Our guide discusses how and when you can seek compensation for the effects of a landlord data breach. Landlords must follow data protection legislation, and if they do not, they could be responsible for a personal data breach that results, affecting a tenant. We cover this legislation and explain when you are eligible to start a data breach compensation claim.
If you are unsure what counts as personal data, we cover this in the guide before talking you through how to prove a breach of data protection and its impact on you.
As the guide continues, you can also learn what forms of damage can be compensated for in a settlement and how instructing one of our expert data breach claim solicitors to handle your claim under No Win No Fee terms could help you.
Landlord Data Breach Claims Guide
Additionally, we provide a free consultation and case assessment service, with no obligation to start legal action after talking to us. To talk about your experience with a dedicated advisor, choose any of these avenues:
- Call 0800 073 8801.
- Contact us through our website.
- Talk to an advisor on live chat.
Select A Section
- Landlord Data Breach – Could I Make A Claim?
- Examples Of Tenants’ Personal Data
- How Do I Prove My Landlord Breached My Data Protection?
- What Could I Claim For A Landlord Data Breach?
- Could A No Win No Fee Solicitor Help Me Claim Against A Landlord?
- Discover More About Landlord Data Breach Claims
Landlord Data Breach – Could I Make A Claim?
As a tenant, you may share your personal data with a landlord or, alternatively, a housing association that manages your house. This makes you the data subject, an identifiable individual to whom personal data relates. The landlord is the data controller, the party who decides how and why data is processed.
They may do this themselves or ask a third party, known as a data processor.
Data controllers and processors must follow data protection legislation, most notably the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR.)
A failure to follow data protection law could lead to a personal data breach that affects the data subject. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), an independent public body for protecting data rights, defines a personal data breach as a security incident affecting the confidentiality, availability or integrity of personal data.
You may be able to claim compensation for a personal data breach affecting you, but only if these criteria are satisfied:
- A data controller or processor, such as your landlord, did not uphold their obligations under data protection legislation.
- By doing so, a data breach occurred, affecting your personal data.
- This breach caused you psychological harm, financial damage, or both.
Limitation Periods In Which To Claim
The general time limit for starting a data breach claim is six years. However, you may only have one year in which to submit a claim if it is against a public body. With that in mind, it is worth calling us as soon as possible so we can help you discover how long you have to claim.
Examples Of Tenants’ Personal Data
Personal data is any data that could be used, by itself or in combination with other data, to identify you. This could include your:
- Name.
- Address.
- Email address.
- Phone number.
- Credit or debit card details.
A landlord, housing association or letting agent may need to process this sort of data as part of your tenancy. Special category data, including your race, ethnic origin or religious beliefs, must be handled even more securely.
A breach of a tenant’s personal data could be deliberate, accidental or due to a lack of security. For example, a landlord could intentionally pass on details to someone else, but they could also lose documents or have insufficient cyber security, allowing criminals to steal data in a ransomware attack. In any case, the landlord may be liable if they failed to meet the responsibility required of them by data protection law.
Speak to us about your experience of a landlord data breach and we can help you find out if it’s possible to claim compensation. Just call the number above at a time that suits you.
How Do I Prove My Landlord Breached My Data Protection?
The eligibility criteria we discussed earlier in this guide must be backed up by relevant proof. Proving a landlord data breach occurred because they failed to adhere to data protection law and its impact could be achieved through the following forms of evidence:
- Correspondence with the landlord, such as a data breach notice letter or email. This contact should feature details of the breach.
- Medical records, which you can use to prove any mental harm.
- Financial records – for example, a bank or credit card statement – proving monetary loss.
- Payslips to prove a loss of earnings if you needed to take time away from work due to mental health issues caused by the data breach.
A data controller should act without undue delay to make you aware if a personal data breach puts your data rights and freedoms at risk. However, if they do not and you believe a breach has occurred, you could contact them yourself.
They should have a chance to provide an adequate response. If there is no meaningful reply from them, you could report the breach to the ICO. You could submit the ICO’s findings as evidence if they choose to investigate and uncover a data breach.
If you have a claim that one of our solicitors agrees to take on, they could support you in collecting and presenting evidence. For more information on how to report a data breach and how a solicitor could help you pursue a claim, please call us and speak to an advisor.
What Could I Claim For A Landlord Data Breach?
If your landlord data breach claim succeeds, you could receive compensation to reflect non-material damage. This refers to the mental harm caused by a data breach, such as anxiety, depression, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD.
The Judicial College Guidelines, a document featuring guideline compensation figures for different forms of psychological injury, could be used to help calculate the non-material damage amount for your case.
Compensation Table
Please remember that this table, which includes guideline compensation brackets from the JCG, is only a guide.
| INJURY | SEVERITY | COMPENSATION | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Psychiatric Harm | Severe | £54,830 to £115,730 | The affected person has a very poor prognosis. There are marked issues with respect to factors like their ability to handle life, work and education. |
| Moderately Severe | £19,070 to £54,830 | There are significant problems associated with the affected person’s life and relationships. However, their prognosis is optimistic compared to a severe case. | |
| Moderate | £5,860 to £19,070 | The affected person experiences problems with various parts of life. With that being said, they have a good prognosis. | |
| PTSD | Severe | £59,860 to £100,670 | Permanent effects prevent the affected person from going to work at all or from functioning at anything like pre-trauma levels. |
| Moderately Severe | £23,150 to £59,860 | Significant disability will continue in the foreseeable future. However, with professional help, there is a better prognosis. | |
| Moderate | £8,180 to £23,150 | There are no grossly disabling effects continuing after the affected person largely recovers. |
Material Damage
It is also possible to claim due to material damage, which is where a personal data breach causes financial loss. This could include compensation for a loss of earnings if the stress of a data breach means you cannot work.
Please get in touch if you want to discuss forms of damage or find out what you could include in your landlord data breach claim.
Could A No Win No Fee Solicitor Help Me Claim Against A Landlord?
Our data breach solicitors have years of combined experience and use their knowledge of the claims process to give claimants the best possible chance of success. To that end, they could take on your case with a Conditional Fee Agreement, a form of No Win No Fee terms that means no upfront or running solicitor fees. Moreover, you will not have to pay for their service if the case fails.
Winning the case means paying a success fee, which the solicitor collects from the compensation awarded to you. The percentage of your payout that goes to a solicitor is capped because of The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013.
How To Start A Landlord Data Breach Claim
If a landlord data breach has caused you stress or led to you losing money, you can get free guidance today from our dedicated advisors. We also provide a free assessment that tells you if your case has a chance of success. Having a valid claim could lead to you being connected to one of our solicitors for further legal advice and support.
To reach us and get started, you can:
- Call 0800 073 8801.
- Contact us through our web form.
- Open the live chat pop-up here to ask about a claim.
Discover More About Landlord Data Breach Claims
We have numerous data breach claim guides, including the below:
- This guide to an estate agent data breach explains when you can seek compensation.
- What can you do if a social services data breach affects you? Read our guide to find out.
- A look at local authority and council data breach claims and what you can do if you are affected.
You can get further useful information from these resources:
- Government guidance on making a complaint if you experience a data protection breach.
- Information on seeking Statutory Sick Pay if you cannot work through illness.
- The National Cyber Security Centre – guidance on data breaches.
Thank you for reviewing our guide to making a landlord data breach compensation claim. Please contact us if you need any support, and our advisors will be happy to help.