Car reg in pictures

Clearlier

Our landlords have put the house we live in on the market. That's fine with us as we're trying to buy something at the moment although we'd obviously prefer if they waited until we left.

The EA came around and took photos and I've just seen them today. They include one of the front of the house which clearly shows my car and its registration.

I'm feeling quite uncomfortable about this but am wondering if I'm just being silly and looking for anything to object to because I'd prefer they waited or is it sensible to prefer not to have the car reg included in the photos? I don't want to be unreasonable but this is nagging away at me a little.

Any thoughts?

k3lvc

I'm sure others will disagree as it seems to be am emotive (if not entirely understandable subject).

As far as I'm concerned the information is already in the public domain i.e. you regularly drive your car with the registration number on display and regularly park it outside your property where any number of people could see it.

propertyman

Dear Agent Would you mind editing out our car registration from particulars any display and on-line listings please, asap.

Love and kisses Clearier.

pinkteapot

I'm not quite sure what peoples' concern is with their car reg being shown in photos online? What's the security risk?

Some people might have dodgy friends/relatives that they're hiding from and don't want to be tracked down. Not sure what else...

I'm sure the EA would edit it out for you if you asked politely though.

sonastin

All it is doing it linking the car to the property. You do that yourself by parking the car there. Its different to e.g. TV shows, where the programme tells you something about the life of the person and then their registration can be used to identify that person.

By all means ask, but what are you trying to protect yourself against?

Werdnal

OP, I don't think it would affect you, unless you have a personal reason for not wanting your car linked to the property and published online.

However, it is often considered bad practice to advertise a car and show its reg no. People with dodgy intentions who wish to change the ID of a car by pinching the number of an identical car, can trawl the net to find one - usually a long way away from where they live, so they won't chance passing it on the street! Cloned car can then be used in criminal activity, avoid parking/speeding fines or congestion charge, or even be sold on claiming to be several years newer than the original. A sale of an identical reg car would not affect you as the owner of the original with that reg no, but might take a lot of proof that you were not travelling on the A38 at 102 miles an hour last Sunday when you get the speeding ticket through the post - with speed camera shots to prove it! It could also "pinch" your insurance, as the cloned car would not show up as uninsured on ANPR cameras, as you have your policy covering the real car!

If it makes you feel better, then ask the agents to blank the number, or retake that particular photo with you car moved.

LeafGreen

Probably not too much to worry about. I think the issue people worry about is a kind of vehicle identity theft - you own a blue ford fiesta (for example, athough it would be funny if your car was indeed a blue ford fiesta!), low-life steals another blue ford fiesta and decides to get plates on it showing your reg, first thing you know about it is when speeding and parking fines start coming through your door.

So if the thief has a stolen blue ford fiesta on his hands, and wants a reg from another one, where is he going to look? somewhere like autotrader where he can specifically search for one. He's not going to go through Rightmove listings until he finds one.

So I don't think having it visible on RM is any more risky than having it visible on your drive, or driving around town. I think Google Street View is supposed to remove them all, but I think that is a data protection thing more than anything else.

But as an earlier poster said, a simple email to the agent should do the trick if you'd rather it wasn't on there.

Idiophreak

Don't really see this as being a big deal either way. It's probably fine to have the number plate on show, but it will take the landlord 20 seconds to edit the pictures and reupload, so I can't see them making a fuss if you ask them to do it. If it's bothering you, just ask.

breadlinebetty

Werdnal wrote: »

OP, I don't think it would affect you, unless you have a personal reason for not wanting your car linked to the property and published online.

However, it is often considered bad practice to advertise a car and show its reg no. People with dodgy intentions who wish to change the ID of a car by pinching the number of an identical car, can trawl the net to find one - usually a long way away from where they live, so they won't chance passing it on the street! Cloned car can then be used in criminal activity, avoid parking/speeding fines or congestion charge, or even be sold on claiming to be several years newer than the original. A sale of an identical reg car would not affect you as the owner of the original with that reg no, but might take a lot of proof that you were not travelling on the A38 at 102 miles an hour last Sunday when you get the speeding ticket through the post - with speed camera shots to prove it! It could also "pinch" your insurance, as the cloned car would not show up as uninsured on ANPR cameras, as you have your policy covering the real car!

If it makes you feel better, then ask the agents to blank the number, or retake that particular photo with you car moved.

Criminals who do that usually scour internet car sites for that sort of thing.....

I don't think cloning is as rife as it used to be is it?

I had my car cloned about 20 years ago and I never received one parking ticket or fine! The only reason I discovered my car was cloned was a police officer came to my house and asked to see the VIN number on the engine - soon as he saw that, it confirmed my car was the genuine one and it never caused me any problems at all. I never found out what happened to the cloned car, or even how the police discovered a cloned car was going around (I was too busy at the time to enquire....) but someone did suggest to me that I now had carte blanche to get as many parking tickets/fines etc as I wanted - and blame it all on the cloned car! I didn't - of course!!

breadlinebetty

Clearlier wrote: »

Our landlords have put the house we live in on the market. That's fine with us as we're trying to buy something at the moment although we'd obviously prefer if they waited until we left.

The EA came around and took photos and I've just seen them today. They include one of the front of the house which clearly shows my car and its registration.

I'm feeling quite uncomfortable about this but am wondering if I'm just being silly and looking for anything to object to because I'd prefer they waited or is it sensible to prefer not to have the car reg included in the photos? I don't want to be unreasonable but this is nagging away at me a little.

Any thoughts?

Usually, they only hide reg numbers of celebrities' cars - us mere mortals aren't seen as special enough!

They'll hide the reg of a celebrities car parked outside their house (or even when they're driving it) which you can understand why. People can often trace a celebrities address bY their car reg - so it's a security measure.

But as the property your landlord is selling is already in the public domain, no-one would need to trace the address! Aand as previously explained, criminals don't hunt trrough rightmove for car regs - they go onto autotrader etc........

theartfullodger

This is in England ??

If you are unhappy ask them to remove it, although you'll appreciate the old, cached, versions will be in the Internet's memory FOR EVER and crafty persons can continue to find it. I'd ask for a letter of apology from agent & landlord.

You appreciate you don't have to allow viewings, surveyors, mortgage valuers, the landlord, repair man(ah, careful with that one), the agent or ANYONE to enter YOUR PROPERTY - not landlord's
http://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2010/08/31/urban-myth-when-a-landlord-lets-a-property-its-still-his/
- and the only way the LL can force you to let someone in is to get a court order?? You are in a very strong position here to demand whatever you want (eg you ain't moving, your tenancy continues, and only viewings every 4th Wednesday between 13:30 & 13:45) see ...
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?26589-L-s-right-of-access-for-inspection-or-viewing

Oh, and no you don't have to have the place tidy, the curtains drawn, the tele off or music not playing and dirty laundry strewn all over & sink piled high with mouldy dishes & pots...

Cheers!

Artful (Landlord since 2000...)