Privacy Notice 

Murphy Scoular takes your data privacy seriously. We are an independent Property Management and Letting firm.  In order to provide you with our services we collect and use personal data which means that we are a ‘Data Controller’ and we are responsible for and committed to  complying with Data Protection Laws and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).  

In this Privacy Notice, we want to inform you about what information we collect, how we use it and what rights individuals have in relation to the collection and processing of their personal data. 

If you have any questions in respect of this Privacy Notice or how we manage your personal data, please contact us. 

Our Contact Details: 

Murphy Scoular 

Address22/24 John Finnie Street, Kilmarnock, KA1 1DD 

Email: mail@murphyscoular.com 

Tel: 01563 573222 

What personal data do we collect and process? 

We collect the following types of data: (Please select which is applicable to you)  

If you are a Managed or Factored Property Owner:  

  • General contact details such as, Name, Address, email address, Telephone number 
  • General Communications between us and you 
  • Residency details 
  • Insurance details 
  • Reinstatement values of property for insurance purpose 
  • Claims history for insurance purposes  
  • Power of Attorney Status where applicable 
  • Details of Factored properties owned but not occupied by you 
  • Financial Details – payment or bank details 
  • Your marketing preferences 

If you are a Letting Tenant or potential Tenant or a Guarantor (to be named in a lease agreement): 

  • General contact details such as, Name, Address, email address, Telephone number 
  • General Communications between us and you 
  • Date of birth 
  • Residency details 
  • Occupation / Employment details of residential tenants 
  • Personal References for Residential Tenants 
  • Financial Details – such as credit history or payment or bank details 
  • Details of Criminal Convictions 
  • Rent and other payment details 
  • Utilities and council charges payable 
  • Complaints 
  • Insurance Arrangements 
  • Your marketing preferences 

If you are an Occupant or potential occupant over 18 years of age (not to be named in a lease agreement) 

  • General contact details such as, Name 
  • Occupation / employment details 
  • Your marketing preferences 

If you are an Emergency Contact or Third Party Supplier of Services 

  • General contact details such as, Name, Address, email address, Telephone number 
  • Financial Details – such as credit history or payment or bank details 
  • Your marketing preferences 

Special Categories of Personal Data that we collect: 

  • Health and Disability details in relation to property requirements and only with your explicit consent. 
  • Information relating to criminal sanctions (including offences and alleged offences and any caution, court sentence or criminal conviction). 
  • The following special category information offered by you in the course of your discussions with us relating to race, ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, trade union memberships or data concerning your sex life or sexual orientation.  We will only process such information to the extent necessary where in connection with legal proceedings.  Any further processing will only be with your explicit consent. 

 

Please Remember: Where you provide any of this information relating to or on behalf of another individual such as a dependant or other family member, you must remember to ensure that you have the consent of the individual and provide them with a copy of or access to this Privacy Notice.  

Children 

 We do not generally collect or process personal data relating to children.  We will collect details of the number of occupants of a property and the ages of any occupant over 18 years of age only. 

 

How we collect your information 

In most cases we collect your data directly from you.  We collect data and process it when you: 

  • Complete an online ‘contact us’ form 
  • Complete an application for tenancy 
  • Complete a Property Letting Service Agreement with us as a property owner 
  • Provide information during a meeting on site or virtual 
  • Speak to us on the telephone to discuss or use our services 
  • Email or write to us to enquire about or use our services or provide general information in the course of our communications 

 

We also receive your data indirectly from the following sources: 

  • Social Media Sites including LinkedIn 
  • Public sources – demographic data, Market Research 
  • Credit Agencies and publicly available company data 

 

Why we do we collect your information? 

Where we collect and process personal data, we identify both the purpose and legal basis for doing so.  There are 6 possible legal bases which are: 

Consent – where we have consent from the individual to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purpose  

Contract – where the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract 

Legal Obligation – The processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject 

Vital Interests – Where the processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject or another natural person 

Public Interest – Where the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller  

Legitimate Interests – Where the processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal date, in particular where the data subject is a child. 

Our purpose and legal basis for the information we collect, and process allows us to: 

To understand your requirements prior to entering into a contract of service with our Property Owners  The processing is necessary for the performance of an anticipated Contract 
To understand your requirements to ensure that any contract of service meets our customer’s needs  The processing is necessary for the performance of a Contract with you 
To fulfil our contract with you and provide you with the agreed services therein  The processing is necessary for the performance of our Contract with you 
To manage and monitor all rental payments  The processing is necessary for the performance of a tenancy Contract 
To manage our business operations and comply with any internal policies and procedures  It is in our legitimate interests to use your personal information to ensure that we provide and adapt our services  
To provide information to safety and service suppliers to ensure that they can arrange for access to the a property in the case of an emergencysafety or repair and maintenance requirement  We have a legal obligation to  use your personal information to ensure that such services can contact you in relation to an emergency safety requirement or  repair 
To provide information to repair and maintenance suppliers to ensure the ongoing maintenance and good condition of a property  It is in our Legitimate Interests to ensure that the property remains in a good state of repair 
To provide tenancy information to public or local authorities on request.  We have a legal obligation to provide information to public authorities and local housing authorities relation to the occupation of a property. 
To provide information on request in relation to investigation of a crime and anti-social behavior  It is our Legal obligation to provide information on request in relation to such an investigation 
To notify you about changes to our service  It is in our Legitimate Interests to use your personal information to keep you informed about any changes that may affect you 
To understand and decide on the suitability of a potential tenant  It is a requirement to assess eligibility criteria of potential tenants prior to entering into a contract for tenancy. 
To complete a Tenancy Agreement  It is necessary to perform our tenancy contract. 
For Marketing of similar services to existing customers   It is in our legitimate interests to use your personal information for marketing purposes where the services being marketed are relevant to you. 
For electronic Marketing of services to new customers via personal business email addresses  It is in our Legitimate Interests to use personal business email addresses for marketing purposes where we can support individual’s rights 
For electronic Marketing of services to new customers  We rely on Consent for direct marketing to individuals 
To comply with our legal obligations, law enforcement, court and regulatory bodies requirements  To comply with our Legal Obligations 
To identify and prevent fraud  It is in our Legitimate Interests to act as a responsible business 

 

Where we rely on your consent you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time by contacting our Data Protection Officer. 

Legitimate Interests – Where the processing of personal data is based on our Legitimate Interests, it is to deliver and improve on our service and security and maintain accurate records.  It is also in an aim to prevent fraud or illegal activity in favour of the wellbeing of our clients, tenants and shareholders.   

Direct Marketing  

We may send you details of similar services to those you have enquired about or purchased from us previously.   You can opt out of receiving this information from us at any time by contacting us at the above address or clicking ‘unsubscribe’ on any messages you may receive. 

We will never share or sell your information to any other party for marketing purposes. 

Who we share your information with?  

From time to time we may share your personal information with the following third parties for the purposes set out above:  

  • Accountants 
  • Payment Services Providers 
  • AuditorsLawyers and other Professional services 
  • Specialist Experts for example Compliance Consultants, Web Service providers 
  • Cloud storage providers and Software Services 
  • Fraud detection Agencies 
  • Police and Law Enforcement agencies where reasonably necessary for the prevention or detection of crime 
  • Credit Reference Agencies 
  • Regulators and governing bodies such as HMRC in respect of Tax and property income approvals 
  • Selected Third Parties in connection with any future sale, transfer or disposal of our business 

 

International data transfers 

Some recipients of your personal data can be located outside your country or have offices in countries where data protection laws may provide a different level of protection than the laws in your country. When transferring personal data to such recipients, we provide appropriate safeguards. 

We can use software processors which can share date outside of the EEA including the U.S.  We always review our providers to ensure that additional safeguards are in place including Adequacy decisions and Standard Contract Clauses. 

Automated decision-making or Profiling  

We do not process personal data for automated decision making or profiling.  

How Long do we keep personal data for? 

We will retain personal data in accordance with legal and regulatory requirements and for no longer than is necessary to fulfil the purposes set out in this privacy policy.  We maintain and review a detailed retention policy which documents how long we will hold different types of data.  The time period will depend on the purpose for which we collected the information and is never on an indefinite basis.  Subsequently, we will delete your personal data in accordance with our data retention and deletion policy or take steps to properly render the data anonymous, unless we are legally obliged to keep your personal data longer (e.g. for tax, accounting or auditing purposes).  

The following details the criteria used to establish the retention period set out within our policy. 

Where it is still necessary for the provision of our Services
This includes the duration of any contract for services we have with you and for a period of  6 Years  after the end of any contract with a view to maintaining and improving the performance of our products, keeping our systems secure, and maintaining appropriate business and financial records.  Most of our retention periods are determined on the basis of this general rule. 

Where required by Statutory, contractual or other similar obligations
Corresponding storage obligations may arise, for example, from laws or regulation. It may also be necessary to store personal data regarding pending or future legal disputes. Personal data contained in contracts, notifications and business letters may be subject to statutory storage obligations depending on national law.  In particular, some detail relating to property management and tenancy must be retained for a minimum of 6 years. 

 Your Rights as a data subject   

As a data subject, you have rights in relation to your personal data.  These are: 

The Right to Access – You have the right to request details of personal information held or processed and to copies of this data.  We do not usually charge for this service. 

The Right to Rectification – You have the right to request that any information be corrected that you believe is inaccurate or to complete any information that you believe is incomplete. 

The Right to Erasure – You have the right to request that we erase your personal information under certain conditions 

The Right to Restrict Processing – You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data under certain circumstances 

The Right to Object to Processing – You have the right to object to our processing of your data, under certain conditions. 

The Right to Data Portability – You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organisation or directly to you, under certain conditions. 

You also have the Right to Withdraw Consent where you have previously provided this at any time.   

To exercise any of these rights, or if you have a complaint please contact us using the contact details at the beginning of this notice. 

You also have the right to complain to the Supervisory Authority.  Where you wish to report a complaint or feel that we have not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at:  

Information Commissioners Office 

Wycliffe House 

Water Lane 

Wilmslow 

Cheshire 

SK9 5AF 

Online: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/ 

Helpline: 0303 123 1113 

Contractual Obligations and Consequences 

In some circumstances, the provision of personal data is partly required by law (for example, tax regulations, employment and legal obligations) or can also result from contractual provisions.  This means that it may sometimes be necessary to conclude or fulfil a contract, that the personal data be provided.  In those circumstances where the data is not provided or where certain rights are exercised, (Erasure, Object) there is a possible consequence that the contract could not be fulfilled or concluded and may be cancelled.   

Cookies & similar technologies 

Our own website doesn’t use Cookies, however we feel it’s important to explain what cookies are and how you can manage them.   

What are cookies? 

Cookies are small text files which are stored on your browser when you visit a website.  They can often serve crucial functions and help to keep a website secure which helps to provide you with a better experience.  They can also to analyse how a website performs, what works and where improvements can be made. 

How we use Cookies? 

Our website doesn’t use cookies, however please remember when you find us through social media or external links (for example when you view our location on Maps, you are being redirected to the domains of those sites.  We have no control over the cookies set by those sites so always remember to check the privacy and cookie information on those sites. 

Different browsers provide different methods to block and delete cookies used by websites.  You can do this by changing the settings in your browser.  To find our more, visit www.allaboutcookies.org 

Data security 

We aim to protect your personal data through technical and organisational security measures to minimise risks associated with data loss, misuse, unauthorised access and unauthorised disclosure and alteration.  

We store customer records in cloud-based services and software data centres which have controlled and restricted access.  We operate records management and Information security policies which detail physical security, cloud storage security monitoring, access control and password security measures.  We also maintain and use anti-virus and malware software and firewalls.  

Changes to our Privacy Notice 

All businesses and their operations change from time to time.  Murphy Scoular Financial Services consider data privacy prior to making decisions and embed Data Protection into any changes we make.  We keep our Privacy Notice under regular review to ensure that any changes are captured, and you are kept informed.   

 This Privacy Notice was last updated on 9th December 2020.