RogueTenantRegister.co.uk – feasibility?

There used to be one, cant remember what it was called or which landlord started it.
I do remember he had issues with data protection laws and not many landlords updated it, so it just drifted away.
I think the only way it would work, is if the Government or a trade body set it up ( as if that will ever happen )

If I remember correctly it had to be called something which didn't infringe their " human rights "

im 100% behind this, and many landlords would pay a small subscription PA im sure, surely a proper landlords body/charitable undertaking could be set up to properly manage DP/ICO and potential defamation issues BUT facts are facts, if a tenant has been sued for rent arrears or has ASB supported by facts then surely any such issues can be managed?

Yes, I thought about it as well. Rogue tenant list and rouge landlord list too... but with the way the government supports tenants, legal complications, counter claims etc...I just didn't bother.

I think it was Paul Shamplina who started one. I seem to remember that it had to be landlords who added the names with factual reasons, no prejudice and no emotive content. I guess it must have run into problems of human rights violations as it doesn't seem to exist now.
I'd support it as I have some to add!

From memory it was TenantReferencingUK.com. But they are no longer updating their website. I think they ran into problems with the Data Protection laws. They also received a lot of on-line abuse from tenants!

I am pretty sure that, up until at least 2019, landlordreferencing.co.uk and tenantregistry.co.uk used to encourage landlords to update rogue tenant lists held on their sites.
Unfortunately, neither site now exists.

Reply to the comment left by Bill O'Dell at 23/02/2022 - 11:55
You might be thinking of Paul Routledge who started such a scheme based in Weston-super-Mare some years ago, called LRS referencing. The last I heard from them was a warning in January 2019 that data was being deleted, so I assume that it no longer exists.

There is a video interview with him at https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=paul+routledge&docid=608048218354552766&mid=69BB6FEFD3A3FC9CC9A469BB6FEFD3A3FC9CC9A4&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

It sounds like a good idea on the face of it but would likely end up being a massive problem for whoever is running the site.

GDPR aside, you would have to consider how information was placed on the site.

Would anyone be able to add information? Would landlords have to prove who they were? How would they do this? What would be the policy if a tenant had a dispute with the information? Who would be responsible if information was incorrect and negatively impacted someone? what would people infer if there was no entry for someone? What if there are similarly named people on the site, how could you be sure they are separated?

Sites like these generally only attract negative comments and as such would be likely used by the various tenant advocacy organisations as an example of the systemic contempt for which landlords view tenants.

As I say, nice idea, non starter in my view.

It sounds pretty risky to list someone as a bad tenant without any court finding or adjudication against them. It could expose you to legal costs. In my opinion as a landlord it is better to take prompt legal action against malicious tenants or those who choose not to pay rent. That will be picked up by the referencing agencies to protect other landlords. I have rarely had problems with properly referenced tenants, though I do sometimes accept tenants who fail a reference if I have enough information from the referencing process.