GDPR and RTB Determination Notices from Adjudications

TonyStark

With the adoption of GDPR by a vast majority of State Agencies and bodies it does seem strange that RTB are strangely not compliant when it comes to the outcomes of it's adjudication processes.

It's one thing for the results of their public tribunals to be published online.

But is it non compliance of GDPR to maintain a published list of outcomes of private adjudications on their website? They are not indexed by Google but it's trivial to download and search them.

In a lot of instances the name, address of tenants and landlords are published as part of publishing these outcomes with no apparent justification or need. In a lot of cases it's possible to discern the rental income of a specified property. Section 124(7) does give them to publish outcomes but only at it's discretion.

It does seem to be at odds with 128(4)(a)(b) where the identities of the landlord and tenant are not published on the register and the publication of these details seems to be an indirect punitive penalty for misbehaving landlords and tenants.

Mr. Incognito

ARTICLE 34

1 Justice shall be administered in courts established by law by judges appointed in the manner provided by this Constitution, and, save in such special and limited cases as may be prescribed by law, shall be administered in public.

The Constitution sets out Justice is administered in public.

The RTB is a public forum. Anyone can sit into any adjudication if they choose.

Secondly, GDPR has a LOT of exemptions. It is not a blanket right to privacy.

randomrb

People seem to be confused about GDPR, it doesn't actually change what information you can give out or display etc what it changes in the main is the initial communication with the person whose information you are gathering.

It focuses on being clearer to people about what happens to their data and in some cases requiring explicit consent

TonyStark

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

ARTICLE 34

1 Justice shall be administered in courts established by law by judges appointed in the manner provided by this Constitution, and, save in such special and limited cases as may be prescribed by law, shall be administered in public.

The Constitution sets out Justice is administered in public.

The RTB is a public forum. Anyone can sit into any adjudication if they choose.

Secondly, GDPR has a LOT of exemptions. It is not a blanket right to privacy.

RTB Ajudications are held in private with the proceedings and the adjudicators report being confidential. However Tribunals (appeals etc.) are held in public and anyone can attend. Adjudications are held behind closed doors but the tenant and landlords can have representation if they so decide.
The law does say that adjudication reports may be published at the discretion of the board. I would liken this to case studies by the Data Protection Commissioner.
There is actually no legal basis to publish adjudication (not tribunal) determination orders with personal details  names and addresses. Determination orders usually need to be acted on within a set period of time. I can see no reason to list identifying personal data from 5+ years ago on a website especially if an determination notice has been dealt with. It seems to me that they use personal information as a punitive outcome to raise disputes. They seem to deliberately miss this from their privacy statement completely.

randomrb

TonyStark wrote: »

There is actually no legal basis to publish adjudication (not tribunal) determination orders with personal details names and addresses.

How are you so sure of this?

TonyStark

randomrb wrote: »

How are you so sure of this?

When I say there is no legal, I really mean they are not compelled to by law it's at their discretion.

Section 123(7) of the Residential Tenancies Act gives the RTB a
discretion (though not an obligation) to publish its Determination Orders. Determination orders are both an outcome of a private adjudication and a public tribunal.

In each case personal data of both parties is published along with the determination order of the landlord and tenant. Determination notices usually come with a series of actions and a time frame in which they are to be actioned. After that they are either complied with or not complied with.

It stands to reason that this personal data at the moment is published indefinitely online and I really don't understand what purpose it serves other than revealing in some instances identities of people linked to properties. Rent (deduced from references to deposit in the determinations).

I could use the information to discern previous rents on properties, previous addresses of tenants, current properties of landlords. Perhaps even if a property has been reclaimed for the landlords own use their name and address is published online through no fault of their own.

It would seem the right to be forgotten does not apply to the RTB. The publication of determination orders seems to me deliberately omitted from their privacy policy.

curious minds

Hi TonyStark

I think you are correct with your concern here,
There is so much data available on the dispute outcome page, names and addresses that can very easily be scraped compiled
and used for unknown purposes e.g lists of bad tenants sent to estate agents....after all it is public data that anyone can access and use.

RTB argue that they are obliged to publish this data even if you are a respondent to the dispute and never agreed to have your data publicly shared. RTB argue that they are obliged to published the outcome of the adjudications just like the courts do,
However looking at recent court cases and WRC cases the names of the parties are not always published.
So why is it acceptable for RTB to publish all this data names and addresses without the respondent's consent?

Claw Hammer

What is worse is that the RTB publish adjudications in situations where it rules it does not have jurisdiction to deal with the complaint!

slystallone

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/107751860#Comment_107751860

Where do the adjudications take place?

TonyStark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119268868#Comment_119268868

They are privately scheduled appointments that the RTB schedule to happen. Usually a number of adjudications happen on a particular day at a particular location. You can bring whoever you need to the adjudication. I might add the RTB dissuade bringing legal representation, however, you are free to bring in a legal adviser if you feel you need this. (I recommend this).

Each adjudication is run on the terms of the adjudicator of the day there is no standard format to an adjudication and they are free to dictate the operating parameters of each adjudication. Some will just rule on the evidence others will try one last/first effort at mediation. Most will be distracted trying to write their report on the fly that they really have their mind made up at the outset based on their conversations with their RTB case manager.

Tribunals however are open to the general public.

slystallone

Has anyone had a situation where landlord does not turn up and adjudication goes in tenants favour and they ignore the outcome. How do you get your money back at that point?