The Tees Valley Lettings Partnership is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
This privacy statement explains when and why we collect personal information, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure. It applies to information about applicants, customers and other service users. Tees Valley Lettings Partnership members are the data controllers of all personal information you provide.
By giving the Tees Valley Lettings Partnership your information or by using our website (www.teesvalleyhomefinder.org) you are confirming that you are agreeing to be bound by this policy.
This policy may change from time to so we recommend that you occasionally review this privacy statement to ensure you are aware of any changes and how your information may be used.
Who are we?
The Tees Valley Lettings Partnership is comprised of the following separate organisations; Darlington Borough Council, Hartlepool Borough Council, Middlesbrough Council, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, Beyond Housing, North Star and Home Group.
Why do we collect and store personal information?
We need to collect, process and store personal information about you and other household members* in order to fulfil our obligations as a choice based lettings partnership and to deliver efficient and effective services.
*When you provide information about household members, it is your responsibility to ensure that you do so with their full knowledge and consent.
Our legal basis for processing your information will be at least one of the following:
- Contractual: for a contract we have with you, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into a contract.
- Legal obligation: for us to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations).
- Vital interests: is necessary to protect someone’s life.
- Legitimate interests: is necessary for our legitimate interests, or the legitimate interests of a third party, unless there is a good reason to protect your personal data which overrides those legitimate interests.
- Consent: You have given clear consent for us to process your personal data for a specific purpose.
What information do we collect about you?
The information we collect and hold on our records concerns our relationship with you. For example:
- Your name, dates of birth, photographic ID and information about your previous housing circumstances in order to assess housing applications. We will hold this information as long as required to assess your housing need in accordance with our retention policy.
- Your contact details, so we can communicate with you and to keep you informed.
- Information about your needs and requirements to ensure our services are accessible, that we take account of any support needs in our dealings with you and to improve our communications with you. For example, if you are involved with a carer or social worker or if you need information in large print or translated text.
We may also:
- Record your telephone calls to us. Some calls to Tees Valley Lettings Partnership members may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes and to ensure we are delivering a good service**
- Capture images on our CCTV systems, if you visit the office of one of the Tees Valley Lettings Partnership members which is covered by such technology**
- We may carry out insight and satisfaction surveys to help us to monitor our performance and to improve our services to our customers.
**Call recordings and CCTV recordings will be held in accordance with Tees Valley Lettings Partnership members’ Information Governance, ICT Security and CCTV policies.
The above list is not exhaustive, as we hold records of most contact we have with you, or about you, and we process this information so we can deliver services to you.
How do we collect information about you?
We prefer to collect the information we need directly from you. That way, you know what we have, and we can be sure you have provided us with the most accurate and up to date information.
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 for example from social workers and health professionals (for example 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.
What do we do with the information we collect?
Processing of your personal information will be undertaken in accordance with the principles of the UK Data Protection Act 2018 (the Act) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (the Regulation).
Access to personal information is restricted to authorised individuals on a strictly need to know basis. We will treat your personal information fairly and lawfully and we will ensure that information is:
- Processed for limited purposes.
- Kept up-to-date, accurate, relevant and not excessive.
- Not kept longer than is necessary.
- Kept secure.
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 and as may be necessary when we call you.
We will not discuss your personal information with anyone other than you unless you have given us prior written authorisation to do so. Anyone calling on your behalf may also be subject to security questions to ensure we’re taking adequate steps to protect your personal information.
Who do we share your information with?
Normally, only employees of the Tees Valley Lettings Partnership members and will be able to see and process your information. However, we will also share your information with other landlords in instances where they have advertised a property on Tees Valley HomeFinder, and you have registered your interest against this property. In such instances these landlords will be governed by our strict data sharing agreement. In addition, there may be times when we need to share relevant information with third parties as outlined below, or where we are legally obliged to do so. When sharing personal information, we will comply with all aspect of GDPR 2018.
Sensitive information about health, sexual orientation, race and religion for example is subject to particularly stringent security and confidentiality measures.
Where necessary or required, we may share your information with as follows:
- Third party service providers, in connection with services performed on our behalf. For example, if we use a mailing house to distribute a satisfaction survey or newsletter.
- Community partners in connection with the delivery of co-ordinated local services.
- Non partner registered providers, trusts and landlords in connection with tenancy references and associated enquiries.
- Local authorities and government departments, as necessary for administering justice, or for exercising statutory, governmental, or other public functions.
- Local authorities as necessary (via ‘duty to refer’) should we believe you are at risk of becoming homeless.
- Police and other relevant authorities (e.g. Probation Service, Department of Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs) in relation to the prevention or detection of crime and fraud the apprehension or prosecution of offenders and the assessment or collection of tax or duty.
- Other statutory organisations, for example social services and health authorities, as necessary for exercising statutory functions.
This list is not exhaustive as there are other circumstances where we may also be required to share information, for example:
- To meet our legal obligations.
- In connection with legal proceedings (or where we are instructed to do so by court order).
- With Tees Valley Lettings Partnership members insurers, in cases of public liability claims or similar.
- To protect the vital interests of an individual (in a life or death situation).
International transfer of personal information
We do not envisage transferring any information about or relating to you to anyone who is located outside of the European economic area other than as indicated above and we have a commitment from our business partners and data processors that they too will honour this commitment.
Your rights in relation to your personal information
Right of access: You have the right of access to information we hold about or concerning you (this is called a Data Subject Access Request). Details of how to exercise this right is detailed on the website of each Tees Valley Lettings Partner member. Alternatively contact us directly, individual contact details for Tees Valley Lettings Partnership members can be found on the ‘Contact Us’ page of our website (www.teesvalleyhomefinder.org).
Right of rectification or erasure: If you feel that any data that we hold about you is inaccurate you have the right to ask us to correct or rectify it. You also have a right to ask us to erase information about you where you can demonstrate that the data we hold is no longer needed by us, or if you withdraw the consent upon which our processing is based, or if you feel that we are unlawfully processing your data.
Your right of rectification and erasure extends to anyone we have disclosed your personal information to, and we will take all reasonable steps to inform those with whom we have shared your data about your request for erasure.
Right to restriction of processing: You have a right to request that we refrain from processing your data where you contest its accuracy, or the processing is unlawful and you have requested its erasure, or where we do not need to hold your data anymore, but you need us to in order to establish, exercise or defend any legal claims, or we are in dispute about the legality of our processing your personal data.
Right to portability: You have a right to receive any personal data that you have provided to us in order to transfer it onto another data controller where the processing is based on consent and is carried out by automated means called a data portability request.
Right to object: You have a right to object to our processing of your personal data where the basis of the processing is our legitimate interests including but not limited to direct marketing and profiling.
Further information
For further information on how to request your personal information and how and why we process your information, you can contact us. PLEASE contact the partner organisation who is responsible for the administration of your Tees Valley HomeFinder housing application, this is normally your landlord and/or the local authority you currently live. Details of the Data Protection Officer for each Tees Valley Lettings Partnership member are detailed overleaf:
| Tees Valley Lettings Partnership member | Data Protection Officer |
| Darlington Borough Council | Lee Downey |
| Hartlepool Borough Council | Laura Stones |
| Middlesbrough Council | Data Protection Officer |
| Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council | Kate Fulton |
| Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council | Data protection Officer |
| Beyond Housing | Joanna Caton |
| Home Group | Austin Woods |
| North Star | James Walder |
The Information Commissioner (ICO) is also a source of further information about your data protection rights. The ICO is an independent official body, and one of their primary functions is to administer the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulations. You also have a right to lodge a complaint about any aspect of how we are handling your data with the ICO and can do so at:
- Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
- Telephone: 0303 123 1113
- Email: ico.org.uk
Changes to this privacy notice
This Privacy Notice is kept under regular review and was last updated July 2021. If we change this Privacy Notice in a way which significantly alters the terms upon which you have agreed, we will post notice of the change on the Tees Valley HomeFinder website and you will be deemed to have accepted such changes.