Credit References

PineconeZ1

I am a new landlord using an estate agent to fully manage my property. I have asked for copies of the new prospective tenants credit checks and references, but the estate agent is refusing to give me these.  I am setting up my own landlord insurance which requires these checks to be completed in order for the insurance to be valid. I hardly know anything about my prospective tenants apart from names. Is the estate agent allowed to with-hold this information from me? 

Also, as the tenants are currently unemployed but willing to pay several months rent up front. I have asked the estate agent to ensure there is a guarantor. They say this is not necessary as the tenants have passed the credit checks and have provided proof of funds.

Any advice on how to handle this situation would be gratefully received.

Sanctioned_Parts_List

I would cancel the contract with the estate agent and find another one. Withholding the information you need to make an informed decision about your business is a major red flag!

Pixie5740

PineconeZ1 said:

I am a new landlord using an estate agent to fully manage my property. I have asked for copies of the new prospective tenants credit checks and references, but the estate agent is refusing to give me these.  I am setting up my own landlord insurance which requires these checks to be completed in order for the insurance to be valid. I hardly know anything about my prospective tenants apart from names. Is the estate agent allowed to with-hold this information from me? 

Also, as the tenants are currently unemployed but willing to pay several months rent up front. I have asked the estate agent to ensure there is a guarantor. They say this is not necessary as the tenants have passed the credit checks and have provided proof of funds.

Any advice on how to handle this situation would be gratefully received.

It’s possible the letting agency can’t share the referencing data with you. In order to share the data the letting agency would have to have made it clear to the tenants that the data may also be shared with the landlord. Any letting agency worth their salt would have that as a standard clause. You ought to be registered with the ICO if you are going to be handling the tenant’s personal data. 

As for the need for a guarantor that is up to you, not the letting agency. Do not let the tail wag the dog. You are the one who has a contract with the tenant’s not the letting agency and you should ultimately be the one setting the criteria. 

canaldumidi

You need a new letting agent.

* the agent works for you - you decide which tenants to select; you decide if you want a guarantor;you decide whether to accept unemployed tenants;you decide what insurance you want and how to ensure it is valid.

* as an agent any information the agent has is your information - he is simply your legal agent. Any information he has is your information.

Now read:
Post 9: Letting agents: how should a landlord select or sack?

What else is the agent 'dictating'? what kind of tenancy to provide? what length? whether it will become a SPT or CPT after the fixed term? These are all decisions for the landlord, not their agent.

canaldumidi

Pixie5740 said:

PineconeZ1 said:

I am a new landlord using an estate agent to fully manage my property. I have asked for copies of the new prospective tenants credit checks and references, but the estate agent is refusing to give me these.  I am setting up my own landlord insurance which requires these checks to be completed in order for the insurance to be valid. I hardly know anything about my prospective tenants apart from names. Is the estate agent allowed to with-hold this information from me? 

Also, as the tenants are currently unemployed but willing to pay several months rent up front. I have asked the estate agent to ensure there is a guarantor. They say this is not necessary as the tenants have passed the credit checks and have provided proof of funds.

Any advice on how to handle this situation would be gratefully received.

It’s possible the letting agency can’t share the referencing data with you. In order to share the data the letting agency would have to have made it clear to the tenants that the data may also be shared with the landlord.....

I'm really not sure that is correct Pixie.

The tenant is negotiating/requesting a contract between themselves and the landlord. Any information the agent requests on the landlord's behalf as their agent must surely ipso facto be available to the landlord for whom they are acting.

But as always I'm happy to be convinced if I'm wrong.

Sanctioned_Parts_List

There are data protection requirements, and I suspect larger portfolio landlords and self-managing landlords have stricter obligations here.

There are a couple of useful checklists here and here, and the information on the rest of the website is otherwise clear.

For my own situation, the estate agent is processing the information. I just receive and store it. As such, I have no responsibility in how the information is processed, which makes me exempt from ICO registration. The estate agent's application forms made it clear who would receive their credit reports and how they would be used, and I had full transparency over who my tenants would be.

Back to OP's position, the estate agent appears to be foisting an unemployed tenant on him without giving him the information needed to confirm whether the proof of funds etc. is valid. That to me makes the agent either untrustworthy or incompetent.

canaldumidi

Sanctioned_Parts_List said:

There are data protection requirements, and I suspect larger portfolio landlords and self-managing landlords have stricter obligations here.

There are a couple of useful checklists here and here, and the information on the rest of the website is otherwise clear.

Useful links Sanctioned, and helps understand whether a LL needs to register with ICO, but does not answer the OP's question about whether an agent is allowed to pass data to the LL employing them, or is prohibited from doing so.

Or does it depend if the LL is registered?

Snookie12cat

PineconeZ1 said:

I am a new landlord using an estate agent to fully manage my property. I have asked for copies of the new prospective tenants credit checks and references, but the estate agent is refusing to give me these.  I am setting up my own landlord insurance which requires these checks to be completed in order for the insurance to be valid. I hardly know anything about my prospective tenants apart from names. Is the estate agent allowed to with-hold this information from me? 

Also, as the tenants are currently unemployed but willing to pay several months rent up front. I have asked the estate agent to ensure there is a guarantor. They say this is not necessary as the tenants have passed the credit checks and have provided proof of funds.

Any advice on how to handle this situation would be gratefully received.

Agents care only about getting someone into your house, they do not care if they are any good. 
Yes they passed the references because they are paying upfront, but they only would have done a credit check and nothing else. 
The agent should work for you and refusing a guarantor that you want isn't acceptable. You are putting in all the risk. What happens in 6 months when the contract is up for renewal? They have no job and no guarantor? 
6 months upfront is short sighted. I would get a new agent (try a small firm) who deal with the whole process in one office... You tend to find if the same people who move them in also have to deal with the stuff that comes with putting a bad tenant in, they are less likely to do it.  Bigger firms the sales team get their commission and then pass the case to the admin team who then deal with everything else. Salesman will never speak to you or your tenant again.

You won't get rent guarantee etc with these tenants. 

Pixie5740

canaldumidi said:

Pixie5740 said:

PineconeZ1 said:

I am a new landlord using an estate agent to fully manage my property. I have asked for copies of the new prospective tenants credit checks and references, but the estate agent is refusing to give me these.  I am setting up my own landlord insurance which requires these checks to be completed in order for the insurance to be valid. I hardly know anything about my prospective tenants apart from names. Is the estate agent allowed to with-hold this information from me? 

Also, as the tenants are currently unemployed but willing to pay several months rent up front. I have asked the estate agent to ensure there is a guarantor. They say this is not necessary as the tenants have passed the credit checks and have provided proof of funds.

Any advice on how to handle this situation would be gratefully received.

It’s possible the letting agency can’t share the referencing data with you. In order to share the data the letting agency would have to have made it clear to the tenants that the data may also be shared with the landlord.....

I'm really not sure that is correct Pixie.

The tenant is negotiating/requesting a contract between themselves and the landlord. Any information the agent requests on the landlord's behalf as their agent must surely ipso facto be available to the landlord for whom they are acting.

But as always I'm happy to be convinced if I'm wrong.

For example, landlords are entitled to be shown references obtained on their behalf by agents, though the tenant must have agreed to this sharing of data with relevant persons when they signed the tenancy application form (electronic signatures are now legal).

https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/information/data-protection-gdpr/

If such agreement was in place then it’s not that the letting agency can’t give the data to the landlord if the landlord isn’t registered with the ICO but more that they shouldn’t in order to protect themselves. 

The ICO did have a guide on their website about tenant data which included a section about the letting agency making it clear to tenants and referees that the information may be shared with the landlord but the link appears to be defunct now. 

http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_the_public/topic_specific_guides/%7E/media/documents/library/Data_Protection/Detailed_specialist_guides/DISCLOSING_INFORMATION_ABOUT_TENANTS.ashx

I’ve asked the ICO where they’ve moved it to or if there’s a new guide as it’s a bit of a minefield and I’m sure there are many landlords out there who don’t realise they probably ought to be registered if they will be receive tenant data. 

Sanctioned_Parts_List

Pixie5740 said:

I’ve asked the ICO where they’ve moved it to or if there’s a new guide as it’s a bit of a minefield and I’m sure there are many landlords out there who don’t realise they probably ought to be registered if they will be receive tenant data. 

... electronically. Passing the information on physically, where permission has been obtained from the applicant, isn't subject to GDPR, and isn't within the ICO's area of concern. Unfortunately, as it only takes one careless email from an estate agent to turn a landlord into a data controller, I can understand the advice of registering with the ICO in all circumstances for the sake of £40/year and keeping another yet another policy document on file.

It's a pity almost no "becoming a landlord" articles discuss data protection requirements. Legionella, yes. Data, no. 

Pixie5740

Sanctioned_Parts_List said:

Pixie5740 said:

I’ve asked the ICO where they’ve moved it to or if there’s a new guide as it’s a bit of a minefield and I’m sure there are many landlords out there who don’t realise they probably ought to be registered if they will be receive tenant data. 

... electronically. Passing the information on physically, where permission has been obtained from the applicant, isn't subject to GDPR, and isn't within the ICO's area of concern. Unfortunately, as it only takes one careless email from an estate agent to turn a landlord into a data controller, I can understand the advice of registering with the ICO in all circumstances for the sake of £40/year and keeping another yet another policy document on file.

It's a pity almost no "becoming a landlord" articles discuss data protection requirements. Legionella, yes. Data, no. 

GDPR isn’t just concerned with digital data but it doesn’t apply to all paper based documents. Specifically, it applies to files stored electronically within a system or files stored in a paper-based filing system that's structured and accessible according to specific criteria. 

If we are talking about paper documents filed away in a customer's file or printed from an existing database, then GDPR would still apply, so I’d think that would be the case with tenant referencing material. 

I’m taking this thread off-topic so I’ll start another one later to discuss all this because as you say almost no articles on becoming a landlord discuss data protection and it is a minefield.