Privacy Notice 


Who we are
Leeds Federated Housing Association Ltd (Leeds Fed) is a registered provider of social housing, or housing association. We are regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing.
Leeds Fed is a data controller of your personal data. This means we are responsible for collecting and using information about you so that we can deliver our services as a housing association to you.

About this Notice
This Notice lets you know how we use the information you give us.We may change this privacy notice from time to time in order to reflect changes in the law and/or our privacy practices.When we do we will inform you by an update on our website at www.lfha.co.uk
As well as this notice, we may provide you with other privacy notices in future to deal with specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you. It is important that you read all such privacy notices so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

Who can I complain to if I am unhappy about how my information is used?
You can complain directly to Leeds Fed’s Data Protection Officer at lee.welsh@lfha.co.uk or in writing to: Data Protection Officer, Leeds Federated, The Tannery,91 Kirkstall Road,Leeds,LS31HS. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office on 0303 123 1113, Website: www.ico.org.uk    
 
What are your rights under data protection law?
Data Protection legislation provides rights for individuals over their data. A list of these Rights, and more information about what they mean can be found at the Information Commissioner’s Office website: https://ico.org.uk/

How long do we keep your data secure?
We hold all our data in a secure data centre and back it up to a separate disaster recovery site. Access to data is strictly controlled and monitored. All devices and servers are kept up to date with security patches and virus definitions. Our systems are regularly audited and tested to make sure that we are following procedures and to detect and address potential security risks.

How long do we keep your information for?
We only keep your information for as long as it is needed. This is so that we can meet our operational needs and to meet any legal and regulatory requirements.  We use guidance from the National Housing Federation to help us decide how long we should keep your information for.

What should you do if your personal information changes?
You should tell us so that we can update our records. You can do this from the Contact Us page of our website.

Sharing your data
When we use your data for the purposes described above, this may include sharing your data with third parties.  We will only share your data where we have a legal obligation to do so, where it is necessary for the performance of a contract between you and us and/or it is in our legitimate interests. The third parties we may share your data with include contractors, suppliers and service providers acting on our behalf to provide services to you.  We may also share data with bodies such as the local authority, Police, Fire Service, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and utility companies. We may sometimes be required by law to share information with enforcement or other statutory agencies, for the purposes of for example:
  • Crime prevention or detection or matters of national security
  • Taxation/fraud reasons (including housing fraud)
 
Cookies
Our website uses cookies to:
  • Help us identify how you use our website
  •  Provide us with information on how we can improve our website and online services for you
  •  Help us record your user preference
What are cookies?
Cookies are small data files which are stored on your device when you visit a website and are used as identifiers. The data collected by cookies help us understand how you use our website and online services, so we can continue to improve our offering. Cookies can also be used to identify you every time you visit a website.

How can you opt out?
If you would like to block cookies and stop sites from storing cookies on your devices, there are a number of ways you can do this depending on what browser you’re using. The following website offers advice on how you can disable cookies: https://cookies.insites.com/disable-cookies/ Please be aware blocking cookies may affect pages you are able to view and your user experience when using some websites.

What do we use your personal data for and what are our legal grounds for this?
To administer the housing register and allocate properties. This is necessary to enter into a contract with you and meet our legal obligations.
To administer the sale and re-sale of properties where applicable. This is necessary to enter into a contract with you and for the performance of the contract between you and us.
 
To contact you and respond to contacts you make with us regarding your contract with us.  This is necessary to for the performance of the contract between you and us, and to meet our legal obligations.
 
To manage your tenancy including pre-tenancy work, tenancy changes, mutual exchanges, and end of tenancy administration. This is necessary to enter into a contract with you, for the performance of the contract between you and us and to meet our legal obligations.
 
To deliver repairs and other works to your home and any communal areas. This is where necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us and meet our legal obligations.
 
To take rent payments and manage your rent account. This is necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us.
 
To take payments for any service charges and other non-rent services. This is necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us and where necessary to meet our legal obligations.
 
To respond to any enquiries or complaints you contact us about. This is in our legitimate interests and where necessary to meet our legal obligations.
 
To deal with complaints of anti-social behaviour. This is necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us and to meet our legal obligations. If we identify through contact with you any additional support needs you have, we will tailor the way we engage with you to help you successfully maintain your tenancy. This is in our legitimate interests and where necessary to meet our legal obligations.
 
To provide housing support for customers in extra care, sheltered housing schemes and general needs properties, where applicable. This is where necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us.
 
To contact you to seek feedback on the contractual services we provide to you. This is necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us.
 
To engage you in the delivery of our services. This is in our legitimate interests and necessary to meet our legal obligations.
 
To take any action necessary for breach of tenancy. This may be necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us and/or where it is in our legitimate interests to do so.
 
To recover any debt owed to us. This is in our legitimate interests.
 
To process any application from you to exercise your Right to Buy or Right to Acquire.  This is necessary to meet our legal obligations. Where necessary, to protect our employees and other individuals. We may capture your image on our CCTV systems if you visit  premises which are covered by this service. This information may be necessary for the purposes of public safety and crime prevention. We record calls to help us review our performance and investigate complaints or claims. It is in our legitimate interests to do this. We may use your image in photographs for publicity material, where we have your consent to do so. When we obtain your consent for this, we will tell you how you can withdraw your consent.

To develop, test and maintain internal systems and processes used in the delivery of our services. This may be necessary from time to time to ensure our systems and processes are effective, efficient and secure. This is in our legitimate interests.

How to contact us
We have a dedicated Data Protection Officer (DPO).  You can contact our DPO using the details in section above “Who can I complain to…”. There are also lots of other ways you can get in touch with us. You can find the details by going to the Contact Us page