Privacy Notice - Scottish Property Factor Register

Privacy policy

This privacy policy explains what personal information we will collect in connection with an application to enter the register of property factors (the register) and how we will use this information. It also explains your rights to access the personal information we hold about you and how to make a complaint about the processing of your data.

Why are we collecting your personal information?

The Scottish Government is required by Part 1 of the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 (the 2011 Act) to establish and maintain the register. This aims to ensure that those in control of a business operating as a property factor are fit and proper persons.

In order to consider an application to join the register, we are required to process the personal data provided in an application. The basis for processing this personal data is in accordance with Article 6(1)(c) and/or Article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

The Scottish property factor register is administered by the Scottish Government and hosted on this website by Registers of Scotland (RoS).

What information do we collect?

When a business applies to join the register, it is required by Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 to provide certain personal information about any relevant persons directly concerned with the control or governance of the property factor. This information will be used to assess whether the organisation and relevant persons meet the considerations for entry to the register.

For each of the relevant persons identified as being directly concerned with the control or governance of the property factor, this includes the following personal information, where supplied for business purposes:

  • Name and any previous names
  • Date of birth
  • Residential address for the last five years
  • E-mail address
  • Contact telephone number
  • Details of certain unspent convictions, unlawful discrimination and any contraventions of the law relating to tenements, property, housing and debt*

*We may ask you to verify certain personal information you provide. If we require you to provide a criminal conviction certificate, then we will inform you of the purpose of this request, how to obtain a certificate, how to send this certificate to us and how we will process such information.

For a person listed as the primary contact for the registration (if not a relevant person) this includes the following personal information, where supplied for business purposes:

  • name
  • e-mail address
  • telephone number

How will we use your personal data?

Personal information which you provide to us may be used in a few ways, for example

  • To contact you if we require further information regarding your application;
  • To make a decision whether any person(s) directly concerned with the control or governance of the property factor (as listed in the application) meet or continue to meet the conditions for entry to the register;
  • To assess whether a person is a fit and proper person to be a property factor, Scottish Ministers may seek to verify details provided by an applicant, or by an individual identified in an application for registration, with relevant organisations
  • To inform you of our decision on whether to approve or refuse the application;
  • To be displayed as required on the public register;
  • To contact you at any point following your entry to the register for related purposes.

By ‘related purposes’ we mean contacting you in connection with your entry on the register and/or updating you on what constitutes good practice as a registered property factor. For example, to notify you of:

  • when your legal duties as a property factor change; and
  • relevant policy changes proposed or implemented by Scottish Government and/or by other third-party organisations.

We will not contact you for any purpose which does not have any relevance to your duties as a registered property factor.

Payment information

The Scottish Government provides a separate service to process payments of application fees through invoicing. The Scottish Government will only have access to such information as is necessary to provide that service and will only process that information for the purpose of providing that service.

How long we will we keep your personal data for?

We will keep all personal details relating to an applicant’s registration for a period of 7 years from the date of entry into the register. This will allow us to check the accuracy of the information provided, or previously provided, should evidence to the contrary be found either during the registration or re-registration (registration is for a 3-year period).

Personal information will also be kept where a registered property factor’s registration is being reviewed or investigated until the end of that process.

Personal information of those included in an application that has been refused or where a registered property factor has had their registration revoked will be kept for 10 years.

What if I don’t provide you with my personal data?

If your business wants to join the register, all relevant persons identified in the application must provide the personal information required by law. Failure to provide the required statutory information may lead to your application being refused.

The consequences of not providing personal data (where required) may lead to delays in your application being processed by us and may affect your ability to legally operate as a property factor.

You have the right to withdraw your application to register at any time prior to it being determined.

If you are currently registered, then we will remove your entry on the register if you do not submit a further application prior to the expiry of your current three-year registration period.

A person who operates as a property factor while unregistered and without reasonable excuse commits a criminal offence under section 12 of the 2011 Act, and is liable, on summary conviction to up to six months imprisonment, £5,000 fine, or both.

Will my personal information be shared?

To assess whether an applicant is a 'fit and proper' person to be a property factor, Scottish Ministers may seek to verify details provided by them, or an individual identified in an application for registration, with relevant third-party organisations. For example:

  • Local authorities
  • Police Scotland

Where Scottish Ministers do wish to verify information, you have provided with a relevant third party, a data sharing agreement will be established setting out what information will be shared and how we will share it.

We may be required, on request, to share any personal information you provide to us with Police Scotland for the purposes of preventing and detecting crime. Any information you provide to us will not be shared with other organisations for commercial purposes unless we are obliged to make such information available to the public, as required by law.

Public register

If you are a sole trader and your application to the register is successful, then the following personal data will be made available on the public register, as required by law.

  • Your full name
  • Your personal address (only if this is the same as your business address)

If an application to join the register is approved, the following personal information will be made available on the public register as required by law:

  • The name(s) of the person(s) directly involved in the control or governance of the property factor
  • The personal address of the person(s) directly involved in the control or governance of the property factor (only if this is the same as their business address)

Any request for information other than what is available through the public register will be considered under Freedom of Information legislation. Information is exempt from being released under Freedom of Information if releasing it would breach the Data Protection Principles.

You can find out more about Freedom of Information from the Scottish Information Commissioner website, and about the Data Protection Principles from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office website.

Should we refuse your application or remove your entry from the register and not replace this with another entry under the same registration number, the following personal information will be made available to relevant local authorities and the public as required by law:

  • your name (only if you are a sole trader),
  • your personal address (only if this is the same as your business address).

Correcting your information

We want to make sure that any personal data we hold is accurate. Once registered, your business has a legal duty under section 7(2) of the 2011 Act to notify Scottish Ministers of any changes to the information you, or any individual identified, in your application to the register. Failure to notify any changes without reasonable excuse is a criminal offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine up to £1,000.

Knowingly providing false information in an application is a criminal offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine up to £1,000.

You may request to correct or remove personal information held by us which you think is inaccurate. We will consider such requests in accordance with our functions under the 2011 Act and inform you of the outcome including providing the reasons why we have refused your request (if applicable).

Accessing your personal data – Subject Access Request (SAR)

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. Information on how to request some or all your personal information is available on the following link: How to request information that we hold about you.

How to contact us

If you have any further questions about how your data is used by the Scottish Government in administering the register, you can contact the Housing Registers Team in the following ways.

E-mail: propertyfactorregister@gov.scot

Phone: 0131 244 9965

Post:

Housing Registers Team
Better Homes
Scottish Government
Compass House
11 Riverside Drive
Dundee
DD1 4NY

If you have any questions about how the Registers of Scotland processes any of your data in relation to the hosting and technical support of the Scottish Property Factor Register system you can contact them in the following ways.

E-mail: PFRSupport@ros.gov.uk

Phone: 0131 659 6111

Post:

  • Property Factor Register Service Team
  • Meadowbank House
  • 153 London Road
  • Edinburgh
  • EH8 7AU

Data Protection Officer

The Scottish Government’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted in the following ways.

E-mail: dpa@gov.scot

Phone: 0300 244 4000 – Central Enquiry Unit

Post:

  • Data Protection and Information Assets Team
  • Scottish Government
  • Information and Technology Services (iTECS)
  • V Spur
  • Saughton House
  • Broomhouse Drive
  • Edinburgh
  • EH11 3XD

Complaints

If you feel we have been unable, or unwilling, to resolve your information rights concern, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO are the supervisory authority responsible for data protection in the UK.

For further information, including independent data protection advice and information in relation to your rights, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office - Scotland at:

  • The Information Commissioner's Office - Scotland
  • Queen Elizabeth House
  • Sibbald Walk
  • Edinburgh
  • EH8 8FT

E-mail: Scotland@ico.org.uk

Phone: 0303 123 1115

Website: www.ico.org.uk

You can also report any concerns here: Data protection and personal information complaints tool.

Changes to this privacy policy

We keep this privacy policy under regular review and will place any updates on this website. This privacy policy was last updated on 30 September 2024.

Disclaimer

We seek to ensure that the information provided on this website is up to date and accurate. However, this information does not constitute legal or professional advice and the Scottish Government cannot accept any liability for actions arising from its use.