Privacy Policy

Introduction

We, Hive Homes are the ‘controllers’ of the information which we collect about you (‘personal data’). Being controllers of your personal data, we are responsible for how your data is processed. The word ‘process’ covers most things that can be done with personal data, including collection, storage, use and destruction of that data.

This notice explains why and how we process your data, and explains the rights you have around your data, including the right to access it and to object to the way it is processed. Please see the section on ‘Your rights as a data subject’ for more information.

We are a housing provider and the information we collect from you is required to carry out our role as the company who helps you purchase your home or the company who administer your lease, and there will be occasions when we need to share this information with other organisations in order to deliver a full range of services to you.

Our contact details are: Hive Homes, 2A Derwent Avenue, Manchester, M21 7QP, telephone: 0161 447 5000

Great Places Housing Group provide data protection services on behalf of Hive Homes and the appointed Data Protection Officer can be contacted by email at data.protection@greatplaces.org.ukor 0161 447 5000 or by writing to us at the above address if you have any queries about this notice or anything related to data protection.

Personal data

‘Personal data’ is any information that relates to a living, identifiable person. This data can include your name, contact details, and other information we gather as part of our relationship with you.

It can also include ‘special categories’ of data, which is information about a person’s race or ethnic origin, religious, political or other beliefs, physical or mental health, trade union membership, genetic or biometric data, sex life or sexual orientation. The collection and use of these types of data are subject to strict controls. Similarly, information about criminal convictions and offences is also limited in the way it can be processed.

We are committed to protecting your personal data, whether it is ‘special categories’ or not, and we only process data if we need to for a specific purpose, as explained below.

We collect your personal data mostly through our contact with you, and the data is usually provided by you, but in some instances, we may receive data about you from other people/organisations. We will explain when this might happen in this Notice.

Your data and how and why we process it

In general terms, we process your data in order to manage our relationship with you. The below lists more specific purposes for processing your data, and the legal basis for each type of processing.

Information we may collect from you

We collect information from you via a variety of sources, including forms, phone calls, written communication or via digital methods. In particular, we may collect and process the following data about you:

• Information that you provide by filling in any forms on our website. This includes information provided when registering an interest in a property, development, location or scheme, requesting a call back or booking a viewing, or when subscribing to digital communications. We may also ask you for information when you contact us via our website, and when you report a problem with our site. If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.
• We may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
• Details of your visits to our website including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs, and other communication data, and the resources that you access.

We will only collect and process personal information to conduct normal business activities, which comprise:

• Helping customers to register an interest in a property, development, location or scheme, request a call back or book a home viewing
• Supporting marketing and promotion activities, for customers on our database or who opt into our e-newsletters
• Improving the online features and services we offer

Information requested can include, but is not restricted to:

• Name,
• Date of birth,
• National Insurance number (your unique identifier),
• Contact details (phone, e-mail or correspondence address).
• Details of anyone authorised to act on your behalf if applicable.
• Basic details of potential household residents.
• Banking details where necessary.
• Card details if you make any payments by card (however card details are not stored).
• Proof of housing eligibility, any interest or equity in other property.
• Other personal information will vary on a case by case basis to help us resolve potential fraud.
• Sensitive personal information: gender, ethnicity, disability information, medical details, marital status, sexuality
• Household information: details of other family members who will be living in your home
• Nationality / immigration status: visa conditions, asylum status, etc.
• Employment status
• Bank account details
• Mortgage provider
• Disabilities or vulnerabilities.
• Financial information to provide assistance and advice on financial matters.
• Photo ID, bank statements, payslips or income details for processing a house sale or purchase and in particular to assess affordability and comply with the Money Laundering Act (2018).

Our legitimate interests

The normal legal basis for processing customer data is that it is necessary for the legitimate interests of Hive Homes, including:

• selling and supplying our homes and services;
• protecting customers, employees and other individuals and maintaining their health, safety, and welfare;
• promoting, marketing and advertising our products and services;
• sending promotional communications which are relevant and tailored to individual customers;
• understanding our customers’ behaviour, activities, preferences, and needs;
• improving existing products and service and developing new products and services;
• complying with our legal and regulatory obligations;
• preventing, investigating and detecting crime, fraud or anti-social behaviour and prosecuting offenders, including working with law enforcement agencies;
• handling customer contacts, queries or disputes;
• protecting Hive Homes, its employees, and customers, by taking appropriate legal action against third-parties who have committed criminal acts or are in breach of legal obligations to Hive Homes; and
• fulfilling our duties to our customers, employees and other stakeholders.

We will record further, factual information during the course of our contractual relationship so that we have a record of our contacts with you. This will include:

• Records of visits, phone conversations, emails, letters, etc.
• Records of repair works carried out at your home or scheme on which it is located
• Audio recordings of your calls and webchat into our office (kept for 6 months)
• CCTV images, event photographs or video recordings
• Complaints records
• Your service charge payment history
• Unacceptable behaviour warnings where we have evidence that you may pose a risk to our colleagues or contractors
• Survey Data

At times, we may further process the data which we have already collected. We will only do this if the new purpose for processing it further is compatible with the original purpose that the data was collected for. We will tell you about any further processing before carrying it out.

Personal data received from third parties

This is a list of your personal data that we may receive from other people or organisations.

• estate and managing agents,
• financial and legal advisors, and
• any relevant mortgage provider;
• the National House Building Council (NHBC) and similar organisations
• utility and service providers, and
• local authorities.

Who we share your data with

We do not share or disclosure any of your personal information without your consent, other than for the purposes specified in this notice or where there is a legal requirement.

We may disclose your information to third parties if:

• we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation; or
• in order to apply or enforce our contracts with you; or
• to protect our rights, property, or our safety and/or the safety of our customers, or others.

We may also disclose your information to our suppliers and contractors to provide information to you on our behalf and/or in order to fulfill our contracts with you.

We will share your personal information with suppliers of services in respect of:

• any property you reserve from us;
• the sale of the property and/or the purchase of your existing property in part exchange.

How we store your data:
Our email servers are located on-site at our Didsbury head office for our email and backed up off-site in Trafford. All data is stored in the UK.

Hive Homes website will not store any customer data except the register interest or browser request which will be sent as email only.

How long we keep your data

Information about how long we process your data can be found in our Data Retention Schedule below:

Some retention periods are based on legal requirements while others take into account practical needs to keep the data.

Once the applicable retention period expires, unless we are legally required to keep the data longer, or there are important and justifiable reasons why we should keep it, we will securely delete the data.

Your rights as a data subject

As a data subject, you have rights in relation to your personal data processed by us. We will respond to, and fulfill, all valid requests as soon as possible, and at the latest within one calendar month unless we can legally extend the timescale. This can be extended by up to two months in some circumstances.

You have the right to:

• be informed about how and why your personal data is processed, including the information we provide through this Privacy Notice;
• ask for copies of the personal data we hold about you, which is sometimes known as making a Data Subject Access Request, or DSAR or SAR;
• ask for any inaccuracies in your personal data to be corrected;
• ask to have some, or all, of your personal data erased, also known as the right to be forgotten, and we will erase your data on request where we have no lawful reason for retaining it;
• ask us to restrict our processing of your personal data, in some circumstances, which means you can ask us to stop using it but not erase it;
• object to your personal data being processed in some circumstances (see below for more details);
• have personal data that you have provided to us provided back to you in a format which can easily be transferred to another party, where the data is being processed based on your consent or for a contract, and is being processed by electronic means; and
• the right not to be subjected to a fully automated decision-making process (i.e. a system-generated decision without any human input), where the outcome has a legal or similarly significant effect on the individual concerned.

Your right to object to processing

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data when the purpose of the processing is to deliver direct marketing to you, and we will always stop the processing as soon as possible.

You have the right to object where the legal basis for the processing is that it is necessary for a task in the public interest or the exercise of official authority, or if the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or another party’s legitimate interests.

If you object to processing for these purposes we will ask you for your specific reasons for objecting, which should be based upon your particular situation. In these cases, we will carefully consider your objection and let you know if we are going to fulfill your request.

Please be aware that we can refuse a request if we can demonstrate compelling legitimate reasons for the processing, which, on balance, override your interests, rights, and freedoms, or if the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.

Withdrawing consent

If we are relying on your consent to process your data, you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us.

Exercising your rights, queries, and complaints

If you wish to exercise any of your rights, please contact us in the usual way, including telephone or email. You may want to contact our appointed Data Protection Officer directly by emailing at data.protection@greatplaces.org.ukor calling 0161 447 5000, who can provide more information on your rights, or help if you have any complaints or queries.

Complaints to the Information Commissioner

You have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about the way in which we process your personal data. You can make a complaint on the ICO’s website https://ico.org.uk/.