PRIVACY POLICY OF VICINITY

1. YOUR PRIVACY IS IMPORTANT

Your privacy is important to us. We want to process your personal data in an honourable, legal, correct and transparent manner. In this document, our privacy policy, we explain how the processing is carried out and what personal data is involved. The term processing includes collecting, recording, organising, storing, updating, modifying, retrieving, consulting, using, making available in any way, compiling, combining, archiving, deleting or eventually destroying.

We are talking about you as a (future) tenant, customer of our company, supplier or a stakeholder of an organisation in contact with us.

1.1. IN ADVANCE
We recommend that you read this document carefully to understand why and for what purpose we process your personal data. You will also find your rights and how to exercise them.

We also explain what personal data we process when you:

  • Using our services
  • Renting a residential or commercial property
  • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Ask questions via our website
  • Visit our company, events and fairs

You will also find your rights and how to exercise them.

We may update our privacy policy. The most recent version can be found on our website https://www.vicinity.be.

1.2. WHO PROCESSES YOUR DATA? WHO ARE WE?
Vicinity Partners is active in Belgium. Its registered office is located at Bosrechterstraat 50, 1170 Watermaal-Bosvoorde.

This is a group of companies that work closely together to provide you with residential and commercial properties to rent, and it is aimed at private clients and businesses.
This privacy policy applies to all companies within the group:

  • Vicinity Partners, Bosrechterstraat 50, 1170 Watermaal-Bosvoorde – BE-0724.935.240
  • Vicinity Services, Bosrechterstraat 50, 1170 Watermaal-Bosvoorde – BE-0759.989.456
  • VAHF, Bosrechterstraat 50, 1170 Watermaal-Bosvoorde – BE-0408.217.768

The aforementioned companies are jointly responsible for processing your personal data, with Vicinity Partners being the final responsible party for processing your personal data and therefore also your contact person.

When we refer in this policy to “We”, “Our”, “Name of the Group”, we are clearly referring to the group of companies, as explained above.

1.3. HOW CAN YOU REACH US?
If you have any questions about your privacy or wish to change your privacy settings or exercise your rights, you can reach us in the following ways:

  • The address Bosrechterstraat 50 at 1170 Watermaal-Bosvoorde
  • By e-mail to the e-mail address privacy@vicinity.be

Vicinity has appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO). You can always reach our DPO at the above coordinates

1.4. VICINITY’S LEAD SUPERVISORY AUTHORITY
Delino is subject to the following supervisory authority in Belgium: Belgian Data Protection Authority, Drukpersstraat 35, 1000 Brussels – +32 (0)2 274 48 00 / Contact@apd-gba.be

2. YOUR RIGHT TO PRIVACY

You have many rights in relation to the processing of your personal data.

Your rights will be exercised in our systems and procedures no later than 30 days after we have received your application. If we are unable to meet this deadline for any reason, we will inform you before the original period lapses. 

2.1. YOU MAY VIEW YOUR PERSONAL DATA
You have the right to access the personal data we process about you, the purpose of the processing, where we have obtained the data and who receives the data.
In this case, you can also find out how long we store the data, whether the data is used for automated decision-making and whether we intend to send the data to a country outside the European Union.

We will provide you with the requested information in writing or electronically within a reasonable period of time.

2.2. YOU CAN HAVE YOUR DATA CORRECTED/UPDATED
It may happen that the data we process about you is not or is no longer correct. You can always ask to have the incorrect data corrected or supplemented with the missing data.
2.3. RIGHT TO ERASURE
If you believe that we are unlawfully processing your personal data, you can request that we delete it. This request to erase personal data can be refused by Vicinity if it is justified. Examples are the exercise or substantiation of a legal claim or because of a legal obligation to keep certain data.
2.4. RIGHT TO RESTRICT PERSONAL DATA

You can ask us to limit the processing of your personal data if you suspect that the data is incorrect, the processing is unlawful or if you do not agree that we process the data under our legitimate interest (see article 3.3). We will comply with this objection unless there are compelling reasons not to do so, for example, to prevent fraud or non-payment.

2.5. RIGHT TO OBJECT

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data, including profiling. The processing will then be stopped, unless it is necessary for compliance with social and fiscal legislation, to protect the interests of a third party or for the establishment, exercise or substantiation of a legal claim.

2.6. RIGHT TO DATA PORTABILITY
You may contact us to request that the personal data you have given us be transferred to a third party.
2.7. RIGHT TO COMPLAIN
If you do not agree with our position, you can contact the Belgian Data Protection Authority. You can also lodge a complaint there. You will find the contact details above in point 1.4.
2.8. IDENTIFICATION OF THE APPLICANT
You can exercise your rights on the processing of your personal data by a written request

  • by letter to the address Bosrechterstraat 50 in 1170 Watermaal-Bosvoorde
  • By e-mail to the e-mail address privacy@vicinity.be

Always be as specific as possible when exercising your rights. This will allow us to exercise your request correctly.

In order to prevent someone else from exercising your rights, we want to check your identity as closely as possible. Therefore, the application must always be accompanied by a document that proves that the identity of the applicant corresponds to your identity. You can do this by attaching a copy of your identity card to the application. Please make sure that your passport photo and identity card number (etc.) are blacked out, to protect your privacy.

If we consider that the document supplied is insufficient proof, we will inform you. We reserve the right not to grant the application until satisfactory proof is provided.

3. WHY DO WE WANT TO PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL DATA?

3.1. VICINITY MUST COMPLY WITH LEGAL OBLIGATIONS

In some cases, we are legally obliged to process your personal data. Here are the most important cases:

  • tax law
  • commercial law
  • rental law
  • verify your identity. This can be done, for example, by asking for a clear, recent copy of your identity card.
  • We may be forced to provide personal data to authorities or other third parties when this is necessary, for example, in connection with a legal obligation or for the performance of a task of public interest.
3.2. VICINITY MUST BE ABLE TO PERFORM ITS CONTRACT WITH YOU
As a tenant, you call on our services. In order to ensure the correct execution and follow-up of our rental agreement and the price quotations for repairs, we have to process and manage these contracts administratively, accounting-wise and operationally.

This also applies if you are our supplier. Proper execution of contracts requires processing of personal data at administrative, accounting and operational level.

Our agreement is to provide you with a well-functioning website when you visit. For this purpose, we place the so-called functional or strictly necessary cookies.

3.3. VICINITY MUST BE ABLE TO FUNCTION AS A COMPANY IN TERMS OF COMMUNICATION
As a commercial company, we have a number of legitimate interests that form the basis for processing personal data. We make sure there is a good balance between your right to privacy and Vicinity’s legitimate interests. If you still have objections to the processing under this basic ground, you can object to this processing.

Vicinity wishes to continue communicating with its (prospective) tenants through direct marketing. This can be done on your specific request or we may suspect that you are interested in our new services. As we aim to offer you better service, better products and want to communicate this to you, we process your personal data for direct marketing under our company’s legimate interest to conduct its business. This information can reach you in many ways, namely by e-mail, by post, by phone and at events. We will choose the most appropriate way that disturb you as little as possible. However, if you do not wish to receive our commercial communications, just let us know and we will stop bothering you. You can do this for all our communications or for one of the different channels.

The companies in Vicinity Partners are strongly linked to each other and exchange personal data as part of the relationship. This processing also falls under our legitimate business interest.

3.4. VICINITY INVESTS IN GOOD NEIGHBOURLY RELATIONS
Vicinity is strongly committed to creating a positive and pleasant “living together” between the neighbours of its buildings. To this end, it is strongly committed to developing a community by, for example, inviting the tenants of a building to a neighbourhood activity on site. This processing falls under the legitimate interest of Vicinity.

Should you, as a tenant, nevertheless have objections to this processing, you can lodge them. We will then ensure that you no longer remain a member of the community.

3.5. VICINITY ASKS YOUR CONSENT
We also ask for your consent to store your contact data (surname, first name, address, e-mail address, telephone number) in our marketing platform so that we can automatically send you information about our services/products in which you have expressed an interest. This information is sent to us directly by you (e.g. through a visit to a trade fair).

When you visit our website for the first time, we ask your permission to place our statistical, marketing and social media cookies via our cookie banner. You can find more information about our cookie policy here

You can withdraw your consent at any time. You can find our contact details in point 2.8.

4. WHAT PERSONAL DATA DO WE PROCESS FROM YOU AND FOR WHAT PURPOSES?

4.1. FROM OUR BUSINESS RELATIONS WITH OTHER COMPANIES
Vicinity processes the personal data of data subjects who work for companies with which it does business. The purpose of this processing is to provide information about the services and to maintain business relationships.

In order to contact and identify you, for our customer and supplier management, we process the following data: name, first name, title, telephone number, mobile phone number, language, e-mail address, IP address and the cookies

4.2. FROM OUR PRIVATE TENANTS
In order to identify and communicate with our private tenants, we process the following personal data:

  • Name, first name, address, e-mail address, place of birth, telephone and/or mobile phone number, marital status, nationality, language, title, sex, national register number and identity card number, photograph, family situation, professional situation
  • Financial data such as bank account number, direct debit number, net income, payslips, VAT number
  • Meter reading of utilities, access to the housing units.
  • IP address of devices and cookies
4.3. FROM OUR PROSPECTIVE TENANTS
Of the prospective tenants we process the name, address, place and date of birth, nationality, fixed and/or mobile telephone number and e-mail address during the introduction. If this contact leads to a tenancy agreement proposal, we also process the information on profession and employment, solvency, family situation, income.
4.4. COOKIES
Vicinity makes use of cookies on the website www. vicinity.be. These are small information files that are stored on the device you use to visit our website, such as a computer, tablet or smartphone. Where we talk about “cookies”, we also mean other similar techniques. Cookies make it possible to recognise your webbrowser. This is useful, for example, because it saves you from having to repeatedly enter your details, indicate preferences or change your settings. This also enables us to improve our website, to gain insight into visitor behaviour on the website and to give other parties insight into your surfing behaviour so they can show personalised advertisements across multiple websites and omit non-remarkable advertisements.
Cookies do not endanger the security of your computer.
We use functional, analytical, marketing and social media cookies. With the exception of the functional cookies (necessary for the proper functioning of our website) we ask your consent before we place these small information files. More information about which cookies we use, how long we keep them and how you can interact with them can be found on our cookie policy.
4.5. PERSONAL DATA THROUGH THIRD PARTIES
We may also receive personal data through third parties, for example by purchasing them from companies. These companies are responsible for ensuring that the personal data in question is collected lawfully.
4.6. SURVEILLANCE CAMERA IMAGES ARE TEMPORARILY STORED
We may use cameras in and around our sites. When it comes to surveillance cameras, we respect the legal rules. You can recognise the buildings under camera surveillance by a clearly visible sticker.
Image recordings are kept for a maximum of 30 days. We extend this period if the images are useful

  • for the evidence of a crime or nuisance
  • to prove a loss
  • to identify an offender, a witness or a victim

5. ON THE SHARING AND RETENTION OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

5.1. WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
We only share your data with persons who have received explicit permission from us, if they need this data in order to fulfil their tasks. These persons will process your data on the same basis as we have received it from you.

We use various processors for the processing of personal data. These are our subcontractors who process personal data on our behalf. Vicinity only works with processors that guarantee the same safety standards on a technical and operational level.

We do not sell, rent or disclose your personal data to third parties for their own use.

We will only share your data if we are required to do so by law or government order.

5.2. INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS
Your personal data is also processed outside the European Union (European Economic Area, also called EEA). It is a fact that many large suppliers of IT infrastructure and software as well as technology companies are not based in the European Union. You can always request a list of the companies that process data for us outside the EEA. We provide adequate contractual guarantees so that your data can also benefit from an appropriate level of protection with them.
5.2. WE DO NOT KEEP YOUR DATA INDEFINITELY
Vicinity uses your personal data with a clear objective in mind. Once this purpose has been achieved, the data is deleted.

The starting point for keeping track of your personal data is the legal retention period.

The personal data of existing tenants are kept for the period that Vicinity owns the buildings. This period can be extended by the duration of Vicinity’s liability.
We keep the personal data of potential new tenants who have shown great interest in our properties for one year after the first contact. For other prospective tenants, we delete the personal data after 3 months.

We keep the personal data of our suppliers for the entire duration of the cooperation extended by the time Vicinity’s liability applies.

Nous créeons des lieux de vie confortables et durables.