FREE tenancy agreement
FREE landlord softwareIt seems perfectly acceptable for councils to set up a Rouge Landlord DB such as the one in Northampton.
Is it fair - is it legal?
The difficulty with any register is that how accurate is it? If tenants get blacklisted know doubt some will contest this and want a right to put the record straight. Whilst Property Hawk is all for equity and treating our tenants fairly, there is a problem with serial tenant 'scammers' playing the system and this Register of Bad Tenants could just be the solution. What do you think?
Free property management software, Free tenancy agreements
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This is me working on this. I would welcome any comments or experience regarding data protection and other legalities.
From the information I have managed to acquire it seems so long as the information is not for profit, only shared with registered members then there is no issue with the data protection people.
However I would value comments on this.
I recommend that you take legal advice. As a very brief overview:
(1) You, or the organisation holding the list, will need to be registered as a data controller.
(2) It does not matter that you do not make a profit. There is an exemption for non-profit organisations, but it is limited to those which "only process information necessary to establish or maintain membership or support". The intention of the exemption is to allow non-profit organisations to maintain membership lists without registering as data controllers. Your situation is quite different: you want to process the personal data of tenants (i.e. non-members) - and to do so for your members' profit (so that they do not let to non-performing tenants).
(3) You will need to obtain the tenants' explicit consent for the processing of the data. You might like to think how you will ensure that your member landlords obtain this consent properly.
(4) The information you keep must be accurate: if it is not, you will be in breach of your obligations under the DPA, and also be liable to defame tenants (e.g. if you suggest to landlords that they have failed to pay rent in the past if that is not true), giving rise to potential liability.
(5) The tenants will be able to ask you for the data you hold about them and you will have to give it to them. You can charge a maximum of £10 for this however much it costs you to prepare the response.
(6) The effect of (4) and (5) is that if you do this in large scale you will be subject to a steady stream of low-level litigation from disgruntled tenants, usually conducted in the small claims track (where you will not recover your costs even if you win). This must be budgeted for.
(7) You have to ensure that the information you keep is necessary for your objectives. This may require removing old information or limiting the types of information you retain.
This is not, of course, a complete guide. It will be perfectly possible to run a service on these lines but the regulatory implications shouldn't be underestimated.
Would it not be possible to just set up an anonymous site for feedback on tennents? If I were a landlord, I could then just do a search of that site....
I think this is an excellent idea not just to identify scammers, non-payers, and late payers but also to make landlords aware of those tenants who vacate without cleaning the property - filthy ovens; marked walls; dirty carpets, paintwork, windows and windowframes .... the basic housekeeping tasks which normal people do on a day to day basis but which some tenants seem to think below them (even for years!).
BTW I forgot to say in my previous comment that it is not just the cleaning and sorting out repairs, renewals and refurbishment, but the time it takes to carry this out, which means an extended void - which in turn gives rise to utility bills and council tax expenses let alone unnecessary additional mortgage payments.
Whislt the use of a reference database or list has it uses, i think that the important thing is for all landlords to place CCJ's on any defaulting tenants. that way if the next landlord does a proper credit check as part of their referencing it is more likely to show up. This is a policy adopted by several landlords in our area with a view to make the town a no go area for rogue tenants. What ti does require however is that your own referencing captures the maximum amoutn of information possible, so that the CCJ is tagged to items other than the address.
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