Your personal data rights
SAR versus document request versus pre-action disclosure
Three different tools, three different things they produce. Using the wrong one is the most common reason borrowers get an answer that feels evasive.
What this problem looks like
- You made a subject access request expecting the assignment deed, and received account notes.
- You have been told 'that is not personal data' and you are not sure whether that is right.
- You are being told to make a court application when a plain written request has never been made.
What you are trying to establish
- Which of the three tools actually produces the thing you want.
- Whether the thing you want is your personal information, a specific contractual or corporate document, or a class of documents relevant to a dispute.
Evidence to collect
- A list of what you want, split into two columns: information about me, and documents.
- For each document, the closest name and date you can give it.
What to ask for
- Personal information → subject access request. Account notes, call recordings, internal notes about you, recipients of your data. One month to respond.
- A specific document → an ordinary written request. Mortgage deed, mortgage conditions, transfer or assignment, notice of assignment, receiver's appointment, solicitor's invoice, tariff in force on a date. No statutory deadline, but a refusal in writing is itself useful evidence.
- Documents relevant to anticipated proceedings → pre-action disclosure under Civil Procedure Rule 31.16. A court application, with costs consequences, and only where proceedings are genuinely in prospect.
What a useful answer looks like
- The organisation answers the SAR as a SAR and the document request as a document request, rather than merging them.
- Where a document is refused, you are told which document and why.
What an inadequate answer looks like
- Everything is answered as 'your subject access request', including the parts that asked for the deed.
- A refusal that does not identify what has been refused.
What this does not do
- A SAR cannot compel production of a whole original document that is not your personal data.
- An ordinary document request has no statutory teeth — its value is in the paper trail it creates.
- CPR 31.16 is not a general information right. It requires anticipated proceedings and it carries costs risk.
Next escalation
- Send the two requests separately, on the same day, so neither absorbs the other.
- Where the document request is refused and the document genuinely matters, that refusal is the foundation of a focused pre-action request.
Example letters for this stage
- Full subject access request (mortgage account) — A subject access request under Article 15 of the UK GDPR, framed for a mortgage account.
- Request for named mortgage and security documents — An ordinary document request. Use it for the deed, the conditions, a transfer or an appointment — not a subject access request.
- Narrow notice of an intended application for pre-action disclosure — A formal court step under Civil Procedure Rule 31.16. Take legal advice before sending or applying.
Official sources
Elsewhere in this archive
More on: Your personal data rights
This is information, not legal advice
Nothing here is legal advice and no professional relationship arises from reading it. Time limits apply to complaints and to court steps. Free help is available from Citizens Advice, StepChange and Shelter.