GDPR confusion and misinformation

GDPR confusion and misinformation

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

Text Size

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


Share This Article


Comments

Mike

22:42 PM, 11th May 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Robert Mellors at 11/05/2018 - 20:20Indeed Robert, it is full of confusion and the outcome depends on Question No 6, of course if you use CCTV system to monitor security or for any purpose, you need to register, however question No 6 would imply that any organisation ( meaning in any profession) not just landlords may not need to register unless they were using their profits to "Enrich others".
Which to me is quite clear, which basically means that if your business profits are used to Enrich others, and God knows what do they mean by "Others" then you are not required to register. If others means anyone else other than the organisation, then only you need to register if you were using your profits to "Enrich" whatever that truly means! Surely any Court Judges would be able to understand this statement. ICO would have no leg to stand on if were they to sue anyone for not registering, long as they were not using their profits to enrich others!
I am still trying to get my head around this Enrichment of others! Why can they be not more specific.

Robert M

0:01 AM, 12th May 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 11/05/2018 - 22:42
Sorry Mike, I do not agree with your interpretation, if you were correct then hardly anyone would be required to register, and that clearly is not the intention of the GDPR legislation. I know that you wish to stick to your own conclusion on this, and that is fair enough, but on current information I cannot agree with your conclusion.

Chris said he has spoken to the ICO and they have confirmed to him that landlords need to register. Have you actually spoken to the ICO and been advised differently?

Mike

0:20 AM, 12th May 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Robert Mellors at 12/05/2018 - 00:01No, Robert, I respect your views or opinion, I have not spoken to ICO, but I am sticking to my interpretation, quite frankly everyone hold everyone's data in some form or another such as telephone numbers and addresses on mobile phones, if these get into wrong hands people can harass using information from a stolen phones, stolen tablets, computers containing personal pictures, images, letters and emails, often date of births, or birthdat reminders in calanders, which can give away sensitiuve information, things like weddings and parties where people snap pictures of friends and relatives and can even post that on face book, all can be accessed so does that mean all say 50 Million mobile users , computer owners, will have to register with ICO, how will they protect our personal information I wonder and if they breach data who will sue them for 20 Million bucks?

Sjp

8:45 AM, 12th May 2018, About 6 years ago

I am a landlord managing a small number of properties by myself. I find all of this really confusing.

Does anyone have a simple template of what I need to give to tenants that they’d be willing to share with me please? Thank you.

Mike

11:34 AM, 12th May 2018, About 6 years ago

Good Morning Everyone.
First of all my Apologies to Everyone who took part in this discussion as I had been badly mislead by ICO's Self Assessment Tool to check whether one needs to get registered.
The Answer is a big "YES"
Question No 6 on the assessment is very misleading. One can easily answer it wrong, that is what I did, all businesses and Landlords need to answer it as "NO"
The clue to confusion arising in question No 6. Are you a not-for-profit organisation that qualifies for an exemption?
DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER NOTE BELOW IT IF YOU ARE NOT A NOT_FOR_PROFIT ORGANISATION, as reading it further is where my confusion arose. So Answer it as No, if you are NOT a Not-For-Profit Organisation.
By Answering correctly which in the case should be "No" as we Landlords and lettings agents are a business of making a profit.
Therefore I hope to clear now that YES we all need to register with ICO as a Landlord, small time or big time.
But beware! Your data will be made public! Your details will appear on a public register which could then become targeted by others to send you or contact you unnecessarily , you may even start receiving phone calls if they publish your phone number, which to me is wrong if you were a small private landlord letting just one or two properties.
Once more my apologies to all.

Robert M

12:07 PM, 12th May 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 12/05/2018 - 11:34
Thank you for that clarification Mike.

Robert M

12:18 PM, 12th May 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Sjp at 12/05/2018 - 08:45
Hi SJP

Please see the post: https://www.property118.com/landlords-gdpr-policy/

Chris Clare

13:59 PM, 12th May 2018, About 6 years ago

I am glad, Mike you have found resolution to this. That is why I always speak to the ICO because if they say something and I follow it then they only have themselves to blame.
I absolutely agree with you regards to the second part of Q6 it is very misleading, which is why I have told the ICO that it needs to be changed for some more clearer language and they have agreed, so I would expect that to be changed in the coming weeks. I will post back if it is.Never be afraid to challenge the ICO with regards to issues such as this, the best thing is you are right and they change the worst thing is youre wrong and you then know how to do it right.

It is good that this debate took place because I am sure that you Mike are not the only one that would have fallen down this well.
If anyone else has any further concerns please post them, the power of the masses will be able to clear things up I am sure.

Sjp

14:02 PM, 12th May 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Chris Clare at 12/05/2018 - 13:59
Please anyone can help with regards to my question for a simple template? Thanks.

Chris Clare

14:20 PM, 12th May 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Sjp at 12/05/2018 - 14:02Robert Mellors posted direct to you with the link, https://www.property118.com/landlords-gdpr-policy
If youre still stuck give me your email and I may be able to assist you. There is no such thing as a SIMPLE template as it has to be specific to your business, it doesnt have to be very complicated though.

Leave Comments

In order to post comments you will need to Sign In or Sign Up for a FREE Membership

or

Don't have an account? Sign Up

Landlord Tax Planning Book Now