Estate agent confidentiality

[Bearoo22]

I left an abusive relationship with two young children. Their father is very wealthy, powerful, and controlling. We have been separated for over 5 years now. I viewed a couple of houses out of interest, without anyone knowing.. yet I’ve found out this information has been relayed to him, as he brought this up in an email saying he was informed by a vendor of the house in said location. Both were with different estate agents, and both the people I met were builders on site. I can only presume that the information that has been relayed from the estate agent? I’m upset as it puts me in a vulnerable position as I already have a lot of control exerted from me by him which I won’t go into. Am I being unreasonable to think this is a breach of confidentiality on the part of the estate agent? Where does this stand against GDPR? No doubt he’ll find this thread. I feel I can’t escape from this man, but it’s another level when people are feeding back information.

Possibly someone who knows you both saw you looking at one of the properties, which presumably has a For Sale sign outside? So, neither the agents nor the builders, and your ex is covering his informer saying it was the 'vendor'?

This. I am selling and get texts like this saying the name of the viewers. If the builder owns the property to renovate then the builder is the vendor. So, one of the builders knows your ex somehow I'm assuming?

Both are separate houses with separate estate agents, and two separate builders. Don’t know which one my ex was referring too as both are in same location x

Both were barn renovations in the middle of the countryside. I only spoke to the builder who I presume is classed as the vendor as he was renovating to sell? X

I agree with pp - he’s tracking you with an Apple AirTag in your car or has hacked your phone/computer/emails.

At the very least you need to rule those out.

Yeah I don’t think he found out via agents or vendors, he’s found this out either by tracking you or having hacked into emails or something.

For your piece of mind I would ring both agents tomorrow / Monday and ask them, ask to speak to the Director / manager and tell them you suspect one of their staff has breached GDPR by passing on information about you. (I don’t know if it counts but that wouldn’t stop me throwing the words around!)

My first feeling reading your OP is that he found out by tracking you.

Search your car OP.

There is lots of advice about checking for and combatting digital stalking online OP. Eg on the Women's Aid website

I suggest you reset all your electronic devices to their factory settings.
Change the password on every account you have & use complex passwords that are hard to break.
Set up a new email account and use that for everything from now on.
Retain the old email account for Contact withthe ex only & don't let him know about the new one.
Check for a tracking device on your car - I understand you can get devices to detect them.

It was my first thought. It’s how friends found out that we were looking for a house in their area. They saw us getting out of the car and going into the house with “ for sale” sign. Simple.
However in your situation I would also consider that he’s following you or tracking you phone or accessing your emails.

I think he's monitoring your phone or something too.

The alternative is that the builder/vendor said to your ex 'I saw your Jane last week,,she was looking at the house I'm doing' which is perfectly possible but not twice with two different vendors.

The estate agent can't keep your interest confidential from the vendor and the vendor can say what they like about who has come to look at their project. They don't have to adhere to professional standards of confidentiality.

@Bearoo22 has your ex been in your current home?? time for a sweep of the house for any bugs. time for a new phone and new number. sounds like he definitely has access to information which really would never be made available to him. definitely have a sweep of your car to check for trackers ets/ gadgets can be bought quite easily for around £25 to check your house and car.

Sounds like hes tracking you somehow either through your phone/kids phones or has access to your texts/emails

If you are using an app to search for houses and book viewings, check it isn't the same account that you used to search for houses together previously.

Change all your passwords on emails, icloud etc etc and set up a brand new email for house-hunting.

Make it clear to future agents that you are single, and that if any man calls asking for information about your viewings that they are under no circumstances to give them any information whatsoever and that they must inform you immediately. If he now knows you are house-hunting, he may well be calling round agents saying sorry, my wife has mislaid the details, can you confirm etc etc so they need to know that. I suspect most experienced estate agents have have had clients who are fleeing DV with controlling exes before.

My friends ex husband put a tracker on her car, she found it eventually after he let things slip about knowing where she was etc.
Get your car checked at a garage.
Set up all new accounts for emails etc.
if you view property give a different name/maiden name

This is all irrelevant.

The only way he would likely have this information is by him having access to your phone/computer so he can see what you're looking up and searching, or who you are emailing.

As previously suggested, STOP using your mobile for anything other than voice calls, get a new email account and a new phone number, see an IT specialist etc...

I’m an estate agent and with the company I work for the vendor (seller) and viewer both get an email with the name of the person who is coming to view as well as the name of vendor if they are doing the viewing.

The vendor may have recognised your name and told ex?

as an agent I would never disclose to any third party of another’s viewings etc.

I did have this really strange experience with my phone last night. I was it just made this weird static robot noice like a noisy environment, I can’t describe it. I was at home in silence in bed though. Only lasted a few seconds. Was so odd. I do have a new phone but I have already transferred all my data across as it does it automatically with Apple ID.