What is Housing Standards?
Administering, enforcing, regulating and advising on housing law which includes privately and social rented homes, houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and HMO licensing, landlord and tenant law, public health, Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES), and grants.
Contact details specific to service
If you have any queries, please contact us by email.
How will we use your information?
Your personal information will be treated as confidential, but it may be shared with other Council services in order to ensure our records are accurate and up-to-date, and to carry out our functions. We will only use your information in ways which are permitted by the General Data Protection Regulations and the current UK Data Protection law.
The Council may also use your information for the purpose of performing any of its statutory enforcement duties and protecting public health. It will make any disclosures required by law and may also share your information with other bodies responsible for detecting/preventing crime/protecting public health.
We may use your information for keeping you informed of Housing Standards related services and changes to housing law.
We will not disclose your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.
Who will have access to my personal data?
Information is shared with other regulatory and enforcement authorities including, but not limited to, other Council services; the police; HM Revenues and Customs; Home Office Immigration; NHS services, and other local authorities when allowed to by law for the purposes of the administration and enforcement of regulations, and for the purposes of the prevention and detection of crime, public safety, public health, protection of the environment and prevention of fraud.
We are required by law to publish certain information about licensed HMOs (including the name and the address of the licence holder and property manager) on a public register on our website.
Where we do not directly provide the service, we may need to pass your personal data onto a company or organisation that does. These providers must keep your details safe and secure, and use them only to provide the service, for example building contractors carrying out work. The Council will not transfer your data to countries outside the European Economic Area.
What information is processed?
We collect confidential personal information where required by law and to help delivery of our services, including names; addresses; dates of birth; contact details; details of qualifications and occupations; nationality; ownership of land, premises or property; previous criminal convictions; medical status; bank account and other financial account details; details of family and other relationships where necessary.
Retention period
Your information will usually be retained in line with current Council retention policies.
Where information relates to an ongoing matter – for example a prohibition order, a renewed HMO licence, or a charge notice which has not been discharged – your information will be retained until the matter is concluded (e.g. the notice is discharged, or you no longer have a legal interest in the property).
Summary of rights
You have a number of statutory rights to the information we hold on you, which includes access. These are explained in the “Summary of the data subject’s rights” section of our website, on the Privacy and Cookies page.
Alternatively, you can request this information:
- By email: informationgovernance@cherwell-dc.gov.uk
- Or by post: Information Governance Team, Cherwell District Council, 39 Castle Quay, Banbury, OX16 5FD.