Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy

Simply Students respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data.

We have prepared this privacy policy to explain to you how we collect, use, store and share information and Personal Data (as defined under applicable law).

 

1: Important information and who we are

Simply Students (Hull) Ltd is a letting agency based in Hull, UK who provide and operate student and professional accommodation.

In order to provide accommodation, we collect and handle personal information about our tenants, their guarantors, prospective tenants, landlords and prospective landlords. This information is collected when you use our website or social media, when dealing with enquiries, arranging viewings, arranging lettings, checking the suitability of tenants and their guarantors, right to rent checks, referencing checks, the creation use and handling of tenancy agreements, property management, repairs, rent collection, accounts and record management, tenancy terminations, evictions and the administration of deposits, holding deposits, and other payments.

This privacy policy was prepared 21st May 2018

Data Controller

Simply Students (collectively referred to as ‘Simply Students’, ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’ in this policy notice) is the controller and responsible for your personal data. We can be contacted using the details provided below.

Simply Students (Hull) LTD

570 Beverley Road, Hull, HU6 7LG

[email protected]

07779 908 908

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

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 services). In this case, we may have to cancel a service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

Our website, products and services are not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

Our website and correspondence received from us may contain third party links, plug ins and applications. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. We encourage you to read carefully the privacy policy of every website you visit.

 

2: The data we collect about you 

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of information about you which shall be referred to as ‘personal data’, ‘personal information’ or ‘your information’ in this privacy notice. Different information may be involved depending on whether you are a prospective tenant, tenant or guarantor including the following: (not including anonymous information collected via the web)

Full name, student ID no, email address, telephone number, course title, year of study, national Insurance number, home address and the corresponding telephone number, bank details, right to rent checks, council tax liability, tenancy details, arrears, marital status, Emails, Texts and other correspondence via letters or our website.

We may also collect information about you which is made publicly available by yourself on social media and the internet or given to us by other tenants, residents, neighbours, friends or family members or public bodies should this be required for our services. On each visit to this website anonymous information is collected such as your IP address, browser type and version, URL clickstream, the length of your online visit, methods used to access this website and device used to do so as well as other technical information.

 

3: Sharing and processing the data we collect about you.

We may share information we hold with others, where this is necessary in compliance with data protection legislation. This may be with other joint tenants, landlords, deposit schemes, utility and service providers, tradespeople, financial organisations, debt collection and tracing agents, public and government bodies, local authorities, letting and managing agents and future owners of a property or your friends or family members.

The collection, storage, processing and sharing of your information must have a legal basis and requires ONE of the following: Your consent, compliance with a statutory or legal obligation, the interests of ourselves or a third party, your vital interests or a requirement by us to perform our responsibilities. We will only share what is necessary or required of us by law and data.

The data we collect about you is used to: Verify the suitability of a prospective tenant, guarantor, landlord or customer for the purpose of completing a tenancy agreement or the provision of our services. Various other purposes for which it may be necessary to collect, process, store and share your information include: processing information required for the performance of managing, letting, purchasing or selling a property, record keeping, arranging for repairs, monitoring or enforcing the responsibility of landlords, tenants and guarantors, recovering debts and other payments due including any legal proceedings, arranging for the payment of unitalities and other services, administering liability for council tax and securing exemptions, complying the requests made by local authorities or public bodies, providing relevant information to utility companies or other service providers, dealing with welfare benefits including universal credit and housing benefit where in respect of the payment of rent, legitimate interests in relation to tenancy termination, the processing of complaints, dealing with health and safety issues, contacting your next of kin in an emergency, to perform our legal obligations, in our interests for the establishment and defence of legal rights and the prevention, detection and investigation of crime and anti-social behaviour.

We may process your information without your knowledge where this is required or permitted by law.

 

4: Storage of your data

Data can only be stored on a time limited basis and not indefinitely. We will hold personal data about you for the duration of your tenancy and for seven years after your tenancy has ended.   This is the statutory limitation period six years plus a further year to allow for service of proceedings should proceedings commence later. We are also required to retain information for up to six years for tax purposes. If your tenancy application does not go ahead then we retain data for up to three years.

We keep information both electronically and in a manual filing system to maintain our records. We do this because we need to use it from time to time.

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. All our information is stored securely electronically on servers or devices. Certain information is also retained on a secure basis in hard copy format.

We record, retain and monitor your calls, emails, text messages, social media messages and other written or verbal communications in the interest to maintain accurate records to assist with the performance of our services. We need these records for our ongoing dealings with you, including data protection obligations. CCTV is installed at our office for security purposes and such monitoring of our premises in accordance with the law.

Our methods of communication, eg email, web hosting and social media messages may be stored by providers internationally and not necessarily within the European Union.

Your tenancy agreement guarantor agreement or works schedule provides that in certain situations you must give us the information when asked. As a contractual requirement this is a legal obligation. For various reasons we require your information to be kept up to date and we may endeavour to ensure that we have accurate records.

 

5: Your rights

You are within your rights to request that we do not use your personal data for marketing purposes. We aim to inform you before the collection of your data where possible if we intend to use your information for such purposes. You can exercise your right at any time by informing a member of staff or contacting us at [email protected].

You have the right to access the information held about you, this can be exercised in accordance with the data protection act.

 

6: Changes to our privacy policy 

We may update our privacy policy in the future and changes to which shall be available via this webpage or upon request to you via email. Significant changes such as a change to our legal responsibilities may be notified to you via email.

 

7: Cookies

This website uses cookies which are simple, text files that contain basic anonymous information which enables a site to recognise users on subsequent visits and track usage, collect limited information such as time stamps, or a broad geographical location for statistical purposes and improve your experience of this website. This website does not collect additional information to advertise products or services, target you on other websites or provide third parties with your information. By using our website, you consent to us using cookies.

 

8: Complaints

If you wish to make a complaint please contact us directly, in most cases complaints can be resolved informally by discussing with us practicable and suitable action to be taken if applicable. If you are unhappy with the outcome of this discussion you may write to the manager/director of Simply Students (Hull) Ltd to request that your case be reviewed within 10 working days of receipt. If you are not satisfied with the manager/directors response and wish to refer to an external, professional body, you can contact the Property Redress Scheme who may help to mediate your complaint and help find an agreeable resolve.

This privacy policy and cookie policy was last updated on 28th September 2019.