Housing stock allocation and management privacy notice

First published

21 Aug 2024

Last updated

17 Oct 2024

Housing stock allocation and management privacy notice

Find out how Stirling Council uses personal data by checking the Council’s website at the following address:

https://www.stirling.gov.uk/privacy-statement/

Our website contains a Register of Data Processing which lists all the different ways
in which the Council uses personal data.

This Privacy Notice provides more information about just one of those processes.

Who do I contact about my personal information?

The Council has a Data Protection Officer to make sure it is complying with data protection laws.

They can be contacted at:

Data Protection Officer
Stirling Council
Old Viewforth
14-20 Pitt Terrace
Stirling
FK8 2ET

Email: dataprotection@stirling.gov.uk
Telephone: 01786 404040

Why does the Council process personal information?

Personal data is processed for the allocation, management and maintenance of all housing stock, temporary accommodation, garages, pitch sites and travelling persons site.

This is so that housing and other stock is allocated and managed fairly and to comply with policy and legislation.

Personal data is processed to manage tenancies on an ongoing basis, including the notification of rent increases.

Personal data is also processed to allow us to seek tenants’ views on services we provide to help us to understand how we can improve services. 

The type of personal information we collect

Names, addresses, dates of birth, national insurance numbers, benefits details, rent arrears details, housing histories, personal histories, employment details, medical details, ethnic origins, support needs, next of kin, family network information of all Stirling Council tenants and their households, travelling persons site residents and their households, homeless applicants and their families in temporary accommodation, garage tenants, pitch site tenants, housing waiting list.

Includes personal data about children and data relating to criminal convictions and offences. 

Special Category Data: 

  • Health (physical or mental)
  • Racial or ethnic origin
  • Religious or philosophical beliefs Sexual life

What makes it lawful for the Council to process this personal information?

UK GDPR Article 6 (1)(a) - We process personal data to fulfil our contracts with tenants.  We have a contractual obligation to manage our tenancies fairly and professionally and this includes keeping records relating to all tenants. We are required by law to allocate housing fairly, which requires us to obtain personal details from applicants.

UK GDPR Article 9 (2) the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes

When we carry out tenant satisfaction surveys, we will only process your information with your consent. If you chose not to participate this will not affect the services you provide.

Where does the Council obtain personal information from?

From the data subjects in their application form or in subsequent communication by letter, form, online application, email or phone.  Other information is collected on an ongoing basis by housing employees in the course of their tenancy management activities, as a result of interviews and meetings with the tenants and from phone calls, emails and letters.

Some records (e.g. details of rent account balances) are generated by the housing management process.

Details of Housing Benefit payments from HB section. Details collected as part of the benefits administration process.

Personal details from Social Work – details collected as part of the process of providing support or advice to individual tenants or homeless applicants.

Details from other parts of the housing service and from the Safer Communities service.  These are collected in the context of keeping records which are relevant to the housing management process.

Data may be passed from other service areas within the Council to ensure the protection of staff members.

Some personal data may be passed from another organisation – e.g. a housing association, police, and other local authority.

Where does the Council keep personal information?

Northgate housing database; electronic records on housing directory;  paper records

How long does the Council keep personal information?

Tenant files and tenancy agreements are destroyed 5 years after the ending of the tenancy.

Information related to applications for housing are destroyed 5 years after the application for housing is closed.

Eviction records and rent arrears records are destroyed 7 years after the ending of the tenancy.

Form SSS1 (Notice under Section 34 to be served on a prospective Tenant of a short Scottish secure tenancy) are destroyed 5 years after the ending of the tenancy.

Who does the Council share personal information with?

Personal data is shared with housing associations, and other local authorities.

Your name may be shared will energy suppliers if you have been notified of this as part of your allocation paperwork with Stirling Council.

We may also pass some personal data to an external company employed by the Council to complete a tenant satisfaction survey on our behalf. 

The company will analyse the information you provide to help us assess your satisfaction with Stirling Council as a landlord.  Your opinions will help us to make improvements and inform us of the best ways to deliver them. Your information will also be entered into a prize draw, if you give consent by opting in.

Information you provide to the external company will be treated as confidential and may be used for research purposes. The information you provide is not used for direct marketing or other non-research activities.

Contact information, as well as property access requirements or special requirements due to vulnerabilities for tenants may be shared with external contractors in relation to undertaking repair and maintenance improvements. 

We are legally obliged to safeguard public funds, so we are required to verify and check your details internally for fraud prevention.  We may share this information with other public bodies (and also receive information from these other bodies) from fraud checking purposes.

Landlord references will be provided only when a signed mandate form is received from our tenant/former tenant. 

Your rights

You have the following rights under data protection laws. If you have a request under any of these rights, you can make a subject access request.

Access to your information

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. This is known as a subject access request and is free of charge.  We must respond within one month, although this can be extended to three months if the information is complex.

Correcting your information

We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date. Therefore you may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.

Deleting your information

You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:

  • you think that we no longer need to hold the information for the purposes for which it was originally obtained
  • we are using that information with your consent and you have withdrawn your consent - see the 'withdrawing consent to using your information' section below.  Please note that in general we do not rely on consent as the legal basis for processing your personal information
  • you have a genuine objection to our use of your personal information - see 'objecting to how we may use your information' below
  • our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations.

Objecting to how we may use your information

You have the right at any time to tell us to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, profiling or research purposes. 

Restricting how we may use your information 

In some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information.  This right might apply, for example, where we are checking the accuracy of personal information that we hold about you or we are assessing the objection you have made to our use of your information. 

This right might also apply if we no longer have a basis for using your personal information - but you don't want us to delete the data.  Where this right is realistically applied will mean that we may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.

Withdrawing consent to use your information

Where we use your personal information with your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time and we will stop using your personal information for the purpose(s) for which consent was given.

Your request to transfer your data

If we are processing your personal information with your consent or as part of a contract with you, and it is held in an accessible and machine-readable format, you have a right to ask us to transmit it to another organisation. This is known as the right to data portability.

Our profiling or automated decision-making processes

We make some use of automated decision-making processes but very little use of profiling.  Where these techniques are used, this will be explained in the specific privacy statements relating to those functions, together with a description of the reason involved in any automated decision-making.

Complaints and comments

If you want to complain about or comment on how we have processed your personal information, you should email dataprotection@stirling.gov.uk

If you are still unhappy with how the council handled your complaint, you can contact the UK Information Commissioner's Office at:

The Information Commissioner,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Phone: 0303 123 1113

You can find further information on the Information Commissioners Office website.

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