whg SALES CUSTOMERS’ PRIVACY NOTICE

whg needs to hold and process information about you and your circumstances. Some of this information is personal data; this means it can be used to identify you. The law gives you rights around what happens to this personal information.

This Privacy Notice is for prospective purchasers of homes for shared ownership. It tells you who we are, what information we will collect, how we will use it, how we will keep it and who we will share it with.

About whg

whg is a Data Controller registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, registration reference Z667510X.

“whg” means Walsall Housing Group Limited, a registered provider of social housing. Our registered company address is 100 Hatherton Street, Walsall WS1 1AB.

More information about the organisation can be found on our website at www.whg.uk.com or please ask a colleague from the Sales team.

The Data Protection Officer for whg is Sofia Ali. She can be contacted on 07566763113 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

What information we process about you and why

This is the information we will collect/process and how we will use it:

* Some of the above information that we need to collect is sensitive in nature and is considered to be in a ‘special category’ i.e. ethnicity.

Keeping your information

We will usually keep this information for:

• 12 years after completion for leases
• For as long as you own an interest in the property plus one year – for contact details and information about the original purchase

whg uses our industry standard Document Retention Schedule to determine retention periods.

We will store your information securely in computer systems or in certain circumstances in manual files.  We will dispose securely of all information when we no longer have a contractual relationship with you.

Who we will share your information with

We will share some or all of the information we hold about you with:

• Other companies that deliver services on behalf of whg, for example:
  • Expert Agent – to process your application
  • Metro Finance – to carry out an affordability assessment
  • Solicitors
  • Developers – to carry out repairs in the defects period
• Utility providers – to set up your services
• Your local Council – for payment of Council Tax
• Land Registry

If asked to do so, we may share your information with the police for the prevention and detection of crime, including fraud and benefit fraud.

We only share the minimum amount of personal data necessary to enable us to fulfil our legal obligations.

We will not sell your personal data.

Lawful basis for collecting and processing your information

The law says that we have to meet a legal condition under the Data Protection Act 2018 before we can process (which includes sharing) your personal data. The conditions which apply for the personal data that we process for prospective purchasers are:

• To enter into a contract: to purchase one of our homes
• Necessary for compliance with a legal obligation: for example, in relation to anti money laundering regulations.
• Our legitimate interests: this allows us to collect your non-sensitive information (name, contact details) and where necessary share it with our partners for our own administrative purposes, to ensure compliance with whg policies and to set up your utility services etc. 

The conditions that apply for processing special categories of personal data are as follows:

• The processing is necessary to monitor equality of opportunity or treatment: ethnic origin/nationality.

Statutory or contractual requirements

Most of the personal data that we hold about you is processed in order to fulfil a contractual obligation (between whg as the vendor of the property and you as our customer) or a legal obligation (providing your details to the Land Registry).

Failing to provide your personal data would mean that we would be unable to sell you a property. 

Your rights

You have the following rights set out in law concerning your personal information – the right to:

• be informed about how we process your personal data (which is why we have developed this Privacy Notice);
• have access to a copy of the personal information we collect and keep (known as a Subject Access Request);
• have inaccurate or incomplete personal data rectified;
• restrict processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example when you are contesting the accuracy or you object to the processing;
• object to processing for direct marketing or for the company’s legitimate interests or performance of a task in the public interest, or for purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics
• have your personal data erased in certain circumstances where there is no compelling reason to continue processing it;
• data portability, to enable you to receive a copy of your personal data in a machine readable format, allowing you to move, copy or transfer personal data easily to another company;
• object to automated decision making that would affect you significantly, in certain circumstances;
• claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection Act (this can only be done via the Courts); and
• withdraw your consent for whg to use or share your personal information where you have previously given us your consent for this.

Questions and concerns

If you have any questions about the way in which we collect, process and store your information please speak to a colleague or the Data Protection Officer.

Right to lodge a complaint

If you have concerns about the way in which whg has handled your information you can speak to the Independent Information Commissioner's Office. Go to https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ for more details or phone 0303 123 1113.

About cookies

Our website uses cookies. By using this website, you consent to the collection and use of your information as set out in this privacy and cookie policy.

A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser, and stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

Cookies can be used by web servers to identity and track users as they navigate different pages on a website and to identify users returning to a website.

Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies. A persistent cookie consists of a text file sent by a web server to a web browser, which will be stored by the browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date (unless deleted by the user before the expiry date). A session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

Cookies on this website

We use both session cookies and persistent cookies on this website.

How we use cookies

Cookies do not contain any information that personally identifies you, but personal information that we store about you may be linked, by us, to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

We may use the information we obtain from your use of our cookies for the following purposes:

• to recognise your computer when you visit our website;
• to track you as you navigate our website, and to enable certain features, such as bookmarking content and logging in.
• to improve the website’s usability;
• to analyse the use of our website;
• in the administration of this website;
• to prevent fraud and improve the security of the website;
• to personalise our website for you, including targeting advertisements which may be of particular interest to you.

Third party cookies

When you use our website, you may also be sent third party cookies.

3rd Party Cookies

Social Networking cookies

Web pages may integrate content modules on social networks in their platform. These modules store and may access cookies from the user terminal allowing the identification of its members while they are on the website. 

 Google Analytics, DoubleClick and AddThis cookies can be disabled by following the instructions

• Google Analytics
• Double Click
• AddThis

Managing Cookies

The user has the option to allow, block or remove installed ‘cookies’ on your computer by setting your browser options installed on your computer. When cookies are disabled, some available services may no longer be operational.

The process to disable cookies is different in each browser, but it can usually be carried out through the menu.

• Google Chrome (in the Tools Menu)
  Setting > Show Advanced Options> Privacy (Setting the Contents) > Cookies
  More information: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en
  

• Microsoft Internet Explorer (in the Tools Menu)
  Internet Options> Privacy> Advanced
  More Information: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/delete-manage-cookies#ie=ie-9
  

• Firefox
  Options > Privacy > Cookies
  More Information: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences

• Safari, iPad and iPhone
  Preferences > Privacy
  More information: http://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/cookies/
  
  
• Opera
  Setting > Options > Advanced > Cookies
  More Information: http://help.opera.com/Windows/12.10/en/cookies.html