Better Properties Ltd and associated entities GDPR privacy notice.

Better Properties Ltd and associated entities GDPR privacy notice

for tenants, applicants and former tenants

Better Properties Ltd and assocatied entities (the “Federation”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information.

This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you during and after your relationship with us, in accordance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

It applies to all tenants, applicants for tenancy and former tenants renting property from the Federation.

The Federation is a “data controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under the GDPR to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

In general, we use your personal information to comply with the law, carry out our obligations to you and to ensure you are and remain a suitable tenant able to fulfil your obligations to us.

It is important that you read this notice so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES

We will comply with data protection law. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:

  1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
  2. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
  3. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
  4. Accurate and kept up to date.
  5. Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
  6. Kept securely.

THE KIND OF INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT YOU

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data)..

We will collect, store, copy and use the following categories of personal information about you:

  • Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses
  • Passport details and date of birth.
  • Gender.
  • Marital status, number and age of dependants.
  • Next of kin and emergency contact information.
  • Bank account details, financial history, credit history, CCJs against you.
  • Salary, National Insurance number
  • Employment status, visa or other proof of right to reside in the UK, and employer reference
  • Location of employment or workplace.
  • Previous tenancy details and landlord reference
  • Educational details if you are a student and student card
  • CCTV footage obtained through electronic means when on our premises.

HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED?

We collect personal information about tenants and applicants through the application and contracting process, directly from tenants and applicants of indirectly from background check/reference provider.

We may collect additional personal information in the course of your tenancy.

HOW WE WILL USE INFORMATION ABOUT YOU

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

    1. Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you.
    2. Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
    3. Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

We may also use your personal information in the following situations, which are likely to be rare:

  1. Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests).
  2. Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.

Situations in which we will use your personal information
We need all the categories of information in the list above primarily to allow us to perform our contract with you and to enable us to comply with our legal obligations. In some cases we may use your personal information to pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. The situations in which we will process your personal information are listed below.

  • Assessing your suitability and deciding about your application.
  • Determining the terms on which you rent from us.
  • Checking you are legally entitled to reside in the UK to comply with UK legislation including the Government’s “Right to Rent” guide
  • Receiving your rent and deposit.
  • Administering the contract we have entered into with you.
  • Business management and planning, including accounting and auditing.
  • Making decisions about your continuing as a tenant when your tenancy expires.
  • Making arrangements for the termination of your tenancy.
  • Dealing with legal disputes involving you, including accidents at your leased premises.
  • Complying with health and safety obligations.
  • To prevent fraud.
  • To conduct data analytics studies to review and better understand tenancy retention and attrition rates.
  • Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations (such as to ensure your right to reside in the UK.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

DATA SHARING

We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers. We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

We do not anticipate transferring your personal information outside the EEA. If we do, it will be done in line with the GDPR.

Why might you share my personal information with third parties?

We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the working relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so. “Third parties” includes third-party service providers and other bodies such as utility companies, local authorities and deposit protection companies.

How secure is my information with third-party service providers?

All our third-party service providers are either requested to take appropriate security measures in line with our policies or have their own obligations to protect your personal information. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

What about other third parties?

We may need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

DATA SECURITY

We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Details of these measures are available upon request.

Third parties are asked to only process your personal information on our instructions, to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

DATA RETENTION

How long will you use my information for?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Unsuccessful tenancy applicants

We will retain your data for up to 30 days from our notifying you that your application has been unsuccessful. We will securely destroy all your personal information to comply with the GDPR.

Former Tenants

Except as explained below, once you are no longer a tenant we will keep your personal information for 6 years to comply with statutory retention requirements then we will securely destroy your personal information to comply with the GDPR.

However, if you are a former tenant whose details remain on an existing lease we will keep your contact information for longer than 6 years while the lease in which you had entered into remains in place between us and replacement tenant(s). Once the lease of which you were a tenant expires we will securely destroy your contact information to comply with the GDPR

RIGHTS OF ACCESS, CORRECTION, ERASURE, AND RESTRICTION

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during our relationship.

Your rights in connection with personal information

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

  • Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  • Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
  • Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
  • Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground.
  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
  • Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please email the privacy@betterproperties.co.uk.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

RIGHT TO WITHDRAW CONSENT

In the limited circumstances where you may have previously provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact the privacy@betterproperties.co.uk. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another lawful basis for doing so.

OVERSIGHT

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please email privacy@betterproperties.co.uk.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please email privacy@betterproperties.co.uk.