Privacy Notice

This privacy notice explains how we collect and use your personal information and who we share it with. Muir Group Housing Association is the controller for this personal data unless specifically stated otherwise.

You can contact our Data Protection Officer at:

Data Protection Officer, Muir Group Housing Association, 80 Lightfoot Street, Hoole, Chester, CH2 3AL

Email: dataprotection@muir.org.uk

Telephone: 0300 123 1222

Who are we?

Muir Group Housing Association owns and manages more than 5,500 homes across the country and provides a diverse range of housing solutions and associated services to meet the needs of existing and potential customers.

We have around 220 members of staff who are based at various offices and schemes within our primary work locations of Chester, Burnley and Huntingdon.

As a social landlord, Muir Group must meet its contractual, statutory and administrative obligations. We are committed to ensuring that the personal data of our customers are handled in accordance with the principles set out in Data Protection legislation.

What types of data do we process and why?

Sometimes we’re legally or contractually required to collect certain personal information from you. If you don’t provide this, we might not be able to work with you, meet our legal requirements, or carry out our agreement properly—and it could even mean we have to end our arrangement.

For other types of information, you’re not required to give it to us. But if you choose not to, it might limit how well we can deliver our services or meet our agreement with you.

In order to provide our services to our customers, we need to process a number of different categories of personal data.

These include: 

 
Category
Examples
Simple personal data –
data that can make an individual identifiable 
Names – first, middle, surname, maiden, username
Addresses – property, billing, email
Numbers – landline telephone, mobile
Household – dependents, spouse, marital status, titles, next of kin
Employment details
Date of birth
Financial data –
relating to an individual’s financial status or financial accounts
Income and expenditure
Benefits
Bank account details
Bank statements
Direct debits
Bank card or credit card details
Bank balance
Arrears or debt repayments
Rent statements
Credit score
Behavioural data –
data concerned with actions of an individual
Locations or past housing arrangements
Habits
Preferences and interests
Feedback and survey responses
Lifestyle
Social circumstances and social media
Website, app or portal data
In person interactions
Special category data –
data that requires extra protection due to it being sensitive
Racial or ethnic origin
Political preference or opinion
Religious beliefs
Trade union information
Genetic data
Biometric data
Health data – medical history, disability information
Any protected characteristic information relating to equality and diversity monitoring

Any information we collect, or process, is in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) which states there must be a lawful basis for doing so. Please click on the following for more specific details on the lawful basis relating to each area: 

How is the data collected?

The information we collect is received from the following sources:

  • Directly from you
  • Your next of kin
  • Support workers
  • From referees
  • From security clearance providers
  • From our employees
  • From our contractors
  • CCTV images from our landlords or taken using our own CCTV systems.
  • From representation who may have the authority to act on your behalf
  • From a third-party stakeholder

How is the data stored and how long is it stored for?

Personal data is stored within several physical or electronic systems. General, technical and organisational security arrangements are carefully considered and include measures such as secure physical access, secure portals, password protection, limited user access and encryption. 

We keep personal data for different time periods depending on the nature of the data and/or specific retention requirements. For details in relation to where our specific retention period may differ, please reference our Retention Schedule which can be found here. Our Retention Schedule is based on that of the National Housing Federation which includes legal and recommend retention periods.

At the end of specified retention periods personal data will be either securely destroyed or deleted ensuring that it can no longer be accessed or processed.

Our data processors

Data processors are third parties who process your personal data on our behalf, in order to deliver a specific service or specialist support – for example, processing payments. Muir Group have contracts in place with each of these processors and they only process personal data when they are instructed to do so.

Transferring personal data overseas

We currently do not transfer tenant personal data overseas. If we were to transfer tenant personal data overseas, we would ensure that we have appropriate safeguards in place by:

  • Making sure the country where your personal data would be handled has been deemed adequate by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in accordance with UK GDPR
  • Include standard data protection clauses in our contracts with third parties

Rights of data subjects

Under the UK GDPR, there are a number of rights for data subjects and each of these can be exercised. These rights are:

  • Right to be informed —your right to know why Muir Group is collecting your personal data, how it is being collected and processed, and how long it will be stored for. This information is covered in our Privacy Notices. 
  • Right to access – you have the right to ask for a copy of the personal data that Muir Group holds on you. This can be done by submitting a Subject Access Request (SAR). You can submit a request on our website, or by contacting us on any of the methods at the bottom of the page.
  • Right to rectification — the right to ask us to correct any personal data we have that you think may be inaccurate.
  • Right to erasure — also known as the ‘right to be forgotten’ this is the right to ask us to erase the personal data we have, in certain circumstances. Sometimes your personal data is needed to fulfil our services and obligations to you and in this case we would not erase it. 
  • Right to restrict processing — you have a right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data, in certain circumstances. This would mean that we could store your personal data but not use it. 
  • Right to object to processing — the right to object to the processing of your personal data, in certain circumstances.
  • Right to data portability — you have the right to ask us to transfer your personal data to another organisation, if you have given us the personal data and we hold it electronically.
  • Rights related to automated decision making and profiling -you have a right to know if or when this takes place.  Muir Group Housing Association currently does not perform any automated decision-making based on personal data that produces legal effects or similarly affects you.
  • Withdrawing consent — you have the right to withdraw your consent or opt out of any processing where the lawful basis is your consent.
  • Right to complain — you have the right to make a complaint to us about how we use your personal information. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and respond to it without undue delay. You can make a complaint by contacting us on the details at the top of this page or by filling out an electronic form here.
  • Marketing — You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for direct marketing purposes. We will ask you when we collect your personal data if we can use your information for such purposes or if we can disclose information to any third party for such purposes. You can opt out of receiving such marketing at any time, by contacting us.

There is no charge for exercising any of these rights and we have one month to respond when you contact us to exercise them. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Data Protection Team.

Contacting us

You can contact the Data Protection Team if you have any complaints or queries relating to your personal data, or if you would like to exercise any of your rights.

The Data Protection Team can be contacted in any of the following ways:

Email: dataprotection@muir.org.uk

Telephone: 0300 123 1222

Postal: Muir Group Housing Association, 80 Lightfoot Street, Hoole, Chester, CH2 3AL

Information Commissioner's Office

You can find out more information on UK GDPR and Data Protection by visiting the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) website. 

You can also contact the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have processed your personal data by contacting them in the following ways:

Web chat: https://www.ico.org.uk

Telephone: 0303 123 1113