We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients, as well as complying with all relevant legal and regulatory obligations.  When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it.  This will help us to improve our standards.

You can complain to us about how we handle your personal data (information) if we:

  1. have not properly responded to your request for your personal information;
  2. have not kept your information secure;
  3. hold inaccurate information about you;
  4. have improperly disclosed information about you;
  5. keep information about you for longer than is necessary;
  6. have collected information for one reason and are using it for something else; or
  7. have not upheld any of your data protection rights.

You should email us at equityrelease@equilaw.uk.com or write to us at our Gloucester office address, giving full details of your concern. You should include all relevant details in your letter or email, such as file reference numbers and/or postcode, and also send copies of any key documents needed to evidence your complaint.

What will happen next?

  1. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within three working days of receiving it.
  2. We will then investigate your complaint.  This will normally involve your matter file being reviewed by the Operations Manager, Josie Hanks, or the Technical and Compliance Manager, Keri McNeill, who will review the issues raised and contact you in order to establish what needs to be done to resolve your complaint.  They will do this within 10 working days of us acknowledging your complaint.
  3. If the Operations Manager or Technical and Compliance Manager are unable to resolve your complaint then the matter will be passed to our Operations Director, Sarah Robertson, who will contact you within 20 working days of us receiving your complaint, in order to discuss your concerns in detail and to try to resolve the matter directly with you.
  4. In the event that we have been unable to resolve your complaint by this stage, then the matter will be passed to our Data Protection Officer, David Bush, who will contact you within 30 working days of us receiving your complaint, and will seek your views on what has gone wrong and what is needed to put things right.  We will then write to you, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

The above procedure conforms with guidance provided by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) which requires that you contact us in the first instance, to give us the chance to deal with it before it is escalated to them. You can find guidance on your rights under the relevant legislation on the ICO’s website as well as information on their regulatory powers and the action they can take.

You can contact the Information Commissioner by phone on 0303 123 1113 or via ‘live chat’ on their website. Full details of how to make a complaint to the office of the Information Commissioner (ICO) may be found at: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/