IMPORTANT: Landlords are you breaking the law?
I have put together this useful blog to advise Landlords of their responsibility to register with the ICO & what it means by failing to comply with the Law.
In 2018, the GDPR law was introduced meaning all Agents/Landlords where required to register with the ICO, the ICO is the information commissioner’s office which covers the whole of the UK & is the independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.
There are many Landlords who think they are not required to register as their lettings agency has to be registered meaning they are exempt, unfortunately, this is not the case regardless of the size of your portfolio. Anyone who handles personal data & stores it electronically must register, this could be as small as a phone number for the tenant.
It takes around 15 minutes to register (Home | ICO) and will mean you are GDPR compliant once complete, please note there will be a data protection fee ranging from £40 - £2,900. This will depend on your company’s size and turnover and most organisations will pay between £40-£60.
It is a criminal offence to not comply and could result in a fine ranging from £400 - £4,000