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Your data: application for social rented housing

How we use your information

Aberdeen City Council collects the information about you in the application form in order for you to apply for social rented housing, to manage any tenancy that you may be offered, and to collect information about housing needs and trends.

The information you provide will be used for the following purposes:

  • To determine whether you are eligible for Council housing.
  • To determine your housing needs, priority, and type of tenancy.
  • To give you housing options advice.
  • To assist and match people to suitable properties.
  • To provide support to enable you to keep your Council house.

The information you provide about your current and previous tenancies will be shared with current or former landlords in order for us to check whether the tenancies were conducted satisfactorily. In order to determine your housing needs we may share your information with social work and NHS health services and we may request further information from you.

The Council is obliged to participate in the National Fraud Initiative in Scotland and in terms of this passes information to Audit Scotland for data matching to detect fraud or possible fraud.  Details of this exercise can be found on Audit Scotland’s website.

How long we keep your information for

Following your application, your information will be stored electronically. Your information will remain in our system while you are on a waiting list for Council housing.

If you are allocated a Council house your records will be kept securely and regularly updated during your tenancy with Aberdeen City Council. Your records will be kept securely for 7 more years from the close of your tenancy, or the last acknowledgement of debt, or the most recent contact with housing services, whichever is later.

If, for any reason, you are no longer on the waiting list for a house (for example, if you have alternative accommodation and no longer wish to be on the waiting list) we will retain your application information for a further 7 years from the time your name is taken off our waiting list.

Your rights

You have rights in relation to your data, including the right to ask for a copy of it. See the Your data page for 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

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 personal data in relation to your application as Article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulation. This is because it is part of our public task of providing housing under the Housing (Scotland) Acts 1987 and 2001.

In delivering this service, the Council will process special category personal data. The Council understands our legal basis for doing so as Article 9(2)(g) of the General Data Protection Regulation. This means that it is in the substantial public interest to fulfil our obligations that we have considered all relevant information when making decisions relating to your housing situation, we do this under the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987.

The Council has a legal obligation under Part 2A of the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000, to provide Audit Scotland with data to carry out data matching exercises for the purpose of assisting in the prevention and detection of fraud.

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