Privacy Policy

About Us

Sheffield Property Shop is Sheffield City Council’s website for allocating Council and partner Housing Association properties for rent in Sheffield.

Sheffield City Council is a registered ‘data controller’ on the Information Commissioner’s Register of Data Controllers.

We process personal data to provide various public sector services to you.

When we collect personal data, we are required to make sure you are clear on what data we need and why, what we intend to do with it, what your individual rights are, and who you can contact for enquiries or concerns about the use of your personal data. This is called a privacy notice.

 

How we use your information

Sheffield Property Shop provides services to Council tenants and prospective tenants and is managed by the Council’s Housing and Neighbourhood Service.

Prospective tenants can apply to join the Housing Register. Once on the Housing Register, they can search for available properties and place bids.

We collect personal data in order to provide these services, which may include:

  • Contact details (name, address, telephone number and email address)
  • Personal identifiers (date of birth and national insurance number)
  • Your nationality and immigration status
  • Household data (details of who you live with)
  • Your ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, gender and sexual orientation – you don’t have to answer these questions, but please let us know if this is relevant to your application. We also use these to monitor equality and diversity and ensure that all customers receive fair treatment.
  • Your disability or any other medical or health information – if you have any specific needs, please let us know so that we can provide support
  • Whether you have any rent arrears, either to the Council or a private landlord
  • Any criminal convictions you may have

You provide us with most of the personal data that we hold about you.

Personal data may also be gathered from other sources, such as private sector landlords, housing associations, letting agents, mortgage lending companies, health services, social care services, education services, Housing Benefits and Council Tax services, the Police, prisons, probation and youth offending services, employers, Shelter, Citizens Advice and other voluntary sector organisations. This list is not complete, and depending on your circumstances, we may collect information from other third parties.

We use this information to:

  • Help individuals find and maintain secure accommodation
  • Process applications for the housing register and award banding
  • Support people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness with managing their homelessness application and provide advice and guidance about other services who may be able to support them.
  • Prevent fraud, protect public funds and ensure the information you have given us is correct
  • Obtain statistical information to help us make decisions about future affordable housing development
  • Maintain accurate and up to date records, including about those on the housing register
  • Ensure that our services are fair and equal to all, and to improve the service we provide to you.

Under data protection law, we need to have a lawful basis to process personal data. The Housing and Neighbourhood Service will rely on one of the following conditions for most activities:

  • Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of UK GDPR). This will be the case if you already have a tenancy agreement with us and you are looking to move
  • Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation, such as those set out in the Housing Acts 1985, 1988, 1996 and 2004, the Homelessness Act 2002 and Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 (Article 6(1)(c) of UK GDPR).
  • Processing is necessary for performance of a task carried out in the public interest (Article 6(1)(e) of UK GDPR)
  • Processing is necessary for carrying out obligations under employment, social security or social protection law (Article 9(2)(b) of UK GDPR). This will be the case if you are homeless or threatened with homelessness
  • Processing is necessary for reasons for substantial public interest (Article 9(2)(g) of UK GDPR).

 

Who we share your information with

The Housing and Neighbourhood Service may share your personal data with other Council Services to manage our relationship with you, and to help us deliver the best services we can.

Sometimes, we need to share your personal data with a third-party organisation. These may include:

  • Other Housing Associations we work with – to secure accommodation for people who have applied for social housing
  • Voluntary sector organisations, such as Shelter and Citizen’s Advice Bureau, who are supporting you

On occasion, we may have a duty to share your personal data with:

  • Sheffield Safeguarding Hub, the Sheffield Adult Safeguarding Partnership or another statutory agency for safeguarding purposes or where safety may be at risk
  • Emergency services and healthcare professionals for your vital interests and safeguarding
  • The Police and other law-enforcement services for the prevention and detection of crime, or where we are required to do by a Court Order
  • Our regulators, such as the Regulator for Social Housing, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman or the Information Commissioner’s Office

 

How long we keep your information

We hold personal data in line with the Council’s retention schedule. If you are already a tenant of Sheffield City Council, we will keep your personal data until the end of your tenancy, and then for a further 6 years. Other types of housing records have different retention periods, depending on the services provided.

At the end of the retention period, the information is reviewed and only retained where there is an ongoing requirement to retain for a statutory or legal purpose. Following this, personal information will be securely destroyed.

 

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have the following rights:

Right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal data.

Right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify personal data you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

Right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal at a in certain circumstances

Right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances

Right to object to processing – You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.

Right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal data you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

Please note that there may be times that we cannot fulfil these rights fully because of legal reasons, for example, we cannot delete your personal data if we still need it.

If you want to exercise any of the above rights, you can make a Subject Access Request

Make a Subject Access Request

(Please note that this link will take you to the main Sheffield City Council website)

 

How to complain

If you have any queries, concerns, or complaints about the way we process your personal data, you can contact us here

(Please note that this link will take you to the main Sheffield City Council website)

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe that we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law, you can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Their contact details are:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk