10:02 AM, 8th January 2025, About 10 hours ago 13
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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:
But DO they have to? The best place to find out is on the ICO website.
The ICO has produced an online self-assessment guide which you can follow. However, here are the main questions it asks:
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).
‘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.
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:
It would appear from the ICO guide that you will need to register unless:
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.
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.
Chris Bradley
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Sign Up10:21 AM, 8th January 2025, About 10 hours ago
Correct me if I'm wrong but a few years back I thought paper records containing personal information was also covered by the requirements of GDPR and ICO registration
Tessa Shepperson
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Sign Up10:27 AM, 8th January 2025, About 10 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Chris Bradley at 08/01/2025 - 10:21
I was just following the online guide, but you may be right. I would be surprised anyway if there are any landlords who don't use email.
Steve Rose
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Sign Up10:38 AM, 8th January 2025, About 10 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Chris Bradley at 08/01/2025 - 10:21
My understanding is that paper records fall under the legislation, but not the requirement to register with the ICO.
In other words you have to store and dispose of paperwork securely and only keep it for as long as necessary.
Mike D
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Sign Up10:42 AM, 8th January 2025, About 10 hours ago
This is one of those EU government bureaucracies that will be slashed under government reform post socialism.
The state must be cut by 30%, do we really need something so soviet as this and funded by a subscription fee to bleed businesses....
President Milei would make them all unemployed
Jo Westlake
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Sign Up10:45 AM, 8th January 2025, About 10 hours ago
It's not difficult to register.
Renewing each year is even easier.
It's £35, which I'm fairly sure is tax deductible.
Why take the risk of not registering?
Steve Rose
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Sign Up10:59 AM, 8th January 2025, About 9 hours ago
Your definition of email is broader than my understanding of the legislation. One only needs to register if information is "processed" electronically. Recieving an email isn't processing. Nor is printing it off.
When the legislation first came in the advice I was given by the ICO was that so long as no emails contained "data", and those that did were printed off and the email deleted, then registration was not required.
A person's name and email address do not count as "data" since they would be analogous to the information contained on the outside of an envelope.
That said, landlords do have to issue a letter detailing how the data is stored, who it can be shared with, where the data is stored and for how long it will be retained.
Robert
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Sign Up11:02 AM, 8th January 2025, About 9 hours ago
The contentious point for many landlords is whether or not we are a "business". We are not taxed as a business and residential rental property is treated as a non-business asset if owned by an individual.
I feel that if the government were to decide we are a business for some things and not others, then there would be a point to contest and I would rather this thread were about challenging this double standard.
DPT
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Sign Up11:42 AM, 8th January 2025, About 9 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Steve Rose at 08/01/2025 - 10:59I believe that receiving an email is processing, even if you subsequently manage to delete it from all devices and the server.
It's also worth saying that the limited exemption from ICO registration for those only with unorganised paper records, does not apply to the requirement for a GDPR policy and Privacy Notice, which would need to be given to tenants and prospectives at the earliest opportunity.
Steve Rose
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Sign Up12:04 PM, 8th January 2025, About 8 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by DPT at 08/01/2025 - 11:42
While I agree with your second part (which simply re-words what I have already stated), but as to the first, I can only go by the advice I was given by the ICO when I checked.
There would appear to be no point in having exemptions if no-one is exempt!
JaSam
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Sign Up14:14 PM, 8th January 2025, About 6 hours ago
My take on this is..
1) If you are incorporated then you should pay the £35 regardless as it’s tax deductible and just not worth any arguments.
2) If you are not incorporated and are renting via an agent then that agent should have the ICO as they are the one handling the tenants personal data not you.
3) If you are not incorporated and are self managing then you should have an ICO but many people would probably not even be aware of an ICO let alone have one.
4) If you have doorbell or CCTV that shows public space then you should have an ICO but lets face it how many people know have or care