Privacy notice for council tenants

Why do we need to process your personal data?

When you become a council tenant, our housing service needs to process data about you and your family to provide you with the right service and support. 

In what situations do we need to process your personal data?

We need to collect and process your personal information to:

• manage and administer council tenancies and properties, including garages
• enforce breaches of the tenancy agreement (eg antisocial behaviour, untidy gardens, condition of homes)
• manage council estates and neighbourhood rangers
• 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 causing housing-related anti-social behaviour
• prevent and detect of fraud
• address your health or welfare needs
• collect or recover rents
• carry out repairs or modifications to council properties
• carry out structural surveys
• administer the Right to Buy process.

What types of personal data do we collect?

We may hold some or all of the following information about you and your family:

• name and address
• marital status
• landline and mobile number
• email address
• age and date of birth
• gender
• bank account details and sight of bank statements
• court Orders, Debt Relief Orders and/or bankruptcy data
• criminal convictions and alleged offences
• behaviour notes 
• tax or benefit details
• education history
• information about your housing and social circumstances prior to moving into your council property including previous addresses and landlord details
• tenancy details (which may include information about your current social circumstances)
• solicitors details
• doctor, occupational therapists, and other support network details
• military history.

We may also collect some of this information for people outside the household connected with anti-social behaviour or tenancy breaches.

What types of 'Special Category' data do we collect?

• Physical or mental health details
• Racial or ethnic origin
• Gender and sexual orientation
• Offences (including alleged offences)
• Religion
• Immigration status
• Criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences

What is the lawful basis for processing my data?

Our lawful bases for collecting and processing your personal data are to:

• deliver a contractual service to you - eg a tenancy agreement
• fulfil a legal obligation under: 
  • The Housing Act 1985
  • The Housing Act 2004
  • The Care Act 2014
  • Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002
  • Town and Country Planning Act 1990
  • The Local Government Act 2003
  • Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and policing Act 2014
  • Mobile Homes Act 2013
  • Gas Safety (Installation & Use) Regulations 1998
  • Building Regulations 2010
  • Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015
• carry out a specific task in the public interest which is laid down by law; or exercise official authority (for example, a public body’s tasks, functions, duties or powers) which is laid down by law.

• We may contact you or send you surveys regarding service or support you have received from us or third-party service providers under Legitimate Interest because we use this information to audit our contractors and make improvements to our services.

Consent

We may also collect and process data because you have given us your consent. We will ask you to give your consent when we collect this data.

Special category data

The lawful basis for processing special category data would fall under:

• Substantial public interest
• Manifestly made public by the data subject
• Explicit consent.

Who might we need to share your personal data with?

We may share your personal data with:

• other teams within the council if we have a lawful basis for doing this, such as our Fraud Investigation Officer who reviews all Right to Buy applications and undertakes further checks using the data you provided.
   
• contractors or subcontractors so they may carry out repair, modification work, structural surveys or conduct market research/ surveys on our behalf
   
• members of the Tenants Panel or Housing Scrutiny Panel, to assist with tenant queries
   
• in the event of an complaint, members of the Designated Persons Panel if an individual confirms they would like the panel to assist with their concerns
   
• 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
   
• 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
   
• with consent, we will pass your bank account details to HSBC plc to allow tenants to pay their rent by direct debit - see our direct debit privacy notice for more information
   
• third parties, to provide payment cards (for Paypoint terminals) and to send out billing letters.
   
• housing organisations or landlords if a reference is requested. 
   
• the Home Office, if they require us to provide information about immigration status of our tenants.
   
• 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.
   
• debt collection agencies and debt tracing agents or utility companies - if they require details in order to reclaim debts for outstanding utility payments.
   
• debt collection agencies / bailiffs, if outstanding rent needs to be recovered.
   
• government departments, for example the Department of Work and Pensions.
   
• the Cabinet Office as part of a national data matching exercise to prevent and detect fraud.

Right to Buy

When processing Right to Buy applications, we may need to contact other housing associations,  local authorities or other landlords to confirm your previous tenancies.

More information

Main privacy notice