GDPR Privacy Notice

(Last updated 14th March 2025)

Introduction and background

The purpose of this privacy notice is to outline how HomeGround Management Limited has established measures to protect your privacy and information rights.
If you have any questions in respect of this notice, or would like to exercise your rights as a data subject (for example, to correct data or to exercise your right to access), HomeGround can be contacted as follows: enquiries@homegroundonline.com or PO Box 6433 London W1A 2UZ, marked for the attention of the Data Protection Officer.

Your rights

We recognise that you have rights as a ‘data subject’, and that we have an obligation to uphold these.

This privacy notice aims to outline how we maintain these rights.  In particular, it outlines:

  • How we collect and process your information;
  • Why we do this;
  • What type of personal information we collect;
  • How you can exercise your rights; and
  • Who to contact in the event you’re unhappy with our performance.

Under current UK data protection law, you have rights including:

Right Explanation
Right to be informed This means that we have to be transparent in how we collect and use your personal data.
Right to access You have the right to access your personal data.
Right to rectification If the information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you can request that we correct this.
Right to erasure You can request that we delete or remove personal data in certain circumstances.
Right to restrict processing

You have the right to request that we cease processing your data, if:

  • you consider it inaccurate or incomplete; and/or
  • you object to the reason we are processing your data.

We will review the validity of your request and respond to you with our decision.
Right to data portability Where you have consented to our processing your data, or where the processing is necessary for us to deliver a contract, you can request a copy of that data be provided to a third party in electronic form.
Right to object

You have the right to object to our processing in certain circumstances. For example, you can object to:

  • direct marketing; and
  • processing for the purposes of scientific/historical and statistics.

For the avoidance of doubt, we do not process data for these purposes.
Rights relating to automated decision making including profiling

Where we apply automated decision making, we must:

  • give you information about the processing;
  • introduce simple ways for you to request human intervention or challenge a decision;
  • carry out regular checks to make sure that our systems are working as intended.

We do not use automated decision making or profiling.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you exercise your right of access, we will require proof of identification and the one-month timeframe for a response begins from receipt of your identification document.

Please get in touch with us at enquiries@homegroundonline.com or PO Box 6433 London W1A 2UZ, marked for the attention of the Data Protection Officer to find out more or to exercise your information rights. There are circumstances in which we will decline your request, but we will explain this clearly to you.

Information we collect

Please find below a summary of the information we hold and how we use this to deliver services to you.

Information we collect Examples of Information Why we collect the information How we obtain the information

Core customer records

Customer correspondence

Customer billing

Customer  documentation (hardcopy)

Property Details, Name, Contact Details

Any Details provided by the customer

Payment and billing details

Lease or other title documents

 We collect your information in order to perform a contract (your lease or title document). This includes, for example, administering and processing billing or consents and other obligations under your lease or title document. 

Most of the information we obtain is provided to us directly by your landlord or rentcharge owner.

 

We also receive information from customers directly and indirectly from managing agents or management companies, insurers, solicitors or payment processors in relation to the legal performance of your lease or title document.

Employee details

 Contact details, financial details including tax, pension details, HR records including performance, disciplinary and recruitment We process this information about our employees to allow us to administer their employment and benefits pursuant to contract and for prospective employees in relation to recruitment 

Most of the information we process is provided to us by the employee or prospective employee directly.
Cookies Analytical information e.g. browsing patterns and statistical data We use the information to improve customer experience on our website Certain cookies are essential for the performance of the website and do not require consent. For analytical cookies we require your consent and there is an option on the website to modify your cookie preferences.
CCTV footage Employee and third party visual and audio footage We use CCTV to ensure the general security of the office, its employees and visitors. We use CCTV to monitor secure areas within the office and to comply with our ISO 27001 standards Cameras are displayed within the office with appropriate advisory signage.

Sharing data

We share data with a number of third parties in the course of delivering our services.  These are summarised below:

  • Our IT service provider provides offsite backup services for us.
  • We use an offsite document scanning and storage facility. This allows us to make sure that our primary internal records are electronic.
  • We have a firm of accountants who operate payroll on our behalf and carry out auditing.
  • We use solicitors to deal with all legal aspects of our business.
  • We use surveyors and valuers to deal with freehold sale and lease extension valuations and matters relating to alterations.
  • We use a risk management specialist to carry out building reinstatement cost assessments (“RCA”) for the buildings which we manage.
  • We use insurance brokers to assist with procurement and placement of insurance policies for the buildings which we manage. Please refer to the short form Privacy Notice from Arthur J Gallagher Insurance Brokers Limited below.
  • We share data with management companies and managing agents in order to administer the obligations in your lease or title document.
  • We share data with project management companies, construction companies and developers to carry out construction and remediation works at buildings.
  • We share data with Government appointed agencies as part of the requirements to secure Government funding for building safety works, where required.
  • We use a cloud-based HR management system, to help us administer employee records.
  • We share employee data with training, benefits, pension and healthcare providers and in compliance with any audit obligations imposed on us in relation to our business activities.
  • We use confidential waste disposal for confidential documents.
  • We have a leasing arrangement with a photocopier provider.
  • We use property management and project management software.
  • We use a cloud-based software system to operate our customer call centre.
  • We use document signing software to securely e-sign and manage documents.
  • We use a document enhancement and distribution platform provided by an external provider to generate customer correspondence. This includes secure printing and postal services, as well as collating and
    distributing electronic communications through our email provider.
  • We use a secure eCommerce portal to enable customer payments via our website or via telephone.
  • We use the Office 365 suite provided by Microsoft to handle our email and other office automation.

Retention of data

With the exception of call recordings and CCTV footage, HomeGround retains personal data for seven (7) years from the point of last contact. As at the date of this Privacy Notice, call recordings are kept for a period of 12 months from the date of call. CCTV footage is kept for a maximum of 6 months from the date of the recording, except where there is an active investigation ongoing, in which case the footage may be stored for longer to comply with our legal and regulatory requirements.

Securing your information

HomeGround applies technical and organisational security measures in line with industry good practices such as ISO 27001. HomeGround has achieved the Cyber Essentials accreditation.

Short Form Privacy Notice from Arthur J Gallagher Insurance Brokers Limited

Gallagher are the controller of any personal data you provide to them or personal data that has been provided to them by a third party such as ourselves. Gallagher collect and process personal data in order to offer and provide insurance services and policies and to process claims. Personal data is also used for business purposes such as fraud prevention and detection, financial management, to generate risk modelling, conduct analytics including to advise, improve and develop their products and services and to comply with their legal and regulatory obligations. This may involve sharing information with, and obtaining information from, their group companies and third parties such as (re)insurers, other brokers, loss adjusters, credit reference agencies, service providers, professional advisors, their regulators or fraud prevention agencies.
Gallagher may record telephone calls to help them monitor and improve the service they provide as well as for regulatory purposes.

Please see Gallagher’s Privacy Notice for further information on how your personal data is used, shared, disclosed and retained, your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact their Data Protection Officer. Gallagher’s Privacy Notice can be found at https://www.ajg.com/uk/privacy-policy/. From time to time they may make important updates to their Privacy Notice and these may in turn affect the way they use and handle your data. Please ensure you review their Privacy Notice periodically to ensure you are aware of any changes.

If you are providing Gallagher with personal data of another individual that would be covered under the insurance policy they may be placing or services they may provide to you, you shall ensure that you have
obtained all appropriate consents, where required, tell them you are providing their information to Gallagher and show them a copy of this notice. You must not share personal data with Gallagher that is not necessary for them to offer, provide or administer their services to you is notice.

Contact Us

We recognise that you may have questions on how we process and/or store your data, or may want to change either the data we hold on you or how we communicate with you in the future.

If you have any questions in respect of this notice, or would like to exercise your rights as a data subject (for example, to correct data or to exercise your right to access), Homeground Management Limited can be contacted as follows: enquiries@homegroundonline.com or PO Box 6433 London W1A 2UZ, marked for the attention of the Data Protection Officer.

If you are unhappy with our response to your query, of if you would like to escalate a concern, The Information Commissioner’s Office can be contacted on 030 3123 1113 or you can visit their website https://ico.org.uk for further details.