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You choose a fixed period of up to 10 years or for as long as the person stays your client, and you can add a second period that a law requires.

You set the period under Keep the documents for in the Terms section of the request builder. The steps are on their own page. This page lists what you can choose.

ChoiceWhat it means
1 year, 2 years, 5 yearsA fixed period. It is counted in days, 365 for each year.
OtherA fixed period you enter in Days or Years. The shortest is 1 day. The longest is 10 years or 3650 days.
As long as they're a clientNo date. The period ends when you mark the relationship as ended.

For a fixed period, the clock starts on the day each document or answer arrives. The period you set is written into the notice your client reads.

When a relationship ends, you enter the end date. It cannot be in the future. If no law stage is set, the documents are deleted on the next nightly run after that date. If a law stage is set, they are kept for the law's period from that date.

The law stage is optional. Tick We must keep them beyond this period under law, name the law and give its period. Both are required once the box is ticked. The law's period can also be up to 10 years. A law's period that is a whole number of years is counted as calendar years. Any other number is counted as days. The second stage starts when the first one ends.

No period can be longer than 10 years. The builder caps what you type at that limit. Once a request is created, its retention rule cannot be changed.