How we look after personal information

Home Claims Assist Ltd (company number 13544020, registered in England and Wales, registered office 536 Barking Road, London E13 8QE) is the data controller. We trade as Home Claims Assist from 288a Stanhope Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 5JU, with an office at New Town, Edinburgh EH2 3JP.

Contact for anything in this notice: info@homeclaimsassist.co.uk or 0191 691 3162.

When you ask us to manage an insurance claim we collect what the claim needs: your name and contact details, the property address, your policy and insurer details, photographs and reports describing the damage, correspondence with your insurer and their loss adjuster, and payment details for the settlement.

We use this to assess the damage, prepare and negotiate the claim, instruct surveyors or contractors where agreed, and keep you informed. The lawful basis is performance of our contract with you. Where we need to retain records after the claim, the basis is our legal obligations and legitimate interest in defending claims.

We work with estate agents, letting agents, insurance brokers, leak detection firms, plumbers and property maintenance companies whose customers may need a claim handled. To introduce ourselves we hold business names, business addresses, business telephone numbers and email addresses, and website details, gathered from public sources such as Google Business Profiles, company websites and trade directories.

We rely on legitimate interests to make that first contact: a short introduction that explains what we do and how to say no. Where a business is run by a sole trader or partnership we treat the contact as an individual and apply the same care, including a clear opt-out in every message. We do not sell these details or share them with anyone else.

If you would rather not hear from us, use the unsubscribe link in any email, reply to tell us, or email info@homeclaimsassist.co.uk. We keep a do-not-contact list so that a request to stop is permanent.

When you use the contact form we collect the details you give us so we can reply. Our hosting provider records standard technical logs such as IP address, browser type and pages visited, which we use to keep the site secure and working. We do not run advertising trackers on this site.

Only with the people needed to do the work: your insurer and their appointed loss adjuster when you have instructed us, surveyors, engineers and contractors you have agreed to, and the service providers that run our systems. Those providers include our email service, our website and database hosting, and our calendar and document tools. Each works under a contract that restricts them to acting on our instructions.

Some providers store data outside the UK. Where they do, transfers are covered by the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or an adequacy decision.

We never sell personal information.

Claim files: six years after the claim closes. Enquiries that do not become a claim: twelve months. Business contact details for introductions: while they remain relevant, and removed when you ask us to stop. Website logs: up to ninety days.

You can ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, object to our use of it (including any direct marketing), ask us to restrict how we use it, and ask for it in a portable format. Email info@homeclaimsassist.co.uk and we will respond within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

We update this notice when our services or the law change. The date at the top tells you when it was last reviewed.