Updating post from Reddit.
New landlord here. I am using a full rental management service of a local estate agency to find suitable tenants. I see there's a list of checks needed to be done including right to rent, references, income and credit checks.
When I asked the agency to supply me with some of the documents - I was told they cannot do that because of data privacy, confirming that the prospective tenants passed all the checks and all is good.
Is this the 'normal way of doing things'? Because in regards to the 'right to rent' documentation and checks I must be given copies of the documentation as per UK Gov. requirements. Thanks
I'm a landlord that uses a management company and they sent me all the checks including full details to make sure I was happy with the prospective tenant.
It's covered through GDPR obviously so for my eyes only.
Short answer is yes. Long answer involves becoming ICO registered which may open the door to the sharing of the details.
GDPR is a double edge sword, I would not want my details out there for anyone to see so it’s only fair that tenants have that right. But, if ever there is a problem (eg rent default) then these same GDPR rules can and will block you from getting information about your tenant for future claims.
It is for this reason I always recommend only accepting tenants that pass credible referencing checks with flying colours and that you must take out legal and rent guarantee insurance (and now malicious tenant damage!) If there is even one blot on the reference then there is a risk the insurance company won’t pay out and as mentioned above it may be hard / expensive to track down defaulting tenants due to GDPR protections.
Thanks for the answer. Thing is i can’t see how “well” they did on the checks as the letting agent doesn’t share info. I only have to take their word for it. The UK gov clearly states i need to have copies of ID documents . I also got this confirmation over the phone talking to their helpline: https://www.gov.uk/check-tenant-right-to-rent-documents/copy-documents
It’s actually worse than you think. Referencing agencies can only comment on what they can see. For example a s21 used to deal with a rent defaulter will not automatically show up as a CCJ on the register.
Also, these reference agencies do not conduct interviews so as long as the paper work is fine and they get a reference from the previous landlord then that’s a pass.
Adding to my growing list of checks is a “zoom” interview with the tenant and a separate one with the previous landlord.
I’m a property agent currently building a platform to protect landlords from the legal pitfalls of tenants making claims against you. A lot of the responsibility actually falls on landlords even when they hire a full management service and they get harshly caught out, such as serving the prescibed information document with 30 days of receiving the deposit, not doing this results in a claim against the LANDLORD not the AGENT.
Send me a message and I can give you some advice.
I should add that I am qualified CeLAP (level 3 certificate in letting advice and practice)
Please bear in mind that claim is 1 - 3 x the amount of the deposit under section 213 of the housing act 2004. You can search the web yourself to understand this. This is something so simple that so many people get caught out on.
It’s an interesting subject. I’ve looked at it and got confused.
I was going to pay the £52 and register but then I did the checklist and it said I didn’t need to as the agent holds the information. I’m not sure I trust it though.
It seems that agents would be breaching ICO if they share information with us. But that seems to just apply to electronic. Whether they could share hard copy I’m still not sure of.
I can’t see any reason why we couldn’t view the documents at the agents office though. Although I may have missed something.