False Tenancy Reference registered by previous landlord – cost me my new flat

dublinrenter

Just to let you know I am going on a fairly long rant here but I am so pi***d at the whole thing.

I lost my new flat because of a false and malicious reference registered against me from a previous landlord. I moved out of my last flat over 8 months ago because the landlord was basically a creep. When I moved in he promised to replace and fix things that were clearly wrong with it, and I accepted because I was desperate.

Over 2 years later the place was still a dump and he didn’t like my constant complaints as he called them – asking for a broken door to be fixed, loose light fittings and a leaky toilet, he called that complaints. He even tried to keep my deposit, but I got it back. I’d had enough and moved out. I didn’t make a complaint to the prtb after reading some of the feedback on boards.ie.

I moved back home for a few months and started looking again in the Dublin 2 area. After months of painful, miserable and soul destroying searching I found something that was nice, in a good location, that’s when I hit the problem.

I didn’t give a reference from the last address for obvious reasons, I said the property sold and I didn’t have any dealings with new owner. I had a reference from one other previous address from the last few years. That seemed fine.

However, after a few days the new landlord rang me and said he couldn’t give me the flat. When I asked why he said it was because of reference issues with ‘unpaid utility bills’ and ‘unpaid rent’ at my last address. Initially I nearly hit the fu**ing roof because this was absolute cr*p, then when I calmed down a bit it hit me as odd because, I didn’t give a reference from that last landlord and while I did have problems with the creep it had nothing to do with any of that.

When I asked the landlord who told him these lies he said he had gotten the information from an English tenancy reference service called excentum.co.uk where my last landlord has registered a reference with them. He gave me the details for the company.

To say that I really lost the plot with those people would be an understatement. I could only contact them by e-mail and told them that had no right to do this, that the landlord had no right to give them information on me and that I wanted it removed. They said I had no rights to have the tenancy reference removed, but was entitled to see the tenancy reference information if I submitted a subject access request under the uk freedom of information, like the data protection thing here in Ireland, but I couldn’t change any of the content or have it removed because it was not classed as personal data. They said I could confirm this with the data protection agency in the uk and citizens advice in the uk as well – I did.

They say on their website:
"Article 7 of the Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC) sets out legal grounds for processing personal data based on reasons other than the unambiguous consent of the data subject. The ‘Legitimate Interest’s’ condition in relation to Data Protection legislation provides grounds to process this type of data in a situation where an individual, business or organisation needs to do so for the purpose of its own legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of the third party that the information is disclosed to."

"Excentum.co.uk is satisfied that the processing of the Tenancy Reference Data submitted by Business Members, identified as Tenancy Reference Data, complies with this ‘Legitimate Interest’s’ definition and does not prejudice the rights and freedoms or legitimate interests of any individual where data is being processed."

In the copy of the tenancy reference I got from them under a Subject Access Request the landlord basically libelled the f**k out of me, seriously. He claimed I had left without paying electricity and phone bills and left two months unpaid rent as well as complaints of anti-social behaviour.

When I checked with data protection people and citizens advice in the uk they said because that landlord was only storing and sharing his own information about his own tenancy lettings of his own property that it was not personal data and he was not breaching my personal data rights – it thought this was absolutely bl**dy crazy.

Here’s the good part…He didn’t name me or give any personal information about me in it, but when the new landlord checked the address and date of my last flat with that English tenancy reference company, the reference he submitted to them came up… and the new landlord put two and two together and came up with me – and no flat!

I was told as the company is English and the data is gathered and held in the uk irish data protection laws don’t apply and they are not breaking any uk data laws.

A friend told me that the information in the reference could be considered libel and I should threaten to go to court if it was not changed on the records of the tenancy reference company.

I contacted excentum.co.uk explained it was lies, and I would sue them and the landlord. They said they couldn’t change the content of the reference without agreement of the landlord, or a legally binding direction from either the data protection people in the uk or a uk court – however if I could prove the information was wrong they could correct the wrong information without the landlords permission.

I gave them copies of information from the ESB and phone company from the time of my tenancy to show I didn’t leave any unpaid bills and my bank account to show rent paid and that I got my deposit back, so didn’t owe any rent or he would have kept the deposit.
The end result is the lies that lying sc*m**g put in that tenancy reference have been deleted from the tenancy reference this company is holding, because of my evidence and because the lying pr**k didn’t challenge my complaint against his ly**g cr***y reference.

If I hadn’t done anything about it, that false reference information would still be there about me and could be seen by landlords and others. This could have ruined my chances of a flat, a job and credit in the future - all without me knowing why.

I’d never heard of this type of thing before and its bl***y scary how data can be used. Until I went through all this I didn’t know about these tenancy reference agencies, they are getting like credit rating agencies. Its huge business in England and landlords even have to check social welfare and immigration status for tenants or they can be fines. With some of the cr**py landlords here, god help us if we start doing that.

End of the story… still lost the flat, landlord would not wait for me to sort this out, but got somewhere else…. Next step…. I am going to check my Irish credit reference.

We should have some type of official register of references in this country, ones that have to be registered and checked as legitimate, and landlords should be fined if they don’t.

Rant over…

dcooper

Hi,

Sorry, are you saying that a landlord registered a reference with an english company and you were refused a flat because of the reference/

Seriously....

That cant be right... can it?

athtrasna

Mod note Thread closed pending checks

The_Conductor

dublinrenter wrote: »

When I asked the landlord who told him these lies he said he had gotten the information from an English tenancy reference service called excentum.co.uk where my last landlord has registered a reference with them. He gave me the details for the company.

Can you clarify- was this an Irish tenancy, at an Irish address, registered with the Residential Tenancies Board here in Ireland? Was the landlord Irish? If so- I'd query the assertion that Irish Data Protection does not apply.