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Privacy Policy

At Harmonia Housing, we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We are honest and trustworthy in all we say and do. We are fully accountable for our actions.  It is this belief, along with compliance to the law, which shapes the way we communicate with people and manage their data.

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We will only collect data on you that you give us and will only use and store it in ways that you have specifically said we can.  We therefore ask that you read this document carefully because it contains important messages about the personal information we collect about you, what we do with your information and who your information might be shared with.

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We ask that you keep your personal information accurate and up to date. If you cannot do this using one of our online services you can ask us to make changes to your personal information by emailing us.

Who are we and how to contact us

We are Harmonia Housing, (referred to as “us” and “we” in this notice) providing supported; emergency and temporary accommodation.

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We are registered with the Charity Commission with registered charity number 1197403. The registered office is c/o Robson Laidler, Fernwood House, Fernwood Road, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 1TJ.

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We are a ‘data controller’. This means that we determine the purposes for which and/or the means of processing the personal information we collect from you.

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If you would like to contact us about the way we use your personal information, please email us at info@harmonia.org.uk
 

What information do we collect from you?

To provide you with the service you require, we need to collect, store and use your personal information. We may collect the following information:
 

  • your contact details such as your name, address, telephone number and email address;

  • details of your previous landlord and previous address(es);

  • details of care and support providers;

  • contact details for your next of kin, support worker or someone else authorised to communicate with us on your behalf;

  • your date of birth;

  • education and employment details concerning your current and previous employer;

  • names and contact details of family members, other occupants of your home, including any children who may be living with you;

  • details of your social circumstances, including financial information, which may include bank details, salary and details of any employment and earnings or benefits;

  • details of the health or social care needs of you or any other occupant;

  • details of your race and sexual identity, for monitoring and statistical purposes, to promote equality and diversity;

  • complaints you may make about the services we provide;

  • any medical and risk/safety information that is applicable;

  • visual images of you, taken from those communal areas where we have CCTV or at our offices;

  • any of your personal information held on a housing waiting list or within an allocations scheme;

  • welfare, wellbeing, housing advice and support details;

  • your interactions with our employees, agents, and contractors;

  • ​​internal and external communications including recorded telephone calls and any other notes/updates recorded following our contact with you.


When you provide us with information, you will be told what we will use it for and who we will share it with.

We will usually ask for your direct consent to use and share your personal information at the time that you provide the information, for example when filling in an application form or signing your tenancy or completing your housing benefit form. However, sometimes it may be necessary to share your information without consent for example to detect or prevent a crime or if we are required to do so by law.

How do we comply with the law?

The use of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR) and is supplemented by the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA18). We take data protection very seriously and understand the impact that data breaches and misuse of data may have on data subjects as well as on our activities. Compliance with this policy is necessary for us to maintain the confidence and trust of those whose personal data we handle.

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The purposes for which we process your information are lawfully based upon the following main grounds:

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  • In order to perform the contract between us, by discharging our obligations as a landlord, or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract (for example when processing your application);

  • In order to enforce our legal rights as a landlord under the tenancy, including but not limited to the pursuit of rent arrears;

  • To comply with any other legal or regulatory obligations;

  • To perform a task in the public interest in our capacity as a registered social landlord, by providing and managing social housing;

  • In some cases, to pursue our legitimate interests to:

    • Ensure that we are able to contact and communicate with you quickly and efficiently, in relation to the management of your property;

    • Check your eligibility for supported accommodation, when you are making an application for housing;

  • In order to understand whether you or any other occupants have needs for health and/or social care support, we need to collect some sensitive information about your health and needs. This is necessary in order to provide you with social housing which is appropriate and suited to your needs, for reasons which are in the public interest, and in the exercise of our rights and obligations in social protection law, as a registered provider of social housing.

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We may also ask you to provide us with information about your race or ethnicity, your religion and/or your sexual orientation. This is for the purpose of ensuring that your application is processed fairly and treated equally or to enable us to comply with equality laws and internal policy. Where this information is requested, your response will usually be optional and we will only collect and process this information with your consent, which may be withdrawn at any time, by making a request to staff or by completing a ‘change of circumstances’ form. In the event that you do not wish to disclose this information at all, you have the option to select “do not want to disclose” on the application form.

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In some circumstances, we may have to process your personal information urgently and without notice to you, in order to protect your vital interests, or those of someone else (for example, in order to contact the emergency services to provide urgent medical or social care).

How do we manage your personal information?

We are committed to ensuring that your information is kept secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and operational procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

Who might we share your personal information with?

We will never sell or rent our customers’ information to other organisations for marketing purposes.

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Most of the personal information we collect is requested from you directly, when you complete a housing application. However, we also receive some personal information from other agencies that may be involved in providing care or support, such as the local authority, when customers apply for housing.

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Where relevant, given the nature of the services provided to you, we may also share your information with the following categories of third parties:

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  • our contractors and sub-contractors and other organisations acting on our behalf, including our maintenance contractors, social and health care professionals, our out of office telephone service contractor, our market research contractors, customer communication platform providers, online payment solution providers

  • we may appoint a research company to carry out research on our customers or communities in order to improve services provided by Harmonia Housing, know more about our customers/communities or establish if there are any gaps in what we are doing, on these occasions if contacted individuals can refuse to participate in the research without prejudice and can opt out of future research by contacting info@harmonia.org.uk

  • doctors, mental health teams

  • next of kin, family members

  • other landlords

  • local authorities,

  • social services

  • the police and other emergency services

  • government agencies and departments and regulatory bodies

  • utility companies and council tax offices to ensure billing details are correct

  • mortgage brokers, financial advisors, surveyors and valuers relating to a property sale

  • our insurers and legal advisers, in relation to any claim, or in order to exercise our legal rights (for example in court cases);

  • auditors

  • commissioners

  • tracing agents, debt collection companies and credit reference agencies

  • other bodies for the prevention or detection of fraud

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We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal information and to treat it in accordance with the law. We only permit our third party service providers to process your personal information for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

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When we share your information, we require our contractors to ensure they have appropriate data protection and security controls. We also impose contractual obligations on our contractors so that we can take action against them if things go wrong.

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Aside from our contractors and service providers, we will not disclose your personal information to any third party, except as set out above or required by law.

Transfers

We do not intend to transfer personal data outside the United Kingdom, but where we do need to we shall ensure that any transfer of personal data overseas is transferred in accordance with all applicable data protection legislation in place at the time of such transfer.

Automated Decisions

Most of the decisions we make about you involve human intervention. We may make automated decisions about you in respect of repairs, or service provision which is based on the information you provide to us.


For example, during the winter months we may use your personal data; which we already retain; such as age and vulnerabilities alongside property data such as EPC rating or property size to consider the support we can offer to customers who are potentially susceptible to winter fuel poverty.

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Any personal information we use for analysis/profiling will be processed in line with our legal basis for processing that is listed in more detail within this notice.

How long do we keep your information?

We will only keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements and in accordance with our retention and disposal guidelines.

What Information Rights do you have?

Under the legislation you have the following rights in respect of your personal information:

 

  • to obtain access to, and copies of, the personal information we hold about you i.e. to make a Subject Access Request (SAR)

  • to require that we cease processing your personal information if the processing is causing you damage or distress

  • where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us

  • to require us not to send you marketing communications

  • to require us to erase your personal information

  • to require us to restrict or for you to object to our data processing activities

  • to receive from us the personal information we hold about you which you have provided to us in a reasonable format specified by you, including for the purposes of you transmitting that personal information to another data controller (right to data portability)

  • to require us to correct the personal information we hold about you if it is incorrect​

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If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please email as at info@harmonia.org.uk

Keeping this notice under review

We keep our Privacy Notice under regular review and we will place any updates on our website.  This Privacy Notice was last updated in January 2022.

What are our contact details?

If you want to request information about our privacy notice or exercise any of your data protection rights, please email us at info@harmonia.org.uk

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