Privacy notice housing arrears

Some information we ask you for is essential and we can’t help you without it. Other information is optional. However, if you choose not to tell us something we may not make the right assessment. This means we may not be able to give you the help you need.

We will ask you for the following essential information:

• personal details including your current and any past names, nationality, date of birth, gender and national insurance number
• financial information including your income, benefits received, expenditure, details of any debts, bank and building society details, account balances, savings, any money from inheritance and properties and business you own

Other information that is not essential but optional includes:

• preferred contact details, which could be a phone number and/or email address
• physical or mental health information including your doctor or hospital consultant’s details

We collect your information for the following purposes:

• personal details are used to identify you
• health information is used to understand your needs
• financial information is used to help you find a way to pay your rent, any service charge and arrears. It’s also used to see if you need financial help or advice
• preferred contact is used to contact you if we have any questions

We might share your information in these situations:

• if we employ outside debt collection agencies to collect unpaid rent and/or service charges and have data sharing agreements which strictly control how they store and use your personal information - we are allowed to do this under the Housing Act 1985
• if we need to take legal action against you, we may have to share your personal information with the county court, for example in cases where we need to repossess your home if we cannot collect the unpaid rent and or service charges - we are allowed to do this under the Housing Act 1985
• for the prevention and detection of crime, we may share your personal information with Adult or Children's Social Care. We will also do share your information if we feel there is a risk to a child or vulnerable person, under our duty according to the Anti-Social, Crime & Policing Act 2014, Children’s Act 2004, as amended by the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and/or the Care Act 2014
• for the prevention and detection of crime, we may share your personal information with the police, including if we feel there is a risk to a child, under our duty according to the Anti-Social, Crime & Policing Act 2014, the Crime & Disorder Act 1998 and the Children’s Act 2004, as amended by the Children and Social Work Act 2017
• for the prevention and detection of crime we may share your personal information with probation services as we have a duty to do this under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998
• if we have concerns about anti-social behaviour from any person in your home we may pass information to the community safety team as we have duty to do this under the Anti-Social, Crime and Policing Act 2014

With your consent we may also share details with:

• support agencies
• relevant charities
• early help and intervention team
• West Sussex accommodation team
• West Sussex financial support team
• NHS community health teams
• housing associations
• Citizens Advice Bureau
• our money advisor
• our benefits team

The information you provide is used for us to execute our public duty under:

• The Housing Act 1985
• The Housing Act 1996

We will keep your name and address throughout your tenancy. When your tenancy legally ends we will keep your information for a further six years. After this it will be destroyed.

If we take you to court for anti-social behaviour we will keep your information for six years or until the end of the legal action.

If we make a payment arrangement with you we will keep your financial information for one year or the duration of your arrangement whichever is longer.

You do have some legal rights in respect of the personal information we collect from you. Please see our Privacy policy page for further details.

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office at: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

You can also contact our Data Protection Officer by email at data.protection@arun.gov.uk.