Landlords have urged the government to confirm how their personal information will be collected and potentially made public in its upcoming PRS database amid concerns that their safety could be at risk.

Voice of Landlord Associations (VOLA) believes there is now widespread 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. Landlords can occasionally become the focus of sustained campaigns of harassment and abuse when their personal data gets in the wrong hands, chair Charlie Baker tells LandlordZONE.

This isn’t simply an argument about GDPR, she explains. “Landlords have become the focus of campaigns, protests and harassment simply for lawfully carrying out their business and hatred directed against landlords is becoming more concerning by the day. Government therefore has a responsibility to consider foreseeable risks before creating any system which could make it easier to identify an individual landlord or connect them with their private home or place of work.”

Risk

Newly published government guidance includes a section on ‘How we will use your data’ which makes clear: “In the future, some information about you and your rental property may be viewable to the public.” It adds: “We will provide a privacy notice explaining how your data will be used and shared. We will update it before any changes to data use or sharing take effect.”

VOLA believes that if landlords don’t have assurances about safeguards, some will inevitably ask themselves whether continuing to operate in the sector is worth the additional personal risk. “I am aware of many landlords who don’t tell anyone they are landlords and certainly would consider leaving the sector rather than have to face harassment for lawfully going about their business,” says Baker.

VOLA says the fact that many small rental businesses operate through a limited company structure doesn’t mean that separate business contact details exist. In practice, the only telephone number or contact information available is often that of the principal shareholder or director personally, making the distinction between organisational and individual data largely artificial.

Ordinary

“There seems to be a lack of appreciation that vast numbers of landlords are ordinary individuals,” she adds. “Many are women and retirees, single-property landlords with legitimate vulnerabilities of their own.”

Portsmouth & District Private Landlords Association organiser, Simon Fletcher, agrees that MHCLG is causing unnecessary anxiety for landlords and believes it should be a simple matter to review the list of data elements that will be held in the register and whether these are sensitive.

“The current situation adds to the worry for landlords that whatever private data they enter to the PRS database could be made public before they would have chance to de-register or otherwise contest publication before it occurs,” adds Fletcher.

VOLA has written to Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook asking him to publish a privacy statement before the 15 December launch date. LandlordZONE has contacted MHCLG for comment.

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