Information for tenants in Hitchin

In addition to paying the rent, you may also be required to make the following payments permitted under the

Tenant Fees Act 2019.

Before the tenancy starts (payable to Belvoir Hitchin and Stevenage ‘the Agent’)

Holding Deposit: Equivalent to one week’s rent (annual rent divided by 52). This is administered in line with the Agreement to Grant a Tenancy which is signed by the applicant tenant. This will be withheld if any relevant person (including any guarantor(s)) withdraws from the tenancy, fails a Right-to-Rent check, provides materially significant or false or misleading information, or fails to sign their tenancy agreement and if relevant a guarantor agreement, within 15 calendar days (or other Deadline for Agreement as mutually agreed in writing).

Deposit: Payable before the start of the tenancy and held under a Government approved scheme for the duration of the agreement. It will be repaid in full provided all tenancy obligations have been fulfilled. The deposit will be subject to a maximum of five weeks’ rent for an annual rent of up to £50,000 and a maximum of six weeks’ rent for an annual rent over £50,000.

Unpaid Rent during the tenancy (payable to the Agent)

Payment of Interest at 3% above the Bank of England Base Rate for late payment of rent from the due date until paid. (Not charged until the rent is more than 14 days overdue).

During the tenancy if permitted and applicable

Utilities – gas, electricity, water and sewerage

Communications – telephone and broadband

Installation of cable/satellite

Subscription to cable/satellite supplier

Television licence

Council Tax

Other permitted payments

Any other permitted payments, not included above, for breaches of contract or under the relevant legislation including contractual damages. These may include:

Lost keys – The actual cost of replacing lost keys or other security device. If the loss results in locks needing to be changed, the actual costs of a locksmith, new lock and replacement keys will be charged to the tenant.

Variation of a contract at the Tenant’s request – To cover the costs of taking landlord’s instructions and execution of new contract capped at £50.00 inc VAT or reasonable costs if higher.

Adding or removing a Tenant at the Tenant’s request, with the Landlords approval – To cover the costs of taking landlord’s instructions, new tenant referencing and Right-to-Rent checks, deposit registration and execution of new tenancy agreement capped at £50 inc VAT (per replacement tenant or any reasonable costs incurred if higher).

Early termination costs – This does not give a right to terminate a tenancy earlier than the end of the fixed term and any request will be considered on a case by case basis.  If the Tenants is granted permission to terminate the contract early, the tenant shall be liable to the landlord’s reasonable costs in re-letting the property (one month’s rent including VAT) and also including rent due under the tenancy until the start date of the replacement tenancy.

Applicant, Guarantor and Tenant Privacy Notice

The Agent is committed to protecting and processing your personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations and the Data Protection Act 2018 (the legislation). For the purpose of the legislation and your personal data the Agent is, LM Trading Limited, is the Data Controller, Davinder Gharial is the person responsible for data protection and can be contacted at 32 Bancroft, Hitchin, Hertfordshire SG5 1LA.

The General Data Protection Regulations are to safeguard your personally identifiable information or personal data. This privacy notice will be regularly reviewed and updated.

Information held

The personal data we process may include the information in column A of the attached appendix and may also include other sensitive data concerning health, if relevant to your application. Where the provision of data is a statutory, a contractual requirement or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract, a refusal to provide the data may mean that we are unable to provide you with our service.

To ensure that we provide you with the best service possible we will need to collect and retain certain personal data. The data may be collected and processed by those listed in columns B and F. How we source the data is identified in column C. We may source data from 3^rd parties or via third parties e.g. Credit referencing company.

Lawful basis of processing

Your personal data will be used for the activities in column D. There are 6 lawful basis of processing your data including consent, a legitimate interest, contract fulfilment, a legal obligation and a vital interest. For each usage of the date the lawful basis of the processing of your data will be identified in column E. A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to process your personal data which needs to be balanced with your interests i.e. what is right and best for you.

Where we state that we have a legitimate interest, the fact that we have a legitimate interest and what that legitimate interest is, will be stated in column E, e.g. to keep in touch with you during the pre-tenancy process; to seek your consent when we need it to contact you; fulfilling our legal and contractual duties.

Online identifiers, IP addresses and cookie identifiers

Where you visit our website we may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns.

We may obtain information by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. They help us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalised service. They enable us:

• To estimate our audience size and usage pattern.
• To store information about your preferences, and so allow us to customise our site according to your individual interests.
• To speed up your searches.
• To recognise you when you return to our site.

You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you log on to our site. You can find more information about cookies at www.allaboutcookies.org

This policy only applies to our site. If you leave our site via a link or otherwise, you will be subject to the privacy policy of that website provider. We have no control over that privacy policy or the terms of the website and you should check their privacy policy before continuing to access the site.

Recipients of personal data

It will be necessary for us to process or share all or some of your personal data with a range of individuals, businesses and organisations and these may include those listed in column F.

Where is the data stored?

Your personal data is stored in the way described in column G and the data is always stored within the European Union or outside of the European Union but with an organisation operating under the General Data Protection Regulations.

Retention period and criteria used to determine the retention period

We will retain some elements of your personal data for up to the time defined in column H after the application process. What information can be anonymized will be when no longer required for either contractual fulfilment or a legitimate interest. If the lawful basis for processing your data was consent then you may withdraw consent at any time.

Your rights

You have a right of access to check your personal data to verify the lawful basis of processing. We are obliged to respond to an access request within 30 days and may not charge a fee unless the request is unfounded, excessive or repetitive. If a fee is charged it is to be a reasonable fee based upon the administrative cost of providing the information.

You have a right to rectification if the data we hold is either inaccurate or incomplete. If your data has been disclosed to third parties then we must inform them of the rectification, where possible.

You have a right to erasure of your data when consent is our basis of processing (the right to be forgotten). You may request that your personal data be erased, for example, where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing or where you withdraw consent. We will comply with your request unless we have another basis of processing justifying our retaining the data (for example a legal requirement or the defence of a legal claim).

You have some rights to ask us to restrict processing i.e. to block or supress processing where, for example, the data may be incorrect and whilst the accuracy is verified. We are permitted to store the data.

Your right to object

You do have a right to object to further processing of your personal data. We may be required to stop processing unless there is some other legitimate basis of processing such as a legitimate interest or a requirement for the exercise or defence of a legal claim.

Withdrawal of consent

Where the lawful basis for processing is your consent, you may withdraw consent at any time by writing to, Davinder Gharial, LM Trading Limited, 32 Bancroft, Hitchin, SG5 1LA

How to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority   

The supervisory authority responsible for data protection is the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) to whom concerns may be reported by phone on 0303 123 1113 or +44 1625 545 745 if calling from outside the UK, by email using the form on the website ico.org.uk or the live chat function.

Appendix

Column A- Information held

• Tenant Name (s)
• Guarantor name (s)
• Applicant name (s)
• Previous names
• Contact details
• Names and contact details of next of kin or guarantors
• Email address (es)
• Bank details
• Tenant employer
• Salary information
• Credit history or score
• Other references
• Personal circumstances
• Children’s details
• Personal data on smoking, pets, lifestyle
• Financial and personal data on receipt of benefits
• Ethnicity and citizenship
• Previous landlord details
• Passport or other id documents
• Proof of current or previous address (es)

Column B- Who is collecting the data?

• Staff
• Credit Check company
• Utility management partner

Column C- How is it collected?

• In office
• Over phone
• Emails
• Self registration
• Tenant application form
• Online

Column D- Why is it collected?

• To use on contract
• Add to property management software
• To manage your tenancy application
• To manage the actual tenancy
• To manage the affairs after the tenancy in relation to arrears, legal action, refund of deposit
• To use on prescribed information
• Legal action
• Services provided- like utility management
• Marketing
• To inform the Council
• To assess suitability for the tenancy
• To pass onto the landlord
• Offer additional services
• To chase arrears
• To confirm Right to Rent checks
• Referencing
• Contractor access for maintenance or compliance with the law
• Emergency access
• Refund rent or any other monies

Column E- Lawful basis for processing?

• Consent
• Contract fulfilment
• Legal obligation
• Legitimate interest
• Vital interest
• Public interest

Column F- who will it be shared with?

• Staff
• Contractors
• Employer
• Landlord
• Referencing company
• Local authority
• Software providers
• Utility management company
• Utility providers
• Solicitors
• Debt collectors
• Court of Law

Column G- How is it stored?

• Paper
• Files
• Electronic
• On the Cloud
• Emails
• Local server

Column H- When will it be deleted?

• On request unless a tenancy has started or monies were exchanged
• 6 years after tenant vacates property
• Unless a legal case has been registered and legal action is on going