UK Landlord Forum / Life

Does anyone know much about this?  I have signed up for it and paid the fee but should I tell my current tenants about it and get them to sign anything?

What should I do with any old data?  Do I just burn it?

Only up until about 18 months ago I didn't know about deposit protection and got into trouble.  But if another ambulance chaser came to me about it could you say its data protection sorry can't give you any info.   

Signed up for what and paid what fee, to who?

https://ico.org.uk/

Landlords have to sign up to it

I believe you are incorrect and maybe you have been hoodwinked.

I know about GDPR from my own paid work. It's an important thing, for sure. But it won't change anything about how I retain any information collected about my Tenants. I don't disclose that information to third parties, or try to sell them things. I don't maintain it any longer than is necessary (I am allowed up to 6 years as a Landlord). I keep any physical data (contract and stuff) in a secure filing cabinet and also digitally, that is not accessible outside of my home network (which I'm sure is protected enough). On a couple of occasions I have given mobile telephone numbers to contractors so they can liaise directly, but I have always gotten email confirmation from the Tenants that this is OK. When referencing, the Tenants are engaged directly by the referencing company, and I'm going to trust that these companies will do the things necessary for them to do.

Therefore, my understanding is that there is nothing to sign up to and there is no fee to pay. Are you sure you've not been taken advantage of? If not, can you please try to elaborate a bit more for the community, as it could be valuable?

https://www.rla.org.uk/landlord/guides/data-protection-legislation-for-landlords.shtml

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy6wuuQl8cc&t=156s

The way it looks to me is the law on it is new and not very enforceable but if you had a awkward tenant who then moans your not registered or had to take them to court for whatever reason then this could be a issue in the future.  For £35 I thought better safe than sorry

Let us know how it goes.

I don't fancy reading links which will try to get me to consume unnecessary 'services' at the moment.

Hi all,

Has anybody issued a written addendum to and existing AST to comply with GDPR?

Much like Hippogriff, I already provide secure storage for paper-based documents, and I save and backup digital documents on encrypted disks on a secure network. I will add the GDPR related noticed to future AST agreements so just wondering about existing AST's that don't contain the recommended Privacy Notice section, as an example.

Thank you,
Pori

This has been a complete pain.I have spent a lot of time this week signing things to give consent to companies,charities etc.Like Hippogriff,I don't intend adding to the aggravations by doing anything additional regarding the tenants that I manage myself.

Spoken to a few people and no one really has a clue.  A landlord I know said just sign up for it and have a lock box for anything on paper then after 7 years burn it or best to get a certificate from a company that can destroy it for you so your covered.  He seems to think in the future people will get random checks to see if your obeying the law or not.  But my boss is completely ignoring it the idiot.  Even down to CCTV you have to let people know what your doing with the files   

I have to say I have read various things about this, I am concerned as I think as a private landlord with just 1 property shouldn't I be registering>

Just to add my 2 cents worth

Landlords are required to register with ICO even if you only have one property. When you go to their website there is a simple quiz that you answer and it tells you. There are very very few sectors that don't need to register.
My understanding is we are all required to have a policy in place which details what info we ask for and keep, how we keep it, what we use it for, when we destroy it and how a data subject can make a subject to access request.

One wonders if, using their quiz, there is a route to an answer that says "no". After all, they would not be interested in your annual fee / tax at all. There's no profit here.

Theoretically, there probably is a route to "no"... but you'd have to be a strange outfit indeed to make it through their own helper quiz to get a "no".  Let's get everyone, baby!

Down with Government!

I have 1 tenant, 1 property but still have to register as I hold an electronic Tenancy agreement....I now need to get hold of a privacy document to send them. More outlay!

Fortunately (sort of) my husband knows a lot about GDPR.  He prepared a Privacy Policy for me to email to my tenants.  It basically tells them how I collect, store and possibly share their data.  I have many other documents stored re my contractors and agent. If a tenant asks what data I have on them then I have 30 days to provide it by law.  I have a form for that!  We just have to protect ourselves.  This is on top of the numerous other laws that we have to adhere to....you know, the ones that only apply to landlords.  You should check that your agent/contractors are GDPR complaint too.  The data we collect can be stored anywhere from delete immediately (if you refund someone, such as an unsuccessful tenant and have their bank details that you won't ever use again) to financial data that we keep for 7 years. 

What's worse is that the data subject can now request a copy of all data you hold on them and you are not able to charge a fee.
Don't get me wrong the previous £15 or so that you could charge under data protection act was not about making money but I am sure put people off that just wanted to waste time and cause work for people.

I only got into this BTL world 18 months ago but it does seem to be an ever changing and demanding feild.