Settle Group · Case 202121780 · 10 February 2022
Settle Group — case 202121780
The Ombudsman determined that the complaint about the landlord's handling of the resident's data was outside its jurisdiction, as allegations of GDPR/data protection breaches are properly dealt with by the Information Commissioner's Office.
Findings by complaint head
Summarised automatically from the decision below. The Ombudsman's decision text is the authoritative record.
-
Landlord's handling of the resident's data
Outside jurisdictionThe Ombudsman determined the complaint was not within its jurisdiction because allegations of GDPR/data protection breaches fall properly within the jurisdiction of the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), per paragraph 39(m) of the Scheme.
The full determination
REPORT COMPLAINT 202121780 Settle Group 10 February 2022 Our approach What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this. In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.
The complaint The complaint is about the resident’s concerns relating to the landlords handling of her data. Determination (jurisdictional decision) When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated. After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. Summary of events On 1 November 2021, the resident raised a formal complaint to her landlord on the grounds that she believed the landlord had breached the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
On 16 December 2021, the landlord issued its final response to the complaint. It provided a screenshot of a declaration signed by the resident and concluded that there hadn’t been a breach of GDPR. On 17 December, the resident referred her complaint to this service, stating that they believed the landlord was still in breach of GDPR. She said that if she had signed a form, this would have been to go on the housing register and not to consent to share her data. She also felt that she was deceived and co-erced into signing the form and that her privacy had been violated.
Reasons Paragraph 39 (m) of the Scheme states that: The Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion: fall properly within the jurisdiction of another Ombudsman, regulator or complaint-handling body; I understand the resident feels very strongly that her data has been used in a way that she did not agree to. This service is unable to investigate whether there has been a breach of the Data Protection Act 2018 or GPDR. This is because these matters are better dealt with by the Information Commissioners Office.
If the resident wishes to pursue the matter any further, they should contact the ICO directly. https://ico.org.
This is a structured summary of a published determination. The official decision is the authoritative record. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.