to think next donor's letting agent should keep my details private?

[notanotherNC]

I will try and keep this short.

We have student neighbours who are having all night parties. There is an email chain spanning from April until now. Back and forth between me, the landlord, the council and the home owner.

Today the Letting agent has cc'ed all the tenants in. Not only sharing with them months of complaints but also my email address, phone number and other private details. I didn't give permission for this.

AIBU to think this is not ok? Or am I just so tired from yet another all night party that I am being petty ?

@LurkingHusband - this is my view too, but it seems to be falling on deaf ears. I just hope that if I keep logging the complaints with the council and letting agent, eventually something will be done. I expect to hear noise from our neighbours occasionally, but when it is loud music almost every night, sometimes to 4am it just starts to drive one mad!

Thanks @squadronleader87 and all other pps. It is hard to tell sometimes when you are in the middle of something if every little thing is just making you more unjustifiably pissed off, or if things are actually not ok.

Go to the university and make a complaint there, naming the students.

It must be really horrible - I'm so sorry for you.

I have experience of the ICO through work and they do investigate all reports made to them. They may not take action, but that doesn't mean they won't consider your case.

Which rather begs the question: "What's the point ?".

In the past few years, I've engaged with a few bodies (ICO included) and discovered that the effort involved in logging and escalating and managing complaints is effectively wasted when you hear "we agree you have been wronged, but - (get this) - there's nothing we can do in this case."

Now if the letting agent had managed to spaff a few thousand peoples details, they might get a stiff letter. A few tens of thousands peoples details, they might even get fined.

But one ?

(It's a reverse of Stalins observation that a single death is a tragedy, but a million a statistic )

Now, come May 25th next year ...

OP: Just for lolz, ask the agent how they will be complying with the GDPR (if they go "what's that", they're probably going to be in trouble).

...goes to google 'GDPR'...

...goes to google 'GDPR'...

head start:

ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/

I know that recall doesn't always work but it sometimes does so worth a try?

I recall emails at work fairly regularly

Go straight to their universities, now you know them. The agent should never have shared your details but this part could work in your favour.

My university would have put us on a warning for something like this, when living out of college we had a specific code of conduct to adhere to which included noise regs and neighbourly behaviour. A repeated incident would have had us sent down. Was a while ago but I'm sure stuff hasn't changed that much.

Just had a google, my old uni publishes a living out code of behaviour on their website, and it includes the potential sanction of expulsion for non compliance.

I'd spend this afternoon googling the same for your neighbours' unis, and composing some emails.

I know that recall doesn't always work but it sometimes does so worth a try?

Bit of faulty logic there ? If you know it's not 100% effective, how confident cant you be that any individual instance has worked ?

I recall emails at work fairly regularly

But how do you know they haven't been read ? Especially if the recipient never says a word to you ?

Massively unprofessional and stupid. Complain!!!

I would reply that if they choose to have all night parties with people openly doing drugs then they won't mind the Dean of their university being fully appraised of their appalling behaviour.

Data protection breach. I would want to make sure if you can that any potential customer is aware.

The letting agent can't get involved? Bollocks. Does their contract not have rules in it about noise outside waking hours? Like every other contract I've ever seen.

I'm so sorry you're going through this - my twins don't sleep well and if inconsiderate shitbags woke them 8/10 nights I would be homicidal. I never behaved like this as a student, certainly not with any frequency.

A few years ago my mum was dying in a hospice and the people in the flat next to us in the adjacent house had a party literally all night. They were outside on their balcony, right outside our window, laughing and screaming until 10am. I wanted to kill them. Fortunately it never happened again and then we moved.

Do you rent or own? If you rent i would consider moving if you can as I don't see this getting any better sadly. Many local councils have a uni liaison for noise complaints so i would look that up.

The agent should absolutely not have shared your details but I'd be even more angry about them sharing all your complaints without your permission.

For both my children, we had to be guarantor for their rent.

On one occasion (& it was truly a one off!) we received a letter from the LL of one of our sons. Basically letting us know that our darling children had thrown a party the previous week, police call, throwing bottles, by the sounds of it similar to what you've been dealing with. He was quite rightly somewhat annoyed and it was a bit of a shock to the kids that their parents had been notified.

Started to give DS a bollocking but then he announced he hadn't actually been there that weekend ... he's no angle so Im sure it was a lucky save for him ! That said they obviously got their act together

Could you content the LL and ask if this is an option? Surely it's in his interest as well, as the place must be getting trashed

We own our house. And unfortunately the music has just started up again, keeping my kids awake. I am at my wits end
No-one seems to care :(. I will email the university tomorrow and see if I get any joy from them.

The LL and letting agent are refusing to get involved. They say only the council have any powers.

I know it's horrendous living next to noisy neighbours and I do feel for you OP, but unless it's in the contract the LL and Letting Agent can't do anything. Even if it's in the contract it may not be enforceable.
Probably the most the LL can do is threaten not to renew the lease, but if they're students they'll probably move on at the end of the contract anyway.

Letting Agent absolutely should not have released your emails to the tenants though. That's really shoddy behaviour. Hope you have better luck with the university.

Thanks everyone. I just want a decent nights sleep :(

Definitely contact the university.

I used to live in a uni town and any complaints from the public were taken very seriously. Would you consider going to the local newspaper, features about badly behaved students were a staple of the local news when I lived there and students were punished by the uni

At this stage I would try anything. This is the 2nd year of having these tenants in so I am hoping this will be their last year here (presuming 1st year was spent in halls).

LurkingHusband
But how do you know they haven't been read ? Especially if the recipient never says a word to you ?

Outlook sends you an email to let you know if your recall was successful. If the person has already read the email it is unsuccessful, if they haven't read the email it usually just disappears out if their inbox and the recipient is none the wiser that you'd ever sent them anything.

The tenants have read the emails as we have had replies from them. So I think too late for recalls or whatever PPs have suggested.

There is a Landlord licensing scheme being rolled out by certain councils. I have a property in Kent where it is compulsory for all private landlords to hold this license.

We pay £600 for a five year license, in order to be approved for the license landlords have to provide information such as safety certificates, copies of tenancies, insurance etc

However my point is this .... as part of the license we have a duty of care to deal with anti social tenants and if we failed to do so can be fined by the Council. Could be worth you checking if your area is covered

I really feel for you OP, must be horrendous. Can you start proceedings to sue your landlord for nuisance? It's ultimately their responsibility, it doesn't matter that they say they can't do anything - they can, they can throw them out - what LL wouldn't have a tenancy agreement in place!

Why don't you make an appointment with CAB and see what your rights are.

I would also make an appointment to see your MP / local councillor, sometimes they will be sympathetic to someone's plight and be able to help in some way. I wish I had done this when we had nuisance neighbours.

You and your children shouldn't have to live like this!