Caught neighbours using my garden

[Weird21]

I have a block of flats next to my house and I thought for a while things have been moved in my garden and it seemed a bit weird. I’ve got a lock on the gate and it’s always locked. So over the weekend I’ve installed a small out door camera under my guttering which records the whole back garden.

So I’ve come home tonight after work (I work the late shift) and found two cigarette butts on the path by my seating area. So I checked the camera and the neighbors have climbed my wall and been sitting in my garden from 2pm until 8pm using my seating and table. To say I’m annoyed is an understatement but how to I confront them as they aren’t the friendliest of people at the best of times. So I guess they’ve been doing this since the nice weather began.

Unfortunately it’s not difficult to see i’m out as I have to drive to work and so once my cars not there they obviously know I’m out.

I just don’t know how to approach this as I’m a single woman and just concerned it’ll escalate but I can’t allow this what would you all do? I thought maybe a note through their door asking them to not use it anymore. They haven’t seen the camera but now I wonder how long it’s been going on.

Slightly surprising that it’s all happened so quickly. Having been on the receiving end of anti social behaviour from HA tenants nearby, my experience is that the HA will do literally anything to avoid acting on complaints about their tenants, much less evict them.

@Deathraystare

What's the betting if they are moved on, they will be someone else's problem soon enough!!

Maybe they should move them next door to the person who said it was OK for them to use her garden as she wasn't using it.

Great update OP

The HA should not have given confidential and possible sub judice information to a member of the public. Shocking behaviour.

There's no Data Protection angle at all about what has been posted on here. No names, no identifiers, nothing.

@SophieB100

I agree with *@crowsfeet57* Setting aside the in and outs of the law, it doesn't ring true that the HA manager divulged private information about tenants. Unprofessional and highly unlikely.

Unprofessional it may be, but highly unlikely it is not. We had anti social neighbours and were requested by the HA to keep a diary. On giving them the diary, they told us they had received many complaints about these tenants and that they now had enough evidence to get the eviction ball rolling. That's no different to what OP's HA have told her. It may not ring true to you, but I'm not the first poster here to say that our HA have told us similar, so clearly it could well be true.

@BaconMassive

There's no Data Protection angle at all about what has been posted on here. No names, no identifiers, nothing.

No DP angle, no But HA have very strict guidance on what they can and cannot tell the public. The person who gave the OP this information would be on the end of a disciplinary for gross misconduct and possibly suspended from duty of, for example, their telephone call had been recorded, as many HA do, in order to protect their staff from accusations of abuse. That's why it's so surprising the employee would give out such damning confidential information.

You need a camera sign up- personally I would look on my mobile, call the police and let them deal

That's why it's so surprising the employee would give out such damning confidential information

Quite incredible. Disappointed that the Iberian DGP hasn't made an appearance in the story.

No photos or names have been shared, poor HA employee if anyone suggests they get suspended, what sort of society do we live in where bullies and cf rule the roost. Let them sue the Mirror or the BBC if the poor little mites feel aggrieved. I hope the OP can look forward to feeling safe and secure in her own home.

@crowsfeet57

If anyone reported them for a data breach they could be fined many millions of pounds

Not in the UK

I beg to differ.

The UK GDPR and DPA 2018 set a maximum fine of £17.5 million or 4% of annual global turnover – whichever is greater – for infringements. Th EU GDPR sets a maximum fine of €20 million (about £18 million) or 4% of annual global turnover – whichever is greater – for infringements.

Surely the test of a data breach is it is identifying - this it can be argued is remarkably vague. There's no name nor a physical address. No mention of HA name.

To be a data breach there exists a test that a person could be identified. This update I'd argue is sufficiently vague.

Nil Desperandum OP

PP who consider without sufficient or correct legal knowledge this is a data breach... Non torsii subligarium!

I don’t think the suggested breach is that the information has been shared on MN, but that the HA person shared the information with OP, who very clearly knows who these individuals are, where they live etc. That’s the issue.

I'm so glad they took it seriously and you'll be rid of these awful neighbours soon.

@DoubleTweenQueen

I don’t think the suggested breach is that the information has been shared on MN, but that the HA person shared the information with OP, who very clearly knows who these individuals are, where they live etc. That’s the issue.

Exactly.

@DingDongThongs

PP who consider without sufficient or correct legal knowledge this is a data breach... Non torsii subligarium!

Nobody is saying OP has committed a data breach. It is the Housing Authority who ha e committed a data breach. People are saying that OP should get the thread pulled because she is telling the world at large that the HA have committed a data breach, not that OP herself is in the frame for a fine.

OP doesn’t have any data protection obligations whatsoever.

HA not committed a data breach if not identifiable. Surely if they have started eviction proceedings the reasons will be in the public arena - ie local courts - information that is open to all.

@DingDongThongs

HA not committed a data breach if not identifiable. Surely if they have started eviction proceedings the reasons will be in the public arena - ie local courts - information that is open to all.

What are talking about? OP knows exactly who the people are and where they live.

@C8H10N4O2

That's why it's so surprising the employee would give out such damning confidential information

Quite incredible. Disappointed that the Iberian DGP hasn't made an appearance in the story.

I did wonder when SpanGran was going to get an honorary mention on this thread!

@DingDongThongs

HA not committed a data breach if not identifiable. Surely if they have started eviction proceedings the reasons will be in the public arena - ie local courts - information that is open to all.

The HA employee has given out information which could be used in court in legal proceedings to a member of the public. HA employees are covered by lots of safeguarding and confidentiality regulations, much more so than, for example, private landlords etc. It isn't, for hopefully the last time, that anybody has committed a data breach. It's confidentiality and arguably more serious. The HA employee needs to be retrained and disciplined (and definitely would be) if they said to the OP, what she states. Whether or not the neighbours are in the wrong and deserve to live under a wheelbarrow forever, the HA person simply cannot slag them off to their neighbours without very serious consequences. As most HA calls, as above, are recorded, hopefully this loose cannon will be dealt with.

@HaveringWavering - ah! Totally misread. I'm so sorry @crowsfeet57.

The posts have been removed but not the subsequent quotes.

The HA have not slagged them off.

@DogsSausages They have shared information they are legally bound to keep private. It’s not a matter of ‘slagging off’ - although the information does not paint them in a positive light!

The slagging off comment was posted by another poster