Privacy Policy — HomeHub

1. Who we are

HomeHub Check Ltd ("HomeHub", "we", "our") is a data controller registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), registration number ZC105246. We operate the HomeHub platform at www.homehubrent.com.

Contact: enquiries@homehubrent.com

2. What data we collect, use, and why

When you use the HomeHub platform as a prospective tenant or enquirer, we may collect and process the following personal information to provide enquiry management services:

Identity information: your full name, date of birth, nationality
Contact information: email address, phone number, current address
Rental requirements: preferred location, budget, move-in date, group composition, property type preferences
Affordability information: employment status, employer name, annual income
Website user information (including user journeys and cookie tracking)

If you opt into our pre-tenancy referencing service, we may additionally collect:

Identity verification documents: passport or driving licence scan
Right to Rent documentation
Credit reference data (via Experian)
Income verification data (via Open Banking providers such as TrueLayer)
Residential and employer references
Payment details (including card or bank information for transfers and direct debits)

3. Why we use your data

We process your data for the following purposes:

To match your requirements against available rental properties
To provide letting agents with a scored and ranked profile of your enquiry
To facilitate the booking of property viewings
To conduct pre-tenancy referencing (only with your explicit consent)
To match you with future suitable properties if your initial application is unsuccessful (only with your consent)
To improve and develop the HomeHub platform
To communicate with you about your enquiries and applications

4. Our legal basis for processing

Under UK data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for collecting and using your personal information. The lawful bases we rely on are:

Consent — for referencing services, cross-property matching, and marketing communications. You can withdraw consent at any time.
Legal obligation — for Right to Rent checks required under UK immigration law.
Legitimate interest — for platform improvement, fraud prevention, and analytics. We have conducted a Legitimate Interest Assessment for each of these activities, set out below.

Your data protection rights

Right of access

You can ask us for copies of your personal information and details about how we use it.

Right to rectification

You can ask us to correct or delete personal information you think is inaccurate or incomplete.

Right to erasure

You can ask us to delete your personal information in certain circumstances.

Right to restriction

You can ask us to limit how we use your personal information.

Right to object

You can object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.

Right to portability

You can ask us to transfer your personal information to another organisation or directly to you.

Right to withdraw consent

Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time by contacting us.

Response timeframe

We will respond to any data rights request without undue delay and within one month.

To make a data protection rights request, contact us at enquiries@homehubrent.com.

Legitimate Interest Assessments

LIA 1 — Platform improvement

Purpose

HomeHub has a legitimate interest in processing user interaction data to improve platform functionality, usability, and performance — including analysing navigation patterns, identifying technical issues, and optimising the experience for all user types.

Necessity

Processing usage patterns, session data, and feature interaction logs is necessary to identify pain points and measure the impact of changes. We collect the minimum data needed and aggregate it wherever possible.

Balancing

Users reasonably expect a SaaS platform to monitor how its features are used. This processing poses minimal risk as it relates to platform behaviour, not personal circumstances. Data is not used to make decisions about individual users.

LIA 2 — Fraud prevention

Purpose

HomeHub has a legitimate interest in detecting, preventing, and responding to fraudulent activity — including fake listings, fraudulent enquiries, impersonation, and unauthorised account access.

Necessity

Processing IP addresses, device fingerprints, login patterns, and behavioural signals is necessary to identify suspicious activity. We cannot achieve effective fraud prevention through anonymised data alone.

Balancing

All users benefit directly from fraud prevention measures. Recital 47 of the UK GDPR explicitly recognises fraud prevention as a legitimate interest. Where automated detection flags an account, human review is conducted before any significant decision is made.

LIA 3 — Analytics

Purpose

HomeHub has a legitimate interest in processing analytics data to understand platform usage trends, measure service performance, and inform business decisions — including tracking page views, enquiry volumes, and engagement metrics.

Necessity

Some pseudonymised data is required to avoid double-counting users and understand behaviour across sessions. We use privacy-focused configurations including IP truncation and limited cookie lifespans.

Balancing

Analytics processing relates to platform behaviour, not personal circumstances. Users can opt out of non-essential analytics cookies via our consent management tool. Analytics data is never sold, shared for advertising, or used for individual profiling.

5. Where we get personal information from

Directly from you
Publicly available sources
Credit reference agencies
Third-party service providers including: tenant referencing providers, Right-to-Rent verification services, identity verification providers, payment processors, cloud infrastructure and hosting providers, email and communication services, analytics and error monitoring tools, CRM and customer support platforms, and cookie and consent management services

6. Who we share your data with

We may share your personal data with:

Letting agents whose properties you have enquired about — they will receive your enquiry profile, scoring data, and referencing results (if you opt in)
Credit reference agencies (Experian) — only if you opt into referencing
Identity verification providers (Yoti, IDNow, or TrustID) — only if you opt into referencing
Open Banking providers (TrueLayer, Plaid, Yapily, or Tink) — only if you opt into income verification
Cloud hosting providers (Railways) — for secure data storage
Scheduling providers (Calendly) — for viewing bookings

We will never sell your personal data to third parties.

7. International transfers

Your data is primarily stored within the UK and EEA. Where data is transferred to countries outside the UK — for example, to US-based service providers — we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the ICO.

8. How long we keep your data

Active enquiry data: for the duration of your platform use plus 6 months
Cross-matching pool data: 6 months from your last interaction (with your consent)
Referencing results: for the duration of any resulting tenancy plus 6 months
Credit check data: 6 months from the date of the check
Identity documents: for the duration of any resulting tenancy plus 6 months

9. AI and automated decision-making

HomeHub uses artificial intelligence to score and rank your enquiry based on your affordability, requirements compatibility, and referencing status. This score is provided to the letting agent to assist their shortlisting decisions.

You have the right to request human review of any automated decision, to express your point of view, and to contest the outcome. The letting agent retains final decision-making authority over which applicants to progress.

10. Complaints

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal data, please contact us at enquiries@homehubrent.com. We aim to respond to all complaints promptly.

If you remain unhappy after raising a complaint with us, you can complain to the ICO:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

Helpline: 0303 123 1113

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