PRIVACY NOTICE

Last updated: August 2026

1. Who we are

RentLocally.co.uk Limited is a company incorporated in Scotland under company number SC351909. Our registered office is Unit 1/109 Swanston Road, Edinburgh, EH10 7DS

We provide residential letting, tenant-finding and property-management services.

For the purposes of UK data-protection law, RentLocally.co.uk Limited will normally be the controller of the personal information described in this notice. This means we decide why and how your personal information is used.

Some RentLocally offices or services may be operated by a partner, franchisee or separate legal business. Where another business is responsible for your personal information, you will be provided with its identity and contact details.

2. How to contact us

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we use your personal information, please contact us:

Email: enquiries@rentlocally.co.uk

Post: RentLocally.co.uk Limited, Dundas House, Westfield Park, Eskbank, Edinburgh, EH22 3FB

Data-protection contact: Steven Murray, steven.murray@rentlocally.co.uk

Please use the heading “Data protection request” when contacting us about your personal information.

3. Who this notice applies to

This privacy notice applies to people whose personal information we use in connection with our services, including:

• Prospective, current and former tenants and occupiers.
• Guarantors and prospective guarantors.
• Landlords, prospective landlords and property owners.
• People who apply for or enquire about properties.
• Contractors, suppliers and professional advisers.
• Complainants, neighbours, witnesses and other people involved with a property.
• People who visit our website or offices or contact members of our staff.

A separate staff privacy notice applies to our employees, workers and job applicants.

4. Personal information we collect

The information we collect will depend on your relationship with us. It may include:

Identity and contact details

Your name, title, date of birth, current and previous addresses, telephone number, email address, signature and copies of identity documents.

Property and household details

Information about the property you are interested in or occupy, intended occupants, household information, tenancy dates, keys and access arrangements.

Application and referencing information

Details about your employment, income, affordability, bank account, previous landlords, references, credit history, insolvency history and fraud-prevention checks.

Tenancy and financial information

Information about rent, deposits, invoices, arrears, payment history, proposed deposit deductions, benefits and transaction references.

We do not normally retain your full payment-card details.

Property-management information

Information about repairs, contractor appointments, inspections, inventories, photographs, videos, meter readings, safety concerns, complaints, property damage and reports of antisocial behaviour.

Communications

Emails, letters, application forms, notes of telephone calls and meetings, text messages and work-related messaging.

Where calls are recorded, we will tell you about this.

Website and technical information

Your IP address, browser, device information, website activity, cookies and security records.

Legal and compliance information

Identity checks, anti-money-laundering information where applicable, court or tribunal records, legal claims and information needed to meet our housing, safety, tax, accounting and letting-agent obligations.

5. Sensitive personal information

We may sometimes receive sensitive personal information about you. Under data-protection law, this is called special-category information.

This may include information about your:

• Health or disability.
• Racial or ethnic background.
• Religion.
• Sexual orientation.
• Trade-union membership.

For example, you may provide health or disability information when asking us to make an adjustment, explaining a vulnerability or raising a safeguarding concern.

We will only use this information where the law allows us to do so. Depending on the circumstances, this may be based on your explicit consent, the protection of someone’s vital interests, legal claims or another condition permitted by data-protection law.

We will only use information about criminal convictions or offences where the law permits this and appropriate safeguards are in place.

6. Where we obtain personal information

We may obtain personal information:

• Directly from you through our website, forms, emails, calls, inspections, meetings and other communications.
• From another applicant, tenant, occupier, guarantor, landlord or authorised representative.
• From landlords, previous landlords, employers, referees and contractors.
• From tenant-referencing, credit-reference, identity-verification, fraud-prevention and insurance providers.
• From deposit-protection schemes.
• From local authorities, benefits agencies, courts, tribunals, regulators, the police and other public bodies where this is lawful.
• From property portals and publicly available registers.
• From other RentLocally offices, partner businesses, professional advisers and service providers.

If you give us personal information about another person, you should tell them that you have done so and direct them to this privacy notice where appropriate.

7. Why we use your information

We must have a lawful basis for every use of your personal information. Different lawful bases may apply when we use information for different purposes.

Property enquiries, viewings and applications

We use your information to:

• Respond to property enquiries.
• Arrange viewings.
• Process and assess applications.
• Communicate with you about a property.

Our lawful bases are taking steps at your request before entering into a contract and our legitimate interests in operating an effective lettings service.

Tenant and guarantor referencing

We use your information to:

• Check your identity.
• Verify your employment and income.
• Assess affordability.
• Review your rental history.
• Obtain landlord or employer references.
• Check relevant credit information.
• Prevent and identify fraud.
• Assist with decisions about your suitability for a tenancy or guarantee.

Our lawful bases may include taking steps at your request before entering into a tenancy or guarantee, meeting a legal obligation and the legitimate interests of RentLocally and the landlord in assessing affordability, managing financial risk and preventing fraud.

Entering into and managing a tenancy

We use your information to:

• Prepare tenancy documents.
• Collect rent and deposits.
• Protect deposits.
• Arrange access, inspections, repairs and safety work.
• Communicate with tenants, guarantors and landlords.
• Manage check-in and check-out.
• Deal with property and tenancy matters.

Our lawful bases are contract, taking steps before entering into a contract, legal obligation and our legitimate interests in managing properties and providing our services.

Landlord and property-management services

We use information to provide valuations, marketing, letting, accounting, management, maintenance and insurance-related services.

Our lawful bases may include contract, taking steps before entering into a contract, legal obligation and legitimate interests.

Rent, deposits, arrears and legal claims

We use information to:

• Process payments.
• Protect and manage deposits.
• Recover rent or other debts.
• Deal with proposed deposit deductions.
• Handle complaints and disputes.
• Manage insurance claims.
• Establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Our lawful bases may include contract, legal obligation and legitimate interests in protecting our legal and financial position.

Safety, safeguarding and emergencies

We may use information to respond to safety concerns, vulnerabilities, emergencies or risks to people or property.

Our lawful bases may include legal obligation, vital interests and legitimate interests. Where sensitive information is involved, we will also identify an appropriate special-category condition.

Legal and regulatory compliance

We may use information to comply with our accounting, tax, housing, safety, money-laundering, letting-agent, court, tribunal and regulatory responsibilities.

Our lawful bases may include legal obligation, legitimate interests and the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Service administration and security

We use information to:

• Maintain our systems and records.
• Protect our systems and services.
• Prevent misuse and fraud.
• Train members of staff.
• Monitor and improve service quality.
• Investigate complaints and incidents.
• Conduct internal audits.

Our lawful bases may include contract, legal obligation and our legitimate interests in security, good governance and improving our services.

Marketing

We may use your contact details to send relevant news, updates or offers.

We will rely on consent where this is required by electronic-marketing law. In other circumstances, we may rely on legitimate interests where the law permits this.

You can unsubscribe from marketing at any time.

8. Tenant referencing and credit checks

If you apply to rent a property or act as a guarantor, we may provide relevant personal information to a tenant-referencing company.

This may include:

• Your name and contact information.
• Your date of birth.
• Your current and previous addresses.
• Employment and income information.
• Your proposed rent.
• Bank information needed for affordability checks.
• Details of current or previous landlords.
• Information required to verify your identity.

The referencing company may check information with employers, landlords, public registers, credit-reference agencies, fraud-prevention services and other lawful sources.

A credit search may leave a record on your credit file. Before carrying out a search, we or the referencing company will explain the type of search being carried out, how your information will be used and where you can read the referencing company’s privacy notice.

Applying for a property does not mean you have consented to every possible use of your information.

Referencing will only be carried out where we have identified an appropriate lawful basis and have provided clear privacy information. Where consent is genuinely required, it will be requested separately and you will be given a genuine choice.

Our current tenant-referencing provider is but is not limited to:

Let Alliance - Barbon Insurance Group Limited

9. Automated decisions

Referencing companies may use automated systems or scoring to help assess identity, affordability, credit information or fraud risk.

Unless we tell you otherwise, RentLocally does not make a final decision about a tenancy using only an automated system. A person will consider the available information and the landlord’s lawful requirements.

If we make a decision that has a legal or similarly significant effect using only automated processing, we will explain:

• That automated processing is being used.
• The main information and logic involved.
• The importance and likely effect of the decision.
• Your right to ask for human involvement.
• How you can challenge the decision.

10. Who we share information with

Where it is necessary and lawful, we may share relevant personal information with:

• The landlord or property owner and their authorised representatives.
• Joint applicants, tenants and guarantors where appropriate.
• Tenant-referencing companies.
• Credit-reference, identity-verification and fraud-prevention companies.
• Current and previous landlords.
• Employers and other referees.
• Deposit-protection schemes and dispute services.
• Contractors, inventory clerks, inspectors, surveyors and safety assessors.
• Insurers, insurance brokers, claims handlers and loss adjusters.
• Banks and payment providers.
• Accountants, auditors, debt-recovery companies and solicitors.
• Property portals.
• Website, email and communication providers.
• Providers of our property-management, document, inspection, maintenance and customer-service systems.
• Utility companies and local authorities where relevant and lawful.
• Courts, tribunals, regulators, tax authorities, the police and other public bodies where required or permitted by law.
• A buyer, seller or professional adviser involved in a genuine sale, transfer or reorganisation of our business.

We do not sell your personal information.

Businesses processing information on our behalf must follow our instructions, protect your information and only use it for the agreed purpose.

Some organisations, including credit-reference agencies, deposit schemes and public authorities, may be separate controllers. This means they are responsible for how they use information under their own privacy notices.

11. International transfers

Some suppliers may store or access personal information outside the United Kingdom.

Where this happens, we will use an appropriate legal safeguard. This may include:

• A country covered by UK adequacy regulations.
• The UK International Data Transfer Agreement.
• The UK Addendum to approved contractual clauses.
• Another transfer safeguard allowed by law.

We will also complete any necessary risk assessment and apply appropriate security measures.

You can contact us for further information about the safeguards applying to your information.

12. How long we keep personal information

We keep personal information only for as long as it is reasonably needed for the purpose for which it was collected.

We also consider legal, tax, accounting, insurance, regulatory and dispute requirements.

Our normal retention periods are:

Unsuccessful property enquiries and applications

Normally six months after the application closes or is withdrawn.

Referencing records

Normally six months for an unsuccessful application.

Relevant referencing evidence for a successful applicant may form part of the tenancy record. The referencing company may have separate retention periods under its own privacy notice.

Tenancy and guarantor records

Normally six years after the tenancy, guarantee, account or related dispute ends, unless a longer period is required.

Landlord and property-management records

Normally six years after the management relationship or relevant transaction ends.

Financial and tax records

Normally six years after the end of the relevant financial year, or longer where required by law.

Complaints

Normally at least five years, in line with applicable Scottish letting-agent requirements. We may keep information longer where a dispute or legal claim continues.

Repairs, inspections, inventories and safety records

These will normally be retained with the relevant tenancy or property-management record. We may keep them longer where required for safety, insurance or legal claims.

Marketing records

We may retain marketing information until you unsubscribe or we determine that the information is no longer current.

We may keep a minimal suppression record after you unsubscribe to ensure that we respect your request.

We may keep particular information for longer where it is required for a complaint, legal claim, investigation or legal obligation.

13. Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against accidental or unlawful loss, alteration, disclosure or access.

These measures include:

• Limiting access to people who need the information.
• Staff training.
• Secure computer systems.
• Supplier checks and agreements.
• Backups.
• Security monitoring.
• Procedures for managing data incidents.

Although we take appropriate precautions, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

14. Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances and the lawful basis we rely on, you may have the right to:

• Ask whether we use your personal information.
• Receive a copy of your personal information.
• Have inaccurate or incomplete information corrected.
• Ask us to erase information in certain circumstances.
• Ask us to restrict how information is used in certain circumstances.
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Receive information you provided in a portable format where this right applies.
• Withdraw your consent where we rely on consent.
• Ask for human involvement in a significant decision made solely by an automated system.
• Challenge a significant automated decision.

Withdrawing consent will not affect any processing that was lawful before the consent was withdrawn.

These rights are not absolute and may not apply in every situation. We may need to ask for information to confirm your identity and understand your request.

We will normally respond without undue delay and within one month. We do not normally charge a fee for dealing with a data-protection request.

Your right to object

You have the right to object at any time to our use of your personal information for direct marketing. If you object, we will stop using your information for that purpose.

You may also object where we rely on legitimate interests. We will consider your circumstances and stop the processing unless we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue or need the information to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim.

15. Complaints

Please contact us first if you are concerned about how we have used your personal information. This will give us the opportunity to investigate and try to resolve your concern.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is the UK regulator for data protection.

Website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Post:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

16. Marketing and service communications

We keep necessary service communications separate from marketing.

We may contact you when this is needed to manage an enquiry, application, tenancy, property, repair, inspection, account or other service.

These communications are not marketing, and you may not be able to opt out while the relevant service or legal relationship continues.

We will only send electronic marketing where this is permitted by law. You can unsubscribe at any time by using the unsubscribe option in a message or contacting us.

17. Cookies

Our separate cookie notice explains the cookies and similar technologies used on our website and the choices available to you.

18. Changes to this notice

We may update this privacy notice when our services, suppliers or legal responsibilities change.

The latest version will be published on our website and will show the date it was last updated.

If we make a significant change, we will take reasonable steps to bring it to the attention of the people affected.