I don’t think I need to be concerned about GDPR

Reply to the comment left by at 24/05/2018 - 20:21
Thank God we are leaving!

Reply to the comment left by Hamish McBloggs at 25/05/2018 - 18:02Hamish, I am a small time self employed sole trader, not a limited company, so i don't need to file my annual accounts and reveal my data, my landline phone is the same number that i acquired in 1975 and has not changed and is ex directory number. I like my privacy kept, of course recently when Selective license came into force, I was forced to register, and my name and my address is now exposed on a public register, for what use I have no idea, Ok I understand it is there for someone to make a complaint against my tenants, which means anyone living near my rented house gets disturbed by anti-social behaviour from my tenants, they can find out who the landlord is and how to contact him, to make a complaint, but that is not how it should be, anyone needing to make a complaint should contact the council first and lodge a complaint, it is then for the council to find out if the property is registered for selective license and then they should write to the landlord to address any issues, what do you think we are paying such a high fees for? do they just want to collect our fees and sit on their big fat arses and let us deal with anti-social behaviour and face the front line dealing with drunken and rowdy tenants and face further allegations of intimidation and harassment. why are we being asked to police anti-social behaviour and act as immigration officers? Can somebody give some common sense to these bureaucrats, its free, we won't charge them for it. Its all going totally mad everywhere. We need Donald Trump to rule Britain.

Reply to the comment left by Dennis Leverett at 25/05/2018 - 11:53
Don't know who told you that Dennis but they're totally wrong. It doesn't matter,nor say anywhere What the REASON you Process - handle data is. If you handle it, ( receive it, process it - its as wide as a cavern )

Ian and Robert are right. ~ for different reasons.
I personally favour the 'abide by the spirit, rather than the letter' for Landlords, as we don't collect data in excess of our legitimate requirements, and we don't share it for purposes other than for which it was obtained ( the tenancy ) In regards to REGISTRATION, Technically to be 100% correct, - receiving data [ ELECTRONICALLY ] that identifies a person requires registration. Many small landlords will hold paper records of their documents and won't be registering, if not for the fee, but also personal security concerns - albeit that is not a legal exemption.
Let me tell you that I made a FOI on 25/4 to ICO and at that time, there were 13,922 registrations under the Property Management category. ! ( many of these will no doubt be large business, also many having registered in panic of GDPR, no doubt )
What are the realistic dangers / risks of Not registering,
well, 2 things, the Flackjacket vested ICO officials you saw raiding Cambridge Analytica are unlikely to be knocking your door with a warrant ! any time soon lol
The other thing that could trip a landlord up, is if s/he were to be so foolish as to email the tenant something containing personal data about them from another source [ reference report ] not that that's likely. A recalcitrant tenant could then complain ( with evidence ) to the ICO.
Its simple to comply with the spirit, just have a Data policy and a short Privacy statement you give to those you collect data from ( tenants ) I have previously posted short examples of these here on Prop118 and elsewhere, receiving complimentary responses.
Here's the link again, http://www.PossessionFriend.uk/Landlord-advice/GDPR
Can holes be picked in it, Yes - but its the 'only entrant in the short concise guide to GDPR competition ! ' 😉

Reply to the comment left by Chris Daniel at 26/05/2018 - 08:22Hi Chris I now have it from ICO re online business that I do not have to register because "You are under no requirement to pay a fee, You are only processing personal data for the core business purposes. You therefore do not have to pay a fee to the ICO." That's good enough for me. I can register voluntarily but have not decided yet. I do have to register as a landlord

Reply to the comment left by Dennis Leverett at 26/05/2018 - 08:54
The "paying a fee" answers you have got from the ICO, do NOT say that you do not have to register, they are simply saying that you do not have to pay a fee for registering. These are not the same thing.

Can you get an answer from the ICO that says "you do not have to register", rather than "you do not have to pay a fee"?

Most landlords are also only processing personal data for the "core business purposes", so where's the difference? If it is because a landlord has to share personal data, e.g. a tenant's name and address, with tradesmen etc, then surely an online business also shares the same type of personal data when they arrange for a third party (e.g. Royal Mail or a courier service) to deliver goods? (and indeed they may share this and other personal data with their IT technicians or website developer, bookkeeper, accountant, cloud based accountancy software provider, etc).

Reply to the comment left by Robert Mellors at 26/05/2018 - 12:04
Hi Robert
I've been told I can register voluntarily but don't have to. I do all my postage through PayPal or E Bay so in effect it is those who are sharing not me, although I understand even that is "core business". As a Landlord I have much more personal data about my tenants and share with referencing firms, credit checks, insurance companies etc. In my opinion the ICO have made this whole thing incredibly complicated when it doesn't need to be. Some time ago I used their site to assess if I needed to register, I found two different questionnaire forms and one said yes the other no which is why I took advice. I see now they are using only one assessment form which I also tried yesterday and was given a no need to register or as you say "no need to pay a fee". I guess they say that so as not to discourage you to register.

Reply to the comment left by Robert Mellors at 26/05/2018 - 12:04I agree entirely with your points, these answers are not specific, i.e. don't have to pay can still mean you have to register but no need to pay.
Sharing personal data with trades personal, there is a way around it, you book a trades person to go to YOUR property as you own it, so you are in fact passing your personal data to a trades person to got to your property at so and so street post code xyz, and knock on door number B 48 and say you have been sent by Mr so and so to fix a certain problem, which no doubt the tenant will be aware, as you would have discussed this with your tenant, you don't have to give the trades person your tenants name, so the tenant will then allow the trades person to come in and do his job, because you have pre-arranged with your tenant, that such and such a person or company will be attending between 2pm and 5pm on so and so date, so now you are not sharing your tenants data, you are merely giving the trades person the address of a property you own, not the address of a property your tenant rents, I can see there are 100 ways you can go around this registration process. It will be up to the trades person to ask the tenant if he can have his name, and up to tenant to say who he is. If there is any need to know the name.

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 26/05/2018 - 13:10
But surely you have a duty to protect the tradsperson's data so you must not give his name to the tenant unless properly registered? I have tried to register (without success) as I do not want to be the test case.
Perhaps we should label the present incumbents the "Blue" tape government, after all they promised to reduce "Red" tape?

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 26/05/2018 - 13:10
Hi Mike

If you have just one property then you may be able to conduct your landlording business in such a careful convoluted way that nobody is passing on the name of another person etc, but if arranging repairs and maintenance, and the million and one other things that landlords have to do on a regular basis, for several properties then really it would be quite impractical.

The reality is that it would be so so much easier to give the tradesperson the tenant's phone number to arrange access direct with them, and to let the tenant know that "Joe Bloggs" from XYZ company will be ringing them to arrange a mutually convenient appointment, otherwise the landlord is going to be "piggy in the middle" relaying messages (e.g. possible appointment days and times) back and forth until the tenant and the tradesman agree an appointment time that suits them both. Then what happens if either needs to cancel or re-arrange, or even just let the other one know they are going to be 10 mins late! They need to be able to communicate with each other directly, and that means the landlord has to pass on contact details (otherwise known as "personal data").