Privacy Policy - Stonefield Mortgages - Stonefield Estate Agents

Stonefield Mortgages – Privacy Policy

At Stonefield Mortgages, we care about our customers, and this care extends to protecting the security of your data. Stonefield Mortgages complies with Data Protection laws in the United Kingdom, and the EU General Data Protection Regulation. This document is important as it allows us to explain to you what Personal Data we collect, what we use it for and who we share it with, and the various rights you have in relation to Your Personal Data.

Once you choose to provide us with information by which you can be identified, you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with our privacy policy.

Why do we collect your personal data?

We collect personal information about you in order to:

  • Allow us to provide suitable advice taking into account your personal circumstances, and to process your application for the advised mortgage or protection product.
  • Review your mortgage and protection as part of an on-going client relationship with us as your adviser.
  • Respond to complaints and case enquiries.

Your personal information is required to enter into any contract you may undertake with us as your adviser for a mortgage or protection product, and for us to provide information on relevant products and services. Without this information, it would not be possible for us to provide these services.

What personal information do we collect?

The personal information we collect includes (but is not limited to):

  • Your name & Date of Birth.
  • Your Personal contact details (including address, e-mail and telephone number).
  • Income & Employment Details.
  • Financial Information (Bank Statements, Income & Expenditure details, Details on savings, debts such as loans and credit cards, other assets and employer & pension provisions).
  • Credit history details – including details of any history of bankruptcy or county court judgements.
  • Special categories of personal data such as medical history for protection products.
  • Other related information to support your application and confirm your identity (such as UK residency status & retirement age).

Gifted Deposit

Where in receipt of a gifted deposit, we will be required to process personal data from the gift donor to verify the source of funds. This information will be limited to a gift letter, and three months bank statements to meet our Anti-Money Laundering policy obligations. Where you provide this information to us, you must only do so with the express consent of the data subject whose information you are providing to us. The information provided will be stored in line with our privacy policy, which is available to the data subject on request.

 How do we collect your personal data?

We will collect and record Your Personal Data from a variety of sources, but mainly directly from you. You will usually provide information during the course of our initial meetings or conversations with you to establish your circumstances and needs and preferences in relation to mortgage and protection.

We also receive information from third party sources such as our sister company  Stonefield Estate Agents. They process data within the European Economic Area and we have a contract with them to protect your data privacy. Third parties also extend to solicitors, other estate agents and new home builders should you have consented for them to provide this information to us.

 Who do we disclose your personal information to?

We disclose personal information to third parties such as lenders and protection product suppliers. We will only disclose what is necessary to conclude the mortgage and/or protection contracts, and the ongoing servicing of these contracts.

To meet our Anti-Money Laundering regulations, we will complete Anti-Money Laundering checks. We will ask you to provide documentation to verify your identification and address verification. This will also involve checking your information with a credit reference agencies and the electoral role.

If we submit an application to a lender on your behalf they will likely check the following records: Credit Reference Agencies (CRA’s); Fraud Prevention Agencies (FPAs). When CRAs receive a search request from the lender, commonly known as a hard search, they will place a search footprint on your credit file that may be seen by other lenders. Having multiple footprints on your credit file may affect your ability to borrow in the future.

Under certain circumstances, we may need to disclose your personal information to third parties as permitted by, or to comply with, applicable laws and regulations. For instance, to meet our obligations to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and when responding to subject access requests, proceedings of a Court of Law or similar legal process, to protect against fraud, and to otherwise co-operate with law enforcement or regulatory authorities.

Limited information may be shared with solicitors, estate agents and new home builders during the application process, but only where you have provided us with consent to do so.

We will not pass your personal information to any third-party organisation for marketing purposes.

How long is your personal information retained?

If we complete a transaction with a lender or provider on your behalf, we will keep a full record of your interactions with us for the lifetime of the advised product plus a reasonable period to enable us to meet our regulatory obligations and to enable us to answer any complaints that may arise as a result of our advice.

Personal information provided during initial exchanges prior to business being transacted will be deleted from our system after 24 months if no further contact is made. It will be assumed that you do not wish to proceed with our services, and as such we no longer have a requirement to retain this information.

Where is your personal information stored?

Your privacy is important to us and we will keep Your Personal Data secure in accordance with our legal responsibilities. We will take reasonable steps to safeguard Your Personal Data against it being accessed unlawfully or maliciously by a third party.

Your personal information will be held on secure servers and will not be transferred outside of the European Economic Area.

All copies of paperwork provided to us are uploaded to our system, and the copy is disposed of in confidential waste and securely destroyed at regular intervals.

Accessing your personal information

You have the right to access your personal information to check whether it is accurate and up-to-date, you also have the right to receive a copy of the personal information that we process for you.

You have the right to withdraw your consent for us to retain your personal information, however, this information can only be removed should the statutory timescales for retaining the information have lapsed.

Online Privacy Policy

If you make an initial contact with us through our website, the information you provide is protected by a variety of recognised techniques to ensure your data is protected.

At no stage are you forced to register or provide any information whilst reading the content of our site. We will only collect initial contact information and general information about your enquiry, to assist us in contacting you to discuss your enquiry.

Our website employs cookies, but only for demographic & website analytics packages and services provided by Google.

Updating your details

If you are an existing customer we may use the information we have on you to pre-fill forms when you apply for a new product, but we’ll always check that these details are accurate and up to date. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Changes to our Privacy Notice

We keep our Privacy Notice under regular review. If we make any changes to how we process your personal information in ways you would not reasonably expect, we will contact you and bring these changes to your attention. Our Privacy Notice was last updated April 2024.

Any questions?

If you have any questions or complaints relating to how we use your personal information, or if you wish to exercise any of your rights regarding your personal information, please contact  marie@stonefieldayr.com or write to us at Stonefield Mortgages, 16b Beresford terrace, Ayr, KA7 2EG or by telephone on 01292 432123

We will respond to your request as soon as possible. The length of time will depend on the type and complexity of your request, we will always try to respond within one month from the initial request.

What if I am still not satisfied?

If you are not satisfied with how Stonefield Mortgages has responded to your enquiry, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), who is the regulator for data protection in the United Kingdom.

IF YOU NEED TO MAKE A COMPLAINT

If you wish to make a complaint about the service, you have received from us, please contact us by telephone on 01292 432123, in writing or by email.

Our helpful staff will do their best to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible. However, if you are not completely satisfied, please ask to speak to one of our Directors.

Alternatively, you can email us at info@stonefieldmortgages.com

Our goal is to resolve all complaints within 3 working days of receipt. If this is not possible, we will acknowledge your complaint within a maximum of 5 working days. We will try to send a final response within 4 weeks of receipt of your complaint but if we are unable to do this within this time we will send you an update and endeavour to send a final response within 8 weeks.

Please be assured we treat complaints seriously. If you have not received a final response within 8 weeks or are still unhappy with our final written response, you may be entitled to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). Please see the following link for further details: http://financial-ombudsman.org.uk/  

Financial Ombudsman Service
Exchange Tower
London E14 9SR

The Ombudsman will require a completed form, which can be accessed via their website at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk 

Alternatively, they can help you complete the form by taking your details over the phone on 0800 023 4567.

You have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge – but you must do so within six months of the date of this letter.

If you do not refer your complaint in time, the Ombudsman will not have our permission to consider your complaint and so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances. For example, if the Ombudsman believes that the delay was as a result of exceptional circumstances.

Referral to the Ombudsman does not affect your right to take legal action.

IF YOUR COMPLAINT IS ABOUT YOUR INSURER OR LENDER

Your insurer/lender has its own complaints procedure, a copy of which will be provided on request.

If you are still not satisfied after receiving a response from your insurer or lender, they will advise you of the next appropriate authority to contact.

If you make a complaint, it does not affect your right to take legal action.