{"id":1612,"date":"2021-06-14T11:42:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T10:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/estate-agents-demanding-bank-statements-to-organise-viewings-extremely-concerning\/"},"modified":"2021-06-14T11:42:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T10:42:00","slug":"estate-agents-demanding-bank-statements-to-organise-viewings-extremely-concerning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/estate-agents-demanding-bank-statements-to-organise-viewings-extremely-concerning\/","title":{"rendered":"Estate Agents Demanding Bank Statements to Organise Viewings Extremely Concerning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>The Data Protection Commission should immediately issue a statement on whether this practice is GDPR compliant<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Reports that a prominent estate agent is demanding copies of bank statements, before it will arrange viewings of homes, are extremely concerning, according to Social Democrats Housing Spokesperson Cian O\u2019Callaghan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe extent of personal banking information that is reportedly being sought, to secure a viewing, is extremely concerning \u2013 as well as being a potential breach of GDPR.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy does an estate agent need to be provided with detailed financial information for the sole purpose of organising a viewing of a property \u2013 following which, a client may or may not opt to bid for the property?<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Knowledge of mortgage approval should only be required if a client wishes to proceed to bid on a property. Even then, there is no reason why an estate agent should be provided with detailed bank statements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Data Protection Commission has previously issued guidance for landlords, and letting agents, in relation to requesting personal information from potential tenants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt stated:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201c<\/em><em>[I]t will be difficult for a controller to justify, by reference to the principle of data minimisation, the extensive collection of personal data such as financial statements .. from numerous, or all, interested parties at the initial stages of advertising or hosting viewings of a property.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This is because such information will generally not be necessary at the early stages of the leasing process, where interested persons may simply be looking to view a property or make enquiries in relation to it. In most cases such information will not be necessary until such time as a landlord decides upon a preferred tenant and makes an offer to a prospective tenant (which will usually be conditional on references, confirmation of ability to pay rent, etc.).&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cApplying the same GDPR principles to estate agents, blanket requests for the provision of detailed and extensive personal banking information to secure a viewing is contrary to data protection law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSerious questions arise about the manner in which this kind of information will be stored by estate agents and the manner in which it will be used. For instance, in a situation in which a bidding war develops for a property, estate agents will have the capacity to gauge buyers\u2019 maximum bids \u2013 putting them at a potential disadvantage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe search for homes is stressful enough in the current climate, without estate agents putting further hurdles in the way. Personal information of this nature should only be sought when there is a specific and genuine purpose, which is in accordance with GDPR obligations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Data Protection Commission should immediately issue a statement on whether this practice is GDPR compliant.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>14 June, 2021<\/p>\n<p>Ends<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Data Protection Commission should immediately issue a statement on whether this practice is GDPR compliant Reports that a prominent estate agent is demanding copies of bank statements, before it will arrange viewings of homes, are extremely concerning, according to Social Democrats Housing Spokesperson Cian O\u2019Callaghan. \u201cThe extent of personal banking information that is reportedly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,10,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cian-ocallaghan","category-housing-crisis","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - 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