Tenants - are you happy for your personal data to be shared ?

clutton_2

millym - let me respond to some of your points

1. They could be perceived as being biased, as it's run by a LL - but there is no one else who has the evidence of rent arrears and damage.... who else would you want to produce the evidence ?

2. The info is placed by individuals, not organisations who are governed by regulatory bodies - everyone is governed by laws relating to truthfulness and honesty and data protection issues... Even if, say National Landlords Association were to take this over, tenants would still say there was a bias.... if you had an utterly independent body organising this database, who would pay for it ?


3. Tenants won't neccessarily know that the site exists, let alone whether their data is on it - no transparency. - tenatns already have the option as my earlier post to ask for details of all searches done.... this is a right under DP legislation

4. People have to give their permission to be credit searched. The site would have greater transparency and therefore credibility if tenants had to give specific permission for a search of the site. Tenants already give their permissoin for referencing on the applicatoin form i have copied above.

5. CRA's can only give info about someone to an organisation. It would appear that anyone could potentially register and search the site. There is very little data on the site to search through...Name, DOB, NINO .... .. landlords are put in touch with each other so that they can ask for/provide references about tenants.

6.6. The whole system seems to be based on opinion, not fact and is therefore open to abuse and potential loss of credibility. This is a tricky one, i grant you.... many landlords, including myself, dont always take tenants to court for rent arrears and damage.. so, as you say, we may have no paper proof that a tenant was in arrears or caused damage - if an ex-tenant was a HB/LHA recipient then we have the local authority direct payment as proof... and here is the rub for tenants ... the local authority ask for nothing more than a Rental Statement to prove arrears.. they are willing to believe a landlord when they claim this..... If a LL claims arrears when there are none, he risks a claw-back of benefit and a prosecution for fraud.. not many would do that.....

7. A LL receives info about a potential T from another LL. They will know even less about this other LL, and their honesty, than they know about their potential T. I agree this could be a difficulty... but as i have said before, using LRS, for me, would only be a last resort after all other referencing procedures had not provided me with an acceptable level of good data....

8. There is no transparency about what info is held, or how it is shared. - If my understanding is correct, there is very little information stored at LRS... the name, DOB and NINO - and it is my understanding that NINO are only seen by the data controller in order to verify that a report of one tenant by LandlordA is the same tenant as a request about a tenant from landlordB - NINOs are not circulated to landlords via email.

9 It is unregulated, and it's members are unregulated - Any website is regulated by the requirements of Data Protection, Trading Standards and other bodies.... Landlords are regulated by more than 100 Statutes and Regulations.....

I doubt we will ever agree on this. . but those are my thoughts....

tbs624

clutton wrote: »

Ali - altho you are a landlord who feels passionately about rogue tenants, i dont think that your language about satan and evil are doing us landlords any favours... we are trying to have a balanced rational discussion here..... so please try not to behave like a bully-boy because others do not agree with you...

AAh, so that's what the satin bit was about? I was thinking shiny, smooth fabric......;)

My bolding above. You may like to know that the majority of "Ali's" post above is, in fact, a direct lift from the original words of one Paul Routledge. You will probably know of his style in addressing people who raise queries about what he is doing, because of the thread on Property Tribes.

clutton wrote: »

Just out of interest i have looked at the tenancy application form which many many landlords use.... and i enclose an extract from it....

The Data protection disclaimer page on the www.landlordzone.co.uk tenancy application form has the following sections:-

I (the tenant) believe the information provided here to be true and authorise the landlord or agent to

carry out credit searches and reference checks and to contact employers, banks, referees, and credit reference agencies as necessary

use the information obtained with third parties to assess credit ratings, make insurance decisions, for fraud prevention and tracing / debt collection.

handle all information obtained in strictest confidence and in accordance with the principles of the Data Protection Act 1988

I understand that i can request the details of any credit reference agencies used so that i can verify with them the information provided""


So tenants can quite legitimately ask the LL for any information they find out about them... but in 11 years i have never been asked for this.....

You and I both say to Ts (and/or LLs who are signing a contract with their LA) "if there is a clause with which you are not happy, cross it out/amend it , sign next to the alteration, keeping your own copy.

Perhaps some Ts who have had LRS brought to their attention may want to add their own rider to your clause? In the interests of openness my view is that LLs should have to list exactly with whom they are intending to share that Ts info.

I may be wrong but I suspect that many of the Ts to whom you let are probably not au fait with the DPA, nor would they have a spare tenner to request the information from firms such as LRS.

It's a never ending swirl of information gathering because when you write to anyone/ any company requesting what info may be held on you, you have to provide several pieces of personal info to "verify" that you are who you say you are. Thus, as I said before, if you weren't on the DB before, you certainly will be afterwards.

I have said numerous times on these boards that I don't condone either Ts or LLs who fail to meet their own obligations to the other party, and obviously that includes Ts who fail to pay their rent.However, I still am of the opinion that for a private LL to be operating this sort of information gathering exercise is wrong.

You and "Ali"/Paul chose to ignore the point that fraud (including HB/LHA fraud) is not only perpetuated by Ts. Perhaps a random T should set up a similar DB for Ts to log in their views on their LLs propensity towards failing to notify that LHA claimants have moved on so that they continue to receive direct payment ( cases available if you want them), their LLs deception with their mortgagor, the likelihood that s/he is dodging declaration to HMRC, has failed to register an HMO, is known not to register tenancy deposits, and so on. These are all things which can seriously impact on the lives of Ts who have signed up for a property to use as their home.

*miaomiao*

A few questions for straightforward answers by those in support of the LRS:

How do tenants check and verify/correct this (mis)information?

Why, on the LRS website, are tenants (good or bad) being charged to check what information is being uploaded about them by a LL (good or bad) who uploads the information for free?

Why is it not clear what happens with tenant info after a LL uploads it - absolutely specific, from start to end!

Replies gratefully received!

clutton_2

""on the LRS website, are tenants (good or bad) being charged to check what information is being uploaded about them"

everyone has to pay to get access to informaton held about them by anyone under DP act.... this site is not unique in that....

we all have to pay to get our Credit file checked......

tbs624

petits_filous wrote: »

I. But (and I apologise for starting a sentence with a but as I see there are some grammar critics on here

Up until now the "grammar critics" let Ali/Paul's lovely
" educated piers" pass by so I don't think any of us are too fussed about the but:D

Thats an unusual font you are using. Is it to differentiate yourself from posts by Paul and his first sock puppet, as NDG commented on the use of the same font? Sorry, I digress.....

petits_filous wrote: »

Therefore I have spoken to my landlord and asked her to put me on there so that I would not have to be a subject of one of these emails. She said she was not a member but will get signed up today and put me on there with gold stars next to my name if it is possible. I believe this solves the problem? (responses welcome by someone who knows how the system works) If Ali Pasaul is indeed related to the company then I just got you another member so you owe me one – maybe a drink and a sing song!! Haha.

Yep Paul, we know you like karaoke. This looks to me like LRS thinking about how to address the issue raised by Lydia, earlier in the thread, and now trying to present it as if he was a T.:rotfl:

It does not solve any problem for Ts, (or indeed LLs), who don't agree with the concept of your DB and do not want their personal information held there whether or not they have gold stars or the whole sun , moon, and a great big glistening diamond next to their name.

Sock puppet no 2 - your name is a food product name Do Yoplait know/mind that you are using it? Or shall we just take it in its most literal sense, the French for Little Rascal?

LydiaJ

Quite apart from the posting style, did anyone else notice that "Ali pasaul" needs only the slightest rearrangement to make "Alias Paul"?

MissMoneypenny

PROFESSIONAL_LANDLORD wrote: »

Funny or not, England and Wales will follow Scotland and register it's LL's. It's only a matter of time.

Ohhh, that's mean to scare them.:)

MissMoneypenny

LydiaJ wrote: »

Quite apart from the posting style, did anyone else notice that "Ali pasaul" needs only the slightest rearrangement to make "Alias Paul"?

Shhhh. Don't tell him we've spotted that. He thinks nobody noticed his subtle(?) username.

namratasnv

I have seen many scams happened, due to data sharing so, it is good to keep all the credentials with you so that you will not find any problem like this in the future.

MissMoneypenny

ali_pasaul wrote: »

Petits-filous thanks you very much.

Thanking yourself is the second sign of madness;)