To not reply to this letter

[ThomasinaMouse]

Received a letter from a solicitor today saying there was a'dog bite incident' at my (tenanted) house last year and can I provide the tenants details for their client to pursue it.
Rang tenant, he said a takeaway delivery man (delivering to next door to them) fell down the steps outside and accused their dog of biting him. Tenant said dog had ran up to him, he'd called dog back, takeaway guy has been startled and fallen down the steps outside. For clarity he was on the wrong steps, my tenant's steps instead of next door's. Takeaway man went to police and said hed been bitten by a dog. Police dismissed the claim, said the injuries were clearly not from a dog bite.

Tenant was very upset when I phoned. I trust my tenants, they're lovely people. I also don't believe their dog is the type to bite anyone,and the police have apparently already dismissed the claim. What would you do? Not reply? I don't think I'm obligated to provide my tenant's details anyway, aren't they data protected?

I might ring the police and ask but they'd perhaps not be able to tell me anything anyway.

Also be aware with the new GDPR rules you would actually be breaking the data protection laws by giving out this personal information without the tenant's consent.

The police are wrong about the insurance issue anyway. What is material is the occupier's insurance, not the visitor's. Plenty of people legitimately come onto premises with no insurance at all, it doesn't mean they have no right to be there.

I think you should reply and advise that your understanding of GDPR is such that you cannot provide this information.

Doesn’t matter where delivery bloke was, the Dangerous Dogs Act means you can pursue the owner via the police if you’re even feeling threatened. However, as the landlord, you do not have to and should not get involved. My poor tenant had a lot of bother with a neighbour and I wasn’t allowed to be involved.

You can safely ignore the letter, but I would let your tenant know you’ve had it.

data breach so you can't give details out

As others have said - reply in writing confirming that due to the Gdpr regulations, you will not be providing them with any information.

How did the solicitor get your details

Dear Solicitor, Thank you for your letter. Unfortunately I am unable to provide details in accordance with the General Data Processing Regulations 2018. Kind regards :)

Dont worry thomasina, chancer trying his luck. Refer solicitor to police and tell them you wont be discussing this further.

Once, many moons ago, exh was in an Ikea parking lot and a woman in a mini backed into his parked Landcruiser. Her front grille was slightly damaged, but since there was no damage to our Landcruiser and since it was entirely her fault, they didn't exchange information. She must have jotted down his information, because a few months later we got a solicitor's letter demanding payment for the repair of the the whole front end of her car. The funniest part was that she had told exh when she got out of her car apologizing to exh, that she had just had her front end repaired and had just picked up the car the day before. The invoice that the solicitor sent was dated the day before the "accident" with exh. In that case I did send a return letter pointing this out and reminding them that making a fraudulent claim makes this a criminal not a civil matter and that I would be reporting this to the police if I heard from them again. I never did.

Definitely refer them back to the police report

""Although I agree you may as well reply referring them to the police, I don’t understand why it matters how this reflects on the OP? It’s only a solictors firm, who cares what their reflection on her is?""

There have been cases like this on "Can't pay, we'll take it away".

For the Tenants sake I would tell them that they need to contact the Police. Otherwise costs will build and they will be responsible if a Court case is successful.

It's obvious on CPWTIA, that the person being sued has had correspondence, but chucked it away thinking nothing could come of it and the amount has then tripled.

If you provide white goods, dig out the receipts just in case.

As a Landlord you do have duties, so you need to completely clarify what happened, what the Police's stance is and even liaise with the claimants Solicitor.

I'm not saying that the dog did bite, but having a dog out of control is an offence and you should be concerned if someone is breaking the law on your property.

The Law Society have a solicitor search facility so you can find out if the firm are regulated members of the solicitors' union. This will give you factual information about solicitors and the firms they work for.

Otherwise I'd respond to that letter citing data protection concerns and referring them to the police report. Currently I don't think anyone's up to date with what GDPR actually means and how it affects individuals in a position like yours. For the cost and effort involved I think it's worth it to, hopefully, stop them bothering you again.

I don’t know about referring them back to the police. If the police dismissed the delivery guy’s complaint because it clearly wasn’t a dog bite, why would they have the tenants’ details or even a report to provide a copy of?

I would just respond to say you don’t give out tenant details without legal compulsion.

I would caution a slightly different take here, and agree with a PP that I would contact your insurers before I did anything.

As the owner of the property on which the incident took place, it's possible that this solicitor is setting up to come after you. If they can make a case for poor lighting/no handrail/work or uneven surface etc they might have something under public liability.

There is a civil liability under Tort Law that the owner (your tenant) is responsible for damage etc caused by their dog. I think it's the Animals Act 1971.

I've only just started my tort module (law student) so can't advise further than that, but this could be what the solicitor is thinking about.

Not a dog bite then. A trip and fall. Again I’m in the US, but here a property owner (ie landlord) is liable for pretty much any injury on their property. I’d still see a solicitor.

Just how insane our laws can get: burglar climbs roof of high school to break in. Burglar falls through skylight and is severely injured. The school is found liable and has to pay out a huge settlement even though the injury occurred during the commission of a crime. Crazy

Yes, I figured data protection would be my 'duty'toward my tenants and surely these details can be obtained elsewhere as a PP said, by the police report or electoral register or some such.
I did let the tenant know mael , I rang them and asked did they know anything about it andthey told me what I put in the OP.

shoogle land registry at a guess?

Good on you, sofia. A similar thing happened to my Mum.People can be awful!

I am a bit cautious about ringing my insurance-if this is a non-incident which it seems to be?That is crazy across but doesnt surprise me unfortunately.

sleepy I suppose it could come up in that but then, if being startled caused this bloke to fall, how can anybody prove it was the dog's 'fault'?

Also thanks fiesty I am having a look at that.

File it in the recycling bin.