We are committed to protecting the personal information we collect about you. Your Housing Group will be responsible for determining the use of your information and this privacy notice explains what happens to the information you are providing to us.
Your Housing Group (YHG) has appointed a Data Protection Lead to monitor our compliance with UK General Data Protection Regulations (UKGDPR).
Our contact details:
Data Protection Lead
Your Housing Group
Youggle House
130 Birchwood Boulevard
Birchwood
Warrington
WA3 7QH
Tel. 0345 345 0272
What personal data do we collect?
Personal data is anything that can be used to identify a living individual. We collect personal data, special category personal data and information about any criminal convictions.
This includes:
- Contact information; name, username, address, email address and phone numbers
- Age, date of birth and national identifiers (National Insurance number or passport number)
- Information about your employment
- Details of any contact we have had with you, including complaints or incidents
- Financial details; details of payments, bank details, guarantor details, benefit information
- References from previous landlord or employer to support applications
- Information about how you use our products and services; Home Hub, Contact Centre
- Information about how you use our website or other technology, including IP addresses or other device information
- Information on any criminal convictions you may have had
- Medical, Health and/or Disability information
- Emergency contact details, next of kin
- CCTV Footage for the detection of crime and safety
- Call recordings to manage quality and support training
We may sometimes collect additional information from third parties (i.e. Local authorities, Police, HMRC, DWP). If we do, we will seek to ensure that the information is accurate and up to date.
Why do we need your personal data?
Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:
- Assess and manage your application to purchase a home
- Within an application for a Shared Ownership property or a Leasehold property to manage the services as part of your agreement with us
- Assess your financial affordability
- Ensure you have the right to live in the U.K
- To carry out Credit Reference Checks
- Processing payments
- To ensure there is no unacceptable risks posed to you, our staff and contractors
- At your request to be involved in YHG initiatives and the opportunity to feedback, supporting the development of YHG services to ensure we are fair and transparent with all customers
Under UK GDPR, the lawful basis we rely on for processing information would be one of the following:
Consent - for example, to keep you updated or involved in YHG initiatives (not providing consent would not put you at any disadvantage). You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting [email protected]
Contractual obligation – if you have made an application for a home or we have an agreement with you, we will process your personal information to fulfil that agreement
Legal obligation – if we need to process your personal data to comply with a common law or statutory obligation
Vital interest – where it is seen that a person’s life may be at risk
To perform a public task – carrying out a specific task in the public interest which is laid down by law or exercising official authority
Legitimate interest – when we rely on legitimate interest, we will ensure that we take a balanced approach and have appropriate safeguards in line with expectations. We will identify a legitimate interest, show that processing is necessary and balance this against individual’s interests, rights and freedoms. For example:
- Communicate with you by text message to keep you updated on our service delivery
- Carry out customer surveys with a third party to help us improve services to you
- To identify and investigate fraud, corruptions and/or bribery
- To engage with contractors when carrying out a planned maintenance programme of work
- To trace former customers regarding any outstanding arrears
- To supply your details to utility companies (for shared owners) when you move out of your home to ensure correct payment of utility bills
- To record telephone calls for the purpose of monitoring quality and training
Do we share personal data?
We may need to share your information and information about the people you live with, with third parties. We do this to achieve the purposes as set out above.
We will only share the minimum information necessary for the organisation contractor or agency to carry out their services on behalf of YHG. We share limited personal information such as name, address, and telephone number of our tenants with external contractors.
Listed below are the categories of third parties we may share some of your personal information with. Where required we will ensure that any information sharing is supported by UK GDPR compliant contracts appropriate information sharing agreements.
- Advocacy partner organisations
- Banks and Financial Service providers to process secure payments
- Charities & Voluntary Organisations
- Choice Based Letting Partners
- Contractors and suppliers - to enable YHG meet their compliance responsibilities e.g. Gas Servicing, Fire Safety, Asbestos Management, Damp & Mould Management, undertake repairs or improvements to your property & neighbourhood; Provide Technology & Telephony software, services & equipment; Manage out-of-hours service calls; Provide printing and mailing services
- Credit Reference Agencies for rental tenants
- Debt Collection Agencies
- External Auditors
- Insurance companies
- Mediation partner organisations
- Local Authorities
Other housing providers
Statutory agencies
Support organisations - Organisations that support Your Housing Group, and the services we provide
- Probation Services
- Professional Advisors & Consultants
- Solicitors
- Social Welfare organisations
- Survey & Research organisations
- Training providers or learning institutions
- Utility companies
- Central Government Departments
- Courts & Tribunals
- Fire services
- Health authorities, trusts or medical staff
- Local Authorities
- Organisations who support crime prevention or detection, the prevention and detection of fraud, and for the purposes of the National Fraud Initiative
- Other Registered Providers of Social Housing
- Partner organisations whose purposes are compatible with ours
- Members of Parliament or Local Councillors
- Police
- Regulators
We do not share your personal information with anyone who claims to represent you, unless we are satisfied that you have appointed them, or they act in some recognised official capacity. There may be a delay in dealing with requests while we confirm the caller’s identity or check that we have your approval to deal with them. Under no circumstances does YHG sell or pass on your information to businesses or organisations so they can contact you directly either by phone, email or in writing in order to sell you their products or services.
How do we store personal data?
Personal information is securely stored within our electronic secure systems. They are maintained by our ICT team and necessary security applied to all applications we use. Use of any systems is role specific and staff can only access the data on the platforms once system training and UK GDPR training has been completed.
Any paper records that are completed are securely stored in a locked cabinet but where possible we will scan in and save documents electronically to support with our electronic automatic deletion of records in line with our retention and disposal policy.
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.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. Once you are no longer a tenant or service user we will retain and securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our data retention policy or applicable laws and regulations.
Your data protection rights
Under data protection law, you have rights including:
Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing - You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
How do I make a request in relation to my rights?
Please contact us if you wish to make a request [email protected]
We will consider all requests received and check identification to verify the request. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If your request is particularly complex, we may extend this deadline for up to 2 months.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights.
How to complain
In the first instance if you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at:
Data Protection Lead
Your Housing Group
Youggle House
130 Birchwood Boulevard
Birchwood
Warrington
WA3 7QH
Tel. 0345 345 0272
You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk