Letting Agent issues

steampowered

ddxxnn said:

No I'm not in to locking women up at home, my partner said she felt intimidated by 2 men visiting our house, in my place of work when booking an appointment, we are required to ensure there is a female present when completing a home visit with a female to avoid this sort of scenario.

I'm not saying we were not in the wrong having not made the payment in time, my point is that the agent is breaching GDPR rules by discussing the account and payments with someone not named on the agreement. Also to  make it clear as I stated in a previous post I am not looking for compensation in anyway, I was looking to make a complaint due to this issue and the upset caused to my partner and was simply asking the best way to go about this.

Seriously, what? You need to have a woman present before you are allowed to speak to a woman?

Is this in Saudi Arabi or something?

I've had people want to check that somebody is home before visiting (deliveries, plumber, electrician, estate agent etc.). I've never heard of anyone checking that a man is going to be present. I shudder to think what my wife would say if anyone asked her that.

saajan_12

ddxxnn said:

I'm looking for some help in handling a complaint I am looking to make with my letting agent in regards to their conduct. 

My letting agent made a visit to my house yesterday because rent was 6 days late under the guise of it being a welfare visit as they had not been able to contact me using another method. The rent being late was an honest mistake as it isn't paid by direct debit as they don't have the option to pay in this way, - Irrelevant, its your responsibility to pay rent, not theirs to offer DD. You could have set up a standing order, or just remembered on time. 
I had also got a new mobile number last month, however all previous contact with the agent has been by email and no email was sent to me on this occasion.  - A call and a single visit sound like reasonable measures to contact someone. Did you have an agreement that they MUST chase you via particular methods first? And does that trump the agreement that you would pay rent on time? 

When they visited, I was not home so they spoke to my partner who lives with me but is not named on the tenancy agreement, they advised her that they were there due to rent arrears and they were suprised that we answered the door to them as they have had issues before collecting rent. I beleive this is a breach of GDPR by discussing any arrears and payment history? - Based on what? GDPR covers personal data, not sure your rent arrears is personal. Further, even if it is covered, GDPR requires businesses to only process or share data as needed for legitimate purposes - collecting rent is a legitimate purpose, and its reasonable to assume the person opening the door to your house knows your name. 
It is also inaccurate, the only previous issue was the month I had moved in and struggled due to paying the deposit and first two months rent. At no time during this did I avoid trying to pay, I asked if possible to split the payment over my first two months, when they advised this wasn't possible, I arranged payment in full. - details.. they may be mistaken, or they they consider that to be an issue, which is a subjective word (having to go back to the LL, indicative of low savings)

The agent then questioned who my partner was and why she was in the house which upset her. Both myself and my partner attended the viewing together with the agent when I first came to see the property, we explained to him at the time I would be renting the house myself with her moving in shortly after. We also have both of our names on the council tax and the payment is made to the letting agent every month from our joint account (The agent acknowledged this also).- so then all the more reason they would think there is no issue with sharing this with the partner. 
The agent advised we will need to get a full new tenancy agreement drawn up to add my partner on, we are fine with this but he had implied this needs to happen rather than us requesting it. - so? The LL (through the agent) is allowed to request things too. 

When I came home my partner was upset and distressed following this as she advised he was very passive aggressive during the full visit and felt as though he was implying we had something to hide. - so passive aggressive (not aggressive aggressive) and making implications.. that's part of doing business, if partner can't or doesn't want to deal with that then perhaps they shouldn't be home alone or opening the door. There were no threats etc. 

I would like some advice on how to best handle this. I beleive he has breached GDPR by discussing my account status and any history with someone he acknowledged is not named on the tenancy agreement.  - start with finding exactly what you think is breached.  The visit was also completed by 2 elderly males, as my partner is 22 years old and female, - so an adult. Adult males are allowed to talk to adult females. I beleive they should have arranged get to come back when I was present as she felt intimidated. - why? At best you describe them as being insulting and making passive implications. No threats, no actual aggression..  The full conversion was held in the hallway between flats where our neighbours could hear. Also the payment was taken from my partner without them even confirming her identity at this point, and finally she was told she needs to be added to the tenancy agreement. 

The agent we are dealing with is Co owner of the company so there is no point complaining higher up the chain, what would the best action  to be take in these circumstances? - stop looking for excuses and pay your rent. Inform your partner of whats going on (eg when you haven't paid rent) so she's prepared, or advise her to not open the door to people enquiring on business. 

As above, the only breach here is your late payment of rent. Its not their responsibility to remind or chase, but they have taken the time to do so (saving you late fees or much much more intimidating Section 8s etc). 

The GDPR point is nonsense
- WHAT they say doesn't even sound like personal data,  only shared in the course of collecting rent which is a reasonable purpose.
- HOW they say it, making implications, indimidation etc is really about harrassment not GDPR. However just knocking, speaking at the door to an adult, being 'passive aggressive' not 'aggressive' is NOT even close to threatening or harrassing behaviour. 

boxer234

As a young (Ish) female living alone I would still be waiting for my washing machine to be fixed and my gas inspection to be done if I needed a female present as well.   

Scotbot

ddxxnn said:

    

No I'm not in to locking women up at home, my partner said she felt intimidated by 2 men visiting our house, in my place of work when booking an appointment, we are required to ensure there is a female present when completing a home visit with a female to avoid this sort of scenario.

Seriously? As a single female I have no issue with men coming to the house, If I did I'd have a bloody hard time finding a plumber or electrician.

Secondly since you haven't put your partner on the tenancy agreement you can't complain that the agency sent round male employees.

You can feel aggrieved if they were rude but not paying the rent and not putting your partner on the tenancy isn't  a good look either.