Privacy Policy

ClaimMyRentBack are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This privacy policy sets out how we will collect, use, and process the personal data you provide or that is collected from you. Please review this policy carefully to understand our approach to your personal data and how we will handle it.

For the purpose of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 1998, the data controller is ClaimMyRentBack. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we process your personal information, please contact us on info@claimmyrentback.co.uk

Information We Collect

We collect personal information that you provide to us directly, as well as information obtained from other lawful sources where necessary to provide our services.

The personal information we may collect includes:

Your name, postal address, telephone number and email address.
Identification documents, where required to verify your identity.
Tenancy agreements, licences to occupy and other documents relating to your tenancy.
Rent payment records, bank statements and other financial information relevant to assessing your claim.
Tribunal documents, court documents and other legal correspondence.
Correspondence with your landlord, letting agent, local authority, tenant support services or other organisations relevant to your matter.
Property inspection reports, property photographs, videos and other evidence relating to your tenancy or the condition of the property.
Utility bills and other documents that may assist in verifying your occupation of a property.
Information relating to your housing circumstances, including details of any issues affecting the property or your tenancy.
Land Registry information and other publicly available information relevant to your claim.

We may also collect personal information contained within emails, letters, telephone calls and any other communications you send to us, together with any documents or evidence you provide in support of your matter.

Where appropriate, we may obtain personal information from third parties, including local authorities, Companies House, HM Land Registry, regulatory bodies, professional advisers, representatives acting on your behalf, and other publicly available sources, where it is lawful and necessary to do so for the purposes of assessing, managing or pursuing your claim.

Sharing your Personal information

We may share your personal information where necessary with:

the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber);
local authorities;
landlords or their legal representatives where required for legal proceedings;
solicitors, barristers or other professional advisers acting on your behalf;
IT service providers, website hosting providers and email providers;
HM Land Registry, Companies House and other public bodies;
regulatory authorities or law enforcement agencies where required by law.

Lawful Basis for Processing

We process your personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:

Legitimate Interests – We process your personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests in assessing your potential claim, providing advice, communicating with you, and managing or pursuing your Rent Repayment Order (RRO) matter, provided that these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms.
Performance of a Contract – Where you instruct us to provide our services, we process your personal data as necessary to perform our contractual obligations to you.
Consent – Where required by law, we will obtain your consent before processing your personal data for specific purposes. You may withdraw your consent at any time; however, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.
Establishment, Exercise or Defence of Legal Claims – Where necessary, we may process personal data, including information relating to legal proceedings, for the purpose of establishing, exercising or defending legal claims, including representing you in proceedings before the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).

We will only process your personal data where we have a lawful basis for doing so and only to the extent necessary to provide our services and comply with our legal obligations.

Purposes of Processing

We process your personal information only where it is necessary and lawful to do so. We use your personal information for the following purposes:

To assess your eligibility for a Rent Repayment Order (RRO) or any other housing-related claim.
To review your housing circumstances and provide advice regarding your legal rights and available options.
To determine whether there are reasonable grounds to pursue legal action in relation to breaches of housing legislation affecting a property you currently occupy or have previously occupied.
To communicate with you regarding your enquiry, claim and any ongoing legal proceedings.
To prepare, manage and submit applications, evidence and supporting documentation to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) and any other relevant court or authority where you have instructed us to act on your behalf.
To correspond with landlords, letting agents, local authorities, professional advisers and other third parties where necessary for the purpose of progressing your claim.
To verify the information and evidence you provide, including conducting reasonable checks using publicly available sources where appropriate.
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including maintaining appropriate records and responding to lawful requests from public authorities.
To establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
To improve the quality of our services, maintain accurate records and administer our business.

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which it was collected or for another compatible purpose where permitted by applicable law. Where we are required to obtain your consent before processing your personal information for a specific purpose, we will do so and you may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to any legal or contractual obligations that apply.

Security

We are committed to protecting the security of your personal information. We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect your personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data.

Access to your personal information is restricted to those employees, contractors and service providers who have a legitimate business need to access it in order to provide our services. All individuals who process personal data on our behalf are subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations.

We also maintain procedures for identifying, investigating and responding to suspected personal data breaches. Where we are legally required to do so, we will notify the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and, where applicable, affected individuals in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Although we take reasonable steps to safeguard your personal information, no method of transmitting data over the internet or storing electronic information is completely secure. While we endeavour to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of information transmitted to us electronically. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use appropriate security measures to help prevent unauthorised access, disclosure or misuse.

Where We Store Your Personal Data

Your personal information is stored securely within our business email account and on secure offline business devices used to manage client matters. We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, accidental loss, alteration, disclosure or destruction.

Where we use third-party service providers, such as our email hosting provider or website provider, your personal information may also be processed or stored on their secure systems. We take reasonable steps to ensure that any third-party service providers handling personal data on our behalf provide appropriate safeguards in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

We will only store and process your personal information for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

How Long We Keep Your Personal Data

We will retain your personal information for six years after your matter has concluded, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

You have the right to request the deletion of your personal information in certain circumstances. We will consider all such requests in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. However, we may retain your personal information where it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, establish, exercise or defend legal claims, or where another lawful basis for retention applies.

Your Rights

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal information, including:

The right of access – You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to receive supplementary information about how we process it.
The right to rectification – You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal information we hold about you.
The right to erasure – You have the right to request the deletion of your personal information in certain circumstances. This right is not absolute and may not apply where we are required to retain your information to comply with a legal obligation or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
The right to object – You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information where we rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis for processing.
The right to data portability – Where applicable, you have the right to receive the personal information you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and to request that it be transferred to another data controller.
The right to withdraw consent – Where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before your consent was withdrawn.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided in this Privacy Policy. We may request proof of identity before responding to your request. We will respond to your request in accordance with the timescales and requirements set out under the UK GDPR.