Talk to us 0300 365 3100

Talk to us 0300 365 3100
Habinteg Housing Association is a controller of personal information for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Our contact details for data protection purposes are as follows:
Head of Governance, Habinteg Housing Association, Holyer House, 20-21 Red Lion Court, London, EC4A 3EB
This Privacy Policy tells you what to expect when Habinteg Housing Association processes personal information. It applies to personal information about applicants, tenants and other customers. It tells you the purposes for which we may process your personal information and the legal basis for the processing (‘processing’ includes us just keeping your personal information)
Why do we collect and store personal information?
We need to collect, process and store personal information about you and other household members (when you provide information about household members we assume that you do so with their full knowledge and consent) in order to operate as a registered provider of housing and deliver efficient and effective services.
We use your personal information for providing services in line with tenancy agreements and to respond to your enquiries and managing our relationship with you. We will also use the information to:
Our Legal basis for processing
Habinteg has a lawful basis for obtaining personal data from tenants and applicants in accordance with GDPR in order to fulfil our contractual obligations to tenants.
Some personal information that we collect about our applicants and tenants is classified as “Special Category” personal data, information such as health or disabilities, ethnic origins, religion, sexuality and criminal convictions. The reason for gathering this sensitive information is:
Applicants and tenants can chose whether or not to provide this personal information. Where we need to process personal information for purposes other than that defined in this privacy policy we will always ask you to complete a consent form in order to grant us authorisation.
We may apply markers to your information (for example, in relation to your support needs, health status or information to safeguard our staff) to enable us to tailor and deliver services to you.
We use your personal information for providing services in line with tenancy agreements and to respond to your enquiries and managing our relationship with you. We will also use the information to:
This list is not exhaustive, as we hold records of most contacts we have with you, or about you, and we process this information so we can deliver services to you. Generally the information we hold will have been provided by you (on application or enquiry forms or when we communicate with you), but we may also hold information provided by third parties where this is relevant to your housing circumstances e.g. from social workers and health professionals (such as doctors and occupational therapists).
We will only ask for personal information that is appropriate to enable us to deliver our services. In some cases you can refuse to provide your details if you deem a request to be inappropriate. However, you should note that this may impact our ability to provide some services to you if you refuse to provide information that stops us from doing so.
How we manage your personal information
Access to personal information is restricted to authorised individuals on a strictly need to know basis.
We are committed to keeping your personal details up to date, and we encourage you to inform us about any changes needed to ensure your details are accurate.
To help us to ensure confidentiality of your personal information we may ask you security questions to confirm your identity when you call us. We will not discuss your personal information with anyone other than you, unless you have given us prior written authorisation to do so.
Periods for which we will store your personal information
We will only hold your records during the period of our relationship with you and for a set period afterwards to allow us to meet our legal obligations including resolving any follow up issues between us.
Sharing your Personal Information
In delivering our services to tenants we will be required to share your personal information to our partner repairs and maintenance suppliers. There may be times when we will share relevant information with third parties, including to meet legal requirements, for purposes as follows:
Where necessary or required, we may share information as follows:
When sharing personal information, we will comply with all aspects of the GDPR.
How we use your data – customers who order Habinteg Publications
Publications such as the Wheelchair Housing Design Guide can be ordered via our website. To place an order we will collect information necessary to fulfil the order, this will include address, email and phone details and may involve third-parties used to process your payment (ie Paypal) to whom we would pass your details for that purpose only who are contractually required to safeguard your data. Data provided to us will not be used for any other purpose.
How we use your data – people signing up for updates on our influencing work and joining campaigns
Those who sign-up to receive toolkit updates are asked to provide consent and will only receive email communications from us in relation to the toolkit or campaign you have expressed an interest in.
Your rights under the GDPR
You have a number of rights under the GDPR:
Access to personal information
Under the GDPR, you have a right to ask us what personal information we hold about you, and to request a copy of your information. This is known as a ‘subject access request’ (SAR). SARs need to be made in writing (we have a subject access form you can use for this purpose), to the Risk and Compliance Manager and we ask that your written request is accompanied by proof of your identify. We have one calendar month within which to provide you with the information you’ve asked for (although we will try to provide this to you as promptly as possible).
Information will be provided free of charge, excessive or unreasonable requests may be asked to pay for the costs of providing the information.
Rectification
If you need us to correct any mistakes contained in the information we hold about you, you can let us know by contacting the Risk and Compliance Manager at the London Office.
Erasure (‘right to be forgotten’)
You have the right to ask us to delete personal information we hold about you. You can do this where:
the information is no longer necessary in relation to the purpose for which we originally collected/processed it
Restriction on processing
You have the right to require us to stop processing your personal information. When processing is restricted, we are allowed to store the information, but not do anything with it. You can do this where:
If we have disclosed your personal information to third parties, we must inform them about the restriction on processing, unless it is impossible or involves disproportionate effort to do so.
We must inform you when we decide to remove the restriction giving the reasons why.
Objection to processing
You have the right to object to processing where we say it is in our legitimate business interests. We must stop using the information unless we can show there is a compelling legitimate reason for the processing, which override your interests and rights or the processing is necessary for us or someone else to bring or defend legal claims.
Withdrawal of consent
You have the right to withdraw your consent to us processing your information at any time. If the basis on which we are using your personal information is your consent, then we must stop using the information. We can refuse if we can rely on another reason to process the information such as our legitimate interests.
Right to data portability
The right to data portability allows you to obtain and reuse their personal data for your own purposes across different services. It allows you to move, copy or transfer personal data easily from one IT environment to another in a safe and secure way. The right only applies to personal data you have provided to us for the performance of a contract or information we have consent. It also only applies when processing is carried out by us using automated means.
Protecting Personal Information
Personal information held by Habinteg is held securely in accordance with our data protection, confidentiality and information security policies and procedures.
Telephone enquiries
For all tenant telephone enquiries tenant identification will be verified using questions about the tenancies and date of birth. Written permission wiIl be required if a tenant would like someone else to contact us on their behalf.
Online services
An online tenant portal may be used to access our services or make rental payments. Online tenant accounts are secured using a Username and Password.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.
These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our websites. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.