Letting Agency Data protection?

Adams110

Wednesday 11 October 2017 7:08:32 pm
Firstly, I hope I’ve posted this in the right place.

Recently I applied to rent a house with some land negotiable adjacent. The letting agent took ID details, bank statements, references (18 of them) from my wife and I. After a while they got back to us and said the Landlord had decided to rent it all separately. The agent said he had sent all of our details to him and the lando net had decided to go with a local guy (we were from out of area) and we accepted this. Luckily we had another to go for and we got that sorted quickly.

On reflection, is it legal for our bank statements and passport details to be sent to a landlord for consideration? Surely this should have been taken after we were accepted in principle?

I have emailed the agent (3 times in last 10 days) to ask for all emails and our private data to be deleted from his and landlords computers. I was polite, but don’t like the idea of my most private or information being shared and just left for hackers to get hold of.

I’ve had no reply.

Am I being paranoid? Or
1) do they have the legal right to take id and bank statements and references without us being accepted for property?
2) do I have the right to ask for all emails/information on myself to be disclosed?
3) can they simply refuse to delete my data?

Hope someone can help!:o

G_M

The agent is simply acting for the LL.

You applied to the LL, via the agent, to rent his property. How ccan he decide whether to accept your appliction or not without revewing the information you provided to him via his agent?

Fosterdog

They are not going to accept you for a property without you giving the info they need to check. As for the details being sent to the landlord, the agent is acting on behalf of the landlord so yes they should disclose everything to their client for them to then make a decision.

On to your questions
1) It’s not illegal for them to ask you to provide this info, if you don’t like it just refuse but you will almost certainly then be rejected for failing to provide what they requested. As mentioned they can’t accept you without running the checks, it’s a bit late after they accept you.

2) Disclosed to who? You could submit a subject to access request which will cost £10 but some of the data may be confidential as it would breach the landlords confidentiality if they shared emails between them both. What do you hope to gain by finding out what emails have been sent?

3)It will depend on whether any of the data needs to be stored for auditing purposes, ultimately you can request deletion and they can ignore you and you have no way of knowing whether they have done it or not.

Slithery

Who did you think the agents were going to show the reference to?

It's the landlord that decides who to let the property to, how can he do this without seeing references? Getting them after making the decision would be pointless.

Adams110

Happy to provide references. But was concerned for safety as passport, bank details and addresses kept on an agents pc is a security risk. Or am I being paranoid.

Fosterdog

You are being paranoid, if you were that concerned about how they would handle your data you shouldn’t have handed it over in the first place. It does sound like you are a bit bitter about not being offered the property and now want to make things difficult for them.

steampowered

To answer your third question:

3) can they simply refuse to delete my data?

If the data is no longer required, you are entitled to ask them to delete it. The best way to go about this would be a polite email asking them to delete records of your bank details and passport from their system.

If they keep personal data longer than reasonably necessary they would be in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.

LEJC

Have your personal details and bank statement copies definitely been passed to the LL?

I can only comment on how my particular letting agent works for me as a LL....they review the prospective tenant....give me a run down and ask for a decision.

Yes some generic details are discussed over affordability but I have never been even given the prospective tenants name prior to agreeing let alone a bank statement.

In saying that your details were passed to the LL it may be better to establish if this was actually the case or whether the conversation centred around the LA proposing tenant 1 against tenant 2 and the LL deciding on the other application not yours.

Comms69

LEJC wrote: »

Have your personal details and bank statement copies definitely been passed to the LL?

I can only comment on how my particular letting agent works for me as a LL....they review the prospective tenant....give me a run down and ask for a decision.

Yes some generic details are discussed over affordability but I have never been even given the prospective tenants name prior to agreeing let alone a bank statement. - Why not? It could be someone you don't want to let to?!

In saying that your details were passed to the LL it may be better to establish if this was actually the case or whether the conversation centred around the LA proposing tenant 1 against tenant 2 and the LL deciding on the other application not yours.

If all of it wasn't passed on to the LL, I'd be surprised.


That said, I'd never give a bank statement to anyone.

LEJC

Comms69 wrote: »

If all of it wasn't passed on to the LL, I'd be surprised.


That said, I'd never give a bank statement to anyone.

I don't want to take the thread off topic...but would be grateful if you might specify how to quantify"someone I wouldn't want to rent to"...

Will knowing a persons name,gender or who they bank with have a real impact over the decision....

Comms69

LEJC wrote: »

I don't want to take the thread off topic...but would be grateful if you might specify how to quantify"someone I wouldn't want to rent to"...

Will knowing a persons name,gender or who they bank with have a real impact over the decision....

gladly, someone you know, or know of, that you would not want to rent to.


Either for reasons such as - I know they're not good with money, or they snogged my gf back in high school, or he's known for drug use, or whatever!


Or - I know them and it could be awkward if I need to evict, or they're late paying rent, or whatever.


(but nice try on the whole- this poster must be xenophobic or sexist if they base their decision on someone's name)