PLS Solicitors Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Property Legal (Manchester) Limited trading as PLS Solicitors is a data controller registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Our registered address is: PLS House, Atlantic Street, Altrincham, WA14 5UW.
Our ICO registration number is: ZA127001.

2. What personal data we collect and why

2.1 Conveyancing and legal services

When you instruct us to carry out legal work, we collect the personal data necessary to carry out that work, including your name, address, date of birth, contact details, financial information, and identity documents. We process this data in order to perform our contract with you and to comply with our legal obligations as a regulated solicitor.

2.2 Website enquiries and contact forms

When you submit an enquiry via our website contact or quote form, we collect your name, email address, and telephone number. We use this information to respond to your enquiry and, unless you have refused to consent to the use of your contact details for direct marketing purposes, to send you information about similar products and services.

2.3 Marketing and advertising

We use cookies and similar technologies on our website to support advertising on Google (including Google Ads and YouTube), Meta (Facebook and Instagram), and LinkedIn. This allows us to show you relevant adverts on those platforms based on your previous visits to our website. This processing only takes place where you have consented via our cookie banner.

We may also carry out custom audience matching by uploading hashed contact details to these platforms — see section 6 for full details.

We use an email marketing platform to send marketing communications to contacts who have opted in.

2.4 Data from third parties

We receive personal data from estate agents, lenders, counter parties, other solicitors, mortgage brokers, introducers and others.

We use your personal information for the following purposes:

To enable us to provide you with requested legal services and to make you aware of our other legal services that may be of interest to you.

2.5 Special category data

We rely on the following legal bases for process As part of our obligations in respect of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing we may receive special category data, such as biometric identity documents. To the extent that we process special category data we do so on the grounds that it is in the public interest that unlawful acts are prevented.

3. Summary of data processing

The table below summarises the categories of personal data we process, the legal basis for each, and the purpose.

4. How long we keep your data

We retain personal data relating to your legal matter (including documentary evidence of your identity we obtain for anti-money laundering purposes) for six years following the completion of that matter, in line with our professional obligations and limitation periods. After this period, data is securely deleted. Contact-enquiry and marketing-consent records are retained for 24 months and are then securely deleted.

Cookie and website analytics data is retained for a maximum of 14 months (Google Analytics) or 26 months (advertising platforms), in line with the retention periods set by each platform.

Contact data used for custom audience matching is subject to a 90-day review cycle, after which lists are refreshed or deleted. For information on platform-side retention, please refer to each platform’s privacy policy.

5. Who we share your data with

We may share your personal data with the following categories of recipients where necessary:

• HM Land Registry, HMRC, and other government bodies as required to complete your transaction
• Mortgage lenders, estate agents, and other solicitors involved in your transaction
• Our professional indemnity insurers
• IT and software providers acting as data processors on our behalf
• Google, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), and LinkedIn, who process cookie and custom audience data on our behalf as advertising platforms. These platforms process data in accordance with their own privacy policies.
• Our email marketing platform, which processes your email address on our behalf to send marketing communications where you have consented or opted in.
• Embryo Digital Ltd, our digital marketing agency, acting as a data processor in respect of custom audience matching.
• Third parties in the event that we sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or assets. Any new owner will use your personal data only in the ways set out in this notice.

We will also share personal information with law enforcement agencies if required by applicable law.
For a full list of third-party service providers, please contact us at privacy@pls-solicitors.co.uk.

6. Custom audience matching

In addition to cookie-based advertising, we may use custom audience matching (also known as customer match) on Google, Meta, and LinkedIn. This involves uploading a hashed list of contact details — specifically email addresses and telephone numbers — directly to these platforms so they can identify your account and show our advertising to you.

6.1 How it works

Before any data is uploaded, your contact details are converted into a hashed format — pseudonymisedformat that cannot be read as plain text. The advertising platform uses this hash to check whether it matches any of its users. If a match is found, our ads may be shown to you on that platform.

Custom audience lists are managed by Embryo Digital, our data processor, and are reviewed and either refreshed or deleted every 90 days. For information on how long Meta, Google, and LinkedIn retain matched data on their own platforms, please refer to each platform’s privacy policy directly.

6.2 Legal basis

We only use custom audience matching where you have consented or given what is known as a “soft opt-in”. A soft opt in is given when a former client has not opted out of receiving direct marketing material about products or services similar to those we have already provided to that client.

6.3 Consent

Where we rely on your consent, this will have been recorded at the point you submitted your details to us. You can withdraw consent at any time by contacting us at privacy@pls-solicitors.co.uk.

You have the right to object to this processing at any time by contacting privacy@pls-solicitors.co.uk. We will stop using your data for custom audience matching if you ask us to stop processing your data in this way.

7. International transfers

We do not routinely transfer personal data outside the UK. However, the advertising platforms we use (Google, Meta, and LinkedIn) and our email marketing platform may process data on servers located outside the UK. Each of these providers relies on the UK’s adequacy regulations or the International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) framework as the lawful mechanism for such transfers. For further information, please refer to each platform’s privacy policy.

8. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the following rights in relation to the personal data we hold about you:

• The right to be informed about how your data is used (this notice)
• The right of access to a copy of your personal data
• The right to rectification of inaccurate data
• The right to erasure (the ‘right to be forgotten’) in certain circumstances
• The right to restrict processing in certain circumstances
• The right to data portability in certain circumstances
• The right to object to processing based on legitimate interests
• The right to object to direct marketing

To exercise any of these rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer, Rob Thomasus at privacy@pls-solicitors.co.uk, by telephone on 0330 024 4525, or in writing to PLS House, Atlantic Street, Altrincham, WA14 5UW. Please provide sufficient information for us to verify your identity. We will respond within one month of receiving your request.

To unsubscribe from marketing emails, click the unsubscribe link in any email we send. Please allow up to five working days for this to take effect.

To withdraw consent for cookies, visit the Cookie Settings link in the footer of our website at any time.

9. Security

We take the security of your personal data seriously and have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it against unauthorised access, loss, or disclosure.

For further information about our security practices, please contact us at privacy@pls-solicitors.co.uk.

10. Cookies

Our website uses cookies and similar tracking technologies. For full details of the cookies we set, their purposes, durations, and how to manage your preferences, please read our Cookie Policy at https://www.pls-solicitors.co.uk/cookie-policy.

11. How to make a complaint

If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal data, please contact us in the first instance.

If you remain unsatisfied, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):

• Address: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
• Telephone: 0303 123 1113
• Website: https://www.ico.org.uk

12. Future processing

We do not intend to process your personal information for any purpose other than those stated in this notice. If this changes, we will inform you by an agreed communication method before doing so.

13. Changes to this privacy notice

This Privacy Notice was originally published on 25 May 2018 and was last updated in April 2026. We review our privacy practices regularly and may update this notice from time to time. The current version will always be available on our website.

14. Alternative formats

If you would find it helpful to have this notice in another format (for example in another language, audio, or braille), please contact us using the details below

15. Get in touch

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or the personal data we hold about you, please contact:

• Data Protection Contact, PLS Solicitors
• Telephone: 0330 024 4525
• Email: privacy@pls-solicitors.co.uk
• Post: PLS House, Atlantic Street, Altrincham, WA14 5UW
• Web: https://www.pls-solicitors.co.uk