What to include in tenancy agreements and

where does GDPR leave you?

Alexandra Morris MARLA - MakeUrMove Managing Director
My background?

10 years experience in the private residential sector

Joined MakeUrMove in 2008

Bringing personal experience as a landlord and a tenant to the role of

Managing Director with MakeUrMove

MakeUrMove

Established in 2008 by landlords for landlords

Set up to provide an alternative for landlords and tenants alike

Providing a supportive role to landlords and tenants whilst removing

costs using technology which is powered by people
What we will cover today

• What is a tenancy agreement?

• Break clauses & specially negotiated clauses

• Unfair terms

• GDPR – your obligations

• GDPR & the tenancy agreement

• Q&A
What is a tenancy agreement?

• A tenancy agreement is the contract between tenant

and landlord
• It can be written or oral
• It cannot give less than statutory rights to tenants
• It normally includes express terms and implied terms

Types of tenancy

• Assured shorthold tenancy (AST)

• Assured tenancy
• Company let
• Regulated Tenancy
Housing Act 1988
The legislation

Pre 1988
- Protected tenancies
- Indefinite rights to stay
- Right to pass down to relatives upon death

Changes
- Rent regulation
- Landlords can charge what they like (often influenced by market rates)
- Tenants can challenge in some circumstances
- Security of tenure
- Assured shorthold tenancy
- Statutory periodic tenancies following fixed terms
- Section 21 notices
- Succession
- Only a spouse can now inherit rental rights
 Key Details
Best practice

- Landlord name & address

- Names of all tenants
- Details of any other people permitted to use the property
- Property address
- Use of the property
- Date of tenancy start & duration
- Rental amount and how often it is paid
- Deposit amount and how it will be protected
- Deposit scheme required clauses (details on when it can be retained)
- What happens at the end of the fixed term?
- Are there any services included in the rental amount?
- Notice period (observe statutory rights)
- Landlord & Tenant obligations
 Additional Details
- Grounds for possession
- Insurance clauses (e.g. empty property notification)
- Can the tenancy be ended early and if so when
- Responsibility for minor repairs
- Sublet arrangements
- Anything which may require permission and how this may be requested (pets,
smoking, decorating)
- Reporting of maintenance issues
- Interest on deposit
- Responsibility of bills
- Rights for access throughout and at the end
- Interest rates for arrears and reasonable fees
- Responsibility for garden
- Leasehold/Freehold requirements
- Cleaning
 Break Clauses
Advantages

- Security of a longer tenure if the break clause is not triggered

- Can dictate a longer notice period for it to be valid
- Gives flexibility if you or your tenant are unsure about longer periods

Disadvantages

- Uncertainty about the length of a tenancy

- Often confusion about how a break clause can be used
- Can sometimes be used in a way which conflicts with statutory rights
 Specially Negotiated Clauses
- Where possible your agreement should include the clauses which you don’t change
- You can incorporate a degree of flexibility
- Example with written permission
- These must be clearly highlighted and often need to be in a section at the end of
the agreement
- It is best practice to agree these verbally

Inventory & condition

- This should be referred to within the agreement

- Keep it as an independent document
- Use this with every inspection to record condition during tenancy
 GDPR
- General Data Protection Regulation – European Regulation
- Introduced to UK Law in 25th May 2018
- Works alongside the new Data Protection Act 2018
- Landlords must comply with the requirements

Compliance Questions
- Are you offering goods or services (including accommodation), with or without
payment?
- Do you hold and/or process personal information?
- Are you processing personal data partly or wholly by automated means?
 Sensitive Personal Data

The Information Commissioner’s Office website provides a definition of sensitive data

- Additional restrictions apply

- You must have a lawful basis for processing under Article 6
- You must also satisfy the special condition for processing under Article 9

You must determine if you are processing data deemed sensitive within your
assessment.
 Steps for Compliance
2. Map out what information
1. Assess whether you need
is held and how it is used or
to comply
shared

3. Assess whether you have a lawful basis for processing personal

information

Where you need consent, do you have a high standard for collecting this and recording it?

4. Draft a privacy policy OR check your existing one to incorporate the DP

principles and rights of individuals

5. Investigate third party

6. Check third party privacy
data processers to check
policies are satisfactory
compliance with GDPR
 Mapping of data
• Identify the responsible person
• Map the data as below
• How you receive this data?
• What this data is for?
• Is this sensitive data?
• How are you storing the data?
• Who do you share the data with?
• How long will you store the data?
• How will you remove this data?
 Mapping Example

Receipt Use Sensitive? Storing Sharing Store Time Disposal

Tenant Stored to No Stored on Shared with 1 year for Deleted

Contact contact cloud referencing failed from cloud
Details tenant software company applications software
received includes (Dropbox (name) (Dropbox
from agent name, etc) 6 years after etc)
number, the expiry
email of a tenancy
if accepted

MakeUrMove provides a cloud storage account for documents. If you download these you will
need to record where you store them.
 Lawful basis
Identify your basis for processing and determine which is required – apply this to the
mapping exercise.

For the performance

Consent Legal requirement
of a contract

Largely covers tenancy Right to rent records

Vital interests Public Interest Legitimate Interest

Disclosure to third
parties
 Consent

Obviously given Freely given Request is specific

Clearly informed Unambiguous

If you determine that consent is required you must obtain it under these
principles.
 Privacy Policy
Once you have determined that GDPR applies to you, register with the ICO
and following your data mapping create a privacy policy.

Outline
- How you receive data?
- How you store data?
- The reasons for collecting, storing or processing i.e. lawful basis for the
performance of a contract
- How long the data will be retained?
- Identify the rights of data subjects and outline how they can enforce
these
- Right to be informed (delivery of the privacy policy)
- Right to rectification (How can they notify you of mistakes and
what you will do)
- Right of access (how can the data subject obtain access to their
information)
- Right to erasure (specific circumstances apply)
 Right to erasure - Exclusions

You must comply unless you retain it for the following;

- Doing so would interfere with freedom of expression and information

- You need to comply with a legal obligation
- It is needed for the exercise or defence of legal claims
 Third Parties
If you process data with third parties then you must;

- Ensure you have a contract with them for this purpose

- Check and satisfy yourself that they are GDPR compliant
- Check if they process data in third countries and if so whether they are
approved for GDPR purposes

Data Breaches
Make sure you know what to do in the event of a breach;

- Report it to the ICO (depends on the type of breach)

- You may need to notify the data subject themselves
 Summary

1. Assess your obligations

2. Assess your requirements by mapping your data use and storage
3. Register with the ICO
4. Determine your legal basis for storing and processing
5. Record the decisions on this exercise
6. Produce a privacy policy
7. Provide this to the data subjects
8. Ensure that you protect information securely
9. Continually review your policy and processes to check you remain
compliant
Sign up to our next webinar
When things go wrong: Arrears & Possession

For further details on MakeUrMove visit the website

at www.makeurmove.co.uk
For further details on MakeUrMove visit the website
at www.makeurmove.co.uk
Any Questions?