Credit Checks- Renting

Scotty84_2

Hi all,
Bit of a funny one. We have been looking for another house to rent as we have twins on the way. Then 2 days ago my partners mom mentioned that her neighbour whom we have known for 5 years ( I even installed her central heating and bathrooms) was going to rent her house out.
Because she knew and liked us she was going to rent it cheap to us. We turned up today to chat about it because we mentioned we might be interested, to be told she had a friend do a credit check on us so my question's are:
1. is this legall as we hadnt even spoken to her.
2. the only info she had was my name (but not my middle name) and address (she got this of our wedding invites).
Thankyou very much
Scotty

Apricot

I was under the impression that you have to have a person's permission to do a credit check on them.
Does her friend perhaps work for a company where they are able to do credit checks on people (ie. mobile phone company) if so you could complain to the company that they did not have your permission and were therefore committing an offence.

Scotty84_2

She would not tell me whom did the check. I was under the impression that this is illegal myself as its personal data. Plus she only had my first name and surname, no date of birth but had my address. Thing is I have not been at this address long and have no connection to this address eg my bank etc still registered at parents home).

Scotty84_2

I thought I would add that this would be the first time she has rented a property.

BitterAndTwisted

Maybe a bit of sly snooping is a price worth paying for renting a nice property in an area you like at a reduced rent. Really ruddy cheeky of her to have done it, if she did. It's possible that she was bluffing anyway, just to see your reaction

Scotty84_2

I thought she might as the only info she had was only part of my name and an address with no connection to myself. It concerned me because she said it came back saying I had a ccj, but my report I have says different. I have only defaulted once with a credit card around 6 years ago.

So if she has had a friend run a check on me without my permission is this legal?

tbs624

If she *has* run a check on you you should be able to find out from Experian, CallCredit , Equifax which company actually ran the check.Then contact the firm concerned, in writing.

You have to give express consent for a CC to be carried out.

Tuscan

did you rent the house in the end ?

Scotty84_2

No she is waiting for me to get back to her. But i feel a lack of trust is making it hard to accept.

ClareEmily

Go with your gut feelings, if she has made you feel uneasy about her underhand methods I would step away now.

Next thing you know she will be using her pass key "just to pop in to check this and that"

Experian_company_representative

tbs624 wrote: »

If she *has* run a check on you you should be able to find out from Experian, CallCredit , Equifax which company actually ran the check.Then contact the firm concerned, in writing.

You have to give express consent for a CC to be carried out.

Exactly right. If a check has been carried out without your permission this needs to be urgently investigated. Some letting agents can run credit checks but they are limited to public data (ie CCJs, bankruptcies etc) and not your personal credit history. Even so, the CRAs insist on your permission being sought first, even for these limited checks.

James