Electoral Register Information Form

h24821807

Hello all, recently, I have received a letter from the Council to confirm the Electoral Register Information at my address. Currently, 3 people live in the house (myself and 2 others). My name is on the letter, and one of the other housemates is not eligible, so her name is not there (not a problem here).
However, the last housemate who has moved in recently is not being helpful with this; her name is not on the letter obviously as she moved in about 2/3 months ago. I know for the fact that I have to respond to the letter; otherwise, we will risk a fine (I think it is £1000). She refuses to tell me her nationality, and don't want to be registered/have her name in the form.
I don't want to lie in the form (again if you provide false info, you get a fine).
So, now I am left in this situation where a) if I don't have her name in the form, I will be lying which could result in a fine; or b) have her name in there behind her back, which will raise tension in the house when she finds out, and potentially filling in the nationality wrong (she might not be British), which again could result in a fine; or c) not returning the form which automatically declaring all info in the letter is correct (which is not), again declaring wrong info could result in a fine.
Can anyone give me some advice on this?
Many thanks.

greatcrested

1) Are you the property owner and the other 2 your lodgers?

2) Or are you a tenant?

3) If tenant, are all 3 of you joint tenants on the same contract (joint & several tenancy)?

4) Or do you each have separate tenancies agreement with your landlord.

5) or are you the sole tenant, the other 2 are your lodgers?

If 1) or 5) you will doubtless have complied with your legal requirement to check their right to rent. See here. Thus you willknow her nationality.

If 3 or 4)), your landlord (or his agent) will have done this check, so ask. Admittedly they may refuse to tell you (Health and safety stuff - or do I mean human rights?...) but it's worth trying and explaining why.

h24821807

greatcrested said:

1) Are you the property owner and the other 2 your lodgers?

2) Or are you a tenant?

3) If tenant, are all 3 of you joint tenants on the same contract (joint & several tenancy)?

3) Or do you each have separate tenancies agreement with your landlord.

4) or are you the sole tenant, the other 2 are your lodgers?

If 1) or 4) you will doubtless have complied with your legal requirement to check their right to rent. See here. Thus you willknow her nationality.

If 3), your landlord (or his agent) will have done this check, so ask. Admittedly they may refuse to tell you (Health and safety stuff - or do I mean human rights?...) but it's worth trying and explaining why.

Hi greatcrested, many thanks, it is 3) we have a separate tenancy agreement. But the letter from the council is addressed to the whole house with "The Occupier". The letting agency refused to tell me due to data protection (which I am not surprised).

I tried to call the council earlier, but that guy on the other end of the phone was not helpful and say I need to convince her to put her name down, which is not happening at the moment.

AdrianC

greatcrested said:

If 3), your landlord (or his agent) will have done this check, so ask. Admittedly they may refuse to tell you (Health and safety stuff - or do I mean human rights?...)

GDPR.

Not that her nationality actually IS personally identifying information, but...

davidmcn

From an electoral law point of view, they're going to be more concerned about too many names on the register than too few. A name which isn't on the register can't be used to cast a vote illegally. I doubt anybody's going to hold you to some responsibility to extract the necessary information from your housemate, so I would just ignore her and complete the rest of the form. If she ever changes her mind she can sort it out herself.

greatcrested

AdrianC said:

greatcrested said:

If 3), your landlord (or his agent) will have done this check, so ask. Admittedly they may refuse to tell you (Health and safety stuff - or do I mean human rights?...)

GDPR.

Not that her nationality actually IS personally identifying information, but...

Thought you understood my SOH after all this time Adrian!

But yes, cheers for the accurate reference!

h248 - I've amended the dodgy numbering in my post above, but it does not really alter anything

h24821807

Many thanks, in my case it is 4). I am going to give the council a ring tomorrow, hopefully this time I will get someone more helpful to answer the phone.
I have lived in other countries before, things are easy as everything is done centrally. No annual canvass as it is each individual responsibility to register individually. And when you change your address, you just change your address similar to changing your address on your driving licence, and the electoral registration office will check everything to make sure you are not registered twice or elsewhere as each citizen has their own ID number similar to the NI number. To be honest, it looks like the UK Gov is moving towards that direction but only have done part of what they have promised 5 years ago but not everything. But they still have left a big loophole like what I have at the moment for us the normal people to deal with.

greatcrested

The whole electoral regististration system is and always has been wide open to fraud and manipulation.

I'm always amazed that no ID checks are done when you vote. You don't even have to take the polling card they send you. The only check is that a) someone of the name you give them is registered at that address and b) they have not yet voted.

My neighbour says they never vote? Or is on holiday and forgot to get a postal vote? So anyone can go and vote for them!

And as for party members (any party!) canvassing in old folks homes and getting mass sign-ups for proxy votes........

davidmcn

greatcrested said:

The whole electoral regististration system is and always has been wide open to fraud and manipulation.

I'm always amazed that no ID checks are done when you vote. You don't even have to take the polling card they send you. The only check is that a) someone of the name you give them is registered at that address and b) they have not yet voted.

My neighbour says they never vote? Or is on holiday and forgot to get a postal vote? So anyone can go and vote for them!

And as for party members (any party!) canvassing in old folks homes and getting mass sign-ups for proxy votes........

It is however equally open to fraud and manipulation by all the candidates...

The fact that there's a high risk of voter impersonation being spotted (unless, as you say, you're certain the real elector isn't going to arrive), and very few cases ever crop up, suggest it isn't all that big a deal. Probably much to be said for the argument that putting more barriers into registration or voting in the aim of "security" is more likely to skew the results by deterring genuine votes than the degree to which results have ever been affected by fraud.

greatcrested

Queue debate on ID cards....well. OK. Best not here.

h24821807

greatcrested said:

The whole electoral regististration system is and always has been wide open to fraud and manipulation.

I'm always amazed that no ID checks are done when you vote. You don't even have to take the polling card they send you. The only check is that a) someone of the name you give them is registered at that address and b) they have not yet voted.

My neighbour says they never vote? Or is on holiday and forgot to get a postal vote? So anyone can go and vote for them!

And as for party members (any party!) canvassing in old folks homes and getting mass sign-ups for proxy votes........

I was surprised as well. Again, the country that I was in impose a no ID/passport, no vote policy. I think is just a custom thing, people are used to carry their ID with them all the time, and is not a big deal over there. And it didn't stop people turning up to vote, last year, they had a 71% turnout.