1. Who this covers
This policy explains how [RentYard legal entity] ("we", "us"), operator of RentYard at rent.housertx.com, handles personal information of Landlords and their staff, tenants, Applicants, and visitors to our public pages. Address: 201 2nd St, Sealy, TX 77474. Contact: rent@housertx.com.
Your Landlord decides what tenant and Applicant information to collect and why; for that information we act mostly as the Landlord's service provider, and the Landlord's own privacy practices also apply. Questions about your tenancy should go to your Landlord first, but you can always contact us.
2. Information we collect
From tenants and Landlords
- Contact and profile: name, email, mobile number, room and property, lease dates, rent amount, move-in and move-out dates.
- Sensitive identity details (only if the Landlord collects them): date of birth, driver's license number and state, a photo of the license, and an emergency contact. These are encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM), stored apart from other records, shown masked (for example "****1234"), revealed in full only to the owner on purpose (each reveal is logged), and never put in emails, exports or logs. Managers don't see them.
- Optional onboarding details: current address, vehicle and plate, employer and income.
- Ledger and payments: charges, utility shares, payments, credits, fees, deposits, autopay settings and receipts. From Stripe we receive the payment status, amount, card brand and last 4 digits, whether a card is credit or debit, and bank name and last 4 digits. We never receive or store full card numbers, CVVs or bank account numbers.
- Documents and signatures: leases, notices, statements, signature certificates (document fingerprint, time, IP address and device), move-in and move-out inspections with photos (photos are stripped of location data and encrypted).
- Service requests and messages: what you write, attached photos, and the reminders, receipts and texts sent to you, with delivery status and opt-in or opt-out history.
- Utility bills the Landlord uploads (amounts, dates, provider).
From Applicants (room listings)
Name, email, phone, desired move-in date, current address and how long you've lived there, current landlord, employer or income source and monthly income, other occupants, pets, vehicles, your answer about past evictions and any explanation, optional photo ID and proof-of-income files (stored encrypted), and your typed signature. We never ask for your Social Security number. If the Landlord uses a screening service, you give your information and consent directly to that service.
Automatically
IP address, browser and device type, pages and actions (in our security and audit logs), sign-in times, and error reports. We do not use advertising trackers or third-party analytics.
3. Cookies and similar technology
- One sign-in cookie (ry_session): keeps you signed in. It is HttpOnly, Secure and SameSite=Lax, and lasts up to 12 hours for staff and up to 30 days for tenants.
- Local storage on your device for preferences such as light or dark theme, and for a problem report you write while offline.
- No advertising, social-media or cross-site tracking cookies. Because these are strictly necessary, there is no cookie banner; blocking them stops sign-in from working.
4. How we use information
To run RentYard for the Landlord and tenants: keep the ledger, split bills, take payments, send reminders and receipts, prepare leases and notices, handle applications and service requests, and keep records for the Landlord's accounting and taxes. Also to secure the service (fraud and abuse prevention, audit logs, backups), provide support, fix problems, follow the law, and enforce our Terms. We don't use tenant or Applicant information for our own marketing, and we don't make automated decisions that have legal effects; the Landlord decides on applications.
5. Who we share it with
We share personal information only as needed to run RentYard:
- Your Landlord and their authorized staff.
- Service providers that work for us under contract:
- Stripe - payments and autopay.
- Quo (OpenPhone) - text messages.
- Postmark and Microsoft 365 - email delivery.
- Render - hosting and encrypted storage in the United States.
- xAI - reading photos of utility bills, and the "Ask AI" helper for Landlord staff. We send only what the task needs.
- Houser Login - single sign-in for Landlord staff.
- A tenant-screening company chosen by the Landlord (TransUnion SmartMove or RentPrep), only after the Applicant consents on that company's site.
- Legal and safety: when the law requires it, to respond to valid legal process, or to protect someone's safety or our rights.
- Business transfer: if RentYard or [RentYard legal entity] is sold or merged, information may transfer to the new owner, who must keep honoring this policy for information collected under it.
We do not sell personal information and do not share it for targeted advertising. Mobile numbers and text-message opt-in data are never shared with or sold to third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes.
6. Text messages
If you opt in, we send rent and utility reminders, receipts, sign-in links and service updates from your Landlord. Message frequency varies (about 2-6 a month); message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. We record your opt-in (time and method) and opt-out, and stop texting a number as soon as it replies STOP.
7. How long we keep it
- Account, lease, ledger and payment records: while the Landlord's account is active, and afterward as long as needed for tax, accounting, legal and dispute purposes, unless the Landlord or the law requires deleting them sooner.
- Sensitive identity details (date of birth, license number and photo, emergency contact): until the Landlord clears them or you ask and the Landlord has no legal need to keep them.
- Rental applications and their files: while the Landlord reviews them and as long as the Landlord needs them afterward for fair-housing and legal records.
- Sign-in links expire within minutes; audit and security logs are kept for security review.
- Backups: encrypted daily backups roll off after about 14 days; hosting-provider disk snapshots roll off after about 7 days. Deleted information can stay in backups until they roll off.
8. Security
We use encryption in transit (HTTPS) and for sensitive fields and files at rest, two-factor sign-in for staff, role-based access, audit logs, rate limits, automatic security scans and daily backups. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your sensitive personal information, we will notify you and the Landlord as Texas law requires (Tex. Bus. & Com. Code §521.053).
9. Your choices and rights
- See, correct, export or delete: tenants can see their profile, ledger and documents in the portal and can ask their Landlord or us to correct, export or delete information. Some records (for example payments and signed leases) may need to be kept for legal or accounting reasons; we'll tell you if so.
- Texts: reply STOP. Email reminders: turn them off in the portal or ask your Landlord.
- Texas residents: to the extent the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act applies, you can ask to confirm, access, correct, delete or get a portable copy of your personal data, and to opt out of sale, targeted advertising and profiling (we don't do these). Email rent@housertx.com. We'll answer within 45 days. If we decline, you can appeal by replying to our answer; if you're not satisfied, you can contact the Texas Attorney General.
- We won't treat you differently for using these rights.
10. Children
RentYard is not meant for anyone under 18, and we don't knowingly collect information from children. A Landlord may list the names of minor occupants on an application or lease; that information is used only for the tenancy.
11. Changes
If we change this policy, we'll post it here with a new effective date and tell signed-in users about material changes before they take effect.
12. Contact
[RentYard legal entity], 201 2nd St, Sealy, TX 77474 · rent@housertx.com