I guess you can’t win them all.
Had a tenant gentleman come into the office wanting to discuss our application form. It’s too much of a carte-blanche to share information with other people was his concern.
I explained that it does give us access to share the information with our insurers who may offer you contents insurance etc but you can opt out of that. Also yes the reference company Experian and we will also share with the information with the landlord. They make a decision on whether to accept you as a tenant. Yes, staff members in the office would also have access to the information and will work on compiling the report.
We are careful with data and are Data Protection Act compliant and are registered with the Information Commissioners Office as required (Registration Number: Z3155504).
We don’t send off the information to third parties, but when you move in we can also share your information with other relevant parties. Utility suppliers for example, the local council. We have some legal requirements to pass this data on under the Water Industry Act 1991 to the local water supplier.
We ask about your address history, current employment and seek information like your NI number, DOB, Bank Details and an emergency contact. Which is quite a bit. It seems like a lot of information to ask for when we take proof of Identify, proof of address, references from landlords and employers and carry our credit reference reports. But then a landlords is handing over their property to the tenants and has to be assured that this is a sound decision.
Sharing that information we ask for merely allows us to do the due diligence required.
I suggested to the gentleman that if he is not happy then he should walk away from letting the property he was going to from us and, sadly, he did. I can’t compromise on my duty of care to the landlord to settle for half measures.
There could always be other things going on that I am not aware of with that particular tenant, perhaps he was hiding something (I really didn’t get that impression) or perhaps he just changed his mind and felt this was the best way to get out of it. Not that he was committed at that stage. But I feel although I have done the right thing I am hurt that I have not persuaded him that whilst we are acting primarily for the the landlord we also owe him a duty of care as a tenant and would not act against his interests.
