Council Property and Assets Privacy Notice

We undertake a range of property services for the management of our property assets. This privacy notice explains how personal data is collected when a customer, contractor, or visitor to one of our properties, engages with the service.

Services covered within this privacy notice

the day-to-day management of our property assets to ensure the security and safety of our staff, our equipment, and records of visitors
managing the leasing of our properties to tenants
selling property owned by us which is no longer required
the procurement of new property and assets
operating CCTV cameras in and around our properties

What personal information do we collect?

We only collect and use the minimum amount of personal information required when delivering a service to you.

The service will collect some personal information depending on which of our services you use:

name, title, address, contact details
correspondence (emails, letters, typed notes of telephone conversations)
CCTV
dates of occupancy
tenancy agreement and landlord details
agent details if applicable
date of birth, National Insurance Number
financial and employment information

We get most of this information from you, but we may also get some of this data from:

central government agencies
other local authorities
members of the public and referees
credit reference agencies
commissioned partners
legal representatives and agents

Why do we collect information about you?

We use your information to:

deliver the service, or handle your query
fulfil our day-to-day property management responsibilities
provide regular updates to our customers
fulfil our contractual, legal or statutory obligations
plan and improve the services we offer
detect and prevent crime or fraud
evidence positive outcomes to central government funding agencies

Sometimes we may use the information you have provided us for research and analysis to help us deliver services better and share this with our partners. When we do so, we remove any personal information that may identify you as an individual or household and only use and share anonymous statistics.

Who do we share your information with?

When we have to share your information, we will only do so where it is necessary or required by law.

The organisations we will share your information with our:

other government departments e.g. HMRC, DWP
judicial agencies/police (to prevent, detect and prosecute crime - including the National Fraud Initiative)
an Elected Member/MP as your representative
funding bodies
utility suppliers

We may also use data processors to support activities, for example by providing the systems we need or delivering services on our behalf.

These include:

Qwest and other commissioned business support providers
other property service providers acting as a data processor

The Data Controller

We are the Data Controller for this processing.

The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with fraud prevention agencies who will use it to prevent fraud and money-laundering and to verify your identity. If fraud is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance, or employment.

The lawful basis for the processing

Most of the personal information we collect is provided to us by you, under Article 6 of the UK GDPR we rely on the following:-

when you apply for a service or make an enquiry you gave us your consent (UK GDPR Article 6 (a) - you are able to remove your consent at any time, you can do this by contacting property.services@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk
when you lease or buy a property / asset from us, we will have a contractual obligation with you (UK GDPR Article 6 (b)
when you visit a Council property or asset, we must protect your safety under the Health and Safety at Work Act so will have a legal obligation (UK GDPR Article 6 (c)
we need it to perform a public task (UK GDPR Article 6 (e)
when securing our Council property and assets we use surveillance equipment, when we do so we have a legitimate interest (UK GDPR Article 6 (f)

When we collect data that is classed as special category data, under Article 9 of the UK GDPR we rely on the following:-

you gave us your explicit consent (UK GDPR Article 9 (2) (a))
we need to collect it for Substantial Public Interest in order to comply with UK legislation (UK GDPR Article 9 (2) (g)

We rely on a list of legislation when using your personal information to meet our legal obligations or public tasks.

Protecting your information

Your information will be securely stored on our network.

How long will we keep your information for?

We will not keep your information for any longer than it is needed and will dispose of both paper and electronic records in a secure way. The length of time we need to keep information collected for providing Council Property services varies depending on the purpose for which it is collected. We have a record retention schedule which sets out how long we keep records and the reason why.

If we need to use your information for research or reports, your information will be anonymised and any information taken from notes (hand written or typed) during any consultation sessions will be securely destroyed. The information will continue to be used in a summarised and anonymised form in any research reports or papers that are published. The anonymised information in the papers may be of historic interest and may be held in public archives indefinitely.

Will my data be transferred abroad?

We do not send any information we collect about you outside of the UK.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have a number of rights that are set out on our Data protection for you pages.

Further guidance about these rights can be accessed from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website.

If you are not happy about the way your personal data is being used, or you require further information about how we process your personal data, you can contact our Data protection team:

Contact the DPO
By post: Data Protection Officer, The Portal, Wellington Road, Ellesmere Port, CH65 0BA

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO):

Instant Message: Live Chat
By post: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113