Supplementary Privacy Notice for the Online Form “Application for Assignment of a House Number”
(Information pursuant to Articles 13 and 14 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR))
In addition to our general privacy policy, we provide the following information regarding the specific processing of your personal data in connection with the online application for the official assignment, change, or addition of a house number with the City of Aachen.
1. Purpose of Data Processing
Your personal data is collected and processed for the following purposes:
• Review and processing of applications for house numbering: Determining the substantive requirements for the assignment, change, addition, or revocation of house numbers for parcels of land and buildings within the city limits of Aachen.
• Verification of eligibility to apply: Verification of the identity and legal authority of the applicant (e.g., as an owner, purchaser, or authorized representative) and validation of the submitted supporting documents (e.g., powers of attorney, land registry extracts, or notarized contracts).
• Fact-finding and property identification: Unambiguous identification of the property in question based on cadastral data (cadastral district, parcel, lot number), as well as cross-referencing with building permit files and submitted site plans to determine the correct utility connections, access routes, and the location of the main entrance.
• Ensuring communication with the authorities: Contacting you regarding substantive or technical questions about the application and construction project, as well as to provide updates on the status of the application.
• Official Address Maintenance and Emergency Response: Registration and updating of the assigned address in the official address directory of the City of Aachen, as well as provision of address data to emergency and rescue services (fire department, police, ambulance service) and the resident registration system.
• Handling of the fee process: determining, preparing, and mailing the fee notice for the administrative action, as well as processing payments in accordance with cash management procedures.
2 Legal Basis for Processing
Your personal data is processed on the following legal grounds:
• Performance of a task carried out in the public interest (Art. 6(1)(e) of the GDPR in conjunction with § 3 of the DSG NRW):
Your application, property owner, contact, and property data are processed to enable the City of Aachen to carry out its duties related to the assignment, modification, addition, or revocation of house numbers. The legal basis for this includes, in particular:
o Section 126(3) of the German Building Code (BauGB)
o Section 8 of the City of Aachen’s Public Order Ordinance (Aachen Street Ordinance of March 19, 2004, as amended)
The clear and consistent numbering of buildings serves, in particular, to promote public safety and order, to enable fire departments, emergency medical services, and the police to find their way quickly and reliably, and to ensure the clear addressing and identification of properties and buildings.
• Charging of administrative fees (Art. 6(1)(c) of the GDPR):
To the extent that administrative fees are charged for the assignment of a house number, the fee and payment data required for this purpose are processed to fulfill the City of Aachen’s legal obligations in connection with the assignment and collection of administrative fees. The legal basis for this is the Local Tax Act for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (KAG NRW) in conjunction with the City of Aachen’s Administrative Fee Regulations, as amended from time to time.
3 Categories of Processed Data
As part of the application process, the following categories of personal data are collected and processed to ensure that your request is handled properly:
• Personal and contact information for the applicant and the owners: title, first name, last name, mailing address (street, house number, ZIP code, city), as well as, if applicable, company name and information about the authorized representative (e.g., management).
• Contact information: Phone number and email address (so we can contact you quickly if we have any questions).
• Information on eligibility to apply and proof of eligibility: Proof of legal status with respect to the property (e.g., owner, purchaser, or authorized representative) as well as corresponding supporting documents (e.g., power of attorney, excerpt from the notarial deed, land registry extract).
• Property and cadastral data: Information on the exact location of the property (cadastral district, cadastral section, parcel) as well as previous location designations (street name, house number if applicable).
• Information on the building permit status: Legal status of the construction project (existing building, project not requiring a permit, preliminary building inquiry, building permit application, building permit), construction phase (planning, start of construction, structural work, completion), as well as the building authority’s reference number and date of issuance.
• Building and plan data: Building type (e.g., residential building, commercial/industrial building, office/retail building, mixed-use building), location / street name of the main entrance, submitted plan documents (e.g., official site plan, draft site plan, overview map), and free-text comments regarding the application.
• Fee and payment data (as the proceedings progress): reference number, date of issuance of the fee assessment notice, and payment and posting data for the cash-based processing of the administrative action.
4 Source of the Data
We collect the personal data we process primarily directly from you as part of the application process (direct collection pursuant to Art. 13 of the GDPR).
In addition, in certain cases, we process data that we did not collect directly from you (collection pursuant to Art. 14 of the GDPR). This applies in particular to:
• Public registries and government agencies: Data we obtain from the land registry, the real estate cadastre (Aachen Metropolitan Region Cadastral Office), or other official registries to verify eligibility to apply or to identify property ownership.
• Municipal databases: Information already available in municipal specialized procedures (e.g., from the building inspection department) that is used to clarify the facts of a case or determine an address.
• Third parties: If you have a third party (e.g., an architect, notary, or authorized representative) submit the application on your behalf, we will receive your information from the person you have authorized.
5 Recipients or Categories of Recipients of the Data
Within the Aachen City Administration and to external entities, your personal data will be disclosed exclusively for the purpose of fulfilling statutory duties, based on legal obligations, or within the framework of strictly instructed data processing in accordance with Article 28 of the GDPR. In specific cases, data will be transferred to the following categories of recipients:
• Relevant department of the City of Aachen (Department 62 – Geoinformation and Land Use Planning): The department responsible internally for the official assignment of house numbers and regulatory determinations.
• Financial Management / City Treasury Division: The relevant organizational units within the city administration responsible for determining, recording, and processing the required fee notice in accordance with cash management procedures.
• Other municipal departments (as needed): Other departments of the City of Aachen, provided this is absolutely necessary to clarify the facts of the matter—for example, the Building Inspection Department to verify the file number provided on the form.
• Public authorities and external agencies: Public-law entities and utility companies such as the Land Registry, the Tax Office, local utility providers (e.g., STAWAG), and the Cadastral Office of the Aachen Urban Region (for the correction and updating of the records maintained there).
• IT service provider (data processor): regio iT GmbH (Lombardenstraße 24, 52070 Aachen) as a service provider bound by instructions pursuant to Art. 28 of the GDPR in connection with the technical operation, secure hosting, and system maintenance of the online form server and the municipal IT infrastructure.
6 Retention Period and Deletion
Your data will be stored only as long as is strictly necessary to fulfill the respective purpose of processing or as required by statutory retention periods:
• Temporary storage in the online form system (regio iT): The application data you enter in the online form, as well as the uploaded documents (such as site plans, powers of attorney, or notarized contracts), will be deleted fully automatically from the servers of regio iT GmbH no later than six months after the successful completion of the transmission process. This period serves solely to ensure the technical traceability of the transmission channel and to correct any transmission errors.
• Specialized Procedures of the City of Aachen (Duration of Administrative Actions and Archiving): Once the data has been transferred to the specialized system of the responsible department (Department 62), the storage and retention periods are governed by the relevant legal provisions as well as the municipal archiving regulations in accordance with the North Rhine-Westphalia Archives Act (ArchivG NRW):
o House numbering process (master data and assignment): Since the assignment of a house number constitutes a permanent official designation and location identifier for the property, the core files regarding the assignment (assignment order, determination notice) are permanently maintained in the public interest or, upon completion of the proceedings, subject to the provisions of the North Rhine-Westphalia Archives Act (ArchivG NRW) (submission to the Aachen City Archives for archiving).
o Fee procedures: Documents used to prepare, determine, and document the fee notice (e.g., fee calculations, accounting vouchers, cash register receipts) are retained in accordance with the retention periods under budgetary and tax law (in particular Section 59 of the North Rhine-Westphalia Municipal Budget Ordinance (KomHVO NRW) and Section 147 of the German Fiscal Code (AO)) for a period of 10 years following the end of the respective fiscal year.
7. Obligation to Provide Data and Consequences of Failure to Provide Data
As part of this administrative procedure, you must provide the personal data that is strictly necessary for the legally compliant processing of your application and for the City of Aachen to fulfill its statutory duties:
• Required Information: The information that is absolutely necessary for processing the application is marked as required fields in the online form (usually with an asterisk “*”). The obligation to provide identity and address information arises from the general duty of cooperation of the parties involved in administrative proceedings pursuant to Section 26(2) of the Administrative Procedure Act of North Rhine-Westphalia (VwVfG NRW). To the extent that the online form also requests contact information (phone number, email address) as required fields, this information is absolutely necessary for efficient communication with the authorities and for the prompt processing of your application via the selected electronic procedure.
• Consequences of Failure to Provide Information: Without the provision of this required information (in particular, name, address, contact information for follow-up inquiries, cadastral designation, and required supporting documents), the City of Aachen cannot determine or verify the underlying facts. As a result, your application for the assignment, change, or addition of a house number cannot be processed or must be rejected due to a lack of supporting documentation.
8 Rights of Data Subjects and Contact Information
The rights of data subjects listed in the General Privacy Notice for the Use of Online Forms by the City of Aachen (right to access, rectification, deletion, restriction of processing, objection, and the right to file a complaint with the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Information Security of North Rhine-Westphalia) apply in full. There you will also find the complete contact information for the controller and the City of Aachen’s official data protection officer.