactivity, or when the session is closed.
Their main uses are:
– Allowing us to identify your device as you use the website, so that you are not treated as a new visitor each time you go to another part of the website;
– Ensure that the servers that we use to power the website each serve an equal number of users, to help make everyone’s browsing as swift and responsible as possible;
– Allowing us to restrict or grant access to the website from certain IP Addresses;
– Understanding your browser’s capabilities.
How to reject or delete Cookies
Most web browsers automatically accept cookies. However, you do not have to accept cookies and you can, should you choose to at any time, reject or block the use of cookies.
You can delete all cookies currently stored on your device once you have finished using our Service. You can find out how to do this for your particular browser by clicking “help” on your browser’s menu, or by visiting: www.allaboutcookies.org.
Please be aware however that if you chose to block cookies you may not be able to access certain features of our Sites.
For help locating cookies on your device, visit your browser’s documentation:
For information on how to reject or delete cookies on the browser of your mobile device you may need to refer to your device’s manual.
Third party cookies
We may allow third party organisations to set cookies using our Sites in order to deliver our Services. A full list of all the cookies on our website can be found on our Cookies page.
Tracking technologies that our emails use
We may use performance tracking technology within our emails to improve our future interactions with you. This means we are able to capture information including (but not limited to) the time and date you open our e-mails and the type of device used to open the email.
We use this information primarily to understand whether our e-mails are opened and what links are clicked on by our clients. We then use this information to improve the emails and other communications (including post and fax) that we send or display to you, and the services that we provide.
Where personal data is held
Information may be held at our offices and those of our affiliate companies, third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see ‘Who we share personal data with’).
Some of these third parties may be based outside the UK/European Economic Area. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal data when this occurs, see below: ‘Transferring personal data out of the UK/EEA.’
Our data is held securely by DigitalOcean LLC, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform exclusively on servers in the UK, who all meet a broad range of international and industry specific standards including SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 Type II. All data is encrypted while at rest and in transit and all websites/API endpoints are secured by SSL (https). For further details, please see https://www.digitalocean.com/trust/certification-reports
Keeping personal data secure
We maintain security policies and protocols to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing personal data will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
All Estatesearch Limited staff are Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checked. Our system architecture means all staff have limited access to databases containing personal data. User access is only granted to companies and individuals who are first vetted and approved by dual authentication.
We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify the data owner and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.
Transferring personal data out of the UK/EEA
To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside the UK/European Economic Area (EEA), e.g.,
–with our service providers located outside the UK/EEA;
–if our Client or You are based outside the UK/EEA;
–where there is an international dimension to the matter in which we are providing the service.
These transfers are subject to special rules under European and UK data protection law.
We will that any transfer complies with data protection law and all personal data will be secure. Our standard practice is to use standard data protection contract clauses.
If you would like further information, please contact our Data Protection Officer (see ‘How to contact us’ below).
How and why we use personal data
Under data protection law, we can only use personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so, e.g.
–to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
– for the provision of our Services to you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
– for our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or
– where you have given consent.
A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.
The table below explains what we use (process) your personal data for and our reasons for doing so. It does not apply to special category personal data, which we will only process with your explicit consent. Special Category Personal Data is personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership, genetic and biometric data, data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation.
| What we use personal data for | Our reasons |
| To provide our Service to you in relation to a Subject | Legitimate interest for the performance of our Service or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract |
| Conducting checks to verify your identity including screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes, other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business. | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Providing contact details of the Subject and of the Client who is legally authorised to act on behalf of the Subject including: Certified ID of the Subject and Client (to verify identity and address); and Copy of Death Certificate or Court of Protection Order (to verify the Subject’s capacity) | To enable third-parties to comply with their legal and regulatory obligations. To prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for third-parties, us, you and or the Subject |
| Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Ensuring business policies are adhered to, e.g., policies covering security and internet use | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e., to make sure we are following our own internal procedures, so we can deliver the best service to you |
| Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e., to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price |
| Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e., to protect our intellectual property and other commercially valuable information |
| Statistical analysis to help us manage our business, e.g. in relation to our financial performance, client base, work type or other efficiency measures | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e., to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price |
| Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e., to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you |
| Updatingand enhancing client records | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations for the performance of our Service or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g., making sure that we can keep in touch with our clients about existing and new services |
| Statutory returns | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g., to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you |
| Marketing our servicesand those of selected third parties to existing and former clients | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e., to promote our business to existing and former clients |
| External audits and quality checks, e.g. Clear Insurance Management Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.Credit Reference Agencies Office of Public Guardian Financial audit of our company accounts | For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, i.e. to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Promotional communications
We will always treat personal data with the utmost respect and never sell it to other organisations outside Estatesearch Limited and its affiliate companies for marketing purposes.
We may use personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about legal developments that might be of interest to you and/or information about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services.
You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by contacting us, see below: ‘How to contact us’ or using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in any emails or ‘STOP’ number in texts.
We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences, if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.
Who we share personal data with
In the course of delivering our Services we may share your personal data with a number of third parties including:
–third party service providers involved in provision of our Services to you. A full list of third parties and reference to their terms & conditions are available at https://www.estatesearch.co.uk/third-party-terms/
– Credit Reference Agencies*;
–Banks or building societies, pension administrators, other similar organisations;
–our group companies;
–our insurers and insurance brokers;
– external compliance auditors, e.g.,
–Office of Public Guardian;
–Third party service providers;
–in respect of our company accounts;
–external service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient, e.g. data hosting services, customer relationship management systems, document postal services, email providers, marketing agencies, document collation or analysis suppliers.
We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied that they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.
We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
We may also need to share some personal data with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a re-structuring. Usually, information will be anonymised, but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.
How long personal data will be kept
We keep personal data after we have finished providing Services. We do so for one of these reasons:
– to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by the Client;
– to show that we treated Clients fairly;
– to keep records required by law.
In general we may retain personal data and information that the Client has provided in respect of the Client and Subject along with the content of any reports generated by the Service for a period of up to twelve years after fulfilment of the Service.
We will not retain personal data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data. Some insurance policies we might provide can be claimed against in perpetuity or long after they have expired. We will retain records of these for longer than twelve years based on the likelihood of any claim, complaint or dispute arising.
When it is no longer necessary to retain personal data, we will delete or anonymise it where required to ensure systems and services remain operational.
Your Rights
All Clients and Subjects have the following rights, which can be exercised free of charge:
| Access | The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data |
| Rectification | The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data |
| To be forgotten | The right to require us to delete your personal data—in certain situations |
| Restriction of processing | The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data—in certain circumstances, e.g. if you contest the accuracy of the data |
| Data portability | The right to receive the personal data you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party—in certain situations |
| To object | The right to object: —at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing (including profiling); —in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data, e.g. processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests. |
| Not to be subject to automated individual decision-making | The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you |
In addition to these, you can ask us to restrict the use of your personal data if any of the above apply, but you do not wish us to delete it.
For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us or see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.
If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please email or write to our Data Protection Officer— see below: ‘How to contact us’. Please make sure your request is clear, containing the following:
Enough information to identify you:
– full name;
– address; and
– reference number.
Proof of your identity and address:
– a copy of your driving licence; or
– a copy of your passport; and
– a recent utility bill or bank statement.
Let us know which right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates. We aim to meet any requests promptly and as fully as possible and may contact you to further understand your requirements in order to expedite your request. In some cases, we may be prevented from completing requests for legal reasons or due to conflicting legitimate interests. If this is the case, we will explain our reasons why.
How to complain
We hope that our Data Protection Officer can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information.
The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns.
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Changes to this privacy policy
This privacy policy was published on 25th July 2019, updated 1st November 2021 and last updated 1st January 2024. We may change this privacy policy from time to time, when we do, we will inform you by placing a notice on our Sites or by email.
How to contact us
Please contact us by email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or personal data we hold about you or a Subject you’re legally authorised to represent.
Our contact details are shown below:
A: Estatesearch Limited, Delmon House, 36-38 Church Road, Burgess Hill, RH15 9AE
T: 0330 900 1700
E: [email protected]
* There are three main Credit Reference Agencies in the UK that deal with personal data. Each is regulated by the FCA and authorised to conduct business as a credit reference agency.
Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN) describes how the three main CRAs each use and share personal data (also called ‘bureau data’) that is part of or derived from or used in credit activity https://www.experian.co.uk/crain/index.html
Experian Limited
Post: Experian, PO BOX 9000, Nottingham, NG80 7WF
Web Address: https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/contact-us/index.html
Phone: 0344 481 0800 or 0800 013 8888
Equifax Limited
Post: Equifax Ltd, Customer Service Centre, PO Box 10036, Leicester, LE3 4FS.
Web Address: https://www.equifax.co.uk/Contact-us/Contact_Us_Personal_Solutions.html
Phone: 0333 321 4043 or 0800 014 2955
TransUnion International UK Ltd (formerly Callcredit Information Group)
Post: Callcredit, One Park Lane, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS3 1EP.
Web Address: https://www.transunion.co.uk/consumer/consumer-enquiries
Phone: 0330 024 7574