Privacy Policy
The following information constitutes our privacy policy notice. In this document, “we”, “our”, or “us” refer to HFIS Limited trading as TenantVERIFY®.
Our registered office is at 7th Floor Corn Exchange, 55 Mark Lane, London EC3R 7NE.
You can contact us by e-mail about privacy at contact@tenantverify.co.uk or telephone London: 0208 144 2064 Manchester: 0161 298 4421
We are a credit and reference checking agency providing a service to landlords and property agents which involves verifying personal information supplied to us about their clients – tenants, prospective tenants and guarantors. Our contract is with the landlord or agent, but our obligations regarding data security extend to their clients.
TenantVERIFY® is committed to providing you with the highest quality service. This includes maintaining your and your clients’ privacy and protecting all personal data. In addition to our Terms of Use the following policy explains what we and our associated companies do with the personal data we collect about you.
To get the best from our services, please keep your personal data (including your email address and telephone contacts) accurate and up to date. You can do this by up-dating any account information you currently have with us when you sign-in to your account. Always keep any user names and passwords safe and secure.
Please take the time to read this privacy policy carefully. By registering and opening an on-line account with us you consent to our use of personal data in accordance with our terms of use, this policy notice and Data Protection legislation. We hope that by implementing and operating this policy, we will make your online experience a more secure and enjoyable one. We will never share your (landlords and agents) personal data with third parties; that is an absolute promise.
Introduction
- This is a notice to inform you of our policy about all information that we record about you: Landlords, Agents, and your clients: Tenants, Prospective Tenants and Guarantors. It sets out the conditions under which we may process any information that we collect from you, or that you and your clients provide to us. It covers information that could identify you and your clients (“personal information”) and information that could not. In the context of the law and this notice, “process” means collect, store, transfer, use or otherwise act on information.
- We take seriously the protection of yours’ and your clients’ privacy and confidentiality. We understand that you are entitled to know that yours’ and your clients’ personal data will not be used for any purpose unintended by you.
- We undertake to preserve the confidentiality of all information you provide to us, and we urge you to reciprocate by following the data protection guidelines under the Data Protection Act and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This applies particularly to landlords and agents when they handle tenants’, prospective tenants’ and guarantors’ personal data.
- Our policy complies with UK law accordingly implemented, including that required by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- The law requires us to tell you about your rights and our obligations to you and your clients (your Tenants, Prospective Tenants and Guarantors) regarding the processing and control of personal data. We do this now, by requesting that you read the information provided here www.knowyourprivacyrights.org
- Except as set out below, we do not share, or sell, or disclose to a third party, any information collected through our website or otherwise.
Personal information we may process
We aim to process data, whether personal data or not, only to the extent necessary for us to provide you, our clients, with our services and for other agreed purposes.
We may very occasionally aggregate information in a general way and use it to provide class information. If we use it for this purpose, you as an individual or your clients will not be personally identifiable.
Personal information that we may process may include:
As our client, which includes landlords and agents, and in turn your own clients, which are tenants, prospective tenants and guarantors, you will provide us with personal information about you and your clients to enable us to provide our services.
This personal information may include identity and contact information, nationality, information about employment, residential and business addresses, previous landlords and agents, other referees such as accountants, family members, legal and financial information including credit, debts, income and expenses.
We may also process information deemed to be “special category” information, such as your clients’ race or ethnic origin, and in exceptional cases information about their criminal records.
In most cases, personal data will have been provided to us by landlords and agents and their prospective tenants and guarantors. However, with their consent, if it is necessary in order to provide our services, we may have obtained and verified personal data from a third party source.
Related third party information
We may request and be given prospective tenants’ and guarantors’ personal data by our information suppliers, by third party agencies, and by employment and previous landlord referees.
Supplier information
If you supply our business with goods or services, including subcontracted services that we supply to our clients, then we may process your personal information. However, we do so only to the extent necessary to contract with you.
The bases on which we process information
The law requires us to determine under which of six defined grounds we process different categories of personal information, and to notify you of the basis for each category.
If a basis on which we process your personal information is no longer relevant then we shall immediately stop processing your data.
If the basis changes then if required by law we shall notify you of the change and of any new basis under which we have determined that we can continue to process your information.
Information we process because we have a contractual obligation with you
When a contract is formed between you (landlords and agents) and us, in order to carry out our obligations under that contract we must process personal information.
As examples, a contract between us could be formed by:
- your agreement to our terms and conditions when you register on our website
We use your information in order to provide you with our services under that contract, for example:
- to carry out credit checks and to obtain personal and business references on your prospective tenants and guarantors
- to provide you with sufficient information to make a decision as to whether you enter into a contract with your prospective tenants and guarantors
We process this information on the basis there is a contract between us and you the landlord or agent.
We shall continue to process this information until the contract between us ends or is fulfilled and we will retain the information for your own access for a period of no more than 3 months after the completion of our work.
Information we process with your consent
Only when you have given us explicit permission to do so will we process your personal information and that of your clients under the basis of consent.
For example, you might have agreed that we may track your actions on our website using cookies.
We continue to process your information on this basis until you withdraw your consent or it can be reasonably assumed that your consent no longer exists.
You may withdraw your consent at any time by telling us and we will close and delete your account. However, if you do so, you will not be able to use our service or access any historical processed information on our website.
Information we process for the purposes of legitimate interests
We may process information on the basis there is a legitimate interest of doing so, either to you, your clients or to us.
Where we process your information on this basis, we do so after having given careful consideration to:
- whether the same objective could be achieved through other means
- whether processing (or not processing) might cause you harm
- whether you would expect us to process your data, and whether you would, in the round, consider it reasonable to do so
For example, we may process your data on this basis for the purposes of:
- record-keeping for the proper and necessary administration of ours and your business
- responding quickly to communications from you and your clients to which we believe you would expect a response
- protecting and asserting the legal rights of any party
- insuring against or obtaining professional advice that is required to manage business risk
- protecting yours and your clients’ interests where we believe we have a duty to do so
Information we process because we have a legal obligation
Sometimes, we must process your information in order to comply with a statutory obligation.
For example, we may be required to give information to legal authorities if they so request or if they have the proper authorisation such as a search warrant or court order.
This may include your personal information.
Specific uses of information you provide to us
Communicating with you
When you contact us, whether by telephone, through our website or by e-mail, we collect the data you have given to us in order to reply with the information you need.
We record your request and our reply in order to increase the efficiency of our business.
We keep personally identifiable information associated with your message, such as your name and email address so as to be able to track our communications with you to provide a high quality service.
Dealing with complaints
When we receive a complaint, we record all the information you have given to us.
We use that information to resolve your complaint.
If your complaint reasonably requires us to contact some other person, we may decide to give to that other person some of the information contained in your complaint. We do this as infrequently as possible, but it is a matter for our sole discretion as to whether we do give information, and if we do, what that information is.
If the complaint relates to information on our website and we feel it is justified or if we believe the law requires us to do so, we shall remove the content while we investigate.
If we think your complaint is vexatious or without any basis, we shall not correspond with you about it.
We may compile statistics from information relating to complaints to assess the level of service we provide, but not in a way that could identify you or any other person.
Customer relationship management
We use data bases and a customer relationship management (CRM) system to process personal data.
Data subjects include existing, former and prospective clients, their agents and representatives, and in turn data on their clients including tenants, prospective tenants and guarantors.
We process this data on the basis of consent for purposes that include:
- Verifying the financial standing and otherwise suitability of prospective tenants and guarantors
- managing and developing our business or services
- informing clients and prospective clients about our services
- determining relationships between clients and our partners and employees
- analysing whether we provide clients with a high level of service
We do not sell any personal data to third parties, and we do not share any data with third parties without explicit consent to do so from the data subject.
Job applications and employment
If you send us information in connection with a job application, we may keep it for up to three years in case we decide to contact you at a later date.
If we employ you, we collect information about you and your work from time to time throughout the period of your employment. This information will be used only for purposes directly relevant to your employment. After your employment has ended, we will keep your file for six years before destroying or deleting it.
Use of information we collect through automated systems when you visit our website
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer’s hard drive by your web browser when you visit any website. They allow information gathered on one web page to be stored until it is needed for use on another, allowing a website to provide you with a personalised experience, and the website owner with statistics about the actions you have taken.
Some cookies may last for a defined period of time, such as one day or until you close your browser. Others last indefinitely.
Your web browser should allow you to delete any you choose. It also should allow you to prevent or limit their use.
Our website uses cookies. They are placed by software that operates on our servers, and by software operated by third parties whose services we use.
When you first visit our website, we ask you to formally consent to our use of cookies.
If you choose not to use cookies or you prevent their use through your browser settings, you will not be able to use all the functionality of our website.
We use cookies in the following ways:
- to track how you use our website
- to record whether you have seen specific messages we display on our website
- to provide a consistent personalised experience across our site
- to record your answers to surveys and questionnaires on our site while you complete them
- to record the conversation thread during a live chat with our support team
Personal identifiers from your browsing activity
Requests by your web browser to our servers for web pages and other content on our website are recorded.
We record information that could identify your location, such as your IP address. We also record information reported by the software you are using to browse our website, such as the type of computer or device and the screen resolution.
We use this information in aggregate to assess the popularity of the webpages on our website and how we perform in providing content to you.
If combined with other information we know about you from previous visits, the data possibly could be used to identify you personally, even if you are not signed in to our website. However, our policy is not to use such data for the purpose of personal identification.
Our use of marketing information
An advertisement that you see for our services may have been shown because we have used a third party to provide us with marketing services. However, we advertise in many places and an advertisement shown for our services may just be coincidental to your visit to our website.
We may from time to time contact you via email to inform you of important issues, relevant and related products and your use of our services
Disclosure and sharing of your information
Information we obtain from third parties
We will obtain information from third parties on your behalf to obtain information about your clients (tenants, prospective tenants and guarantors) as set-out above.
Third party advertising on our website
Third parties may advertise on our website. In doing so those parties, their agents or other companies working for them, may use technology that automatically collects information about you when their advertisement is displayed on our website.
They may also use other technology such as cookies or JavaScript to personalise the content of, and to measure the performance of their adverts.
We do not have control over these technologies or the data that these parties obtain. Accordingly, this privacy notice does not cover the information practices of these third parties.
Data may be processed outside the European Union
Our websites are hosted in the UK.
We may also use outsourced services in countries outside the European Union from time to time in other aspects of our business, particularly in relation to International Credit Checks and Referencing.
Accordingly data obtained within the UK or any other country could be processed outside the European Union.
We use the following safeguards with respect to data transferred outside the European Union:
- the processor abides by the laws of the country concerned and our own corporate guidelines regarding data processing.
Management of your information
Access to your personal information
- At any time you may review or update personally identifiable information that we hold about you.
- To obtain a copy of the information we hold about you, please contact us – contact details at the head of this page.
- After receiving the request, we will tell you when we expect to provide you with the information.
Removal of information
If you wish us to remove personally identifiable information from our website, you should contact us. This may limit the service we can provide to you.
Verification of your identity
When we receive any request to access, edit or delete personal identifiable information we shall first take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you access or otherwise taking any action. This is important to safeguard your information.
Retention period for personal data
Except as otherwise mentioned in this privacy notice, we keep your personal information only for as long as required by us:
- to provide you with the services you have requested;
- to comply with other law, including for the period demanded by our tax authorities;
- to support a claim or defence in court.
Other matters
If you are not happy with our privacy policy
- If you are not happy with our privacy policy or if you have any complaint then you should tell us.
- If a dispute is not settled then we hope you will agree to attempt to resolve it by engaging in good faith with us to a process of mediation or arbitration.
- If you are in any way dissatisfied about how we process your personal information, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. This can be done at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
Sale of the business
In the event that the HFIS Limited business is sold fully or in part, integrated with another business, or it disposes of its rights and obligations under any agreement with you, your records may be disclosed under appropriate confidentiality terms to our advisers and any prospective purchasers’ adviser, and will be passed onto the new owners with strict conditions attached, which include maintaining our privacy policy.
Third Party Websites
Please bear in mind that this privacy policy only applies to websites and services operated by HFIS Limited and not those operated by third parties, including those to which our websites may link. We suggest that you check out the privacy policies operated by third party websites we may provide external links to before providing personal information about yourself.
Compliance with the law
Our privacy policy has been compiled so as to comply with the law of every country or legal jurisdiction in which we aim to do business. If you think it fails to satisfy the law of your jurisdiction, we should like to hear from you.
Review of this privacy policy
We may update this privacy notice from time to time as necessary. The terms that apply to you are those posted here on our website on the day you use our website. We advise you to print a copy for your records.
If you have any question regarding our privacy policy, please contact us.
