WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT?

Whistles of York Limited are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information.

This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you during and after your relationship with us, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This notice applies to:

1. All Landlords

2. All Tenants

3. All Third Parties and Suppliers with whom we have dealings in the ordinary course of our business including those individuals with whom we send marketing information regarding

Any reference to ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’, ‘the company’ shall mean Whistles of York Limited.

Any reference to ‘you’ or ‘Data Subject’ shall mean any individual receiving this notice for whom we hold personal data.

This Privacy Statement does not include information relating to the retention of data on limited companies as such data is not incorporated within the provisions of GDPR.

This Privacy Notice also applies to our website:

http://www.whistlesofyork.co.uk/

In many circumstances we hold your data as a “Data Controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice. In some circumstances we may acquire or handle your data as a ‘Data Processor’ which means we have been asked to handle your data by a third party other than yourself and do not directly store your data. We may update this notice at any time. It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES

We will comply with data protection laws including GDPR. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:

1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.

2. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.

3. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.

4. Accurate and kept up to date.

5. Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.

6. Kept securely.

THE KIND OF INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT LANDLORDS AND TENANTS

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

There are “special categories” of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection.

Landlords and Tenants will be collectively referred to as ‘Clients’ within this document. We will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

• Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email
• addresses.
• Date of birth.
• Gender.
• Marital status and dependants.
• Next of kin and emergency contact information.
• National Insurance number.
• Bank account details (for payment purposes).
• Salary (for suitability checks).
• Start date (for suitability checks)
• Location of employment or workplace.
• Copy of driving licence and/or passport.
• Residence permits.
• Previous landlord details and insurance details.

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

• Information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and political opinions.
• Information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records.

WHY WE HOLD INFORMATION ON CLIENTS

It is necessary for us to retain data on clients in order for us to fulfil our contractual obligations and we must hold data for our legitimate business needs. We will only retain data which we reasonably require and for a period which is reasonably necessary. We will not disclose your data to the third parties unless you have consented for us to do so or we are otherwise required to do either contractually or under another law or enactment. We may also need to discuss information you have provided to us with third parties as part of the credit checks undertaken or when liaising with referencing agents. We will also inform landlords on a let only service who require details of new tenants. Utility companies will also require your data so as to change account details over and amend the bill payer to our client. We may also share your information with our accountant(s) for business accountancy purposes and contractors for maintenance services. Your personal details will mainly be shared with the below third parties. This is in line with the nature and purpose of our legitimate day to day business dealings. The below list is not exhaustive. Providers may change from time to time and further information on our third parties services and privacy notices’ can be provided upon request:

• VTSDesign – who manage the web portal for preparation of the tenancy/managed agreements, applications, guarantors forms. Their privacy notice can be viewed here: https://www.vtsdesign.co.uk/privacy-policy.php
• The deposit Protection Service – who protect your deposit during your tenancy. Their privacy notice can be viewed here: https://www.depositprotection.com/privacy-policy/
• Ubundle: - who deal with our bills packages. Their privacy notice can be viewed here: https://ubundle.co.uk/privacy-notice/
• Rent4sure - who manage our tenant/guarantor referencing. Their privacy notice can be viewed here:https://rent4sure.co.uk/legal#privacy
• Yorkshire water who deal with the water changeovers https://www.yorkshirewater.com/legal
• York City Council - who deal with the council tax changeovers https://www.york.gov.uk/privacy
• External contractors – when you report a maintenance issue during your tenancy you will be asked to

  provide consent for the contractor to contact you directly at the point of making the request. They will not hold your personal details longer than is necessary to complete the job.

HOW IS CLIENT PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED?

We collect personal information about clients from clients themselves when they provide instructions to us. We may sometimes collect additional information from third parties including credit check companies for vetting purposes, referencing agents and also third parties such as ‘Rightmove’ might contact us and share your data with us should you choose to use their website and accept their websites terms and conditions.

HOW WE WILL USE INFORMATION ABOUT CLIENTS

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

1. Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you.

2. Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.

3. Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

We may also use your personal information in the following situations, which are likely to be rare:

1. Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests).

2. Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.

Situations in which we will use your personal information

We need all the categories of information in the list above to allow us to perform our contract with you and to enable us to comply with legal obligations. In some cases we may use your personal information to pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. The situations in which we will process your personal information are listed below. •

Administering the contract we have entered into with you.

Dealing with legal disputes involving you.

To prevent fraud.

To market other products or services which we offer which may be of interest to you.

Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.

In certain circumstances listed above, we hold your data in order to market other services to you. We have a legitimate business interest in retaining your data for this purpose but you may ‘opt out’ of receiving marketing communications from us.

We may exchange your personal information if all, or substantially all, our assets are merged or acquired by a third party, or we expand or re-organise our business, in which case your personal information may form part of the transferred or merged assets or we may need to transfer your information to new entities or third parties through which our business will be carried out.

In respect of tenants, we are sometimes asked to provide references in respect of former tenants who have rented property via Whistles of York Limited. If we are asked for a reference then we may, at our absolute discretion, provide a reference unless you have specifically asked us not to provide a reference to a new landlord. If you do not want us to provide a reference to any future landlord then you should notify us of this when you leave your tenancy with us.

Similarly, for those tenants on the ‘bills included package’, although we remain responsible for payment of the bills (subject to the tenant’s compliance with the terms of the Lease), it is often the case that the utility provider will ask for at least one tenants’ details to be shared with them. This tenant can be the ‘lead tenant’ but is not restricted to the lead tenant’s information only.

Sharing at least one of the tenant’s details is a necessity to allow the performance of our contract with the tenant and also our performance of the contract entered into with the utility provider. The information shared will be (but is not restricted to) the following;

• The tenant’s name;
• The tenant’s date of birth;
• The tenant’s current and previous addresses for the last 3 years;
• The tenant’s contact telephone number;
• The tenant’s email address.

On occasion, the utility provider may also request information such as tenant ID and /or a copy of the tenancy agreement entered into with the tenant. Unless the aforementioned and above listed information is specifically requested by the utility provider, this information will not be sent. Internet / broadband providers for internet usage may require the lead tenant (or any other tenant’s) name. If this information is required, it will only serve to set up the requisite tenant package and will not be used for any other purpose.

Similarly, the above-listed information may need to be shared with referencing agencies (whichever agent we choose to use at that time), to ensure the agency has all the information required to make an informed decision, undertake their services and feedback to us accordingly.

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we

need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

THE KIND OF INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT INDIVIDUALS OTHER THAN CLIENTS AND HOW THIS DATA IS USED

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

During the course of our day to day basis we acquire information regarding individuals other than our Clients and we will retain this data where we have a legitimate business reason to do so.

Typically we acquire personal data on individuals other than our clients in the following circumstances:

1. Where we have met individuals at networking or other marketing events;

2. Where individuals have made enquiries with us regarding possible services but have not subsequently become clients of the business;

3. Where we have dealt with individuals in the capacity as suppliers of services to the Company such as contractors;

4. Where we have regular business-related dealings with you 5. Where our client has provided referee details 6. Where our client has provided a guarantor for payment of the rent.

In many circumstances the extent of the data we hold is limited and may be publicly available by way of other websites but usually the information we will retain is limited to:

• Contact information including but not limited to email addresses, contact telephone numbers, business addresses and in some cases personal addresses.
• In respect of contractors we will ordinarily perform a CRB check to verify any history of criminal convictions. We have a legitimate interest in making such enquiry to ensure the safety of our clients and the suitability of the contractor. All CRB checks will be held confidentially and not disclosed to third parties unless we are required to do so by law.
We have a legitimate business interest in retaining this data on the basis that we must retain some personal data on third parties and suppliers in the ordinary course of business. We may also use this data to send marketing information to you in respect of promotions, events or other updates relating to us. We have a legitimate interest in retaining your data for this purpose however you have the right to ask us to erase or rectify your data and the right to opt out of receiving marketing information.

Guarantors

Some of our clients nominate a ‘guarantor for payment’ in the event they cannot afford to pay their rent. The Guarantor will be an individual who may have provided a reference and/or financial information to allow the tenancy to proceed.

We therefore hold the following information in relation to Guarantors and have a legitimate business interest for doing so;

• The Guarantors name;
• The Guarantors home address;
• The Guarantors date of birth;
• The Guarantors verified ID documents;
• The Guarantors bank details (if applicable)
• The Guarantors employment status, job title and employer (for affordability purposes)

By guaranteeing payment on the tenant’s behalf, the Guarantor consents for Whistles of York Ltd to process and share information about the Guarantor with the following third parties;

• Solicitor’s acting for the Landlord and/or Whistles of York Ltd;
• Credit check companies;
• Reference agencies.

Should the tenant, of whom the Guarantor guarantees payment on behalf of, subsequently fall into rent arrears, the Guarantors information will be shared with our legal team as and when necessary.

The information held relating to the Guarantor will be removed 12 months after the end of the tenancy to which the rent guarantee relates, unless there is outstanding rent at that time.

INFORMATION ABOUT CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS

For contractors of whom we contract with and attend to our Clients properties, at the outset of our business relationship we will undertake a ‘Criminal Records Bureau’ check which is commonly referred to as a ‘CRB’ check.

We may only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so. This will usually be where such processing is necessary to carry out our obligations and provided we do so in line with our data protection policy.

Less commonly, we may use information relating to criminal convictions where it is necessary in relation to legal claims, where it is necessary to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

We envisage that we will hold only very limited information about criminal convictions for the purposes of vetting new potential contractors and in satisfaction of our ongoing due diligence to protect our clients interests. We will only collect information about criminal convictions if it is appropriate given the nature of the role and where we are legally able to do so. We will not share this information with any other third party unless you explicitly consent to the sharing of the information and/or we are obliged to by law.

DATA SHARING

We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers and other entities in the group.

We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

Why might you share my personal information with third parties?

We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the working relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.

Which third-party service providers process my personal information? ”Third parties” includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents) and other entities within our group. Credit check agencies will use your information for vetting purposes. Landlords will require your information as a new tenant and/or continuing tenant. Utility companies will also process your information to keep their accounts and records up to date. There may also be instances in which we share your information with contractors should you require the assistance of a contractor whilst resident in your Landlords property. In respect of tenants, we may be asked to provide a reference in respect of former tenants and unless you have objected to us providing a reference then we have a legitimate interest in doing so.

How secure is my information with third-party service providers and other entities in our group?

All our third-party service providers and other entities in the group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. We may also need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

DATA SECURITY

We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Details of these measures are available upon request.

Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so. The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted online and transmission is made at your own risk. If you communicate with us by email then you assume the risks of such communications being intercepted, not received or delivered or are received by individuals other than the intended recipient.

DATA RETENTION How long will you use my information for?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. In respect of Client data we will typically hold data relating to your instructions for a period of 7 years. These records are kept in the event that we need to review tenant’s details for the purpose of debt collection or need to provide proof of previous contracts to third parties to verify previous tenancies.

The reason we retain data for this long is that the Limitation Act 1980 typically provides that legal proceedings for breach of contract or negligence can be brought up to 6 years after the events.

RIGHTS OF ACCESS, CORRECTION, ERASURE, AND RESTRICTION

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us. Your rights in connection with personal information Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to: •

Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.

Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).

Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or

those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.

Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.

Request the transfer of your personal information to another party. If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact Lorna Whistle in writing by emailing

info@whistlesofyork.co.uk

Please note that where you ask us to erase, correct, object to process or seek to restrict our processing of data we may refuse your request where we have a legal obligation, contractual or other legitimate business interest to refuse your request. If we refuse your request then we will notify you of this refusal and you will have the right to appeal.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

RIGHT TO WITHDRAW CONSENT

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please

info@whistlesofyork.co.uk

Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

DATA PROTECTION OFFICER

We have appointed a Data Privacy Manager to oversee compliance with this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact Lorna Whistle, the data privacy manager. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. Information Commissioner’s Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.

CONTACT AND FURTHER INFORMATION

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact Lorna Whistle by emailing

info@whistlesofyork.co.uk

.If you have any questions or wish to submit a complaint then please submit this by email to:

info@whistlesofyork.co.uk

You have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office or such other regulatory body or supervisory authority as may be appointed from time to time. If you make a complaint then we will respond to let you know how your complaint will be handled.