Barnsbury Housing Association

Privacy

Barnsbury Housing Association is a registered social landlord and is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office as a data controller under the General Data Protection Regulations 2018. This privacy notice explains what personal information we hold about you and how we use any personal information we collect about you when you use any of our services.

What information do we collect about you?

Where we hold personal data such as your household’s names, dates of birth, contact details and records of any transactions such as payments or requests for information as well as sensitive personal data such as sex, ethnicity, religion or other beliefs, sexual orientation, gender and medical history.

We collect information about you when:

  • we get a housing nomination from a local authority or referring partner or when you fill in an application form for housing and ask for one of our properties
  • you choose an offer of one of our properties
  • you ask for any of our services such as a repair or support service
  • you voluntarily complete one of our customer surveys
  • you give us feedback or make a complaint
  • you make an application we accept to become a member of the resident panel or a board member.

We also process personal information using CCTV systems and we monitor and collect visual images for:

  • security reasons
  • preventing and/or detecting crime, and
  • staff safety and monitoring purposes.

We keep these images for a period that is not more than necessary.

Telephone calls made to us are recorded and used to coach staff and improve our services for you.

From time to time we may also be given information about you from other agencies such as the housing benefit and social care department in the local authority, the Department of Work and Pensions, the Police or the NHS.

How will we use the information about you?

We use your personal information to:

  • enable us to provide you with accommodation and to communicate with you so we can provide services that meet your needs
  • make sure we meet all our legal and statutory duties such as those which apply under the Equality Act 2010
  • help with crime prevention and the prosecution of offenders
  • to protect individuals from harm
  • provide you with welfare services including advice and appropriate support
  • carry out research and to provide anonymised information to help improve our services and direct resources to the most appropriate areas
  • assess your suitability for a job vacancy or to assess your suitability to become a board member.

Sharing your information

We may sometimes need to share the personal information we process with other organisations where it is necessary to provide you with a repairs service, to fulfil a contract such as installing new windows, or where we need to make sure you are being paid the correct amount of benefit by the DWP or housing benefit department, or where we are legally required to do so. We may also need to share it with community alarm service providers and emergency services.

We may also share your information with third parties to carry out a tenant survey.

Where this is necessary, we are required to comply with all aspects of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

We will only share minimum information with third parties relevant to the enquiry made.

We do not transfer any personal information outside of the European Economic Area.

How long do we store information?

Any information we collect is stored using guidance issued by the National Housing Federation. The general principle is that we only store data as long as we need to or are legally required to.

Your rights to access data

You have the right to access your data at any time, all requests for information must be made in writing and also include proof of your identity. You will not be charged for this information.

However, if we consider that your request is unfounded, is asking for too much information or it is information we have previously provided then we may charge a reasonable administration fee for this or we may refuse your request.

If we refuse we will advise you of our reasons within one month of receiving your request. You have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office or to seek a judicial remedy.

GDPR consent

If we have asked your consent to process your information, we will make sure you are clear about the reasons why we are doing this and that you have control over this. This means you have the right to withdraw consent for the use of that particular information at any time.

Correcting your data

If you believe that the information we hold on you is incorrect then you should notify us and we will arrange to have the information corrected within one month of you telling us. We will also tell anyone else we have provided this information to.

You also have a right to a copy of the information we hold about you. This is an individual right so we cannot process joint requests. They have to be treated separately. We will provide this within one month of getting your request.

What we would also like to do with the data

We may wish to contact you to take part in independent research (for example satisfaction surveys) or to provide you with specific advice around future services. If you have consented to getting marketing, you may opt out at a later date.

You have the right to stop us or any third parties we have asked to carry out surveys from contacting you for research purposes. If you no longer wish to be contacted for research purposes, please contact us.

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about this privacy notice or information we hold about you by:

email: info@barnsbury.org
letter: to the data controller, 4-6 Colebrooke Place, N1 8HZ
telephone: 020 7704 2324

Contact details of data protection officer

Name: Cheryl Whittle

Job title: housing and communities director

Email: info@barnsbury.org

This policy was last updated: July 2024