Introduction

Abbey Rentals Ltd “Abbey Student Rentals” (“we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice) is a student letting agency based in Chester.

This Privacy Policy explains what to expect when Abbey Rentals Ltd collects your personal information, including through this website. We want to ensure that we are as transparent as possible with how we collect, store and share your data.

We have appointed a data privacy manager who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy please contact the data privacy manager at: info@abbeyrentals.co.uk, call us on 01244 560910 or mail us at 56 Bouverie Street, Chester, CH1 4HE.

 

  1. Important information

Abbey Rentals Ltd is the controller and responsible for your personal data.

  1. What information do we collect and how do we collect it?

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

  • Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
  • Contact Data includes billing address, residential address, email address and telephone numbers.
  • Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details.
  • Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
  • Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
  • Profile Data includes purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences and feedback.
  • Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services.
  • Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

We use different methods to collect data from you including:

  • Direct Interactions includes you applying for our services.
  • Automated technologies includes through our website, eg using cookies.
  • Third parties includes publicly available sources, including search engines and credit checkers.

Some examples of data we collect from various parties are set out below:

 

A: Prospective Tenants

“Personal Information” is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable individual, such as:

  • Your name
  • Your mobile number
  • Your email address

When you enquire through our website, email or call to arrange a house viewing, we will collect the above information. This data is collected for the sole purpose of contacting you to arrange the viewing and send you more information about the property of interest.

If a property is not suitable or no longer available, we will verbally ask your permission to retain these details to contact you if another house becomes available. You can change these details at any time or request them to be deleted off our system.

B: Tenants

Once you have chosen a house, the reservation and signing process begins. In the office, all tenants will complete a ‘Room Reservation Form’ and on this you will be asked to disclose the following personal information:

  • Your full name
  • Your mobile number
  • Your email address
  • Your Guarantor’s email address
  • Your Guarantor’s mobile number

Your name, number and email are essential for the Assured Tenancy Agreements created through StuRents and are also imperative for us to be able to contact you about matters relating to your Tenancy with us. We also collect your Guarantor’s basic contact information at this stage as a back-up mode of contact for you.

Once you receive your Tenancy Agreement you will be asked to provide the following further personal data:

  • Your home postal address
  • Your date of birth
  • Your Nationality
  • Your University Number and year of study
  • A form of photographic ID (Passport)

 

C: Guarantors

It is Company Policy that all tenants must have a UK-Based Guarantor (This is usually a parent). When you fill in your online Tenancy Agreement, you will need to input their email address which will automatically send the contract on to them. Guarantor’s will be asked to provide the following information on the Tenancy Agreement:

  • Full name
  • Email address
  • Mobile number
  • Postal address
  • Address history
  • Date of birth
  • Residential status
  • Employment status and Employer
  • A form of photographic ID (Passport)

 

  1. What do we do with the information we collect?

We will only use your personal data when strictly necessary and when the law allows us to. All data is collected in reliance of a lawful basis for processing such data, being either performance of a contract with you, or a legitimate interest (recovering debts due to us, recovering rent on behalf of landlords, ensuring prospective tenants will be able to pay rent on time). The key example of this is:

To contact you

  • We will input your data (Name, mobile and email address) into our booking software which enables us to give all tenants reasonable notice when a viewing is taking place or a contractor is gaining access to the property.
  • We will also email or call you regarding any matters relating to finances and rent when necessary.
  • If the tenant has defaulted on their rent and is not responding, we will then contact the Guarantor.

Without the provision of your personal information we shall be unable either to manage a property for you or let a property to you.

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes.

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at any time.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service purchase, product/service experience or other transactions]

Cookies

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

  1. How and where do we store this data?

Keeping your data secure is our main priority. We have implemented physical and procedural access controls in our workplace, which limit access to data to those with a genuine need to operate our procedures.

This is how we store it:

  • Paper documents such as your reservation form are stored in the office in a locked filing cabinet, whereby only authorised members of staff have access. The office also has a security camera, alarm and shutters when we are closed.
  • On our office computers – Your Tenancy Agreements are downloaded onto PCs so that we can access your information if need be. All our computers are password protected and the data is stored on a secure server provided by Fusion IT Limited who are GDPR compliant and you can read their Privacy Policy here: https://fusionit.uk/privacy-policy/
  • On StuRents’ secure server. StuRents is the Tenancy platform we use to issue and complete all our contracts and here you will find their GDPR compliant Privacy Policy: https://sturents.com/legal/privacycookie
  • On the Swipe Property Management Software Platform, c/o Swipe Living Limited. This is our property management system that we use to manage your maintenance requests, payments and documents. We also use the software to send you important notifications and updates throughout your tenancy. Here you will find their GDPR compliant Privacy Policy: https://swipepropertymanagement.com/privacy.php

 

  1. Who do we share this data with?

We may share your personal data with the parties as set out below for the purposes as set out below:

A: Landlords

Abbey Student Rentals not only own and manage a huge amount of properties, but also provide a ‘Let Only’ service for Landlords. When a house falls into this category, we conduct viewings and sign up tenants for the property, however once the term commences the tenants communicate directly with their Landlord regarding all house relating matters such as key collection, maintenance and rent.

Your Tenancy Agreements and thus personal data will be passed onto your Landlord before the commencement of your fixed term for the Landlord to be able to fulfil his contracted duties.

B: Fusion IT Limited

This company’s role within Abbey Rentals is to provide us with IT support services to allow us to maintain our internal systems and maintain control over our internal security measures and practices.

C: StuRents

The platform we use to create all our Tenancy Agreements is highly secure and is GDPR compliant.

Abbey Student Rentals do not use your data for marketing purposes and will only contact you regarding your Tenancy or related matters. We will not otherwise share, sell or distribute any of the information you provide to us without your consent.

In some circumstances, we may have to disclose your personal information by law, because a court or the police or another law enforcement agency has asked us for it.

D: Student Swipe Property Management 

On the Swipe Property Management Software Platform, c/o Swipe Living Limited. This is our property management system that we use to manage your maintenance requests, payments and documents. We also use the software to send you important notifications and updates throughout your tenancy

E: Other external third parties

Professional advisors including lawyers, auditors and insurers.

MR Revenue & Customs and other authorities.

We do not transfer data outside the European Economic Area.

 

  1. How long do we keep your data for?

We will keep your Tenancy Agreements on record for 6 years, which is reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements.

We review our data retention periods regularly and will only hold your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purpose or relevant activity it was collected for, or as required by law (we may be legally required to hold some types of information), or as set out in any relevant contract we have with you.

If we suspect a breach of our security measures, where your personal data may have been compromised, we will inform the ICO within 72 hours as per the GDPR guidelines.

 

  1. How to access, amend and delete your personal data

At any time, you can request an electronic (PDF) or paper copy of your reservation form or Tenancy Agreement and we will send this over to you or make it available for collection at the office in less than a week.

If any of your personal information has changed or you believe it to be incorrect, we urge you to get in touch with us straight away on info@abbeyrentals.co.uk so that we can update our records.

If you are not a tenant or have not been within the past 6 years and you are receiving communication from us, please get in touch and we will remove your details from our system,

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

 

  1. Your rights

You have a number of rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you.  These include the right to (please see glossary for more detailed descriptions):

  • Be informed about how we use your personal information;
  • Object to processing of your personal data;
  • Request restriction of processing your personal data;
  • Request transfer of your personal data;
  • Right to withdraw consent;
  • Obtain access to your personal information that we hold;
  • Request that your personal information is corrected if you believe it is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate;
  • Request that we erase your personal information, if:

If you would like to exercise any of your rights above please contact us at info@abbeyrentals.co.uk

 

  1. Changes to this policy

We keep our privacy policy under review and we will place any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated 23rd July 2020.  You should therefore regularly review this Policy.

  1. Glossary

You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:

  • If you want us to establish the data's accuracy.
  • Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it.
  • Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
  • You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.