Last updated 11 September 2026
Who we are
Sail Legal Limited is the controller of your personal data. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 13307984 and regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers under licence 14065. To ask us anything about your data, email hello@saillegal.co.uk.
What we collect
Who you are - name, address, date of birth, contact details, and the identity documents anti-money-laundering rules require us to see.
The transaction - the property, the price, your mortgage if there is one, and where the money is coming from or going to.
Sometimes, sensitive information - a death certificate, a grant of probate, or a court order in a divorce. We only collect these where the transaction genuinely requires them.
Why we are allowed to use it
To do the work you asked for. Acting on your sale or purchase is performing a contract with you.
Because the law requires it. Identity and source-of-funds checks are required by money laundering regulations, and we cannot waive them even if you ask.
Because we have a fair business reason - preventing fraud, keeping records to defend a claim, and running the firm. You can object at any time.
Because you agreed - marketing emails only. You can withdraw that whenever you like.
Who we share it with
Only where the transaction needs it. The other side's conveyancer, your lender, HM Land Registry, HM Revenue and Customs for the tax return, search providers, and our identity-checking provider.
Our identity checks use Stripe, which compares a photo of your face against your passport or driving licence. That face check is biometric information, which the law treats as especially sensitive. We only do it because the money laundering regulations require the check.
We never sell your data, and we do not share it for anyone else's marketing.
Where we use AI
We use AI tools to help us read the documents you send us. When a document arrives - a bank statement for our money laundering checks, a title register, a will - an AI service reads the text and writes a short summary onto the file, so your conveyancer is not re-typing it. AI also helps us sort the post that comes in, and tidy up what we write back to you.
Some of our checks are automated. Your identity, your address and the sanctions screening are run by software, and the result is recorded without anyone reading it first. If a check does not pass we email you to say so, and your matter cannot go ahead until it is sorted out. You can ask for a person to review any automated result, and to explain how we got there.
The AI providers are Anthropic and OpenAI, both based in the United States.
How long we keep it
Your file is kept for six years after completion. That is the period in which a claim could still be brought, and our insurers require it.
Identity check records are kept for five years after our work for you ends. Money laundering regulations set that period.
If you got a quote and did not instruct us, we keep it for two years, then delete it.
Sending data outside the UK
Your data is stored in the UK. Some of the software we use to run the business, such as email, is provided by companies based in the United States. Where that involves a transfer we rely on the safeguards the law requires - either a UK adequacy decision or the approved standard contract terms. Ask us and we will tell you which applies.
Your rights
You have the right to see the data we hold about you, to have it corrected, to have it erased, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to have it moved to someone else. These rights have limits - we cannot delete records the law requires us to keep.
Asking is free and we will answer within one month. Email hello@saillegal.co.uk.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, or on 0303 123 1113. You can go to them without coming to us first, though we would rather have the chance to put it right.
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