GARDEN CITY HOMES PRIVACY NOTICE

Garden City Homes are committed to treating your information securely, with respect and in line with data protection law.

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when Garden City Homes processes your personal information. It applies to all our customers, whether you are interested in purchasing or letting from us.

It is important for you to read this notice in full to understand what information we hold about you, how we may use it and your rights in relation to your data.

We keep our privacy notice under regular review and we will place any updates on our website. If you would like to receive a hard copy of our privacy notice, please let us know.

When do we collect personal information about you?

We may collect personal information when you:

• Visit/access one of our websites or platforms¹.
• Contact us by telephone, email, SMS, letter or any other form of messaging.
• Visit any of our offices or developments.
• Complete any of our website forms for a service request.
• Access information about our developments and/or new homes via a third-party provider, such as a property portal e.g. Rightmove or others.
• Whenever you enter into any transaction with us, whether it’s in person or any other way.
• If you request information from us with a view to entering into a transaction with us.

This may include for example your:

• Name
• Email address
• Postal address
• Telephone or mobile number

As well as information about:

• Your use of our website.
• The purpose of your visit to our website or the reason you made contact with us.

This notice also covers our use of any of your personal information, whether provided to us in person, over the phone, via email, SMS or any social messaging, via website forms, property portals or in other correspondence.

If you are letting from us, we may share information with UK Tenant Data, further information is available here.

Requests for additional information

Sometimes we will require you to provide further personal information. This may be if you are purchasing or letting a home from us (or thinking about purchasing or letting a home), or if you ask us to contact you with properties/developments that may be of interest to you. Whenever we do this, we will tell you why we are collecting this information and how we will use it. Examples of this are proof of identity, such as a copy of your passport.

CCTV and call monitoring

Our developments and Sales Offices use CCTV to make sure we provide a safe and secure environment for all visitors to our premises and to ensure the protection of our employees and property.

We also record calls for training, monitoring and quality purposes to and from our Customer Services Helpline.

How will we use this information?

We do not sell customer’s personal data to third parties and will only use your personal information to provide you with details of our own products, properties or developments which we believe will be of interest to you. In addition, we may use your information to:

• Contact you. If you have indicated a specific interest in a property/development, or a particular area in which we have properties/developments available.
• Provide a relevant service. If you have contacted us for a specific purpose or accessed our services by completing a website form and not opted out, we’ll take into account your perceived preferences for a specific property type or location. In the event that you do not wish to receive this personalised service, you can unsubscribe from our emails or contact us.
• Tailor our service to your location. With your permission, we may use IP addresses and device identifiers to identify your location. We will use this for general, depersonalised statistical purposes. We may also use this information to direct you to specific developments/properties in your area.
• Improve our service. We provide information to third parties for research and analytical purposes, so that we can improve the services we offer you.

Please rest assured that any personal information given to us for a specific use or purpose will not be used for any other purpose without your notification and (where appropriate) permission.

When will we contact you? 

We may contact you:

• For purposes aligned with our contract.
• In relation to a previous communication from you. This includes any comment or complaint concerning us, our services, properties or developments, or any previous contact we may have had with you.
• If you requested further information or signed up to a product, property or development, whether directly through us or via a third-party provider, such as a property portal.
• If you have expressed an interest in a specific product, property or development.
• To provide you with additional information concerning a specific property/development, type of property/ development or similar properties/developments to those in which you have expressed an interest.
• For marketing purposes if you have chosen to receive a service from us by completing one of our website forms and not opted out, in accordance with this policy.

Contacting you for marketing purposes

We will only contact you for marketing purposes, via email, SMS or phone, if you have agreed to this or where you have requested a service from us and not opted out.  You can easily unsubscribe from any of those sources at any time.

We will deem a service request to be any of the following:

• Online appointment booking – using our appointment tool on the website to select a date and time to visit one of our developments.
• Arrange a viewing – to request a viewing. In this instance we will call you to arrange a suitable time for an appointment for you to visit one of our developments.
• Call-back request – when you request us to call you back to find out more about one of our developments.
• Keep me informed – this is where you ask us to keep you updated on a development that has not launched yet (coming soon site).
• Download brochure – when you request to download a brochure of one of our developments.
• Registration – when you register on our website with an account to store your searches, etc.

Information emails/SMS/phone calls

We offer regular information by emails, telephone and SMS communications concerning our properties and developments.

Tailoring our service to you

We may personalise our communications with you based on the information you provide to us and the information we obtain when you use our platforms.

Third parties

We do not allow the information we hold about you to be used for advertising purposes or contact from third parties. However, if you show an interest in a specific property/development or type of property/development via a third-party website, such as a property portal, this is outside of our remit – we have no control over who else can contact you.

Keeping your information private

Your information will be kept private and confidential, except where we are obliged/permitted to share it with third parties by law (e.g. Government bodies, law enforcement agencies and similar).

We will retain your information within Wythenshawe Community Housing Group except:

• At your request: If you have requested that we share the information with you or have given your permission.
• Where applicable, we may need to share some data with Help to Buy North West
• To fulfil our contractual/similar obligations to you: For example, in connection with any property you are in the course of purchasing/letting or have purchased/let from us, or which you had previously sought to purchase/let from us. This could include:
  • To our solicitors, your solicitors or other advisers for the purposes of progressing a sale or dealing with any issue you may have.
  • To a third party for the purposes of carrying out a survey in relation to your experience with us.
  • With a consultant or a subcontractor appointed to carry out/required to carry out work to a property which you have purchased.
  • To any of your advisers in connection with any contract or transaction entered into with us for the purposes of performance of our obligations
  • For statistical or similar analysis in relation to purchase or use of our properties, products or any service we provide.

If you purchase a property from us we are required in some circumstances to share some data with the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government for research and statistical purposes – see the CORE privacy notice for further details.

Whilst not sharing your personal information, we may use suitable and accredited third-party organisations specifically for the purpose of destroying or deleting any personal data.

Keeping you in the know

When you enter into a contract with us, we will set out, as comprehensively as possible, the purposes for which we may use your personal information in order to fulfil our contract with you and address any issues relating to our performance.

Is there an age limit to who we can contact?

If you are under the age of 18, you should obtain your parents’ or guardians’ permission before you contact us. It is unlikely that we will be in a position to provide you with any information which may assist you, or be relevant to you, until you reach the age of 18 – this is simply because of the nature of the legal obligations you will enter into when purchasing a property.

How long do we store your information?

This is dependent upon its purpose, or the amount of time set out in the contract you enter into with us. Further details can be found in our Records Retention Policy.

• Purchasing a property: If you enter into a contract with us to purchase a property, we will hold your information for a maximum of 12 years from the date of completion of that purchase.
• If you contact us: If you get in touch regarding any of our properties/developments or types of property/developments or the services we provide – whether we receive such contact directly from you or via a third party – we will retain your personal information until whichever of the below happens first:
  • You request that we delete it: We will need to retain a record of your request to be deleted.
  • A maximum period of 2 years: From the date that you last made contact with us – directly or via a third-party – in relation to any of our properties or developments.

We will use all reasonable efforts to delete (aside from the note of your request to be deleted) all information in our possession which constitutes, in our reasonable opinion, personal data belonging to you.

Your rights

Deletion of personal data “Right to be forgotten”

It is your right to request the deletion of your personal data from our records, except (as explained above) if it is necessary for us to perform our legal obligations or contractual obligations to you or another third party.

Keeping your details accurate

You have the right to ask us to rectify any personal data we hold about you which is inaccurate or incomplete.

Sending a request

A request for the deletion or correction of personal data should be addressed to Garden City Homes (see postal address below), or by email to enquiries@gardencityhomes.org.uk.

Please note that while we always strive to comply with any requests you make, we cannot guarantee to action any request for the deletion or rectification of your personal data if it is not made using the method outlined above.

What do we do?

Within reason, we will aim to make anonymous and/or delete any of the personal data which we hold in relation to you.  It is in the nature of digital or computer records that we cannot guarantee that every trace or record of your personal data will be removed, but we will delete it as far as it is reasonably possible for us to do so.

Third party platforms

If you wish to be deleted from or want to ensure your details are accurate with any third-party owned platform, such as a property portal, you will need to contact them directly. These third party websites have their own privacy policies, and are also likely to use cookies, and we therefore advise you to review them.

Finding out what personal information we hold

Under the Data Protection Act, you have the right to request a copy of any personal information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected.

We may require you to prove your identity (with two documents of approved identification) before searching our records. At the present time, the information will be provided to you within a month of whichever of the following comes last:

• The date of submission of your request.
• Establishment of your identity.
• Receipt of information that we have requested in order to clarify your request.

Identification that we accept

The following are examples of the type of identification that we can accept in order to process your information request:

• Driving licence.
• Birth or marriage certificate.
• Utility bill (from the past 3 months).
• Current vehicle registration document.
• Bank statement (from the past 3 months).
• Rent book or similar tenancy agreement (that covers the past 3 months).

Please note, if we have previously established your identity and it matches the information you provide, this may be sufficient for the purposes of actioning your request.  If you have not previously provided us with identification, then we may require you to provide copy documentation of the examples listed above in order to process your request.

The amount we charge and the period of time in which we are able to action your request may alter by law. If so, this notice will be amended.

Accessing our platforms from outside the UK

Depending upon your location, different privacy rules may apply as a matter of law. These are presently harmonised within the EU, but you should note that any personal information that we use or process is done so in accordance with the law applicable in England, Wales or Scotland, as appropriate.

Information about other websites

We cannot control any information concerning websites other than those operated by us. You must refer to those websites for their terms and conditions and privacy policies.

Mobile applications

We occasionally release mobile applications to complement specific developments. Use of these mobile applications is set out in the terms and conditions, which you will need to accept in order to load and access the app on your device.

Changes to our privacy notice

We may make changes and update our privacy notice and cookies policy from time to time and in accordance with updated legislation. Any such changes will be shown here as part of our privacy notice and will apply from the date that they are published.  We are unable to contact you directly to inform you of these changes, other than in response to a specific request made to our Data Protection Officer.

Cookies

Click here for more information on the cookies used on our website.

Any questions?

Please address any questions concerning our privacy notice to our Data Protection Officer:

Data Protection Officer, Wythenshawe Community Housing Group, 8 Poundswick Lane, Wythenshawe, Manchester M22 9TA information.governance@wchg.org.uk

For independent advice about data protection, you can contact the Information Commissioner:

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745 https://ico.org.uk/

Last updated June 2019

¹  Platforms are the means by which we establish digital contact, including websites operated by us.

²  IP addresses are specific to any device used. This could be a laptop computer, tablet or phone.

³ Similar developments may include developments in similar locations. Properties may include other properties within our range, which we consider relevant based on previous contact with you.