Housing Services

1. The purpose for which we use your personal data

The information we collect about you will be used for the purposes of:

• Jointly maintaining our Housing Choice Register with Registered Social Landlords to accommodate housing need
• Disabled Facilities Grants and adaptations to properties
• Complying with Rent Smart Wales (property and landlord) requirements
• Houses in Multiple Occupation/Selective Licensing
• Bringing empty properties back into use

The legal basis for the processing of your information is to comply with our legal obligations under the:

• Housing Act 2004
• Housing (Wales) Act 2014
• The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996
• Regulatory Reform (Housing Assistance) Order 2002
• Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015

We collect and use information about your health and other special category (sensitive) personal data because it is necessary for the purpose of exercising functions under the legislation referred to above.  We process information about criminal convictions for reasons of substantial public interest, also on the basis of this legislation.

If you do not give us the information we need when we ask for it, this may result in us being unable to provide the above services.

2. What type of information do we use?

We collect the following types of personal data about you to deliver this service, depending on your circumstances:

• Name
• Address
• Date of birth
• Gender
• Unique reference number
• Telephone number
• Email address
• Bank/payment details
• Your family composition
• Your social circumstances
• Your financial circumstances
• Your housing needs
• Images/photographs
• Vehicle registration number
• Information about your health
• Your racial or ethnic origin
• Criminal convictions and offences

3. Do we use information received from other sources?

To provide this service, we collect information directly from you but also receive information from the following sources:

• Registered Social Landlords who jointly run the Common Housing Register with the Council
• The Council’s Council Tax service
• The Council’s Housing Benefit service
• The Council Adult social care and Children’s Services
• Probation Service
• Department for Work and Pensions
• Cardiff Council Rent Smart Wales Your information will not be transferred outside the United Kingdom.
• Dyfed Powys Police
• Shelter Cymru
• Care and Repair
• Other Local Authorities

The following types of personal data may be obtained, depending on your circumstances:

• Name
• Address
• Date of birth
• Gender
• Unique reference number
• Telephone number
• Email address
• Your family composition
• Your social circumstances
• Your financial circumstances
• Your housing needs
• Vehicle registration number
• Information about your health
• Criminal offences and Police involvement

4. Transferring your information abroad

We use Microsoft Office 365 to process our electronic documents under the terms of a strict agreement, which safeguards your information. This personal data is hosted on servers outside the UK, but only in EU countries which are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation.

We don’t transfer any other information about you outside of the UK.

5. Who has access to your information?

We share your information with the following recipients depending on your circumstances:

• Registered Social Landlords who jointly run the Common Housing Register with the Council
• Other Local Authorities
• Dyfed Powys Police
• Mid & West Wales Fire & Rescue Authority
• Approved contractors
• Shelter Cymru
• Care & Repair
• The Council Adult Social Care and Children’s Services
• The Council’s Legal services
• Debt recovery agencies, in cases of rent arrears
• Planning and building regulations
• Cardiff Council Rent Smart Wales, regarding landlords and private tenants
• The Council’s Property Services in relation to works to your home - this information is hosted in the Cloud by a data processor
• The Council's Financial Services to make payments

We make sure that we only share the minimum amount of personal data that is required in each case.

Your contact details are also provided to an email marketing provider (DotDigital) when you sign up to receive information about our low cost home ownership scheme.

There are other specific situations where we may be required to disclose information about you, such as:

• Where the Council is required to provide the information by law
• Where disclosing the information is required to prevent or detect a crime
• Where disclosure is in the vital interests of the person concerned
• Where the Council is required to provide the information by law

6. How long we will keep your information

We will keep your information for the following periods:

• Housing register applications – we will ask you annually if you want to remain on the housing register.  Application details will be deleted after 5 years as standard, unless you go on to be a tenant and then is kept in line with tenancy timelines your landlord stipulates.
• Tenancies – 12 years after the end of the tenancy
• Grants – 6 years after the last payment (grants under £50,000)
• Grants – 12 years after the last payment (grants over £50,000)
• Licensing – 7 years after the application or the end of the licence
• Empty Properties – 7 years after the conclusion of the case
• Low cost home ownership – as long as you wish to remain on the register or until any property you buy is sold

This is in accordance with the Council’s Retention Guidelines.

7. Your Data Protection rights

You have the right to:

• Obtain access to the personal data that Carmarthenshire Council is processing about you
• Have any inaccurate or incomplete information rectified (corrected)
• Withdraw your consent to processing, where this is the only basis for the processing
• Make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the independent body in the UK which protects information rights

In some circumstances, you may have the right to:

• Object to the processing of your personal information
• The erasure of your personal data
• Restrict the processing of your personal information
• Data portability

8. Contact details

For more information regarding this privacy notice and your rights, please contact:

Data Protection Officer
Carmarthenshire County Council
County Hall
Carmarthen
SA31 1JP

Email: dataprotection@carmarthenshire.gov.uk

Contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office along with further guidance on Data Protection legislation can be found on the ICO website .