GDPR confusion and misinformation

GDPR confusion and misinformation

11:26 AM, 23rd April 2018, About 6 years ago 125

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I am told that ALL organisations, including private landlords (and their contractors), will have to be GDPR compliant by 25th May 2018. I have attending training on this and I’m getting contradictory advice from different GDPR professionals. About 4 weeks ago I was told that there is no need to register with the ICO, as everyone has to comply with GDPR so no need to register to do so, then earlier this week I was at an RLA event and was told that it would be necessary for everyone to register with the ICO, so these two GDPR speakers basically contradicted each other! The ICO website itself says that most data controllers (yes, that includes landlords) will need to register, unless they fall into an exemption (examples are on the ICO website).

At the RLA event earlier this week, I was told that we would need to provide all our tenants (and other people we hold data about) with a Privacy Notice. The RLA have one of these on their website that landlords can download, they said it is 30 pages long. I mentioned that there are probably a couple of hundred organisations that hold a persons data, so does that mean we can expect to receive 200 x 30 page documents arriving in the post in the next few weeks, and she said that most would be sent by email. I asked, what if the person does not have an email address, and she said then I could post them a hard copy, (so if you have any tenants who do not have an email address, they may be getting 6000 pages in the post very soon!!! (200 x 30 page documents). I asked if we could simply have the Privacy Notice on our website, and she was unsure whether this would be acceptable for not. She said that she only takes tenants if they have an email address, but clearly she deals with more affluent or well educated tenants, whereas I deal mainly with vulnerable tenants who very often don’t have an email address (or may not be computer literate, may have mental health issues, or learning difficulties, etc).

I asked if GDPR applies to all government, and local government departments, and she said yes, it applies to all companies and organisations. However, the bloke sat next to her from the Council was asked if the Council were compliant, he said that his Council “are currently looking into it”. If all organisations have to be GDPR compliant, then how will the politicians send us all their party political mailings asking us to vote for them!

Overall, it seems that nobody is quite sure how GDPR will affect individual situations, it is legislation designed for application to massive companies to stop them abusing the data they hold (using it for wrong purposes, or selling it on, etc), but it is applicable to everyone so even one landlord with just one tenant will have to comply with all the GDPR rules.

Are any other landlords having trouble understanding the GDPR compliance rules? Getting misinformation or contradictory advice? Are all landlords aware of how GDPR will affect them, and what they need to do?

Robert


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Comments

Chris Clare

10:32 AM, 29th April 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Michael Barnes at 28/04/2018 - 19:15
I am afraid you might be wrong there Michael. Quote from ICO

“Does the data ‘relate to’ the identifiable living individual, whether in personal or family life, business or profession?

Yes The data is ‘personal data’ for the purposes of the DPA.

No The data is not ‘personal data’ for the purposes of the DPA.”

A lot of people are spending most of their efforts finding ways to be exempt from GDPR when in fact they should just accept it and deal with it.

Whilst I agree small businesses may be daunted by this the fact is it is no where near as bad as it is being made out. It just takes a methodical approach to get it right. This needn’t be too ownerous.

Simon Smith

10:45 AM, 29th April 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Michael Barnes at 28/04/2018 - 19:15
Just to clarify - I can give tenants details, email address,phone numbers,mobile phone number etc to all my workmen by phone without falling foul of GDPR but I have to keep a record of the information I have provided - I dont need to check if my plumber etc is registered up to GDPR- I know a Letting Agent who is not going to have any phone contact with tenants or contractors from when the regulations come in and is going to insist all communications is by email so he has a complete record of what personal data is passing through his Company - Is that what we should be doing I wonder- Telling a tenant who rings up to report a leaking boiler and telling them to email the details across isnt going to work very easily

Chris Clare

11:05 AM, 29th April 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Simon Smith at 29/04/2018 - 10:45
Simon your new GDPR Privacy Statement will “inform” tenants that you will share their data with tradespeople/suppliers in order to fulfill the contract you have with them. (The tenant that is)

Technically anyone processing identifiable information of an individual may need to register.

You should also have in this statement in regards to Suppliers/tradesman we may share your details with our customers in order to fulfill our contract obligations. You will have a contract with the tradesmen to supply and instruct them to carry out work for you. Therefore this is fine.

Robert M

11:05 AM, 29th April 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Simon Smith at 29/04/2018 - 10:45
It certainly won't work if he's ringing to tell you the electricity has gone off!!!

Chris Clare

11:06 AM, 29th April 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Chris Clare at 29/04/2018 - 11:05
All this will authorise and facilitate to effective transfer of information between the appropriate stakeholders. You/tradespeople/tenants.

Mandy Thomson

11:13 AM, 29th April 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Michael Barnes at 28/04/2018 - 19:15
Agreed. One contract is one of the GDPR gateways. The tradesman is supplying his details for the customer (the landlord) to carry out the works contract. Provided you ask the tradesman if you can forward his details to the tenant, I don't see a problem.

Mick Roberts

16:39 PM, 29th April 2018, About 6 years ago

Mandy and Rob got this right.
In the real world with our tenants, this ain't gonna work. Priority for them is getting water peeing out ceiling stopped.

Whiteskifreak Surrey

18:11 PM, 29th April 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Mandy Thomson at 29/04/2018 - 07:47
Thank you Mandy, highly appreciated!

Robert M

18:16 PM, 30th April 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Chris Clare at 29/04/2018 - 10:32
"A lot of people are spending most of their efforts finding ways to be exempt from GDPR when in fact they should just accept it and deal with it." - You are right Chis, in reality only a very tiny minority of businesses will be exempt from GDPR, so rather than trying to find the exemptions it would be better for landlords and tradesmen and other businesses to get on with the process of becoming GDPR compliant. However, I do think that you are over simplifying the process because in order to comply with GDPR there is a massive amount of work that has to be done, from basic data mapping through policy development through to notifying tenants and suppliers. So the task should not be underestimated.

Many landlords seem to be ignoring GDPR, but as there are fines of up to £30,000 per breach, then getting this wrong could put landlords into bankruptcy.

Boru

11:57 AM, 1st May 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Michael Barnes at 28/04/2018 - 19:15
Hi the tradesman s data is still personal however he has put it in the public domain with the expectation that people contact him about work so you are free to pass it on for those purposes without fear that the tradesman will complain you to the ICO. The important thing to remember is the ATOM principle to compliance appropriate technical and operational measures. We don't need to go overboard and set our bar too high and manage for risks/complaints that are very unlikely to happen or be entertained by the ICO.

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