The government has confirmed that HM Revenue and Customs could be given access to landlords’ personal details from the PRS database.

Answering a Parliamentary question about information sharing, Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook said it was considering how different agencies and organisations, including HMRC and local authorities, will be able to access the data collected on the new service to support their statutory functions.

“We will carefully assess the potential benefits and risks to the different parties of sharing different data points and will ensure that any sharing of information is proportionate and is in accordance with data protection and landlord privacy rights,” said Pennycook.

“Details of the data sharing arrangements with other organisations will be set out in future legislation, which will be announced after the initial rollout of the service is completed. Local authorities will have access to the full range of information in order to carry out relevant enforcement duties.”

Comments

His comments raise questions about HMRC cross-checking landlords’ declared rental income against registered properties, whether the database be accessible to the Department for Work and Pensions or the Home Office and if councils be able to share information with other enforcement bodies.

Voice of Landlord Associations argues that privacy and data protection can’t be treated as details to be worked out after rollout, which starts on 15^th December. “Landlords deserve clarity before they are required to hand over their information, not afterwards,” chair Charlie Baker tells LandlordZONE.

“Landlords are being asked to prepare for a mandatory registration system, yet with little more than a month to go until this system starts collecting data, the government still cannot clearly explain what information it intends to collect, exactly how that information will be used, who it will be shared with or for what purposes.”

Confirm

VOLA has urged the government to confirm how their personal information will be collected and potentially made public amid concern that publication or misuse of personal data collected for PRS database purposes might expose individuals to fraud, identity theft, harassment, stalking, intimidation, and abusive marketing practices.

Pennycook recently announced that information submitted to the ‘Register your rental property’ service won’t be publicly visible before winter 2027.

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