Privacy Policy

This Privacy Notice tells you what information we obtain and hold about you whether you are initially applying to us for a tenancy or if you become a tenant, landlord, or guarantor, it explains what information we collect, why we collect it, and what we do with it, as well as who we share it with. We collect and handle personal information about our landlords, tenants and residents and prospective tenants and residents along with any guarantors to enable us to provide residential accommodation. This includes dealing with applications for tenancies, checking the suitability of tenants, residents along with any guarantors (including credit, immigration and similar referencing checks), arranging lettings, property management (including dealing with repairs), rent collection, dealing with any complaints, maintaining our accounts and records, tenancy terminations and administering tenancy deposits.

• We call this information ‘your information . It is also referred to as (data͟).
• Where this notice is given to more than one person it is given to each of you separately.
• If there is no guarantor, please disregard any reference in this notice to guarantor or guarantee.
• You should read this notice when you give us information so you are aware of how and why we are using this. Please update us if any information supplied by you changes.

We are required by data protection law to give you this notice. We must be open with you about why information is collected about you and then what is done with it. We must act fairly in relation to this information. You have various legal rights relating to this information which are spelt out in more detail in this notice. If you are already a landlord, tenant, resident or guarantor some of the items in this notice may not be relevant to you. Different information will be involved depending on whether you are a landlord, tenant, resident or guarantor. In order that we can collect or use information about you there must be a legal basis or gateway for doing so. This notice identifies the relevant gateway for the various types of information we collect and hold about you. A detailed explanation of these gateways is given in this notice. Under the data protection act we can only process data as necessary to the extentthatit isneeded. Forexample, we can useyour bank details regarding payments and otherlimited purposes only. However, incertain instances, as necessary, we can share any of yourdata, e.g.w withour own professional advisers orletting and managing agents. We may alsoshare any ofyourdata, as necessary, withthepolice/lawenforcement agenciesor regulatory authorities. References to a tenant in this notice also include a guarantor if there is one. This is because a guarantor underwrites tenants obligations so references to your tenancy are to include your guarantee. References to us also includes the rights of Landlords where applicable.

We use different ways to collect data about you including the information you supply to us when applying for a tenancy/residency. If you fail to provide this information we may not be able to proceed.

As necessary personal data is processed by us (or by any letting/managing agent we retain relating to tenants/prospective tenants/residents/prospective residents/guarantors consisting of the following as applicable: -

• Identity and contact details including car registration
• Personal/background information including occupation/status
• Bank details
• Verification and credit status
• Deposit (if any) including return on tenancy termination
• Tenancy details including renewals, joint tenants, other residents and guarantors
• Immigration/right to rent checks (England only)
• Rent and other payments
• Recovery of arrears, claims or possession proceedings
• Repairs/health and safety/housing conditions
• Breach of tenancy terms/nuisance/anti-social behaviour
• Council Tax liability
• Water charges payable
• Utilities and services provided
• Welfare Benefits
• Termination of tenancy
• Audio and CCTV recordings (if any)
• Complaints
• Insurance
• Health or disability
• Emails texts and other communications and via our website where we operate one.
• Website and online portal information.

We also generate and use data internally, e.g. our rent records.

We also collect and receive data about you from third parties. This may be information given to us by other tenants or residents or neighbours. It can include information from a guarantor where there is a guarantor for your tenancy or from a joint tenant or other residents. Public bodies such as local authorities or the police, or other law enforcement agencies may give us information about you. This can include the Department for Work and Pensions or the local authority where you are receiving Universal Credit or housing benefit. Information may be given to us relevant to Council Tax by the local authority. Utility companies or service providers may also give us personal information about you. Where the property is let or managed on our behalf by an agent the agent will supply us with information about you. We obtain information about you when we carry out credit checks or take up references. We may also receive information from you via websites or from online rental portals such as Zooplat, Gumtree or Rightmove. Any information which we receive in this way is set out in the Table to this privacy notice which gives you more details about information which we can receive from third parties.

We will share information we hold with others, where this is necessary. When we do this, we must comply with data protection legislation. Information can be shared with other landlords including where you apply to another landlord for a tenancy; contractors/ suppliers; utilities and service providers; tradespeople; financial organisations (including public and government bodies (including those who administer benefits, such as the Department for Work and Pensions orthe local authority); courts; police and law enforcement agencies; taxation authorities; local authorities in relation to Council Tax and regulatory functions; letting and managing agents; and any future owner of the property. We may need to share information with your next of kin etc., e.g. in an emergency. It may be necessary for us to share information with a future owner of the property if we are selling. We also may share information with professional advisers such as lawyers and accountants or an advice agency which involves sharing information about you with them. If you live in a flat we give information to the freeholder, managing agent etc., for the block of flats. We also send notifications to and have correspondence with any tenancy deposit scheme protecting any tenancy deposit which has been paid. In some cases, we may be under a legal obligation to provide information either because of the law or because of a contractual obligating binding on us. What we share will depend on what is necessary in the circumstances and more details are given in the Table in respect of different kinds of information which we hold about you.

Where you have a tenancy jointly with someone else or there is a guarantor for your tenancy, as necessary, we will share information either with the joint tenant or the guarantor (or both). This relates to your performance of your responsibilities under the tenancy agreement including information about any rent arrears or other breach of the tenancy terms. It can also relate to issues around the termination of the tenancy and any claims we may have as a result.

By law, in England, we are required to check your immigration status before we rent a property to you. This means that you are legally obliged to produce certain documentation (e.g. a passport or driving licence) to us. This applies whether or not you are a UK or EU citizen. Not only are we required to see original documentation but we must take and keep copies of it. We also check this documentation as part of our process to verify your identity at the outset of the tenancy. Prospective tenants and all adult residents who will live at the property must be checked.

As necessary, we obtain information about you which is publically available via search engines such as Google or Facebook and websites. This will include information about you which you yourself made public. Further details are set out in the Table. However, when doing so we make sure that we comply with applicable guidelines under data protection legislation.

In limited situations we will process information about your health or any disability. This data is given special protection under data protection law. Normally we would expect to ask you for your explicit consent before we collect or use this kind of data.

In cases where you rent a property where a child resides, information will be given to us about resident children; usually by an adult such as a parent on their behalf. Data protection law requires usto give such information additional protection where we collect or use it. In particular, where the rented property is located in England, we need to check on the age of any residents to see whether or not an immigration/right to rent check must be carried out.

Private renting is highly regulated so we are under various legal obligations. These include an obligation to carry out gas safety checks under gas safety legislation. We may need to handle data for this purpose, e.g. to give the contracted gas safety engineer access to the property. In other areas, in line with Information Commissioner Advice, we will pass over details of your occupancy to the relevant Water Company to enable them to collect water charges as it is in their legitimate interests to receive this information.

Legally we must also hold and process information relating to any tenancy deposit which you pay to us including sharing your information with a deposit scheme by which any deposit is protected.

Under any statutory licensing schemes applicable to the property we may be required to give information to the local housing authority relating to your occupation of the property. Similarly, there are various regulatory requirements which may mean that we need to give information about you to public or local authorities or other regulatory authorities.

Again, in line with advice from the Information Commissioner we consider that it is in the legitimate interests of utility companies to receive information about occupants of the property to enable them to bill you for utilities (unless these are included within your rent).

Likewise, we notify local authorities of your occupancy relevant to the collection of Council Tax. In any event they are entitled to serve notice upon us requiring this information if they choose to do so.

We must tell you why we collect and hold information about you.

We must also have a legal basis before we are allowed to collect or process your personal data. Processing personal data includes recording, storing, altering, using, sharing or deleting data.

• Your consent. Consent may be requested in certain cases, e.g. to obtain a reference but generally we do not rely on your consent to process your personal data.
• To perform our contract so that we can carry out our responsibilities under the tenancy agreement with you, including anything you request usto do with a view to you becoming a tenant (or resident).
• Compliance by us with a statutory or other legal obligation.
• Where this is in your vital interests, e.g. if there is a life-threatening situation.
• Where we are pursuing our own legitimate interests or those of a third party. This will not apply if our interests are overridden by your interests or your fundamental rights and freedoms. We must carry out a balancing exercise therefore to decide whether we can rely on this gateway to ensure that it applies. In each case we have done this and we do not consider your interests, rights or freedoms outweigh our own or those of the third party concerned.

The various purposes for which it may be necessary for usto process various categories of your information include.

• In our legitimate interests for deciding on the suitability of a proposed tenant/resident
• In our legitimate interests for verifying the credit worthiness/suitability of tenants/residents
• Our legal obligation to check immigration status/right to rent. This is also to verify identities.
• To perform our tenancy contract to deal with joint tenants and residents who are linked to the tenancy
• To perform our contract to complete the tenancy agreement
• In our legitimate interests to secure rental payments/performance of tenant obligations, e.g. deposits and guarantors
• For contractual performance for rent collection and collection of other payments including banking details
• For contractual performance for managing the tenancy and the property
• For contractual performance and/or in our legitimate interests for record keeping
• For contractual performance for arranging repairs and maintaining the condition of the property and keeping it in a safe condition.
• For contractual performance for monitoring and enforcement of tenant responsibilities
• For contractual performance or in our legitimate interests for recovering debts and other payments due, including any possession proceedings
• In our legitimate interests for administering liability for Council Tax
• Our legal obligation or otherwise in our legitimate interests and those of the Water company for the payment of water charges
• In our legitimate interests and those of the provider relating to arranging and paying for utilities and services
• In our legitimate interests for dealing with welfare benefits (including Universal Credit and housing benefit) where payable in respect of the rent
• In our legitimate interests in relation to tenancy termination including the return of any deposit
• In our legitimate interests for processing complaints
• For contractual performance or in our legitimate interests for dealing with health and disability issues relating to tenants/residents
• In our legitimate interests for obtaining and holding audio and cctv recordings
• To perform our legal obligations to provide information to public or local authorities who are legally entitled to require this information
• In your vital interests for contacting next of kin etc., in an emergency
• In our legitimate interests for the storage of emails, records of calls and other communications
• In accordance with our legal obligations if you exercise your rights under data protection law
• To perform our legal obligations for compliance with legal and regulatory requirements
• In our legitimate interests for the establishment and defence of legal rights
• In our legitimate interests for prevention, detection and investigation of crime and antisocial behaviour and the security of any website or other means of electronic communication.

We may change the purposes where this is compatible for the purpose for which we obtained the data originally. If we need to use your data for a non-compatible purpose we will notify you and explain the legal gateway that allows usto do so. We may process your information without your knowledge where this is required or permitted by law.

More information about what we do with data and why, along with the relevant legal gateway is given in the Table. This also tells you who we share data with and receive it from.

We will monitor, record and retain your calls, emails, text messages, social media messages and other communications. This is in our legitimate interests to maintain an accurate record of these. This may be necessary to manage your tenancy or the property orto deal with your application for a tenancy or to deal with tenants/residents or prospective tenants/residents/guarantors. We need these records for our ongoing dealings with you, including our data protection obligations.

Data can only be stored on a time limited basis and not indefinitely. We will hold personal data about you for the duration of your tenancy and for seven years after your tenancy has ended. This is the statutory limitation period six years plus a further year to allow for service of proceedings should proceedings commence later. We are also required to retain information for up to six years for tax purposes. If your tenancy application does not go ahead then we retain data for one year.

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

All our information is stored securely electronically on servers or devices. Certain information is also retained on a secure basis in hard copy format.

To make this Table as concise as possible we employ a number of expressions –

Handle information – collecting, compiling, using or storing information (data)

Use information – when we use information this means we consult it, compile it, refer to it to make a decision, or act on it, or combine it with other data. When using it in this way we may have to alter it.

Share data Share data – this includes transferring data to someone else where this is necessary, or receive it from a third party.

Collect data – this is where we receive information either from you, e.g. when you sign a tenancy application form or from a third party, e.g. a reference about you.

Compile data – this is where we use information about you which we have collected to generate information about you, e.g. our rent payment records or repair records.

Next of kin etc. – this includes close relatives.

We are required by data protection legislation to keep your information up to date and it is of course in our own legitimate interests to do so for us to ensure that we have accurate records. For example, we keep our record of your rent payments up to date as they are received.

We keep information both electronically and in a manual filing system to maintain our records. We do this because we need to use it from time to time. Normally the legal gateway permitting usto do so which will apply will be the same as applies when we use the data. Additionally, however, there are legal obligations to retain data under data protection law, taxation legislation and housing law. We also need to do so to fulfil our contract with you. In our own legitimate interests, we also need to retain information to deal with enquiries or disputes and for audit purposes.

We delete/destroy data once it is no longer needed. This is a requirement of data protection law. This notice tells you the period for which we normally store data.

Information is handled as necessary from time to time. As already stated, information falling under one category can be amalgamated with or added to information in another category in order to carry out the stated purposes.

Part 1 of this Table tells you, depending on the relevant category of your information, what our processing activities are and what is the legal gateway permitting processing as well as the purpose for which we carry out these processing activities.

Where the legal gateway in question is our own legitimate interests (or those of a third party) we identify the relevant legitimate interests.

Details about sharing data are set out in Part 2, whether we transfer it to someone else or receive from a third party.

Part 1 – Collecting, compiling, using and storing your information

In this Part we list out the different categories of your information, briefly explain them where needed, explain what we do with the information and why, as well as specifying the relevant legal gateway we rely on to do so.

Identity and contact details

• This includes name, contact details, date of birth and national insurance number
• We handle this information in order to enter into the tenancy agreement and subsequently to manage the tenancy and the property. This is done to perform the contract.

• This includes details of tenant (if any), current occupation and status, employed, student etc., employer or educational institution, state benefits received, details of other residents, any bankruptcy or county court judgments, next of kin etc., pets and any photographs of yourself.
• This information is handled to evaluate your suitability as a tenant. This is done for our own legitimate interests. These are to ensure that any let is to reliable tenants and residents with suitable guarantors where applicable.
• We also handle this information which relates to next of kin etc., to contact them in the event of an emergency. This is to protect your vital interests.
• This information will also be handled if we need to trace you to contact you in connection with the tenancy or the property or to pursue a claim against you, e.g. for rent arrears. This is in our own legitimate interests. These are to enforce your obligations, deal with property left behind at the property or to recover property.

• This includes details of your bank, building society or other paying organisation, including those operating digitally/online.
• We handle this information in order to receive payments from you or on occasion to make payments to you. This is done to perform our contract.
• We also handle this information if we seek to make recovery from you of unpaid debt. This is in our own legitimate interests. These are to recover what is due to us.
• We also handle this information as part of our verification of your suitability as a tenant, including to protect against money laundering. This is in our own legitimate interests to ensure that we let to suitable tenants/residents and do not receive proceeds of crime.

• This includes renewals of the tenancy. Information within this category includes the address of the property, start date for the tenancy, period of occupancy, rent and other payments.
• We handle this information to prepare and complete the tenancy agreement and then to manage the tenancy and the property. This is done to perform our contract.
• Tenancies are renewed by agreement. This will involve a request from you. We handle information about the renewal of tenancies. This is done for contractual performance.
• Where you are a joint tenant or there are residents living with you details of any other joint tenant or resident are linked with the tenancy/property.
• We handle this information to prepare and complete the tenancy agreement and thereafter to manage the tenancy and the property. This is done so that we can form a contract.
• Where there is a guarantee, e.g. from a parent, we collect information about the identity and contact details of the guarantor, background information about the guarantor and details of property owned. This is then linked to your tenancy and the property
• We handle this information to protect our own legitimate interests. This is to provide security for the payment of the rent and to ensure compliance with tenancy obligations

• This includes the amount of a deposit, who pays it and in what shares and the steps taken to protect the deposit
• We handle this information to deal with the deposit received and to administer the deposit. This includes handling information about persons who contribute towards the deposit who are not a tenant. This is done both for contractual performance and to ensure compliance with legal obligations relating to handling deposits under the Deposit Protection Legislation. This is to secure payment of the rent and compliance with tenancy obligations.
• We also handle deposits at tenancy termination and this is dealt with under that section.

• Under immigration legislation we check that each tenant and adult resident in the property has the right to rent. This includes retaining copies of passports, driving licences and other specified documentation. We must retain this for inspection if required by the Home Office.
• We handle this information in accordance with the requirements of immigration legislation in order to carry out our legal obligations.
• We also handle this information in order to verify the identity of tenants and residents along with guarantors in order to protect our legitimate interests. These are to ensure that we are dealing with the correct person. This is done in Wales as well as in England for this purpose.

Local authority for the property:
London Borough of Hounslow
London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames

Deposit protected with:
My deposits

Thames Water
Affinity water