Housing Services privacy notice

Read the privacy notice for Housing Services.

When you are accessing or applying for services provided by Housing you will need to provide us with some personal data or information.

As the 'data controller' for the personal information - or data - we hold about you, South Ayrshire Council decides how your personal information is used/processed and what it is used for.

This statement provides more details about this and provides information on how to get in touch with us if you need to know more.

Your personal data - what is it?

Personal data is information relating to a living person who can be identified from that data. Identification can be based on the information alone, or in conjunction with any other information. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) and supplemented by the Data Protection Act 2018.

What Personal Data will we collect from you?

We will only collect the personal information we need to provide you with relevant information, services and support. The personal data we will collect may include:

Name
Date and place of birth
Address
Land line telephone number
Mobile telephone number
Email
Gender
Disability
Health conditions
National Insurance number
Criminal convictions

How will we use your information?

The information will be used to manage all housing related matters. We will collect personal data in order to oversee the provision of housing advice and services. South Ayrshire Council is responsible for:

Letting, managing and maintaining the Council's housing stock
Processing housing application/mutual exchange requests
Maintaining the statutory homelessness service.
Providing Housing services to Council tenants, leaseholders, sheltered housing and temporary accommodation residents
Carrying out day to day repairs (maintenance programmes) including providing a gardening maintenance scheme
Carrying out major repairs
Dealing with general enquires and complaints including complaints about antisocial behaviour
Processing rent payments
Processing home content insurance for housing clients
Processing Redecoration allowance/housing loss payments

What is the legal basis for using/sharing your information?

The legal basis is it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller as per Article 6(1) (e) of the GDPR. This is because we have a duty under the Housing (Scotland) Acts 1987 and 2001, the Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 to provide housing services.

Special category data and criminal convictions

For some activities, we also need to process more sensitive personal information about you known as special category data, for example health information and criminal convictions data. Processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest as set out in Article 9(2) (g) of the GDPR and meets a condition in Part 2 of schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Who will we share your information with?

Where necessary your information will be shared with:

Police Scotland
Department of Works and Pensions
Governing bodies
Housing Support Agencies
Council appointed contractors
Scottish Courts
Sheriff Officers
Regulatory bodies
NHS
Scottish Prison Services
Registered Social Housing Landlords
Other Council Services, as appropriate

When you sign your tenancy agreement for your property we will share your name and address with our power supplier to enable them to transfer the billing of future utilities to you.

How long do we keep hold of your information?

We keep your personal data for no longer than reasonably necessary. Your information will be retained in line with our Corporate Records Retention Schedule as follows:

Purpose we collect your personal data	Trigger - event that prompts start of retention period	How long we hold your data
Letting, managing and maintaining the Council's housing stock	Termination of tenancy	Current plus 10 years
Processing housing application/mutual exchange requests	Date of decision Date of decision Date superseded	Successful applications 10 years after termination of tenancy Unsuccessful or withdrawn applications held current plus 10 years Home exchange requests current only
Maintaining the statutory homelessness service.	Termination of tenancy Application unsuccessful and person does not get permanently housed	Application succssful file transfer to tenant file. Current plus 10 years Current plus 10 years
Providing Housing services to council tenants, leaseholders, sheltered housing and temporary accommodation residents	Date of last action Date of last action	Temporary accommodation current plus 5 years Sheltered housing current plus 7 years
Carrying out day to day repairs (maintenance programmes) including providing a gardening maintenance scheme	Date of notice Date of last action Date of last action	Repairs current plus two years Maintenance work current plus 5 years Gardening scheme current plus five years
Housing repairs	Date of last action Date of last action	Major repairs (over £50,000) current plus 10 years Minor repairs (under £50,000) current plus 5 years
Dealing with general enquiries and complaints including complaints about antisocial behaviour	Date of last action	Enquiries current plus 1 year Complaints current plus 5 years
Processing rent payments	Date closed	Current plus 7 years
Processing home content insurance for housing clients	Date closed	Current plus 7 years
Processing Redecoration allowance/housing loss payments	Date closed	Current plus 10 years

What are your rights?

The lawful basis for processing/using your personal data directly impacts which rights are available to you. For example, some rights will not apply, in this case we are not required to:

Erase your personal information.
Enable the right to data portability

However, you do have the following rights and can ask us to:

Correct your personal information if it is inaccurate;
Complete your personal information if it is incomplete;
Restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances

You also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information.

What about Automated Decision-Making?

Our services does not use automatic decision making.

What are the consequences of failing to provide personal information?

Where the provision of your information to the Council is a statutory or contractual requirement, or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract, you are obliged to provide the information. If the required information is not provided then housing advice and services may be limited.

Do you require this statement in a different format?

Please contact us if you require this information in an alternative format.

How can you get in touch with us?

If you wish to obtain any records held by the Council relating to you, or if you have any general data protection queries, please contact the Council's Data Protection Service at:

Data Protection Officer
South Ayrshire Council
County Buildings
Wellington Square
Ayr
KA7 1DR

Email: DataProtection@south-ayrshire.gov.uk
Telephone: 01292 612 223

If you have a complaint

If you are unhappy with the way the Council has dealt with your personal information, you can complain to the Data Protection Officer using the contact details noted above. If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner:

Information Commissioner's Office
45 Melville Street
Edinburgh
EH3 7HL

Email: scotland@ico.org.uk
Telephone: 0303 123 1113

If you have no internet access

Please contact us at the above postal address or telephone number if you wish to have copies of any of the above information and you do not have access to the internet. We will endeavour to let you have hard copies of the information.