Data protection breach and poor service

ellectrastar

Not sure where to post, hoping someone can advise?

I have a solicitor dealing with an issue for me. After instructing then I moved address. I emailed them with my new address and got them to confirm that they had received it and updated their records.

Subsequent to this they sent a contract to my old address. This was opened by the tenant and passed to the letting agent who forwarded to me. This contract obviously had my details, third party details, and information regarding the transaction being proposed.

I called the solicitor who apologised and said that their data protection officer would be notified and contact me. I haven’t heard anything since.

What are my rights regarding this? Any number of people could’ve read this contract. I haven’t mentioned this to the solicitor again as they’re still dealing with the case for me and I’m afraid of what the repercussions will be. After a year of going back and forth I had a date for completion but before transferring monies checked a detail which the solicitor confirmed as being the opposite of what I thought had been arranged. The solicitor is blaming me for this when in fact I feel they have misled me. So now I’ve been waiting two weeks for them to liaise with the third party’s solicitor to see what can be done.

It’s all a huge mess and now I’m worrying about the outcome to the point I can’t sleep, and I keep thinking about the DP breach and who knows my business and that they could tell anyone etc etc. It’s all playing on my mind and I just think what should I do? Is it alright for them to apologise and that be it? What is a DP officer for if so?

Any advice welcome.

TripleH

Did you give the new address to the tenant of your old property?

If the envelope was plain with no return address on the back maybe they opened it to see if they needed to return it to the sender and what the address was.

born_again

The problem is the tenant who opened the letter. Can't see how the solicitor can be held responsible for someone else actions.
All the solicitor letters we have received are pre printed with all their details on.

I would guess their data protection officer has said the same to them. As they have not come back to you.

The Postal Services Act 2000 clearly states that it is certainly illegal to open someone's post, or delay it reaching the owner.

The Act says: "A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person's detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him."

Although throwing it away may not be the same as peeking, most people (and more importantly, lawyers) could argue that binning the mail "delays" the post indefinitely, which is a crime.

Aylesbury_Duck

ellectrastar wrote: »

Not sure where to post, hoping someone can advise?

I have a solicitor dealing with an issue for me. After instructing then I moved address. I emailed them with my new address and got them to confirm that they had received it and updated their records.

Subsequent to this they sent a contract to my old address. This was opened by the tenant and passed to the letting agent who forwarded to me. This contract obviously had my details, third party details, and information regarding the transaction being proposed.

I called the solicitor who apologised and said that their data protection officer would be notified and contact me. I haven’t heard anything since.

What are my rights regarding this? Any number of people could’ve read this contract. I haven’t mentioned this to the solicitor again as they’re still dealing with the case for me and I’m afraid of what the repercussions will be. After a year of going back and forth I had a date for completion but before transferring monies checked a detail which the solicitor confirmed as being the opposite of what I thought had been arranged. The solicitor is blaming me for this when in fact I feel they have misled me. So now I’ve been waiting two weeks for them to liaise with the third party’s solicitor to see what can be done.

It’s all a huge mess and now I’m worrying about the outcome to the point I can’t sleep, and I keep thinking about the DP breach and who knows my business and that they could tell anyone etc etc. It’s all playing on my mind and I just think what should I do? Is it alright for them to apologise and that be it? What is a DP officer for if so?

Any advice welcome.

Let's cut to the chase: How much are you after?

boo_star

born_again wrote: »

The problem is the tenant who opened the letter. Can't see how the solicitor can be held responsible for someone else actions.
All the solicitor letters we have received are pre printed with all their details on.

I would guess their data protection officer has said the same to them. As they have not come back to you.

The tenant does not appear to be acting to the OP's detriment though, do they?

System

Is this possibly something the ICO could advise about?

The_Rainmaker

ellectrastar wrote: »

Any advice welcome.

Shrug your shoulders, mistakes happen and then carry on.

unforeseen

born_again wrote: »

The problem is the tenant who opened the letter. Can't see how the solicitor can be held responsible for someone else actions.
All the solicitor letters we have received are pre printed with all their details on.
The Postal Services Act 2000 clearly states that it is certainly illegal to open someone's post, or delay it reaching the owner.

The Act says: "A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person's detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him."

Although throwing it away may not be the same as peeking, most people (and more importantly, lawyers) could argue that binning the mail "delays" the post indefinitely, which is a crime.

I would guess their data protection officer has said the same to them. As they have not come back to you.

The delay referred to in the act is a delay in the transmission of the mail to the address, not the person. That was achieved. The tenant is committing no offence even if they binned the letter. Postal Act 2000 has been satisfied.

unforeseen

vsman1 wrote: »

Is this possibly something the ICO could advise about?

Please Mr ICO I didn't put mail redirection in place so my tenant had to open a letter to find out whether it was important or not and then handed to my letting agent to forward to me.

SpiderLegs

born_again wrote: »

The problem is the tenant who opened the letter. Can't see how the solicitor can be held responsible for someone else actions.
All the solicitor letters we have received are pre printed with all their details on.

I would guess their data protection officer has said the same to them. As they have not come back to you.

Complete nonsense.

The letter was not incorrectly delivered.
The tenant did not act to the OPs detriment.

Manxman_in_exile

I agree with the others that the tenant just opening the letter is not committing an offence - there's no detriment and there's no dishonest intent. And once it's been delivered to the address, it's been delivered.


I open everything that has my address on it even if I don't recognise the name. I want to know who and why my address is being used.


I would be complaining to the solicitor and want an explanation as to why they are using an address I've told them not to use.


Edit: I have opened a letter from solicitors that had my address on it but I didn't know the addressee. You'd be daft not to open a letter to your address in those circumstances. Why is a firm of solicitors writing to someone I don't know at my address? (The envelope had the name of a local firm printed on it so it was obvious it was from solicitors).