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Right of tenant to see case file held by letting agents for tenancy agreement
clairemp
Posts: 9 Forumite
Hello all
I am hoping someone can help me with the following, please.
As a tenant under a tenancy agreement, there is a tenant and a landlord and in this case a letting agents who act for the landlord as first point of contact (for rent payments and for repairs/maintenance issues which they then deal with on behalf of the landlord). There have been serious problems with repairs that have led to Environmental Health issuing 6 Statutory Improvement Notices against the landlord. As a result the tenant was evicted and is now trying to get money back for the landlord's breach of obligations to keep in good repair, etc. We have asked to have a copy of the full file, in particular with regard to repairs & maintenance, and also to do with rent where she is alleging non-existent arrears. The landlord is now refusing to let us have a copy of the case file pertaining to the tenancy held by the letting agents and has been told that legally we have no right to see it, that the landlord can cherrypick from the file as she sees fit and refuse to disclose any information which is detrimental to her. Our position would be that the case file forms part of the tenancy agreement and is also data held about the tenant as data subject, and he has a legal right to see the full file and have this corrected if necessary. Which position is right? Is there some legislation pertaining to disclosure of information which we can use to have this disclosed?
If anyone can think of a way we can get information about the repairs, that'd be really helpful. She's claiming work has been done in a reasonable timeframe and we need to be able to show when he rang the letting agents (in one case she left it 2 months in winter with no central heating or hot water at all, which can only be proved by showing when he rang and the correspondence between landlord & letting agents as well as letting agents & repair/maintenance to show how long it was), let repairmen in who didn't do the work and their reasons why as given to the letting agents, and that repairs weren't putting the matters right, repairmen were regularly coming back but not doing the work.
Thank you in advance for your help- it would be appreciated, thanks.
Cheers,
Claire
I am hoping someone can help me with the following, please.
As a tenant under a tenancy agreement, there is a tenant and a landlord and in this case a letting agents who act for the landlord as first point of contact (for rent payments and for repairs/maintenance issues which they then deal with on behalf of the landlord). There have been serious problems with repairs that have led to Environmental Health issuing 6 Statutory Improvement Notices against the landlord. As a result the tenant was evicted and is now trying to get money back for the landlord's breach of obligations to keep in good repair, etc. We have asked to have a copy of the full file, in particular with regard to repairs & maintenance, and also to do with rent where she is alleging non-existent arrears. The landlord is now refusing to let us have a copy of the case file pertaining to the tenancy held by the letting agents and has been told that legally we have no right to see it, that the landlord can cherrypick from the file as she sees fit and refuse to disclose any information which is detrimental to her. Our position would be that the case file forms part of the tenancy agreement and is also data held about the tenant as data subject, and he has a legal right to see the full file and have this corrected if necessary. Which position is right? Is there some legislation pertaining to disclosure of information which we can use to have this disclosed?
If anyone can think of a way we can get information about the repairs, that'd be really helpful. She's claiming work has been done in a reasonable timeframe and we need to be able to show when he rang the letting agents (in one case she left it 2 months in winter with no central heating or hot water at all, which can only be proved by showing when he rang and the correspondence between landlord & letting agents as well as letting agents & repair/maintenance to show how long it was), let repairmen in who didn't do the work and their reasons why as given to the letting agents, and that repairs weren't putting the matters right, repairmen were regularly coming back but not doing the work.
Thank you in advance for your help- it would be appreciated, thanks.
Cheers,
Claire
0
Comments
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Hello all
I am hoping someone can help me with the following, please.
As a tenant under a tenancy agreement, there is a tenant and a landlord and in this case a letting agents who act for the landlord as first point of contact (for rent payments and for repairs/maintenance issues which they then deal with on behalf of the landlord). There have been serious problems with repairs that have led to Environmental Health issuing 6 Statutory Improvement Notices against the landlord. As a result the tenant was evicted and is now trying to get money back for the landlord's breach of obligations to keep in good repair, etc. We have asked to have a copy of the full file, in particular with regard to repairs & maintenance, and also to do with rent where she is alleging non-existent arrears. The landlord is now refusing to let us have a copy of the case file pertaining to the tenancy held by the letting agents and has been told that legally we have no right to see it, that the landlord can cherrypick from the file as she sees fit and refuse to disclose any information which is detrimental to her. Our position would be that the case file forms part of the tenancy agreement and is also data held about the tenant as data subject, and he has a legal right to see the full file and have this corrected if necessary. Which position is right? Is there some legislation pertaining to disclosure of information which we can use to have this disclosed?
If anyone can think of a way we can get information about the repairs, that'd be really helpful. She's claiming work has been done in a reasonable timeframe and we need to be able to show when he rang the letting agents (in one case she left it 2 months in winter with no central heating or hot water at all, which can only be proved by showing when he rang and the correspondence between landlord & letting agents as well as letting agents & repair/maintenance to show how long it was), let repairmen in who didn't do the work and their reasons why as given to the letting agents, and that repairs weren't putting the matters right, repairmen were regularly coming back but not doing the work.
Thank you in advance for your help- it would be appreciated, thanks.
Cheers,
Claire
You'll need to apply to the court for an order to disclose.No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?0 -
.... once court action is underway.
That's the way of litigation. There are pre-action protocols for some types of action, but not for this. So, litigation is often started without all the evidence one would like.
The other thing the OP can do is a subject data access request under the DPA. That won't get the correspondence between the LL and EA, though.No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?0 -
The above post is spot on - issue a SAR (Subject access request) cost £10 to the letting agent, they must disclose this information.
Cant comment on your case without more info.0 -
If I was the letting agent, I would not have the information the tenant wants me to supply to help prosecute me.Well life is harsh, hug me don't reject me.0
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For the most part, OP is NOT the data subject for the required information, the required information is mostly about the contract between LA and LL. So a SAR will not reveal the useful information.The above post is spot on - issue a SAR (Subject access request) cost £10 to the letting agent, they must disclose this information.
Cant comment on your case without more info.You might as well ask the Wizard of Oz to give you a big number as pay a Credit Referencing Agency for a so-called 'credit-score'0 -
Do u really think it's so easy to avoid?...
The contract is between the landlord and tenant, not letting agent and tenant.
Letting agent receives SAR on the 1st January 2014.
Letting agent writes back to tenant that as they do not have any further need for the file for the landlords agreement with the ex-tenant, so they gave it back to the landlord 2 weeks after the tenancy finished, once they informed the relevant authorities that the tenant had vacated the landlords property.
ICO may or may not bother to contact the leting agent in March 2014.
The letting agent repeats the above.Well life is harsh, hug me don't reject me.0
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