How we use your information
Aberdeen City Council Empty Homes initiative aims to bring privately owned empty properties back into use to increase the supply of housing for local people.
Aberdeen City Council receives information about empty properties from other Council services, from the public, from MSP’s/MP’s or from owners themselves. If you report an empty home, we will use your contact details to get in touch with you if we require any further information.
We use the personal information (name and contact information) of owners stored in Council Tax records for the purpose of identifying the owners of empty residential properties and attempting to bring the properties back into use.
Aberdeen City Council will keep a record of the reports made and the enquiries and actions we carry out including any contact attempted or made in relation to empty homes.
If you wish to participate in one of our Property Matchmaker Schemes, please see the relevant privacy notices (Your data: Property Matchmaker Selling and Your data: Property Matchmaker Rental).
Who we share information with
From time to time, the Council may provide genealogists with the address of an empty home they have been unable to trace the owner of. The Council may at its own discretion also provide any last known information about the owner of the empty home which may include a name or part of a name, previous name(s), address, and date of birth. If the genealogists are successful in tracing the property owner, they will share this information with Aberdeen City Council.
The use of genealogists will only occur in exceptional circumstances, for example where there has been repeated and unsuccessful attempts of engagement with an owner or where an owner is unknown to the Council, and the condition of the property continues to deteriorate to an unacceptable extent and adversely impact the community within that area.
If the genealogists are successful in tracing the property owner, they will share this information with the Council.
The Council will report non-personal statistical data internally and to its partner organisations, the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership and the Scottish Government, to assess, manage and plan empty homes work.
How long we keep your information for
Council Tax information is retained until the liability for Council Tax within Aberdeen City has ended and there are no outstanding Council Tax balances. Information will only be deleted where these circumstances have been met and the information is older than the current financial year plus six years.
Empty Homes case management records will be kept for 12 months from the date on which the case is closed.
Your rights
You have rights in relation to your data, including the right to ask for a copy of it. See more information about all the rights you have, as well as the contact details for the Council’s Data Protection Officer. You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office if you think we haven’t handled your data properly.
Our legal basis
Aberdeen City Council is the data controller for this information. Wherever the Council processes personal data, we need to make sure we have a legal basis for doing so in data protection law. The Council understands our legal basis for processing this personal data as being necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of the official authority vested in the Council. In doing so, we are likely to process epical categories of data about you. The Council’s legal basis for doing so is that it is necessary for reasons of substantial interest.