Tenant privacy notice

Introduction

This page sets out our privacy notice specifically for our customers and people that live in our homes.

It explains what information we obtain, use and may hold about our prospective, current, and former tenants and their families.

General information applicable to everyone is set out in our main privacy policy. We also publish an employee privacy notice which is more specific to staff.

What information we hold and where we get it from

We collect and process the following information on our tenants, former tenants and prospective tenants (and family members living in properties we own):

• Household members’ demographic details – full name, date of birth, age, gender, relationship to main applicant. This includes children.
• Current address, previous addresses.
• Physical health conditions.
• Mental health conditions.
• Disabilities, mobility issues, learning difficulties – we are most interested in what your needs are and how we can meet them, rather than the diagnosis itself.
• Medication details.
• Other health, support and behaviour details including drug issues, alcohol issues, criminal convictions and offences, probation details, and information about antisocial behaviour.
• Financial details including current employment, benefits, bank account details, debts, income, pensions, and expenditure.
• In some cases, information about your ‘right to rent’.

We collect most of our information directly from you, including when you apply for one of our properties or services. We will also collect information during the course of your tenancy with us. This includes:

• Information you give us – for example, if you tell us that a repair is needed at your property, we will note this so as to action it, which may include passing information within our group or to specialist contractors.
• Information generated through the management of our relationship with you – for instance, we will write to you if you have not paid your rent, which we can establish from our systems.
• Information provided to us by other sources – for instance, neighbours.
• Information from external agencies – we work closely with the council and other agencies to provide joined-up services, such as:
• Local councils and government departments such as the Department of Work and Pensions – for information about your housing needs and any benefits you receive;
• Local authorities, health and social care professionals, previous care providers – for information about your health, care and support needs, and those of your household (including children);
• Previous landlords and credit agencies – for your rental history, credit checks and information about your financial status/history;
• Home Office, local authorities – for information about your immigration status, where relevant;
• Police and other public authority fraud departments, local authorities – for information on criminal activity, but only where it is relevant to your tenancy or application.

How we use your personal information

To assess your housing application and manage our contract with you

We use the information we hold about you to manage your tenancy. We need this to deliver our housing services to you. We collect most of this information because it is necessary in the performance of a contract, or to enter into a contract with you.

We may pass on your details to contractors that provide services on our behalf, so that they can contact you to carry out services and repairs related to your property. We do this because it is necessary in the performance of a contract. We may use your contact details (including telephone numbers and email addresses) to get in touch with you about issues relating to your tenancy and to deal with any matters arising from it. This includes rent collection, complaints and housing management issues, in the event of an emergency, or to enforce the terms of your tenancy.

To promote safer communities

This can include information about anti-social behaviour, criminal activity and convictions which you report to us or we are told about. We process this information because it is in our legitimate interests to do so, to prevent and detect unlawful acts, to manage our tenancies, and keep our staff and others safe. This includes our use of CCTV and call recordings, as well as records of people that have been aggressive towards our staff or others. It may also include handling safeguarding information.

To seek to ensure our services meet any specific needs you have

We may process personal data that relates to health and social care, to help us make any reasonable changes to our properties and services to make them more accessible. We also information about health or welfare needs to make sure we are protecting vulnerable individuals. We process information about safeguarding individuals, to fulfil our legal obligations, for housing purposes and because there is a substantial public interest for us to do so.

To ensure that Selwood runs its business appropriately

We also process some of your data because it is in our legitimate interests to do so. We consider that we have a legitimate interest in:

• Ensuring that our services/properties meet the needs of our customers, including by obtaining feedback on our services.
• Letting people know in the event of emergencies and to carry out essential repairs.
• Communicating with residents to meet our business objectives and building stronger communities.
• Promoting our business. Photographs of tenants and quotes from customers may be taken for marketing and publicity purposes. These are taken at various events and at tenancy properties. Photographs and quotes are taken and used only with the agreement of the individual.
• Making sure we are paid for the services we provide, and that we are not left with debts that are others’ responsibilities – for instance, this means we may share details with utility providers when a tenant moves out but hasn’t paid their bills.
• Making the most efficient use of our resources, understand how we are performing and plan appropriately for the future. We work to improve the homes and communities of our residents. We are a long term business and need to manage assets, such as the homes we own, over their lifespan. The lifespan of a building like a house or flat is likely to be more than 100 years. We therefore use data about our tenancies, homes and the profiles of our residents to help us ensure that the homes we own and build meet the changing needs of people in the communities we serve. For instance, we know there are more young families and that people are living longer in Wiltshire, but they may have disabilities or long-term health conditions. This means we need to adapt or build more of a particular kind of property. We therefore undertake work to understand the needs of people who have lived in our homes to help us plan for the future, and to help show that we are letting our homes fairly in the present. Wherever possible, we use anonymised or de-identified data for this analysis. We do not use this data to make decisions about individual tenants themselves.

To tell you about how we are doing, and other ways we can help you

We are required to provide you with details about how Selwood is performing, and we do that by sending a newsletter. We also use your contact details to keep you updated about events or other services we provide, such as learning and training opportunities, energy efficiency, housing options events, and financial advice. It is in our legitimate interests to use your contact details this way, but you can ask us to stop sending you this additional information.

Who is your personal data shared with

Selwood Housing Group may make information available to its staff, contractors and advisors where necessary so that they can do their job. We have a strong culture of tenant involvement and some of our work may mean that volunteers, such as our ‘scrutiny team’, get to see personal information as part of this. All our staff, and volunteers are subject to obligations of confidentiality and receive data protection training. You can find out more about the work of the scrutiny team and get involved yourself by visiting our Get Involved webpages.

Selwood Housing Group may need or want to share aspects of your personal data with various third party organisations from time to time. We do this to meet and comply with our contractual obligations, to discharge our responsibilities, and where necessary, in our legitimate interests.

Sharing of personal data relating to tenants may include:

• Sharing information with contractors and sub-contractors who carry out various maintenance and building services on our behalf. We will likely provide them with information about the job they need to complete (which will include your address and contact details) and other information they need to do the job safely and effectively. A lot of repairs are carried out by our in house repairs and maintenance team.
• With utility companies. We share details of new tenants to set up utilities, as well as details and forwarding addresses of former tenants who have left with arrears.
• Details of tenants who have left with rent arrears will be shared with our own debt collection agencies.
• Personal data may be shared with government departments, local authorities, with our regulators and auditors, and other legal entities where there is a legal obligation to share your personal data – for instance in relation to homelessness prevention.
• We may share information with the police for crime prevention and detection purposes, and with other agencies (for instance, local safeguarding arrangements) as part of our partnership working with those agencies.
• Personal data may be shared with solicitors, our insurers and financial advisers as part of establishing, exercising and defending our legal rights.
• Sharing data with credit check agencies for identification of fraud, and in order for us to gain access to credit reports and profiles for us to recover monies owed. Experian provide a service called ‘Rental Exchange’ which we may also share information with. You can find out more on Experian’s website.
• Personal data may be shared with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Continuous Recording of Social Housing lettings and Sales (CORE) for research and statistical purposes. Please see the CORE privacy notice for all tenants.

Other information

More general information which applies to all of our usage of personal data, including details of your rights as an individual, is set out in our main privacy notice. Click here to return to that page.

This page was last updated on 16th March 2020.