General Data Protection Regulation and privacy notice

Silva Homes (the “Association” or "we") needs to collect and use certain types of information about the individuals or service users who come into contact with the Association in order to carry on our work.

The Association is a "Data Controller", which means that we make the decisions about how your information is used and have a responsibility to keep it safe.

Your personal information must be collected and dealt with appropriately whether it is collected on paper, stored in a computer database, or recorded on other material. The Association complies with all data protection legislation when using this information, including the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) from 25 May 2018.

As Silva prepares to become part of the Abri Housing Group we will need to collaborate with Abri in providing certain customer services. To allow this we may share customer information necessary to set up and carry out maintenance and repair appointments, customer surveys and other measures and interactions necessary for the eventual integration of Silva's business with Abri.

If you would like to contact us about the way we use your information, please see the contact us section at the end of this notice.

Privacy Notice

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when the Association collects personal information. It applies to information we collect about:

  • people who use our services including tenants, leaseholders, their families (including children) and households
  • applicants for accommodation including their families (including children) and households
  • applicants for other services provided by the Association
  • people who visit our offices or contact us through email, by telephone or in writing.

What information do we collect about “you” (our customers)?

We collect a range of information about you in order to meet any statutory or contractual obligations, including: contact details, family circumstances, financial and ID information, health information, equality information. Most of this information will have been provided by you, but we may also obtain information from other sources. For example, we may process or be provided with information about you from third parties which may include information about potential safeguarding issues, criminal convictions or investigations, or where information is required to protect your health in an emergency. However, these circumstances are rare and we do not routinely collect this information.

Why do we collect or use this information?

We collect information about you, your family (including children) and household when you make an application to apply for accommodation or when you use our services. We also collect information if you contact us (by visiting our offices, through email, by telephone or in writing) or if you voluntarily complete customer surveys, provide feedback or participate in competitions.

We use this information to enable us to consider any applications you make, to provide you with the services and to manage your tenancy, and to help improve our services.  For example, your information may be used to administer waiting lists, carrying out research, and to provide housing, welfare services, advice and support.

Some of our premises also include CCTV systems which are used to collect and monitor visual images for the purposes of security and the prevention and detection of crime.

Where we do collect sensitive information about you, for example in relation to safeguarding, criminal investigations or concerns, or related health information, we will usually do so in order to discharge our statutory obligations, to protect the vital interests of individuals and/or to prevent or detect unlawful acts. Your data may also be used in automated decision-making, including profiling. We will always use your information in accordance with the law and in compliance with the relevant data protection legislation.

For example, we will use your information for the following purposes:

  • to provide you with a tenancy or service agreement because the processing is necessary in order to comply with the obligations in your tenancy or service agreement, or to take steps at your request to enter into an agreement with you, for example when you apply to us for accommodation or to use our services
  • not all of your processing will be necessary for the purposes of the tenancy agreement – but we will have legitimate interests to process your data such as sharing your information with rent collection agencies if required. We will always consider the impact on your privacy and our obligations under the data protection legislation.

There may be some information we require to enable us to provide you with services or to properly manage your tenancy. If you do not provide us with this personal information on request, we may be unable to provide you with those services or to allow you to continue with your tenancy. If that is the case, we will let you know the consequences of not providing us with that information.

Who might we share this information with?

In some circumstances we may need to share your personal information, for example when we are required to do so in order to comply with a legal requirement or to ensure that we can provide services to you. 

The Association will ensure that formal written agreements are in place with any third parties or agencies where your information is shared to ensure the ongoing security and integrity of your information.

We may share your information with, and/or obtain information about you from, other organisations and bodies such as local authorities, including social services, and housing benefit departments, central government departments, our regulator, credit reference and debt management agencies, satisfaction monitoring organisations, the police and other law enforcement agencies or as otherwise permitted or required by law.

For example, we may share information with the local authorities regarding your housing benefit or social services if there are safeguarding concerns. Central government can contact us for access to your data for statistical purposes (such the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero). We may share your information with our maintenance provider to help us to comply with our contractual and statutory duties and keep your property in good condition of repair.  We may share information with our regulator to comply with our regulatory responsibilities.  

We do not transfer your data outside of the EEA / UK.

How long do we keep hold of your information?

The Association will store and keep your personal information only for as long as it is needed or required by statute and will be disposed of appropriately. 

We abide by the National Housing Federation best practice guidelines regarding document retention so, for example, we will keep your tenancy files until the length of the tenancy and up to six years post tenancy, for insurance claims we will hold this information for two years after settlement. 

For housing benefit notifications we keep this information for two years. We are also obliged to keep certain information for a number of years to comply with statutory requirements.

How do you know your personal information is secure?

The Association is committed to safeguarding your personal information by putting appropriate technical and other measures in place to ensure that your personal information is not accessed or used unlawfully and to protect against accidental loss, misuse or damage to your personal data.

If you use our online services please ensure that you keep your username and passwords secure and do not provide them to unauthorised people.  You must ensure that any personal information you provide to us is accurate and update to date and let us know if your records should be updated or amended.

How can you access the information that we hold about you?

All individuals have the right to be informed regarding data that we hold which relates to them and access the information that the Association holds about them.  If you wish to find out what personal information the Association holds about you this should be done by making a “subject access request”.  If we do hold information about you we will:

  • give you a description of it
  • tell you why we are holding it
  • let you have a copy of the information in the way you wish (electronically/paper etc).

All personal information will be provided to you within one month of receiving the request (unless the request is complex, in which case we may require further time to consider your request but we will let you know if this is the case).

If you wish to make a subject access request please contact the data protection officer at data.protectionofficer@silvahomes.co.uk or write to the data protection officer at the Association’s registered office (please see the "Contact Us" section, below).

Withdrawal of consent and the right to lodge a complaint

We have explained above that the vast majority of the information we process about you will be because we are required to process it in order to administer your tenancy and provide you with services. 

However, on rare occasions, we may sometimes process your data for specific purposes which require your consent. If we do this we will always ask for your written consent and provide you with a copy. In those circumstances where we are processing your personal data based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This may affect the services that we can make available to you but this will be explained to you.

If you change your mind, or you are unhappy with our use of your personal data, please let us know by contacting our Data Protection Officer using the details in the contact us section below.

Alternatively, you have the right to raise any concerns with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) via their website by clicking here.

Your other rights

In addition to the right to access information the Association holds about you and the right to complain or withdraw consent, you also have the following rights:

  • to have your personal data rectified, if it is inaccurate or incomplete
  • to request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing
  • to restrict our processing of your personal data (i.e. permitting its storage but no further processing), although in some cases we will not be able to restrict our processing
  • to object to certain types of processing
  • not to be subject to decisions based purely on automated processing where it produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you
  • in certain circumstances you have the right to data portability.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, or have any queries about them, please contact our Data Protection Officer, using the details in the "Contact Us" section below.

Conclusion

The Association takes your privacy seriously and will only use your personal information to lawfully process your data.

This policy will be updated as necessary to reflect best practice in data management security and control and to ensure compliance with or amendments to the relevant data protection legislation.

Contact us

In case of any queries or questions relating to this policy, Data.ProtectionOfficer@silvahomes.co.uk or in writing to:

Data Protection Officer
Silva Homes
Western Peninsula
Western Road
Bracknell
Berkshire RG12 1RF

Accuracy of information

Although Silva Homes has prepared the information on this website with all due care and attention, intention for accuracy, and updates the website regularly, we do not warrant or represent that the information may have changed or is free from errors or omission.

Whilst the website is considered to be true and correct at the date of publication, changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact on the accuracy of the information. The information may change without notice and Silva Homes is not in any way liable for the accuracy of any information printed and stored or in any way interpreted and used by a user. If you see anything that you think is incorrect or a link that is broken, please contact us by clicking here.

Links to other websites

This privacy notice does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated in December 2021.

Experian rental exchange privacy policy

Not only will we be able to work with you more closely to manage your existing tenancy agreement, your track record as a tenant will enable Experian to use the information supplied to them to assist other landlords and organisations to:

  • assess and manage any new tenancy agreements you may enter into
  • assess your financial standing to provide you with suitable products and services
  • manage any accounts that you may already hold, for example reviewing suitable products or adjusting your product in light of your current circumstances
  • contact you in relation to any accounts you may have and recovering debts that you may owe
  • verifying your identity, age and address, to help other organisations make decisions about the services they offer
  • help to prevent crime, fraud and money laundering
  • screen marketing offers to make sure they are appropriate to your circumstances
  • for Experian to undertake statistical analysis, analytics and profiling
  • and for Experian to conduct system and product testing and database processing activities, such as data loading, data matching and data linkage.

If you would like to see more information on these, and to understand how the credit reference agencies each use and share rental data as bureau data (including the legitimate interests each pursues) this information is provided at this link www.experian.co.uk/crain (Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN)). 

Cookies

What are cookies?
Cookies are small files from websites which are stored on a visitor's computer. Cookies are designed to hold a modest amount of data specific to a particular client and website, and can be accessed either by the web server or the client computer. This allows the server to deliver a page tailored to a particular user, or the page itself can contain some script which is aware of the data in the cookie and so is able to carry information from one visit to the website (or related site) to the next. We use cookies on this site to help us track visitor usage, for example the number of visitors each month and number of pages visited, which can help us see how our site is performing, which pages are popular and which pages could do with more publicity to encourage people to visit them. Other cookies are for validation which are used for things like rent payments and other forms.

What has changed and how does it affect me?
We have always used cookies to create the most secure and effective website for our customers. As part of a change in legislation, all websites are now required to provide additional information on what cookies are, how they are used and what benefits they bring.

Use of cookies by this site

Cookies used by VerseOne CMS(the software that powers this website)

VerseOne CMS uses a "session" cookie at all times. The purpose of this cookie is to maintain the state of the site in the effect of a user's selected behaviours for the site as they navigate through it. Examples of these behaviours might be:

  • logging in to the site and staying logged in as they click around
  • choosing a colour contrast stylesheet
  • filling in a multi-page form.

This cookie also ensures that if the site is hosted in a load-balanced environment, the visitor’s browsing session stays on the same server throughout their use of the site.

Session cookie profile
Cookie Type Expiry Linked information Functions
JSESSIONID Session Browser close Username When a user logs in, maintains authentication state, access rights, etc.

This cookie does not store any personal information about the site visitor, their computer, their visit, or their browsing history. No personal information is collected by VerseOne through the use of this cookie. After the end of the visitor’s session (the browser tab or window is closed, or after an inactivity timeout which is configurable in VerseOne CMS), the cookie’s validity is destroyed and the browser removes the cookie from the visitor’s computer.

Google Analytics

This site uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics sets a cookie in order to evaluate your use of our site. These cookies are used in aggregate form to improve the performance and user experience on our site. Google Analytics uses only first-party cookies and collects no personally identifiable information.

Google stores the information collected by the cookie on servers in the United States. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. By accepting cookies from this site, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.

How to reject or delete the Google Analytics cookies

http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html

Cookies used to show how visitors use our site
Cookie name Expires Linked Information Functions
_utma 2 years Anonymous Gather information about site visitors in an anonymous form including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.
_utmc On closing browser
_utmb 30 minutes
_utmz 6 months

 

 

 

 

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, click here.

To opt-out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Coronavirus Update

Please be advised that for the immediate future we may be collecting data about our customers’ health status regarding coronavirus, as we have a public duty to ensure we contain/delay the spread of the virus. We will store this data on our housing system and keep it for a period of one month (or until you are out of isolation whichever is the sooner). We may also need to share this data with the government or relevant contractors but will only do so when necessary to carry out our role as a landlord, in line with current government advice..