1. Who we are
Aqqord Limited ("Aqqord", "we", "us") is a company registered in England and Wales (company number 11726777) with its registered office at 4 Leicester Avenue, Salford M7 4HA. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA number 8008171). We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (registration number ZC293816).
We are the controller of the personal information described in this policy. This policy explains what information we collect about you and why, how we use and share it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have.
2. Information we collect
2.1 Information you give us
- Your name, email address, telephone number and postal address.
- If you act for a company, your role and the company's details.
- The details of the lease or licence you are creating, including the property address, the parties and the agreed terms (the heads of terms).
- Details of the other party to the transaction, when you invite them to the platform.
- Information we need to verify your identity and comply with anti-money laundering law. This may include identity documents, details of your business structure and, where needed, evidence of the source of funds.
- Payment details, which are handled by our payment provider (see section 4). We do not store full card numbers.
- Anything you tell us when you contact us by email, telephone or through the platform.
2.2 Information from other people
If the other party to your lease or licence, or an agent acting in the transaction, invites you to the platform, they will give us your name and contact details and the details of the transaction.
2.3 Information collected when you use our website and platform
Like most websites, our servers keep logs of how they are used. These include your IP address, browser type, the pages you visit, the date and time of your visit and the page that referred you. We use these to run, secure and improve the site and platform.
2.4 Cookies
We use cookies and similar technologies. Some are needed for the site to work; others, for analytics and advertising, are used only if you agree. Our Cookie Policy explains which cookies we use and how to change your choices at any time.
3. How we use your information, and our legal basis
| What we use it for | Our legal basis |
|---|---|
| Providing the platform and our services: generating your lease or licence, managing negotiation, signature and completion, and assisting with any filings you ask us to help with | Performing our contract with you |
| Verifying identity and meeting our anti-money laundering, regulatory and record-keeping duties | Legal obligation |
| Sending service messages, such as account notices, transaction updates and replies to your questions | Performing our contract with you |
| Contacting the other party to a transaction you have started | Our legitimate interest in providing the service you asked for |
| Occasional newsletters to former users, which you can opt out of at any time (clause 12.3 of our Terms & Conditions) | Our legitimate interest in keeping in touch with former users |
| Analytics and advertising cookies | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Keeping the site and platform secure, and preventing fraud | Our legitimate interest in protecting our users and our business |
Where personal data is obtained solely to comply with the Money Laundering Regulations, we will not use it for any other purpose without your consent, unless the law requires it.
4. Who we share your information with
We do not sell your personal information, and we never share it with third parties so that they can market to you.
We share it only as follows:
- The other parties to your transaction, such as the landlord, tenant, guarantor and any agent you involve, to the extent needed to agree and complete the document.
- Government bodies, where you ask us to assist with a filing. Stamp duty land tax (SDLT), land transaction tax (LTT) and Land Registry registration are your responsibility, and Aqqord can assist. If you ask us to, we send the information needed for the return to HM Revenue & Customs or the Welsh Revenue Authority, and the information needed for registration to HM Land Registry.
- Service providers who work for us, including hosting and storage, payment processing (Stripe), identity verification (Ondato), email delivery, and website analytics and advertising measurement (see the Cookie Policy). They may only use your information to provide their service to us.
- Our regulators and law enforcement, where we are required to by law. In some cases the law prevents us from telling you that we have made a report.
- Our professional advisers and insurers, where needed to obtain advice or deal with a claim.
- A buyer of our business, if Aqqord or its assets are sold. You would be told about any change in who holds your information.
5. Where your information is stored and how we protect it
The Aqqord platform and your documents are hosted on servers in the UK. Ondato, our identity verification provider, stores data in the EU, in the Netherlands and Ireland. If any of your information is ever stored elsewhere outside the UK, for example by one of our other service providers, we will only use countries approved for this purpose under data protection law, or where appropriate safeguards are in place.
Information sent between your browser and our site or platform is encrypted (HTTPS). Our servers are kept in controlled environments. Electronic signing is handled by our own software, which places the signature and keeps the audit trail, and signed PDFs are digitally signed with a GlobalSign certificate. No system can be made completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information against unauthorised access, loss or misuse.
6. How long we keep your information
We generally keep client files for 6 years after payment of the final bill and then destroy them, in line with our Terms & Conditions. We may keep a small amount of information after a file is closed, and we may keep some records for longer where the law or our regulator requires it. If you would like to know how long a particular type of information is kept, please contact us.
7. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
- ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete;
- ask us to delete your information, where we no longer have a reason to keep it;
- ask us to restrict how we use it, or object to our using it on the basis of our legitimate interests;
- ask for your information in a portable format, where this applies;
- withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on it (for example, for cookies); and
- opt out of marketing messages at any time.
To use any of these rights, or if you have a question or concern about how we use your information, contact us at info@aqqord.com, by phone on 0800 161 3800, or by post to Aqqord Limited, 4 Leicester Avenue, Salford M7 4HA. We will ask you to verify your identity before acting on a request.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.
8. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The "Effective from" date at the top shows when it last changed. If we make significant changes, we will let you know, for example by a notice on our website or by email.