Terms of use
Version 1.1, effective from 1 November 2026.
About these terms
These terms apply to this website. By using the website you agree to them.
The website is run by a council or housing provider ("your council or housing provider"). Huume Ltd ("Huume", "we", "us", "our") provides and maintains the software, under a contract with them.
Huume Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number 11905862, and is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), registration number ZA515312. Our address is Suite LP43274, 20-22 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU, United Kingdom.
Your council or housing provider decides what the website is used for and what questions it asks. They make all decisions about your housing application. If you have a question about your application, use the contact details on this website.
If you have a question about these terms, or about the information in Part 2, email Huume at contact@huume.co.uk.
These terms do not replace the privacy notice of your council or housing provider. That notice explains what information they ask for in your application, why they need it and who they share it with.
Part 1: Terms of use
Using this website
You must:
- give information that is true, complete and up to date
- tell your council or housing provider when your circumstances change, in the way they ask you to
- only upload documents that relate to your application and that you have the right to share
- keep your sign-in details secure
You must not:
- try to access an account, application or information that is not yours
- share your password with anyone else. If someone is helping you with your application, ask your council or housing provider how they can do this
- use automated tools, scripts or bots to access, search or copy content from the website
- upload files that contain viruses or other harmful code, or that are offensive or unlawful
- try to get around, disable or test the security features of the website
- use the website in a way that is unlawful, fraudulent or abusive, or that disrupts the service for other people
Knowingly giving false information, or deliberately holding back information, in a housing application may be a criminal offence. It may also lead to your application being cancelled. These are matters for your council or housing provider.
Your account
You are responsible for activity on your account. Use a strong password that you do not use for other websites.
If you think someone else knows your password or has used your account, change your password straight away and tell your council or housing provider.
We may restrict or suspend an account, or the website, to protect its security or if these terms are broken. We will normally do this together with your council or housing provider. Decisions about your housing application stay with them.
Availability and content
We aim to keep the website available at all times, but we cannot promise that it will always be available or free from errors. We may need to take it offline for maintenance, updates or security reasons, and we will try to do this at quiet times.
Content about housing, such as property adverts and guidance, is provided by your council or housing provider. Links to other websites are for information only, and we are not responsible for their content.
The software, its design and its code belong to Huume Ltd. You must not copy it, change it or reverse engineer it.
Nothing in these terms limits any rights you have by law, or any liability that cannot be limited by law.
Changes to these terms and governing law
We may update these terms, for example when the software or the law changes. The version and effective date are shown at the top of this page. If we make a significant change, we will tell the councils and housing providers who use our software, and show a notice on the website where appropriate.
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also bring legal proceedings in your local courts.
Part 2: How this website uses your information
Who is responsible for your information
Your council or housing provider is the controller of the information in your housing application. This means they decide what information is collected and how it is used. Huume handles that information on their behalf, only on their written instructions, under a contract that includes data protection terms. Their privacy notice is available on this website.
Huume is the controller of a small amount of technical information that the system creates when you use the website. We use it to keep the service secure, working and reliable. The table below shows who is responsible for each type of information.
Information the website must collect
The website cannot work without the information below. It is collected for everyone who uses the website and cannot be switched off.
| Information | What it includes | Why it is needed | Who is responsible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account details | Your name, email address and password. Your password is stored in a scrambled form (hashed) that cannot be read, including by Huume staff | To create your account and let you sign in | Your council or housing provider |
| Messages sent to you | A record of the emails and text messages the system sends you, and whether they were delivered | To show that important messages, such as offers and decisions, reached you | Your council or housing provider |
| Uploaded documents | Files you choose to upload | To support your application | Your council or housing provider |
| Audit trail | A record of who viewed, created or changed information in your account and application, and when. This includes actions by you and by staff | To show how your information has been handled, investigate problems and detect misuse | Your council or housing provider |
| Sign-in and security records | Date and time of sign-ins and failed attempts, password resets, IP address, and browser and device type. If you are signed in, this may include your email address and your user identifier | To protect your account, detect and block attacks, and investigate security incidents | Huume |
| Performance and error monitoring | Pages requested, date and time, the IP address used, how long requests took, and details of any errors. If you are signed in, this may include your email address and your user identifier | To keep the service running well and to find and fix problems | Huume |
Your council or housing provider decides the questions in the application form and what happens to your answers. Their privacy notice explains this.
Cookies and similar technologies
This website only uses cookies and browser storage that it needs to work or to provide features you have asked for. We do not use cookies for marketing or to track you across websites.
The cookie policy lists each cookie and item of browser storage, what it is for and how long it lasts.
Website analytics
We use Plausible Analytics to understand how the website is used, such as which pages are visited most and which types of device people use. This helps us improve the software.
Plausible is designed to protect privacy:
- it does not use cookies and does not store anything on your device
- it does not track you across other websites or build a profile of you
- it does not store your IP address or the full details of your browser
- it only produces combined statistics, such as the number of visitors to a page
To produce these statistics, Plausible records the page you visited, the website that sent you here, your browser, operating system and type of device, and your approximate location (country, region and city). Your location is worked out from your IP address.
To count unique visitors without cookies, Plausible briefly combines your IP address and browser details with a random value that changes every day, and turns them into a code that cannot be reversed. The random value is deleted every 24 hours, so visits on different days cannot be linked, and your IP address is not stored.
Because your IP address is used for a moment, the law may treat this as processing personal information, even though none is kept. For that reason we treat Plausible as one of our suppliers, and it works under a data processing agreement with us. Our legal basis is legitimate interests, as explained below.
Plausible is provided by Plausible Insights OÜ, a company in Estonia. It processes and stores data in the European Union, on infrastructure owned by European companies. UK law recognises the countries of the European Economic Area as providing adequate protection for personal information, so no extra safeguards are needed.
Why we use this information
For information that your council or housing provider controls, the legal basis is set out in their privacy notice.
For the technical information that Huume controls, our legal basis is legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the UK GDPR). Our legitimate interests are keeping the service and your information secure, detecting and preventing misuse, making sure the website works reliably, and improving the software. We keep this information to the minimum needed, for a limited time.
We do not use your information for marketing and we do not sell it. We do not use the technical information we control to make decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you.
Where your information is stored
The website and the information in it, including backups, are hosted on Microsoft Azure in UK data centres. Emails and text messages pass through the suppliers listed below and through email providers and mobile networks, in the same way as any other message.
Two services are processed in the European Union: emails are sent by Mailgun, and website analytics are provided by Plausible, as described above. UK law recognises the countries of the European Economic Area as providing adequate protection for personal information, so no extra safeguards are needed.
Who else handles your information
We use the suppliers below. Each one works under a contract that requires them to protect information and only use it on our instructions.
| Supplier | What they do |
|---|---|
| Microsoft (Azure) | Hosting, storage and backups, security and performance monitoring, and the maps shown on property pages. Your browser contacts Microsoft directly to load the maps |
| Mailgun | Sending emails. Processed in the European Union |
| Plausible Insights OÜ | Website analytics (no cookies, IP addresses not stored) |
Huume staff only access information when they need to, for example to provide support or fix a problem. Access is limited to authorised staff, is logged, and is reviewed regularly. All staff are trained in data protection and are bound by confidentiality.
We may also share information where the law requires us to, for example with the police or a court.
How long we keep information
| Information | How long it is kept |
|---|---|
| Account details, messages sent to you, uploaded documents and your application | Set by your council or housing provider. See their privacy notice |
| Audit trail | 12 months |
| Sign-in and security records | 12 months |
| Performance and error monitoring | 90 days |
| Website analytics | IP addresses are not stored. The code used to count unique visitors becomes meaningless after 24 hours. Plausible keeps combined statistics only |
We may keep specific records for longer if we need them to investigate a security incident, or if the law requires it.
How we protect your information
We use technical and organisational measures to protect information, including:
- encrypting information when it is sent over the internet and when it is stored
- limiting staff access to those who need it, and reviewing that access regularly
- independent security testing of the software
- holding Cyber Essentials Plus certification
If there is a security incident affecting information we handle for your council or housing provider, we will tell them without delay so that they can decide what action to take, including whether to tell you. For information that Huume controls, we will report incidents to the Information Commissioner's Office and tell you where the law requires us to.
Your rights
You have rights over your personal information. These include the right to:
- ask for a copy of your information (a subject access request)
- ask for information that is wrong or incomplete to be corrected
- ask for your information to be deleted
- ask for the use of your information to be restricted
- object to the use of your information where we rely on legitimate interests
For information in your housing application, contact your council or housing provider. They are responsible for replying. If you send us a request about information they control, we will pass it to them and let you know.
For the technical information Huume controls, email contact@huume.co.uk. We may need to check your identity. There is no charge, and we will reply within one month. If your request is complex, we may extend this by up to two further months, and we will tell you why.
Some rights are limited by law. For example, we may need to keep security records to protect the service even if you ask us to delete them. If so, we will explain why.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have used your information, please contact us first at contact@huume.co.uk so that we can try to put it right.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.
For complaints about your housing application, use the complaints process of your council or housing provider.