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

clutton_2

""It essentially prevents a past tenant ever finding out what information is held on them. ""

in ther same way that the law at present only allows a tenant to apply for a LLs address when s/he is still in situ as a tenant and not after they leave...

sp1987

clutton wrote: »

""It essentially prevents a past tenant ever finding out what information is held on them. ""

in ther same way that the law at present only allows a tenant to apply for a LLs address when s/he is still in situ as a tenant and not after they leave...

I dare say a different issue though, as you do have your tenancy to try to get the LL's address and any problems beyond then will be to do with things like the deposit. That's a minimum 6 months to ask for it or obtain it elsewhere. At worst a court claim to reclaim the deposit could only happen for 6 years after the loss occured so there is an absolute maximum time one could really make use of the landlord's address? I always request the landlord's address just before I leave for this reason. That is information that you know exists and you know exactly what it involves. That information is limited to an address. There's no opinion or inaccuracy to it (unless the landlord is a fraud, but that's a different issue!).

Not being able to ever obtain information that was put on a website at any time and possibly causes problems for you forever (with no set start or finish) seems a more arbitrary condition. Something which the DPA as a piece of legislation looked to prevent, information needlessly forever, without recourse or permission. It is legally out of favour (legislation like the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and the DPA) to keep and refer to old/outdated data for years to come. If one can drop their conviction for x and pretend it never happened, why can someone not have removed/even access that they have been identified as leaving a student house unclean in 2002? Kim and Aggie probably left a rented property unclean once.

I think from my position, I am unable (under that form) to see that a landlord has written something untrue about me on a website as revenge for asserting legal rights. The phenomenon wouldn't affect a good landlord as I would never have had a reason to complain to them. To furnish you with some more of my anecdotal experience of idiots, correspondence between my letting agent and landlord (submitted as part of a defence to a court claim, brilliant!) regarding a proposed 6.9% (of full amount) deduction from my deposit read as follows; landlord: don't give them back any of the amount at all until they have agreed the deductions. So it illustrates that some landlords (I'm sure not you as I have read quite a few of your posts and agree) will be the type to threaten to hold deposits as ransom, so probably the same type who would use this sort of referencing site not as it was intended. Surely it would ruin the idea of an accurate referencing service if a good landlord who observes their legal obligations would discouraged from access to a tenant who knows what legal obligations they may have to adhere to, both of whom are quite prepared to agree, due to there being no outside vetting of comments. If the comments were viewable by anyone who registered and searched for their own details (like Experian, you don't need to prove you are the person concerned, just claim to be...or the motor insurance database, you need to agree that you are the owner of the car, not prove it) then I think it would reduce the amount of 'revenge' or inaccurate comments that could be posted.

tbs624

clutton wrote: »

you raise excellent points sp 1987 - a LL database and/or a Tenant Database is fraught with difficulties.....

tbs - it is not like you to be so vehemently exagerative - you say

""Sadly, most LLs will not be prepared, in return, to offer you any "evidence" to support your hopes that they will not disappear in the middle of the night, as their property is repossessed, your tenancy agreement is effectively reneged upon and your tenancy deposit disappears along with the LL , having never been scheme registered. Even where the LL meets his/her mortgage payments, what assurance is there for Ts that their potential LL is going to stick to his s11 repairing obligations?

(my underlining)


as i keep on saying DPS publishes that only 6% of deposits go into dispute... so it is simply not true to say Most landlords do anything... in the same way it is not true to say Most tenants do anything....

Blimey Clutton - you're doing well on not following the plot today.;) Look again at what I said. As a LL, you have posted on here that you want the maximum amount of information on any potential T. I suspect that you- and, yes, many other LLs - do not supply your/their Ts with the equivalent level of intrusive personal documentation.

tbs624

sp1987 wrote: »

... I don't need to know whether my current landlord has written things about me as they would be good. I keep his property very well and neither he nor the agent have heard anything from me since I moved in. I don't want anything and plan not to want anything, lol.

Aside from the "blacklisting" aspect, should your LL sign up to the website he is expected, under their Ts and Cs ,to offer up the personal data of *all* of his Ts, good and bad. LLs are exhorted to "upload what you can remember from previous years" & "give us as much information as possible"

A good proportion of Ts will be unhappy that their personal data is being used in this way, regardless of whether they are tagged as a "Good" or "bad" Ts

Interestingly, IIRC the website for the previous attempt at this database says that Ts info would not be kept for "longer than 4 years". On the LRS site he claims that his new set-up has records going back "as far as the year 2000"

tbs624

clutton wrote: »

""It essentially prevents a past tenant ever finding out what information is held on them. ""

in ther same way that the law at present only allows a tenant to apply for a LLs address when s/he is still in situ as a tenant and not after they leave...

Perhaps you could clarify your analogy?

The T is aiming to find out about information held on *him/herself* personally

A T using S1 of the LL&T Act 1985 would be seeking to find out information about *someone else* - their LL. Whilst the general interpretation is that the word T in that Act necessarily excludes an ex-T, "the law" does not prevent the T from applying for the LL's address if the info is required for legal proceedings. Data Protection Act , s35

clutton_2

"Blimey Clutton - you're doing well on not following the plot today.""

- i am trying to do too many things at the same time today ! multi tasking is not my forte......



""I suspect that you- and, yes, many other LLs - do not supply your/their Ts with the equivalent level of intrusive personal documentation""

i have never been asked for any ...


whenever i meet a new prospective tenant, i always offer to give them current tenants details so they can take up references on me... NOT ONCE has anyone said 'yes please '

i have never been asked if i have consent to let.. i have never been asked if i am a member of a professional body.. i have never been asked if i have the propery insurance.. i have never been asked if i have had the electrics checked lately...

i could go on..

i would have been more than happy to answer all those questions and more ...

tbs624

clutton wrote: »

- i am trying to do too many things at the same time today ! multi tasking is not my forte......

..but as a laydee, how can this be? See [URL="ttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7896385/Scientists-prove-that-women-are-better-at-multitasking-than-men.html"]here[/URL]

bitsandpieces

If the site won't give tenants info it holds on them from when they lived at previous addressed, I'm not sure how that complies with DPA requirements re subject access requests.

Clutton - when you registered for the site did they ask for any proof that you're a landlord or any proof of your identity?

darkblue_2

*Sigh* another database.

I'm going to get a barcode tattoed on my forehead and issue everyone I come into contact with a scanner.
I draw the line at giving my landlord a blood sample, but if they asked for me to sign up to a database, I'd happily give them a urine sample...

That's right - I wee on my adversaries.

System

They can have my details if I can have all of theirs. there should be a way to check for unscrupulous landlords too. (At the minute there's only the responsible landlord scheme-if they choose to eb a aprt of it)