Council tenants privacy notice

Council tenants privacy notice

This privacy notice explains how and why we process personal information about our residential tenants.

Safeguards are in place to ensure that this data is kept secure and the privacy of individuals is protected.

This notice covers the information that is processed as part of the management of an existing tenancy. For information about the information processed during the housing allocation process, please see the housing allocation privacy notice. These notices should be read in conjunction with the council’s main privacy notice.

Tenancy management

Purposes of processing your personal data

We need to collect and process your personal information in order to:

  • manage and administer council residential tenancies, properties (or garages)
  • enforce breaches of the tenancy agreement (eg. antisocial behaviour, untidy gardens, condition of homes)
  • provide estate management and the neighbourhood ranger service
  • facilitate tenant participation
  • provide tenancy advice (about rents, transfers, mutual exchanges or general tenancy matters)
  • provide services related to tenancies – for example facilitating contents insurance or TV licence renewal
  • take action, including legal action, against people engaging in conduct capable of causing housing-related anti-social behaviour or sharing information with services involved in responding to allegations of crime and anti-social behaviour
  • Prevention and detection of fraud

Categories of personal data and lawful basis

We may hold some or all of the following information about tenants, family members, household members, people outside household connected with anti-social behaviour and tenancy breaches, people associated with applications for housing:

  • contact details
  • age and gender
  • tax or benefit details
  • information about your housing and social circumstances prior to moving into your council property
  • tenancy details (which may include information about your current social circumstances)
  • criminal convictions and some alleged offences

Under data protection legislation, processing of this information is allowed because we have a statutory duty to provide a housing service, and so the management of that service is in the public interest. This duty is created by various pieces of legislation, including the Housing Act 1996. Some processing is also allowed because it is in the performance of a contract, or the individual has asked us to do something before entering into a contract. Processing may also occur because it is in the legitimate interest of the council.

Categories of sensitive personal data and lawful basis

We may hold some or all of the following information about tenants, family members, household members, people outside the household connected with anti-social behaviour and tenancy breaches, and people associated with applications for housing:

  • health information - for example if a tenant has required accessibility modifications to a property
  • immigration status

Under data protection legislation, processing of this information is allowed because it is for reasons of substantial public interest.

Who we share your personal data with

We are required to share information with the following parties:

  • the police and other services involved in the prevention, detection and prosecution of crime and disorder and tenancy fraud; this could include information about anti-social behaviour
  • the Home Office can require us to provide information about immigration status of our tenants
  • we are required to share data with the Cabinet Office as part of a national data matching exercise to prevent and detect fraud. For more details, please see our National Fraud Initiative privacy notice, and the Cabinet Office privacy notice
  • we are legally required to share information with the Housing Ombudsman if they request it from us, his may include complaints details and information about anyone involved - their privacy notice explains how they use personal information

As part of the tenancy management service, we may also share information with insurers (if you ask us to arrange contents insurance for you) and third parties like utilities companies and TV licensing. When you move into a new property, we will pass your contact details and date of birth to the utility companies that provide services to your new home.

We also have a legitimate interest to ensure that utility charges (eg electricity, gas, water) are directed to those responsible for paying them. As such we will provide forwarding addresses to utility providers, debt collection agencies and debt tracing agents.

Tenancy support

Purposes of processing your personal data

We process personal information is order to provide or organise support for tenants and household members to enable tenancies to be sustained and/or in order to improve health and wellbeing. This is a service that is offered to vulnerable tenants or those at a higher risk of tenancy failure. We may process information about tenants, household members, and associates that are related to the tenants health or welfare needs.

We will not collect or use information in this way without consent. Consent for this this service can be withdrawn at any time using the contact details below.

Categories of personal data and lawful basis

In order to provide this service, we may need to process some or all of the following categories of personal information:

  • contact details
  • tenancy details
  • financial details
  • education history
  • criminal convictions

Under data protection legislation, processing of this information is allowed because we have the consent of the individual.

Categories of sensitive personal data and lawful basis

In order to provide this service, we may need to process the following categories of sensitive personal information:

  • health information

Under data protection legislation, processing of this data is allowed because we have the explicit consent of the individual.

Who we share your personal data with

We may share information with other services and organisations involved in support or safeguarding for tenants and household members. This data sharing will only be done with the consent of the individual, unless there is judged to be a serious risk or safeguarding issue to a child.

Rent collection

Purposes of processing your personal data

We need to process personal information about council tenants in order to collect or recover rents.

Categories of personal data and lawful basis

In the course of this processing, we may hold some or all of the following information about tenants:

  • contact details
  • age and gender
  • tenancy details
  • behaviour notes
  • financial details
  • criminal convictions 

Under data protection legislation, processing of this information is allowed because it forms part of the performance of a contract.

Categories of sensitive personal data and lawful basis

In the course of this processing, we may hold some or all of the following sensitive information about tenants:

  • ethnicity
  • health data 

Under data protection legislation, processing of this information is allowed because it is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Who we share your personal data with

With consent, we will pass direct debit mandates to our bank (currently Lloyds TSB) to allow tenants to pay their rent by direct debit - see our Direct Debit privacy notice for more information.

We will also pass tenant contact details to third parties to provide payment cards (for PayPoint terminals) and to send out billing letters. We have contracts in place with these service providers to ensure your data is kept secure. We will sometimes provide information about your tenancy to other housing organisations or landlords if a reference is requested. 

In some cases, we may need to pass tenants information to a government department, for example the Department of Work and Pensions.

Right to Buy

Purposes of processing your personal data

We need to process some personal information from a council tenant in order to complete the Right to Buy process. Data may also be used for the prevention and detection of fraud.

Categories of personal data and lawful basis

In order to process Right to Buy requests, we may need to process the following categories of personal information:

  • contact details
  • tenancy details
  • financial details
  • solicitors details
  • marital status 

Under data protection legislation, processing of this information is allowed because we have a statutory duty to provide a right to buy service for council tenants.

Categories of sensitive personal data and lawful basis

In order to process Right to Buy requests, we may need to process the following categories of sensitive personal information:

  • health information 

Under data protection legislation, processing of this data is allowed because it is for reasons of substantial public interest.

Who we share your personal data with

A Right to Buy valuation is partly based on the amount of time a tenant has spent in social housing, so we may need to contact other housing associations or local authorities to confirm this information.

We will send the final offer to the tenant’s nominated solicitor to further the sale.

We are also required to share this data with the Cabinet Office as part of a national data matching exercise to prevent and detect fraud. Please see our National Fraud Initiative privacy notice, and the Cabinet Office privacy notice, for more details.

Property repairs and modifications

Purposes of processing your personal data

We need to process the personal information of tenants, their representative or carers when we need to carry out repairs or modifications to council properties. This includes administering requests for repairs or modifications, contacting tenants about work to be carried out, and managing rechargeable works and decoration vouchers.

Categories of personal data and lawful basis

We may need to process some or all of the information listed below:

  • contact details 

Under data protection legislation, processing of this information is allowed because it forms part of the performance of a contract and/or because we have a statutory duty to maintain council properties.

Categories of sensitive personal data and lawful basis

We may need to process some or all of the information listed below:

  • health details (for example information about accessibility requirements) 

Under data protection legislation, processing of this information is allowed because we have the explicit consent of the individual and/or because it is for reasons of substantial public interest.

Who we share your personal data with

Where modifications are carried out at the request of Derbyshire County Council social services, we will notify them of work that has been completed.

We may also pass contact details to subcontractors to carry out repair or modification work on our behalf.

If we install lifting equipment in your property (for example a stair-lift), we will pass your address on to our insurers who organise the maintenance of lifting equipment in our properties. 

Further information

Please get in touch if you would like more information about how the council processes your personal data:

• contact the council's data protection officer