General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

In May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force, giving you more control over who owns and uses your personal information. GDPR increases and strengthens the rights of individuals in relation to the information we hold about them.

Being transparent and providing accessible information to customers about how we process their personal information is a key element of the regulation.

As your landlord, we want to inform you of this regulation and give you an insight into how we use and store your personal data, and the rights that you have. We have published a full ‘tenant privacy notice’ at the bottom of the page.

How we use and store your data

  • What data do we have about you?

    We hold and use information that is called non-sensitive data, which we usually collect as part of your tenancy. For example your name, address, age, contact details, next of kin and people that live with you including your children.

    We also hold information that is sensitive data (special category information) to provide an equal and diverse service to meet individual needs. For example, we might know your ethnicity, religion, health details and sexual orientation.

  • Where did it come from?

    The data we hold usually comes directly from you at the start of your tenancy and is updated throughout your tenancy. Information would have been obtained through emails, phone calls and tenancy audits.

    Sometimes we get information from third parties such as the police, former housing associations and local authorities.

  • What does Brighter Places use my personal data for?

    When we use your data, this is called processing. We use information about you and the people who live with you for the following reasons (please note this can differ depending on your needs and the services we provide to you):

    • To process and deliver our services.
    • To administer and protect our colleagues and contractors.
    • To gain feedback and keep you up to date.
    • To send marketing communications.
    • To process queries and complaints from tenants and non-tenants regarding our contractors.
    • Fulfil other legal obligations.
  • Sharing your information

    To provide some of the above services we share information with our contractors so that maintenance work can be carried out on your home. Sometimes we may share your information with local authorities, the police, other social landlords or support services if it is in yours or the public’s interest.

  • How long we keep your information?

    We will try and regularly check your information to ensure that it is still up to date by visiting you or over the telephone. If you think we need to update any of your information, please let us know. We will keep your information for as long as it’s relevant and for legal purposes.

  • Accessing your information

    You can ask us at any time to tell you what data we hold about you. Formally this is called a Subject Access Request (SAR).  To submit a SAR, please contact us.  There is information on how to do this at the bottom of this page.

    We must supply the information to you within 1 month, but this can be extended up to 2 months depending on the complexity of information requested.

  • Right to erase or rectify the data we hold about you

    You have the right at any time to withdraw your consent for us to process your data or to ask us to put something right if the data we hold about you is wrong.  There is information on how to do this at the bottom of this page.  For your tenancy some information will need to be retained.

  • Right to restrict the way we process or transfer your data

    You have the right at any time to ask us not to process your data in certain ways or not to transfer your data to third parties.  There is information on how to do this at the bottom of this page.  We must comply with your request unless we need to take these actions for the purpose of your tenancy or to meet our legal requirements.

  • Protecting your personal data

    We are committed to ensuring that personal information is stored securely. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect, process and share.

What do I need to do?

We encourage you to read the privacy notice below.

This provides a summary of what we do with the personal information of our tenants, leaseholders and non-tenants to run our business and provide our customers with products and services.

If you would like to make a Subject Access Request (SAR) or other request about your data outlined above please contact us. Our data protection policy can be found on the publications page.

You can email the data protection officer at dataprotection@brighterplaces.co.uk or write to Brighter Places, Eden House, 10 Eastgate Office Park, Bristol, BS5 6XX.

Privacy notices