Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy, we provide this notice explaining our online information practices along with what data we collect, why we collect it and what we do with it.

This is the privacy policy of The Dispute Service Ltd (registration number 4851694) registered at West Wing, First Floor, Maylands Building, Maylands Avenue, Hemel Hempstead, HP2 7TG.  The Dispute Service Ltd is the Scheme Administrator for Tenancy Deposit Scheme on behalf of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).  The privacy policy of DLUHC can be accessed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tenancy-deposit-protection-privacy-notice

Data Controller

The Dispute Service Ltd is the Data Controller of your personal data.  As a controller, we process the data we hold in accordance with this privacy notice and in compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and all other relevant legislation.

The information we collect

TDS Letting Agents and landlord members

When registering a tenancy deposit for protection, TDS will collect the name, telephone number, address and email address of both the agent and landlord.

At the end of the tenancy, TDS will collect the necessary information to allow us to either repay the deposit or resolve any dispute.  Parties are invited to respond to any request for information.  Parties are also given the opportunity to submit evidence in the event of a dispute which can be accessed and viewed by the parties to the dispute and also by employees of TDS.

TDS will require you to submit bank details in order for payment of any tenancy deposit amounts due to you.

Tenants

When a deposit is registered by a TDS member, we will ask the member to provide the name of the tenant or tenants along with an email address and/or mobile number.

In the event of a tenancy deposit dispute at the end of the tenancy, TDS will collect information provided to us through our online disputes portal. Parties are invited to respond to a dispute and will provide their personal details along with details relating to the tenancy. Parties are also given the opportunity to submit evidence which can be accessed by the parties to the dispute and also employees of TDS.

TDS will require you to submit bank details in order for payment of any tenancy deposit amounts due to you.

Job applicants

TDS will collect information provided by a prospective employee who may make an application to TDS including any CV or similar documents. TDS will not share any of the information provided to third parties for marketing purposes or for any other reasons. Your information will be stored securely, for a period of up to 6 months, and we will contact you using the details you have provided. TDS may request further information including proof of identity or proof of qualifications as your application progresses.

How we collect personal information

TDS collects data in the following ways:

  • From any online form you fill out such as an application for membership to TDS or a tenancy deposit repayment request, registering or responding to a dispute or collection of evidence forms.
  • Through phone calls to our Customer Service Centre which are recorded and retained for a period of up to 6 months from the call date.
  • Through messages received on our social media accounts.
  • Through evidence provided by parties to a tenancy deposit dispute such as contact details within a tenancy agreement.
  • Through the use of our various communications tools.
  • Through any surveys or questionnaires which our customers choose to actively participate in.
  • Any other situations where data is legally and voluntarily sent to TDS.

Electronic Communication

TDS uses electronic communication media when sending correspondence to customers and parties to a dispute.  TDS tracks the delivery of the communications (e.g. emails) sent to the parties to ascertain whether delivery is completed successfully.

In the event that electronic communications are opened by the recipient, TDS is able to see how many times the email has been opened and on what date(s). TDS can also determine the location where these events occurred.

Why we collect personal information

TDS collects personal information to fulfil its legislative role in providing for the protection of tenancy deposits, and also in performing its role in providing a dispute resolution service.

As tenancy deposit protection is mandatory, TDS must collect information such as names and contact details in order to be able to contact parties regarding the deposit protection and to comply with the legislation.

TDS collects and stores data in order to contact our customers.

TDS will request personal information from tenants in the event that an insurance claim is required due to their deposit being misappropriated by the deposit holder.

TDS may use information to conduct surveys in relation to improving our services.

How we use your personal information

TDS primarily holds data to provide relevant information to Government and professional bodies to comply with statute or the rules of that organisation. TDS will also use data for the following purposes:

  • To submit any details requested by any authorised body investigating a crime.
  • To submit any details requested by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs or other government agency or local authority under the relevant legislation.
  • To contact any tenant where the details of the tenanted property and the persons names as the tenant(s) have been registered with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme.
  • For use in contact with any interested third party who has provided the whole or part of the deposit as guarantor or in another capacity.
  • To provide relevant details to the insurer of TDS to comply with their conditions.
  • To confirm, upon request, that a deposit has been protected with TDS.
  • To contact named personnel at agent members.
  • For use in contact with any relevant legal adviser.
  • To contact you regarding information about your account or tenancy deposit protection.
  • To provide relevant information on deposit protection and upcoming events.
  • To provide you with the opportunity to offer your feedback through surveys.

TDS will always ask for consent before using any information for a purpose other than those set out in this privacy policy.

TDS processes personal information on our servers throughout the United Kingdom and the EU in accordance with current and incoming legislation. TDS may therefore process personal information on a server located outside of the country where you live.

Sharing information

We do not share personal information with individuals or companies outside of TDS except in the following circumstances:

Consent

Where you choose to engage in our independent adjudication service which consists of submitting personal information and evidence to an online portal, this evidence will be viewable by employees dealing with the case at TDS along with the agent, landlord(s) and tenant(s) who are party to the tenancy agreement, including any persons acting on their behalf.

Legal reasons

We retain the right to share your information with organisations or individuals if we reasonably believe in good faith that disclosure of information is necessary to:

  • Fulfil an applicable law, regulation or legal process.
  • Fulfil an enforceable Government request.
  • Protect vital interests of a data subject (e.g. life or death situations, vulnerable situations) and performance of a task in the public interest.
  • Address fraudulent activity including in the prevention or detection of it.
  • Address a security issue.
  • Address a technical issue.

TDS reserves the right to share non-personal information publicly and with our partners for educational purposes, publication of annual reviews or publication of statistics.

Our Data Processors

Information is disclosed to third parties who TDS hold a contract with for data processing circumstances such as our website providers.

Accessing and changing your information

If you wish to update your personal information as held by TDS, you are able to do this by accessing your account.  In the event that you are unable to update personal information, please contact TDS and we will assist you.

In the event of a data breach which is likely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals, TDS will notify an individual within 72 hours of such an event being discovered.

Your rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), you have a number of rights regarding the data we hold for you. TDS wants to ensure our customers are aware of their rights and how we ensure they are met:

Right to rectification – Your right without undue delay to rectification of inaccurate personal data.  Our customers are able to update their personal details online under their account or alternatively, can contact TDS for help updating details.

Right to erasure – Your right to the deletion of your personal data.  TDS will consider a request for data erasure on a case by case basis depending on whether TDS must retain the data for legislative purposes.

Right to restrict data processing – Your right to obtain from us restriction of data processing.  TDS will consider the GDPR circumstances that may be relevant around any request.  Where processing restrictions are granted, such personal data will only be processed with consent or in relation to legal claims.

Right to data portability – Your right to receive personal data in a structured, commonly used format.  You are able to find your personal data under your account. Alternatively, TDS will provide all data held for you in a readable format.

Right to object – Your right to object at any time to processing of personal data.  TDS will only proceed with processing if we have compelling legitimate grounds for processing after an objection to processing.

Right to not be subject to automated-decision making – TDS will not subject any individual to automated-decision making.

Subject access requests and complaints

All individuals are entitled under the Data Protection Act to request a copy of the information an organisation holds on them.  An individual who makes a written request and pays any fee applicable is entitled to:

  • Information on what data TDS hold for you.
  • Clarification on whether any personal data is being processed.
  • Reasons why any personal data is being processed.
  • A copy of the data held.

TDS will deal with any subject access requests within 30 days in accordance with GDPR.

To make a subject access request please send your full name to the following email: GDPR@tenancydepositscheme.com

To make a complaint or for further information regarding personal information held by TDS on yourself, please email: GDPR@tenancydepositscheme.com

You have the right to make an enquiry or complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are unhappy with our use of your data. Further details can be found on the ICO website.

Retention of information

All information will be stored securely and is disposed in a secure manner when no longer required.

Information relating to a deposit protection or dispute will be held for seven years in accordance with our Government contract.

Phone calls which are recorded in our customer contact centre are stored for up to 90 days.

TDS will hold data for as long as reasonably required in order to:

  • Comply with applicable law or respond to a valid process;
  • Protect the rights of our customers.

When deleting your personal data, it will be removed from our live, test and development databases immediately.  We will not actively remove this data from our log-files or back-up databases as these are not freely available to be used in the normal course of business.  The data will be expunged from these databases through the normal cycle of over-writing back-ups.

Our Cookie policy

This cookie policy relates to the following website: www.tenancydepositscheme.com

Our website uses cookies to enhance your experience. Some cookies are necessary for our website to work. The cookies we use do not store personally identifiable information.

Below you’ll find more about what each type of cookie category and what they do.

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as page navigation and access to secure areas. The website cannot function properly without these cookies and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.

We use necessary cookies to:

  • Remember information you’ve entered on ordering when you visit different pages in a single web browser session.
  • Identify you as being signed into our website.
  • Provide help for our services.

These necessary cookies will not be used to remember your preferences or username beyond your current visit.

Analytical cookies 

Analytical cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on its usage, so that we can give our users the best browsing experience.

In some cases, some analytical cookies are managed for us by third parties, but we don’t allow the third party to use the cookies for any purpose other than those listed below.

We use analytical cookies to:

  • Help us improve the website by measuring any errors that occur.
  • Provide the ability for users to give us feedback.
  • Provide anonymous statistics on how our website is used.

Our partners include:

Google Analytics
Hotjar
Microsoft UET
Smartlook

Marketing & advertising cookies

Advertising & marketing cookies collect information about your browsing habits to show you advertisements relevant to your interests, including remarketing on external websites, which is based on the products and services you’ve viewed.

We do this so our trusted partners can:

(1) Link to social networks who may use information about your visit to target advertising to you on other websites

(2) Provide advertising agencies and our trusted partners with information on your visit so that we can present adverts that you may be interested in, and prevent you receiving duplicate adverts

(3) Measure the effectiveness of adverts and content you’re shown, including where and how often they’re shown and any action you took in relation to them.

Our partners include:

Google Tag Manager

Google ads

Bing ads

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

LinkedIn

TikTok

YouTube

Outbrain

Managing cookies

There are ways you can control and manage cookies on your device. Please remember that any settings you change at browser or device level will not just affect the cookies we use. These changes will apply to all websites you visit (unless you choose to block cookies from particular sites).

Our Cookie Banner Icon

You can directly edit your preferences in relation to the cookies set by selecting the Cookies icon to set your preferences. Here you can select your preferences in relation to all non-necessary cookies placed by our website.

This method will not impact any cookies previously set, prior to your change in preferences. If you wish to manage existing cookies, you can use your browser settings as outlined below.

Managing cookies in your browser

Most browsers will allow you to choose the level of privacy settings you want. You can (a) block all cookies, (b) accept all cookies, or (c) pick a setting somewhere in between. This range lets you control your cookie settings, so you can:

  • See what cookies you’ve got and delete them on an individual basis
  • Block third party cookies
  • Block cookies from particular sites
  • Block all cookies from being set
  • Delete all cookies when you close your browser

Deleting cookies means that any preference settings you have made on a website will be lost. If you’ve set your preferences to opt out of cookies, this setting will be lost too, as that information is stored in a cookie. Blocking all cookies means functionality on our websites will be lost, as described above. We don’t recommend turning all cookies off when using our websites.

If you want to reduce your cookie settings at any time – for example, if you accept all cookies, but later decide you don’t want a certain type of cookie – you’ll need to use your browser settings to remove any third party cookies dropped on your previous visit.

Find out how to manage your cookies using the most popular browsers below.

Internet Explorer

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies

Firefox

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cookies-information-websites-store-on-your-computer?
Google Chrome

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en

Safari

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201265
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/safari/sfri11471/mac

Information about cookies

Useful information about cookies and how to control them can be found at?www.allaboutcookies.org.