Private Sector Housing Data Privacy Notice

Introduction

The Private Sector Housing (“PSH”) team is part of the council’s Public Protection service and is responsible for enforcing legislation relating to property conditions in the private rented sector, along with the operation and management of property licensing schemes under Parts 2 and 3 of the Housing Act 2004  It is also responsible for enforcing consumer protection legislation relating to letting agents.  The Private Sector Housing team also leads on action relating to empty homes in the private sector.  The team advises relevant parties and enforces legislation in relation to this.

What information is held?

The following information is routinely held:

• Personal details (names and addresses) for residents, property owners and managing agents.  In some cases, this may also include the personal details of persons deemed to be ‘relevant persons’ for the purposes of Parts 1,2 and 3 of the Housing Act 2004, such a freeholders and leaseholders.
• Details of the members of households, including ages and relationships.
• Information collected during the inspection of residential premises, including officer notes and photographs, and subsequent risk assessments.
• Information collected during the investigation of breaches of housing standards, including correspondence, schedules of repairs that are required and enforcement notices.

Special category data

Special category data is occasionally collected and held for the following purposes:

• Biometric data.  This will typically occur where licence applicants have chosen to provide a copy of their photo driving licence as a proof of address.
• Information about physical or mental health or condition.  The PSH team holds and processes this type of information in some cases, such as:
  • Where residents have a disability (physical or mental health and are living in unsuitable, deficient and/or dangerous housing.  This information is held to ensure appropriate action is taken to protect residents from harm or to assist other council services in providing appropriate assistance.
  • Where such information has a direct bearing on decisions about enforcement action, such as where an individual is deemed to not have the capacity to receive or act upon an enforcement notice, or to ensure the most appropriate form of enforcement action is taken.
• Information about sexual orientation, whether this has been collected directly or can be inferred from other information.  The PSH team holds and processes this type of information in limited cases, including:
  • For identifying households within residential premises using the definitions set out in the Housing Act 2004 and subordinate legislation.  This may be necessary to determine whether a property is an HMO for the purposes of the Housing Act 2004, so that relevant legal standards can be enforced and to assist the detection and prosecution of HMO managers who do not comply with their duties under the Housing Act 2004.
  • Determining whether a property is overcrowded for the purposes of Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004.

Criminal offence data

As part of its functions, the PSH team may collect and record the following information about individuals:

• Data relating to the commission or alleged commission of an offence.
• Data relating to proceedings for any offence committed or alleged to have been committed, the disposal of such proceedings or the sentence of any court in such proceedings.  This information will include records of any formal cautions that have been issued, along with the results of criminal prosecutions or the issuing of financial penalties as an alternative to prosecution.

This information is used for the following purposes:

• To formally investigate whether criminal offences have been committed.
• To gather and share intelligence for the purposes of preventing, investigating, detecting or prosecuting crime and contraventions of the law and protecting public health and safety.
• To help determine whether criminal or civil sanctions are appropriate in specific cases by reference to previous  offending.
• To help determine whether prospective HMO licence holders or managers are fit and proper persons to hold a licence or to manage a licensed HMO.

Who else is this information shared with?

The information held by the PSH team may be shared with the following services within the council:

• Public Protection – we may share information with other teams with this service, for example to assist with the detection and prevention of statutory nuisance or where there is a health risk that jointly affects residential and commercial premises.  The Public Protection service includes (along with the PSH team) the Environmental Protection and Nuisance team, the Planning Enforcement team, the Trading Standards team and the Food Safety team.
• Housing services – we may share information about the housing conditions of residents who are bidding for council housing or where this is necessary to ensure that residents are given appropriate assistance and guidance about their housing options.  We may also share information with this service where this will assist with the determination of a homelessness decision or where this will help ensure that private tenants are given accurate advice about their tenancy rights.
• Revenues and Benefits – we may share information with this service to assist with the proper collection of Council Tax.  We may also share information with this service to help with the prevention and detection of Council Tax and/or benefits-related fraud.
• Building Control Office – we may share information with this service where we believe there has been a breach of Building Regulations, where there is a dangerous structure and also for purpose of ensuring compliance with Building Regulations during building work funded by the award of a grant.
• Antisocial Behaviour team – in some cases, we may share information with the Antisocial Behaviour team to assist with the prevention of antisocial behaviour.
• Neighbourhood teams – we may share information with the council’s neighbourhood teams to help with the prevention and detection of environmental crime such as fly-tipping and also to help ensure that adequate facilities are provided to residential premises for refuse disposal.

We may also share information with the following third-party organisations:

• Community Mental Health Service/NHS – we have occasional discussions with these services when dealing with vulnerable people in dangerous housing conditions.  These might include discussions of mental health conditions and the capacity of individuals to make decisions.
• The police – to assist with the prevention and detection of crime and the apprehension and prosecution of offenders.  Examples may include the prevention and detection of offences relating to the exploitation of vulnerable people.
• The Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS) – we are required by the Housing Act 2004 to consult with the RBFRS before taking enforcement action under Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004 in relation to HMOs.  We may also provide the RBFRS with information to assist with the detection of breaches of fire safety law and for the prosecution of offenders under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.  We may also provide information to the RBFRS to arrange for home fire safety checks, but this would normally be with the consent of the owner or occupier concerned.
• Other local authorities, central government and its agencies, in particular he Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – information relating to fire safety in high risk buildings is routinely shared and information on landlords or agents may also occasionally be supplied as part of the rogue landlord database.
• The National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (currently hosted by Bristol City Council and Powys Council)- – to share intelligence on suspect poor practices and to assist in the detection of illegal activity.
• Home Office immigration services.
• Metastreet Limited – this company provides the information technology infrastructure for processing licence applications.
• Home Safe Delivery Partners Ltd – this company provides the information technology infrastructure supporting the council’s additional and selective licensing schemes under Part 2 and 3 of the Housing Act 2004.  This includes processing licence applications, completing inspections and monitoring compliance of licence conditions.
• Arcus Global Limited – this company provides the Arcus Salesforce local government Customer Relations Management (“CRM”) package the PSH team uses for the routine processing and storage of information collected during its activities.
• Justice for Tenants – as part of the performance of support services offered by Justice For Tenants on behalf of Reading Borough Council in relation to processing financial penalties and in referring potential clients in relation to rent repayment orders.
• Approved property redress schemes, which are:
  • The Property Ombudsman Limited and Property Redress Scheme
• Government-approved tenancy deposit scheme (TDP) which are:
  • MyDeposits, Tenancy Deposit Scheme and Deposit Protection Service

Local land charges

Certain documents issued under the Housing Act 2004 are registered as a local land charge.  These include:

• Improvement Notices served under section 11 or 12;
• Prohibition Orders made under section 20 or 21;
• Emergency Prohibition Orders made under section 43.

Certain costs are also registered by the PSH team as local land charges.  This includes costs arising from the service of notices under Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004, costs associated with carrying out works in default under Part 3 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and costs associated with action taken under Part 2 of the Public Health Act 1936.  Local land charges are also registered for grants issued.

Register of licences under Parts 2 and 3 of the Housing Act 2004

The PSH team maintains the council’s public register under Parts 2, 3 and 4 of the Housing Act 2004.  Under section 232 of the Housing Act 2004 and subordination regulations, the council is required to maintain public registers of the following:

• Premises licences issued under Parts 2 and 3.
• Notices of temporary exemption from licensing under Parts 2 and 3.
• Management orders under Part 4.

This information is published in a limited form on the council website, but is available in its full form upon request from members of the public.

How is information stored?

Names, addresses, correspondence and other information relating to cases investigated by the PSH team are routinely stored on the CRM provided by Arcus Global Limited.  Access to records in this CRM requires a user account and password.  Actions in records are recorded in an audit log.  Information is stored on secure servers located in either the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area.  Information is transferred between Arcus and council systems using a TLS protocol.

Information relating to mandatory HMO licence applications is stored by Metastreet Limited (company registration 11029384).  Access to records in this system is role based and requires a user account and password.   Actions in records are recorded in an audit log.  Information is stored on secure servers located within the United Kingdom and is transferred between Metastreet and council systems using a TLS protocol.  Metastreet’s privacy statement.

Information relating to additional and selective licence is stored by Home Safe Delivery Partners Limited (company registration 09371007).  Access to records in this system is role-based and requires multifactor authentication.  Home Safe operate in accordance with the Cyber Essentials standard.  Home Safe privacy statement.

Information relating to support services provided by Justice for tenants will retain electronic documents held against the appropriate case on our information technology system.  Their privacy statement can be found at   Privacy Policy | Justice for Tenants

The council retains some information in hard copy format.  This includes:

• Forms and other documents relating to the determination of applications for the grant or renewal of an HMO licence.
• Forms and other documents relating to the award of a loan.
• Documents relating to formal actions such as service of notices and the prosecution of offenders.

Officers may also hold hard copy of material relating to investigations while these remain active.  This information is kept in locked cupboards when not in use or in the council’s modern records archive.

How long is data kept?

Our standard data retention period is seven years from the close of a service request, investigation or grant application or ten years for licensing data.  Information may be retained longer than this if still required, for example as part of an on-going investigation or to defend legal action.

What information do you hold about me?

If you want to know what information we hold about you, you can make a “Subject Access Request”. To do this, download and complete the Subject Access Request Form provided under Attachments, below. You will be asked to pay a £10 fee and provide identification.