Privacy notice – Individuals who are not Wheatley group customers who make contact with us

We need to collect personal information from you to look into any matters you have raised with us. This includes but may not be limited to:

• Your full name (and proof of your identity / photo ID);
• Your date of birth;
• Your contact details (phone, e-mail, home address);
• Details of anyone authorised to act on your behalf if applicable; and
• Details of the matter you raise with us.

We collect your personal information from you via a variety of sources, including:

• From you directly if you provide this to us; and
• From third parties if we require this to look into a matter you or they have raised with us.

We may collect your personal information when you interact with our social media sites.

Your landline phone calls to our Customer First Centre are recorded for training and monitoring purposes and our recordings are usually held for a period of one month.

We operate a CCTV system at our office premises and at various locations within the vicinity of our properties for the detection and prevention of crime, to fulfil our legal obligations to keep our staff safe and in pursuit of our legitimate interest to keep our properties safe and secure. Our CCTV cameras operate continuously and recordings are held for one month.

We may transfer information about you to other Wheatley Group subsidiaries for purposes connected to the management of the company’s business.

We are under a legal obligation to process certain personal information relating you for the purposes of complying with our legal obligations under:

• Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002;
• Data Protection Act 2018;
• Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004; or
• UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

We also may process your personal information in pursuit of our legitimate interests to:

• Resolve anti-social behaviour disputes;
• Investigate complaints;
• Respond to queries from you;
• Processing requests from 3^rd parties;
• Keep our properties safe and secure by operating CCTV;
• Prevent crime by sharing information with the Police; and
• Train staff and monitor quality of service by recording incoming calls to our Customer First Centre (CFC) and Group Debt Recovery Team (GDRT).

In order to pursue our legitimate interests, we may process other personal information which we have collated.

Where we process your personal information in pursuit of our legitimate interests, you have the right to object to us using your personal information for the above purposes. If you wish to object to any of the above processing, please contact us on InformationRequests@wheatley-group.com If we agree and comply with your objection, this may affect our ability to undertake certain tasks above for your benefit.

We share limited personal data with our contractors who are carrying out services on our behalf.

We may need to share personal information with local authorities, other housing associations, government departments and agencies, with our regulator and auditors, with utility companies or with other organisations and agencies where we are legally allowed to do so.

We may be required to share personal information with Statutory or Regulatory authorities and organisations to comply with statutory obligations.  Such organisations include local authorities, government departments and agencies, with our regulator and auditors, with utility companies or with other organisations and agencies. We will only share information in accordance with UK GDPR.

In the event of a re-structure of our business we may require to share personal information with third parties where we are legally allowed to do so.

In the event that we do share personal information with external third parties, we will only share such personal information strictly required for the specific purposes and take reasonable steps to ensure that recipients shall only process the disclosed personal information in accordance with those purposes.

If we do share personal information with external third parties, we will only share such personal information strictly required for the specific purposes and take reasonable steps to ensure that recipients shall only process the disclosed personal information in accordance with those purposes.

Usually information will be anonymised, but this may not always be possible.  The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

If you contact us, we may need to respond to you. This will usually be in writing or by telephone but is more commonly becoming electronic and paperless.

Your personal information is stored on our paper and IT filing systems which may be copied for testing, backup, archiving and disaster recovery purposes. Access to your information is limited to those who require it to provide services to you. The majority of our personal data is held within the UK.

If any of your personal information is transferred out with the EU or the European Economic Area by any of our contractors, we will ensure that there are adequate safeguards in place to protect your personal information in accordance with applicable UK Data Protection Legislation.

We will only keep your personal information for as long as necessary to respond to the issues you have raised and to safeguard us in the event of any claims, complaints, litigation, enquiries or investigations.

Unless deleted or moved to Wheatley Group systems by a Wheatley staff member, emails sent and received by Wheatley staff are automatically deleted after 6 months. Any emails which are relevant to a customer’s file are added or summarised within Wheatley Group systems (e.g. our Group Housing Management system).

You can exercise any of the following rights by writing to us at InformationRequests@wheatley-group.com

Your rights in relation to your personal information are:

• you have a right to request access to the personal information that we hold about you by making a "subject access request";
• if you believe that any of your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete, you have a right to request that we correct or complete your personal information;
• you have a right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information for specific purposes; and
• if you wish us to delete your personal information, you may request that we do so.

Any requests received by us will be considered under applicable UK Data Protection Legislation.  If you remain dissatisfied, you have a right to raise a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office at www.ico.org.uk

We seek to ensure that our information collection and processing is always proportionate. The accuracy of our information is important to us - please help us keep our records updated by informing us of any changes to your personal information.

Our Privacy Notices are regularly kept up to date. This notice was updated on 21 August 2024.