Tenant Deposit Guarantee Scheme Privacy Notice

Who is the Data Controller for this processing?

The Government backed tenant deposit protection scheme provider and ourselves are joint Data Controllers 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.

What personal information do we hold?

We only collect and use the minimum amount of personal information required when delivering a service to you. Wherever possible we use non-identifiable personal information.

The service may use some or all of the personal information provided:

your name, address, date of birth
national identifiers such as NHS number, National Insurance number etc.
financial details
details about your housing needs

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

central Government agencies
other local authorities

How do we use your personal information?

We will input the information required to register with the tenant deposit protection scheme into their online portal which will allow tenants to save the amount currently covered by the backed bond. This will also provide your landlord with the reassurance they need that you are saving towards the full cost of the deposit.

We use your information to:

deliver the service, or handle your query
plan and improve the services we offer
detect and prevent crime or fraud
research, however this would be in anonymised form unless we ask for your consent to use your personal information for this purpose

Who else might we share your personal information with?

Your data will be processed and input into the above Government backed tenant deposit protection scheme by our West Cheshire Homes team and the information you provide once input will then be held securely by the deposit protection scheme.

Sometimes we may need to share your information, but we will only do so where it is necessary or required by law. We will only share the minimum information for each circumstance.

We may sometimes need to share some of your information with:

Government agencies
local Government
police
housing associations

What is the legal basis for our use of your personal information?

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you, under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for using your personal information are:

we have a contractual obligation with you (GDPR Article 6 (b)
we have a legal obligation (GDPR Article 6 (c)
we need it to perform a public task (GDPR Article 6 (e)

The legislation we rely on when using your personal information to meet our legal obligations or public tasks includes but is not limited to:

Housing Act 2004
Tenant Deposit Scheme Legislation 2017

Where will we store your information?

Your information will be securely stored on our network and on the network of Government backed tenant deposit protection scheme provider.

How long will we keep your personal information?

We will only use your personal information whilst delivering the service to you and to deal with any questions or complaints that we may receive about this, unless the law requires us to keep it for a longer period. In practice, this means that your information will be kept for seven years then securely destroyed.

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.

Your rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

your right of access - you have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information
your right to rectification - you have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
your right to restriction of processing - you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances
your right to object to processing - you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

To make a request follow the instructions on our Data protection for you page.

How to complain if you are unhappy about how your data is used

You can complain directly to our Data Protection team online or by post.

Online: 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 using the following details:

Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) website
By post: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Will my personal information be accessible outside the UK?

Your information is stored within the UK, but the transfer of personal information outside of the UK could become necessary.

This would only take place if permitted by law, where there are appropriate safeguards in place to protect the personal information.