18th
Jan 2015
An Observer newspaper consumer columnist has uncovered the fact that landlords and lettings agents may have to let potential tenants view references about them and the person who submitted it.
It has previously been taken for granted that a reference does not have to be shown to an ex-tenant if the landlord or letting agent wishes to remain incognito, however it seems that this is no longer the case.
The paper's columnist Anna Tims reports that she received an enquiry from a tenant asking: “I have been turned down by a letting agent for a flat as I failed the referencing. It couldn’t tell me why, so I contacted xxxx Referencing, which handled the process. It refused to tell me. Are they allowed to do this? Is this a data protection issue? MH, London.”
The columnist contacted the referencing company about the enquiry and was told that the firm's policy is to keep the references private to protect their referees.
A company director Darren Bignall said: "We would be able to write to the referees to ask if they would be happy for us to provide the applicant with a copy of the full reference,
"If they decline, then we would not be able to do so."
Anna Tims pointed out that by following this policy then it is against consumer protection laws. The CMA's (Competitions and Markets Authority) guiding principle, is that any tenant can demand to be told exactly why they have failed a check and if this is through information received from a reference, their rights far outweigh the referee's right to privacy.
Tims offers the following advice: “The failure to explain why a check was failed may count as a misleading omission since it deprives the tenant of the chance to defend their case. You have the right under the Data Protection Act to request a copy of your personal data,"
Vetting, Referencing & Credit Check
Whilst the vast majority of Tenants are good the fact remains there are over 150,000 possession hearings a year. Bad Tenants can easily be identified and avoided by following our tried and tested methods see
Vetting Check List
-
-
-
-
-
NEW "right to rent for non EU persons" If private landlords do not follow the new legislation and carry out the "right to rent" checks to the letter of the law, then they could receive fines of up to £3000
read more
The objective of vetting process is to empower yourself so you can make an informed decision as to the calibre of the prospective Tenant. Making your decision on facts and figures (see
sample Credit check report with CCJ report).
If you pick a bad Tenant or are duped it can take you
6 months to evict a Tenant during which time you may receive no rent. The councils and charitable organisations will happily give the Tenants free advice and inform them to stay put.
PIMS RELATED CONTENT
Since the 1984 Data Protection Act was updated by the introduction of the Data Protection Act 1998 and manually maintained, paper records have been covered for the first time. This means landlords who hold information on their tenants should be registered data users. The following rules apply to both companies and individuals holding or processing personal data: obtaining and processing of personal data must be fair and lawful; personal data must be held only for specified and lawful pur read more
The Data Protection Act 1998 will not prevent a landlord from releasing personal information where they have a legal obligation to do so. Can a landlord pass the names of new tenants to the utility companies? Yes. A landlord has a legitimate interest in making sure that utility charges are directed to those responsible. However, landlords should tell individuals when they first agree to the tenancy that their details will be passed on. Clause 1.4 in the PIMS Tenancy Agreement ; The L Read More
News Archive »