privacy policy

This privacy notice explains what you can expect when Believe Housing Limited processes your personal information.

This notice applies to believe housing customers and prospective customers, participants and volunteers as well as others who may use, benefit from or be impacted by the services believe housing provides.

This privacy notice applies to the personal information processed by believe housing.

data controller

Believe Housing Limited is registered with the Information Commissioner as Data Controller.

Data Controller
Believe Housing Limited

Address
Coast House, Spectrum 4, Spectrum Business Park, Seaham, SR7 7TT

how we collect personal information about you

We collect your information in a variety of ways for example, when you:

• Complete an application form in print or online
• Complete a tenancy skill course, questionnaire, survey or give us feedback
• Enter a competition
• Use our services or our website
• Contact us by telephone call, text, email or social media
• Access and use our dedicated customer app
• Access our virtual chat function on our website
• Through installed smart sensor capturing internal conditions in your home such as temperature

Sometimes your personal information will have been provided to us by a third party, such as a family member, a neighbour or public body.

if you don’t give us your personal information

If you do not wish to provide us with your personal information then this may mean that we are unable to provide services to you. We will let you know if that is the case.

personal information we hold

Data protection legislation identifies:

• Personal data – as any information relating to a person who is or can be identified from that information; and
• Special category data – as any personal data relating to a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

The extent and type of information we collect and hold about you will depend on our relationship with you.

The information we may hold about you includes:

• Contact details – telephone number, address and email address
• Name, date of birth, your residential status, marital/relationship status, national insurance number, employment status, benefit details and other information to access our services (for example to prove your identity and current address)
• Your ethnicity, language choice, gender, race, mental or physical health needs
• Your bank details and financial assessments such as your income and expenditure and financial transaction information
• Criminal offence/conviction information
• Information about your training, qualifications and experience
• Images of you which are collected on our CCTV systems if you visit our offices or estates which have CCTV cameras in operation
• Telephone call recordings when you have contacted us or we have contacted you – we will always tell you in advance if you are being recorded
• Information about your views on our services where you have provided these to us
• Information obtained by the use of cookies when you visit our website
• Location and images for reporting antisocial behaviour and similar matters via our dedicated customer app
• Social media identifiers such as profile name, type of device and channel contacted, such as Facebook or Twitter.
• Any sensors that you have consented to be used in your home collect data about the internal conditions, such as temperature, humidity and air quality (this list is not exhaustive).

Sometimes your information will have been provided to us by a third party because it is relevant to their, your or another person’s circumstances. For example, information may have been provided to us by the tenant of the home you live in or by a resident reporting antisocial behaviour.

how we use your personal information and our legal basis for doing so

We will use your personal information to allocate, provide, manage and develop social and affordable housing as well as to provide, manage and develop our other services.

For example, when we:

• let homes
• provide safer neighbourhoods and tenancy management and tenancy sustainment services
• collect rent/charges
• carry out repairs
• respond to your requests
• ask you for feedback on our services
• meet our legal obligations
• prevent fraud.

If you are seeking housing with us through Durham Key Options then please read the privacy policy available on their website here.

Data protection law says that we are allowed to use personal information only if we have a proper reason for doing so. The legal basis for processing your information will be one or more of the following:

• When you have given your consent
• To fulfil a contract we have with you or where you have asked us to take steps to enter into a contract with you
• When it is our legal duty to do so
• To protect someone’s life
• When it is in our (or a third party’s) legitimate interests except where those interests are overridden by your interests, rights and freedoms. A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information
• To carry out our obligations under employment, social security or social protection law
• To establish, exercise or defend legal claims or to comply with a court order

sharing your personal information

We may share your personal information with:

• Contractors that we appoint to carry out work for us. For example:
  • repairs contractors – to enable them to arrange to replace new windows in your home
  • research company – to carry out a survey to establish the quality of our services or work
  • credit reference/debt collection agencies – in relation to some housing applications and outstanding charges
  • training providers – for example when you take an online tenancy skill course
• Police and other statutory organisations – for example, to help sustain a tenancy or deal with safer neighbourhood issues
• Where we enter into a data-sharing arrangement with a third party – for example, the Fire & Rescue Service where we have concerns about hoarding in our homes
• Police, HMRC, DWP, Durham County Council and others – for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences; the collection of tax or duty; council tax reduction or assessment and payment of housing benefit
• The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government in relation to social housing lettings and sales for statistical purposes. It has a separate privacy notice, which can be viewed here
• Utility companies and their representatives to ensure billing details are correct – for example, when letting a home where we are liable for energy use and you will become liable for future energy use
• Health authorities and social services
• Professional advisers – for example, our auditors to undertake internal and external audits; lawyers to provide us with legal advice
• Others – for example, to prevent and detect fraud or protect public funds.

This list is not exhaustive.

We will not sell your personal information.

protecting your personal information

We are committed to ensuring your personal information is secure and to prevent unauthorised access we have in place appropriate technical and organisational measures to secure and safeguard it.

how long we keep your personal information

We will keep your information as long as is reasonably necessary and in line with our policies.

transfer of personal information outside the united kingdom (uk)/european economic area (eea)

If we transfer any of your personal information outside of the UK/EEA then we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place and update this notice.

cookies

Cookies are data stored on your computer or other device when you use a website. Our use of cookies on your computer helps us to collect information from your computer such as your IP address, browser and operating system.

links to other sites

Where our website contains links to other third party sites, we do not have any responsibility for the content of these sites nor the practices they employ and suggest that you read the privacy notice/statement of each website so you understand the personal information they may collect about you

your rights

Data protection legislation provides you with certain rights relating to the personal information we hold about you. None of these rights are absolute and are subject to exceptions and limitations. You can exercise these rights at any time by contacting us using our contact details below. We may need to validate your identity before we can respond to a request. Further information on these rights can be viewed on the Information Commissioner’s website www.ico.org.uk

right of access

You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. You can request this either verbally or in writing and by any method deemed suitable, such as letter, email, telephone call, text, social media and face to face or we can provide you with a form to do so.

right of rectification

If you believe any personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incorrect or incomplete then you can ask us to correct it.

right of erasure (to be forgotten)

You can ask us to delete the personal information we hold about you when it is no longer required.

right to restriction of processing

You can ask us to restrict or suppress your personal information.

right to portability

This right allows you to ask us to port your data across different services from one IT environment into another.

right to object

This right allows you to ask us to stop processing your personal information.

rights in relation to consent

In appropriate circumstances where we have sought your consent to process your personal information then you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

our contact details

If you wish to contact us about this privacy notice/data protection our details are:

• By post: believe housing (fao the Data Protection Officer), Coast House, Spectrum 4, Spectrum Business Park, Seaham, SR7 7TT
• By phone: 0300 1311 999
• Email: dataprotection@believehousing.co.uk

making a data protection complaint

If you are concerned about the use of your personal information, or the way we respond to your exercising your rights, then you can raise a complaint directly with us using the contact details above.

You may also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office whose details are:

• Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
• Tel: 0303 123 1113
• Website: www.ico.org.uk

changes to this privacy notice

This notice will be regularly reviewed and was last updated in November 2024.