Tenant Privacy Policy

Customer privacy notice (compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

The Association is aware of its obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and is committed to processing your data securely and transparently. This privacy notice sets out, in line with GDPR, the types of data that we hold on you as a customer of the Association. It also sets out how we use that information, how long we keep it for and other relevant information about your data.

This notice applies to tenants & leaseholders.

Data controller details

The Association is a data controller, meaning that it determines the processes to be used when using your personal data. Our contact details are as follows: South Devon Rural Housing, South Devon House, Babbage Rd, Totnes, TQ9 5JA.

Data protection principles

In relation to your personal data, we will:

  • process it fairly, lawfully and in a clear, transparent way
  • collect your data only for reasons that we find proper for the course of your tenancy in ways that have been explained to you
  • only use it in the way that we have told you about
  • ensure it is correct and up to date
  • keep your data for only as long as we need it
  • process it in a way that ensures it will not be used for anything that you are not aware of or have consented to (as appropriate), lost or destroyed

Types of data we process

We hold many types of data about you, including:

  • your personal details including your name, address, date of birth, email address, phone numbers
  • gender
  • marital status
  • dependants, next of kin and their contact numbers
  • medical or health information including whether or not you have a disability
  • information used for equal opportunities monitoring about your sexual orientation, religion or belief and ethnic origin
  • documentation relating to your right to work in the UK
  • driving licence
  • bank details
  • National Insurance number
  • leave records including annual leave, family leave, sickness absence etc
  • details of any criminal records

How we collect your data

We collect data about you in a variety of ways and this will usually start when we undertake the allocation process, where we will collect the data from you directly. This includes the information you would normally include in a housing application, Further information will be collected directly from you when we contact you for any required updated information, for example, your bank and next of kin details.

In some cases, we will collect data about you from third parties, such as support services, statutory services or benefit departments.

Personal data is kept in tenancy files in locked cabinets at SDR head office. This information is also stored on SDR’s housing management system, which needs secure passwords to access.

Why we process your data

The law on data protection allows us to process your data for certain reasons only:

  • in order to perform the services contract that we are party to
  • in order to carry out legally required duties
  • in order for us to carry out our legitimate interests
  • to protect your interests and
  • where something is done in the public interest.

All of the processing carried out by us falls into one of the permitted reasons. Generally, we will rely on the first three reasons set out above to process your data. For example, we need to collect your personal data in order to:

  • carry out the contract (tenancy agreement) that we have entered into with you and

We also need to collect your data to ensure we are complying with legal requirements such as:

  • Health & Safety Legislation
  • Immigration Legislation
  • making reasonable adjustments for disabled customers where possible

We also collect data so that we can carry out activities which are in the legitimate interests of the Association. We have set these out below:

  • maintaining comprehensive up to date records about you to ensure, amongst other things, effective correspondence and communication can be achieved and appropriate contact points in the event of an emergency are maintained
  • offering a method of recourse for you against decisions made about you via a complaints procedure
  • business planning
  • dealing with legal claims made against us
  • preventing fraud
  • ensuring our administrative and IT systems are secure and robust against unauthorised access
  • To support service delivery

Special categories of data

Special categories of data are data relating to your:

  • health
  • sex life
  • sexual orientation
  • race
  • ethnic origin
  • political opinion
  • religion
  • trade union membership
  • genetic and biometric data.

We must process special categories of data in accordance with more stringent guidelines. Most commonly, we will process special categories of data when the following applies:

  • you have given explicit consent to the processing
  • we must process the data in order to carry out our legal obligations
  • we must process data for reasons of substantial public interest
  • you have already made the data public.

We will use your special category data:

  • for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring
  • to determine reasonable adjustments and support

We do not need your consent if we use special categories of personal data in order to carry out our legal obligations or exercise specific rights. However, we may ask for your consent to allow us to process certain particularly sensitive data. If this occurs, you will be made fully aware of the reasons for the processing. As with all cases of seeking consent from you, you will have full control over your decision to give or withhold consent and there will be no consequences where consent is withheld. Consent, once given, may be withdrawn at any time. There will be no consequences where consent is withdrawn.

Criminal conviction data

We will only collect criminal conviction data where it is appropriate, where the law permits us. This data will usually be collected at the allocation stage, however, may also be collected during your tenancy.

We rely on the lawful basis contract to process this data.

If you do not provide your data to us

One of the reasons for processing your data is to allow us to carry out our duties in line with your tenancy and SDR’s legal and regulatory responsibilities. If you do not provide us with the data needed to do this, we will unable to perform those duties eg contacting you to maintain your property or support you in maintaining your tenancy. We may also be prevented from allocating a property, or continuing with a current tenancy, in relation to our legal obligations if you do not provide us with this information eg confirming your right to remain in the UK.

Sharing your data

Your data will be shared with colleagues within the Association where it is necessary for them to undertake their duties. This includes, for example, a member of staff dealing with a housing or maintenance query for you.
We may share your data with third parties in order to support you maintain your tenancy.

We do not share your data with bodies outside of the European Economic Area.

Protecting your data

We are aware of the requirement to ensure your data is protected against accidental loss or disclosure, destruction and abuse. We have implemented processes to guard against such.

Where we may share your data with third parties, we provide written instructions to them to ensure that your data are held securely and in line with GDPR requirements. Third parties must implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of your data.

How long we keep your data for

In line with data protection principles, we only keep your data for as long as we need it for, which will be at least for the duration of your tenancy with us though in some cases we will keep your data for a period after your tenancy has ended. Retention periods can vary depending on why we need your data, as set out below:

Document retention periods state that there is no statutory retention period for the information we hold about you, however a recommended retention period is up to 6 years from termination of your tenancy.

Automated decision making

No decision will be made about you solely on the basis of automated decision making (where a decision is taken about you using an electronic system without human involvement) which has a significant impact on you.

Your rights in relation to your data

The law on data protection gives you certain rights in relation to the data we hold on you. These are:

  • the right to be informed. This means that we must tell you how we use your data, and this is the purpose of this privacy notice
  • the right of access. You have the right to access the data that we hold on you. To do so, you should make a subject access request.
  • the right for any inaccuracies to be corrected. If any data that we hold about you is incomplete or inaccurate, you are able to require us to correct it
  • the right to have information deleted. If you would like us to stop processing your data, you have the right to ask us to delete it from our systems where you believe there is no reason for us to continue processing it
  • the right to restrict the processing of the data. For example, if you believe the data we hold is incorrect, we will stop processing the data (whilst still holding it) until we have ensured that the data is correct
  • the right to portability. You may transfer the data that we hold on you for your own purposes
  • the right to object to the inclusion of any information. You have the right to object to the way we use your data where we are using it for our legitimate interests

Where you have provided consent to our use of your data, you also have the unrestricted right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent means that we will stop processing the data that you had previously given us consent to use. There will be no consequences for withdrawing your consent. However, in some cases, we may continue to use the data where so permitted by having a legitimate reason for doing so.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights explained above, please contact us at our head office.

Making a complaint

The supervisory authority in the UK for data protection matters is the Information Commissioner (ICO). If you think your data protection rights have been breached in any way by us, you are able to make a complaint to the ICO.

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Please complete the tear off sheet to confirm you agree or disagree with this privacy statement and send back in the freepost envelope.

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