Your Personal Data

The following sections explain how and for what purposes McAllister Associates Limited will use your personal information.

We currently may hold personal and confidential information about you and may obtain or receive such information about you in the future. The information we process about you will be obtained from various sources including directly from you; from other organisations including consultants and Local Authorities and HM Land Registry; and from third parties such as Companies House or persons who know you including business partners.

We may link information to other services we provide to you. We only hold such data where we need to for the purposes of the service we provide to you (for example, acting as your consultant, agent or as a party wall surveyor) or where it is in our normal course of business to do so. This includes the following purposes: to consider and implement business, service and technology developments; to undertake statistical analysis, money laundering checks (which may include telephoning you), compliance and regulatory reporting, fraud prevention and recovering debt; to help us identify products and services which may be of interest to you (unless you have asked us not to); systems testing and development.

We will disclose information outside McAllister Associates Limited only: if compelled to do so by law; if appropriate, where you have provided your consent (which is not necessarily required to be in writing); where we have a public duty to disclose the information; to our agents or subcontractors for operational reasons; to third parties, such as Planning Authorities or Building Control or Approved Inspectors; where we need to do so to comply with the requirements, codes or recommendations of any of our regulators; to confirm your identity for money laundering purposes, which may include checking the electoral register; to any person to whom we will or intend to transfer our rights or obligations; to enable us to perform our statutory functions under legislation such as the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.

If false or inaccurate information is provided by you or on your behalf, if we suspect fraud or if fraud is identified, details will be kept in our records and also passed to fraud prevention agencies, law enforcement agencies and other organisations involved in crime and fraud prevention which may access and use this information. We and those other organisations may also access and use this information to prevent fraud and money laundering, for example, when: checking details on applications; recovering debts etc. 

From time to time, we will engage service providers, agents and subcontractors to provide services. They will have access to, and will process, your information on our behalf to provide such services. In these circumstances, we will ensure they agree to process your information only in accordance with the applicable legislation and under strict obligations of confidentiality.

You are entitled to a copy of the personal information we hold about you on payment of a fee. For further information on your rights under the Data Protection Act, you can contact: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF or visit www.ico.gov.uk 

We may record and/or monitor telephone calls to enhance security, help address complaints, improve our customer service and for staff training purposes. We need the information we hold about you to be accurate and up to date. Please help us by informing us promptly of any changes to your personal circumstances or details.

Our Data Controller is Andrew McAllister.

Photography & Filming

It is normal practise for surveyors to record images (photographic or video) of the subject site/building during inspections as the purpose is to create a visual record for future reference, i.e. it is of legitimate interest. Whilst we seek to avoid recording images of individuals, we have undertaken a Data Protection Impact Assessment and have concluded that images captured that do not relate to any individual and are not processed in any way that would allow an individual to be identified and thus do not constitute personal data.

When using a UAS/drone, our pilot surveyor will assess how to fly in a way that respects people’s rights and freedoms. In order to avoid the unintended filming of individuals, our pilot surveyor will only begin recording at altitude and will seek to avoid recording other private property in the vicinity; the focus generally being on high-level features of the subject building or structure (roof, chimney etc.). Images will be stored securely and only shared with relevant parties. Any images we don’t need will be deleted.