Must all landlords register with the Information Commissioner’s Office?

Data, i.e. information about people, is important, which is why we have regulations to tell us how to look after it.

These regulations are enforced by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).  To fund their work, most businesses need to register with the ICO and pay an annual fee.  But does this include landlords?

Most landlords don’t want to register with the ICO, and many feel strongly that they don’t or shouldn’t have to.  For example:

• They don’t consider that they are a ‘business’
• They are unhappy about being on a public register, although
• The reason most landlords don’t register is because they don’t know they have to!

But DO they have to?  The best place to find out is on the ICO website.

The ICO Guide

The ICO has produced an online self-assessment guide which you can follow.  However, here are the main questions it asks:

Are you currently trading, carrying out activity or receiving income?

Whatever you may think about it, the vast majority of landlords are treated by the authorities as a business.  You are, after all, carrying out an activity (renting property) and receiving an income (the rent).

Are you processing personal information?

‘Personal information’ is described on the ICO site as

information about customers, clients, suppliers, employees, volunteers or others you deal with. Personal information is any information about a living person that can be used on its own, or with other information, to identify or tell you something about them. Names, date of birth, contact details, location, financial details, or employment status are all examples of personal information.

Most landlords, when using a letting agent, will have at least some information about their tenants, even if it is just their name and the rent that they pay.  For example, very few landlords will trust their letting agents to manage their property without giving them any information at all about the tenants.

Note that if, after reading this article, you decide to do this, it is NOT recommended.  Certainly not to save you the £35 pa, which is the fee most landlords will have to pay the ICO.

It is important that landlords know what their agents are doing, if only because, under agency law, they are liable for everything (or almost everything) their agents do.  Even if they know nothing about it.

‘Processing’ is described by the ICO as

a term to describe anything you can do with the personal information you have. This includes (but is not limited to) collecting, recording, organising, storing, using, retrieving, altering, erasing and disclosing it.

Emails with your agents where you discuss the name of the tenant and the rent paid will come within this description.

Are you processing information electronically?

This is described by the ICO as

any processing of information that uses computers, including cloud computing, desktop PCs, laptops and tablets. It also applies to any other system that can process information automatically, including … email

Most landlords today will communicate with their tenants and agents by email.  If though, all your communications and record keeping is paper-based, you may be exempt.

The other issues covered in the ICO guide will not normally apply to landlords.  For example:

• You will not be a public authority
• You will not be a charity or not-for-profit organisation
• You will not be a small occupational pension scheme (this is not the same as renting property instead of getting a pension)
• You will not be using the information you hold for services such as crime prevention, community services, health, education or childcare services.

So, do you need to register with the ICO?

It would appear from the ICO guide that you will need to register unless:

• You don’t know the names of your tenants or anything about them, and/or
• All your dealings with your agents and/or your tenants are paper based and you don’t use email, and/or
• You are a registered charity or not for profit organisation.

So my advice is to register.  Bearing in mind that the ICO have swinging powers to fine organisations which are not compliant.

Fines can be for the larger of up to the larger of 4% of your turnover or 20 million Euros.

Further information

The best source of information for all things to do with Data Protection is the ICO website.  It is a massive resource.

You can also speak to the ICO about it.  I have always found them to be most helpful.  However, if you are advised that you do not need to register, keep a note of your conversation and the name of the person you spoke to – just in case.

Members of my Landlord Law website will find articles on how to comply with your data protection obligations and templates for data information forms to serve on your tenants.

Tessa Shepperson.

Tessa is a specialist landlord and tenant solicitor and author of www.landlordlaw.co.uk.

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