Privacy notices - Landlord Registration - complaints

The Highland Council undertakes the landlord registration process for private (ie. non-public sector) landlords who rent out property in Highland for occupation as a house or flat.  All such landlords must apply to the Council to be entered in the Register of Private Landlords.  This is a legal requirement under the Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Act 2004.  This registration is in addition to any licence which a landlord may require to obtain if they wish to let property as a house in multiple occupation (HMO).

In deciding whether to enter a landlord in the Register of Private Landlords, and to permit a registered landlord to continue to be registered, the Council has to be satisfied that the landlord is a fit and proper person to act as a landlord.

This means that, as well as processing applications for registration, the Council must also consider any complaints it receives about landlords.  These may be complaints that a landlord has failed to register or complaints about the behaviour of a registered landlord or their failure to maintain adequate standards in the property they let to you.

When you make such a complaint, some of your personal information (principally your name and address) must be included to enable the Council both to investigate what you have raised in your complaint and to respond to you.  We will not record, investigate or respond to anonymous complaints

If you don’t provide this personal information, we will not record, investigate or respond to your complaint.

The Council has a legal obligation under the 2004 Act to deal with all aspects of landlord registration, including complaints that a landlord is not a fit and proper person to be entered in the Register of Private Landlords.

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Your information may be shared with any relevant Council service (such as Environmental Health) or other agencies (such as Police Scotland) who may require to investigate your complaint and advise us.

We may sometimes also need to share your personal information with the landlord you have complained about in order to give them a fair opportunity to consider the grounds of your complaint and to respond to us.  We will not share your personal information with the landlord, however, if you have satisfied us that there is a good reason for us not to do so.

Similarly, if you have written to us about a landlord, but have advised that you do not want us to take the matter further at this stage, we may decide to note and retain your information and comments on our file but we will not share them with anyone else, unless you later ask us to investigate further.

The Council may also be required to make certain annual returns and provide data to HMRC and Scottish Government when requested.

Should action be taken by the Council in respect of a landlord’s registration wholly or partly as a result of your complaint, and should this action give rise to an appeal by the landlord through the relevant court, your complaint, including your personal information, may also require to be produced to the court and disclosed to the landlord/appellant at that time.

All complaints (other than anonymous ones which we reject) will be logged on our file and on the Register of Private Landlords and will be held there for a period of up to 5 years from the date of expiry of the landlord’s registration.

Your personal information is not subject to automated decision making or profiling.

The data controller is The Highland Council

Data Protection Officer

Highland Council Headquarters

Glenurquhart Road

Inverness

IV3 5NX

01463 702029 dpo@highland.gov.uk

If you are unhappy with the way we have processed your personal information you can contact the Information Commissioner:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113

https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/