Privacy statement

London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q) are a housing provider and registered charitable organisation and we are committed to safeguarding the rights of individuals to confidentiality.

Personal data is protected by the Data Protection Act 2018. L&Q is the controller of personal information for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Our contact details for data protection purposes are:

Data Protection Officer
London & Quadrant Housing Trust
29-35 West Ham Lane
Stratford
London
E15 4PH

Email: dpo@lqgroup.org.uk

This privacy statement explains how L&Q collect and uses your personal information and who we share it with.

It applies to any information about housing applications, residents, leaseholders, prospective purchasers and any other customers of L&Q. It explains why we use your personal data and the legal basis under which we process it.

It also explains the rights and choices you have about the data we hold.

How we collect your information

We collect most of our information directly from you, including when you apply for one of our properties or services, complete one of our forms, email or call us, or respond to a survey.

We may also process data that you post on social media if it relates to a situation that we need to be made aware of or/and take action on. 

We also collect information from other third parties, but only where it is relevant to our relationship with you. Those third parties can include:

• organisations that we contract with to provide services on our behalf, for example, maintenance and repairs, security
• local authorities and central government departments such as the Department of Works and Pensions for information about your benefits
• local authorities, health and social care professionals, and previous care providers, for information about your health care and support needs, and for those of your household
• previous landlords for rental history
• credit reference agencies, for credit checks and information about your financial status/history, when you apply to rent or buy an L&Q property, for debt recovery purposes, and fraud investigations/data matching checks
• police and local authorities for information on criminal activity and to prevent/detect crime, to eliminate antisocial behaviour
• other residents – if we receive information in relation to complaints about behaviour. Utility providers for debt recovery purposes
• managing agents – where they manage L&Q properties on our behalf
  
  

How we use your personal information and the legal basis for processing

To assess your property application and manage our contract with you.

We use the information to manage your tenancy, leasehold or purchase. We need this information to deliver our services to you.

We collect most of this information because it is necessary for the performance of a contract. You cannot opt out of providing this type of information.

We may also process some of your data because it is in our legitimate interest to make sure that:

• our service/properties meet the needs of new customers
• we can contact residents in the event of emergencies and carry out essential repairs and safety checks
• we communicate with residents to meet our business objectives, encourage social inclusion and help build communities
• we work with authorities and the Police to support safer communities
• we can manage and prevent outstanding debts, for example, unpaid rent and service charges
• we make the most efficient use of our resources and understand how we are performing
• we understand our resident’s experiences and views so that we can effectively influence and contribute to our future housing strategies
  
  

To provide care and support services

As a provider of L&Q Living care and support services, we process information about your health and social care to deliver our services and to safely meet your assessed needs.

We also process this information because it is necessary for the performance of a contract, to fulfil our legal regulatory obligations and because it is in our legitimate interests to do so.

Where we are providing care and support services as part of a local authority contract, we may share information with the commissioning local authority or NHS Health Trust or other partner organisations that we are working with to deliver the service.

You cannot opt out of this data processing.

To provide appropriate properties and services

We process personal information that relates to your health and social care, to help us make reasonable changes to our properties and services, to make them fit for purpose and accessible for everyone.

We also use this type of information to make sure we are protecting vulnerable individuals in our communities.

We do this to meet our legal and regulatory obligations, for example, the Equality Act 2010, and because there is a substantial public interest for us to do so.

To provide community safety and to safeguard individuals

We process personal data to provide a peaceful and safe community environment, this can include information about antisocial behaviour, criminal activity and convictions.

We process this to prevent and detect unlawful acts because it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest, and for reasons of substantial public interest.

We process information about safeguarding individuals, to fulfil our legal obligations and because it is in the public interest to do so.

To contact you about your property and services

We use your contact details (including telephone numbers and email addresses) to get in touch with you about issues relating to your tenancy, leasehold or purchase and to deal with any legal matters arising from them. This includes repairs and maintenance, rent collection, complaints and housing management issues, in the event of an emergency, or to enforce the terms of your tenancy or lease.

We may pass your details on to contractors that provide services on our behalf so that they can contact you to carry out essential services related to your property. We do this because it is necessary for the performance of a contract. It is not possible to opt out of this type of data processing.

We are constantly working to improve our services. One of the ways we do this is by listening to our residents and asking for feedback via surveys. These surveys are carried out by contractors who are specialists in customer feedback.

It is in our legitimate interests to pass your details and use them in this way, however, you can opt out of these surveys if you do not wish to take part.

We may also use your contact details to keep you updated about L&Q services which may be of interest to you, such as access to training opportunities, energy efficiency and digital support.

It is in our legitimate interest to use your details in this way, but you may opt out of these communications.

To monitor equality, diversity and inclusion

We may ask you to provide us with your diversity data (ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation).

This information is not used to inform any decisions we make about you individually but is gathered for statistical purposes to help us understand who is living in our communities.

It helps us to ensure fairness and equality in the services we provide and allows us to fulfil our legal and regulatory obligations.

You do not have to provide this information, but it helps us if you choose to do so.

To prevent and detect fraud and illegal subletting

We process some personal data to guard against fraud and illegal subletting, for example, proof of identity and data matching. Failure to provide any information we require in relation to this could put your application or tenancy at risk.

We process this type of information to fulfil our legal obligations and to prevent and detect unlawful acts. You are unable to object to this type of processing.

For profiling purposes

We use some of your personal information to create a profile of you so that we can identify relevant L&Q services that might be of interest and helpful to you.

For example, if information suggests you might have some difficulties managing your finances, or we think you might have difficulties in the future, we can direct you to our free welfare benefits and money advice teams.

Alternatively, if our information suggests you may be vulnerable because of your age or ill health, we may offer you an enhanced service.

We rely on legitimate interests to process information for these purposes. We do not use automated decision-making or automated profiling to may any decisions on your application, tenancy or leasehold.

To support research and analysis

We may use your personal data to carry out internal research and analysis.

We do this to develop and improve our services and to help us understand trends within the housing sector.

We process this information based on our legitimate interests for those purposes.

Recording telephone calls and web chat transcripts

We may record your telephone calls to our customer contact centre and retain web chat conversation transcripts, for training and monitoring purposes.

Calls are only recorded in the customer contact centre. We process data in this way because it is in our legitimate interests to do so.

IP addresses

If you visit our website we collect your internet protocol address. This is logged for internal use only and helps us determine how well our services are working so that we can continually improve the quality and content of the website.

The log is also important for security, audit and quality improvement.

Sharing your personal information

When we share information, it is with organisations that carry out services on our behalf. This includes repairs and maintenance, managing agents, gas servicing, etc.

We only share the information which is necessary for them to carry out the service they have been contracted to provide.

All of our contractors operate under the terms and conditions of a legally enforceable contract which includes particulars around using your information only for the service it has been provided.

We do this because it is necessary for the performance of a contract. It is also in L&Q’s legitimate interest in maintaining the property.

Transfers of data outside of the UK

Occasionally, we may need to transfer your personal data outside of the UK to other contractors.

For example, if we were to use a software system that is hosted on servers outside of the UK.

Where this is the case, we take appropriate steps to ensure that we only contract with organisations that have the appropriate security measures in place.

Keeping your personal information

How long we keep your personal information will depend on the type of information that it is.

We have set retention periods for different categories of data. These are listed in our retention schedule, please contact dpo@lqgroup.org.uk if you would like a copy of the schedule.

Tenancy files are retained for up to six years post tenancy, CCTV footage is kept for 31 days and telephone recordings and webchat transcripts in our customer contact centres are retained for three months.

Your privacy rights

You have several rights which allow you to choose and control (where applicable) how we use your data.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact dpo@lqgroup.org.uk. 

• Transparency – you have the right to be informed about how we use your data
• Access – you have the right to ask us what personal data we hold about you and to request a copy free of charge
• Objection – you can object to the processing of your data. You should note that this does not always apply in all circumstances, for example, if you hold a current tenancy with L&Q
• Rectification – if you think that the personal data we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to request that it be rectified
• Erasure – you can ask us to delete your personal information where it is no longer necessary for us to use it
• Data portability – you can ask us to provide you, or a third party with some of the data that we hold about you, in a structured, commonly used electronic format so that it can be easily transferred
• Appeal – if you are not satisfied with the way we have dealt with your personal data, please let us know and we will try to resolve your concerns

If you are still not satisfied you have the right to appeal directly to the regulator:

The Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

For more information, please visit the Information Commissioner's Office website.

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