FAQ’s for Tenants / Individuals

Answer: Tenancy Reference Data is data supplied to Excentum by Landlords, Letting Agents, Letting Agencies, Property Management Companies and other authorised agents acting on behalf of Landlords (Business Members) in relation to periods of tenancy in residential properties.

Some of the data contained in Tenancy Reference Data may constitute opinion, and such opinion, where included in Tenancy Reference Data may not be inaccurate if it faithfully represents someone’s opinion about an individual Tenancy period.

Answer: Yes, there can be some important reasons for checking any Tenancy Reference Data which may be relatable to you:

Refused accommodation, employment or credit – If you have been refused a rental / lease, employment or finance you might want to check on any Tenancy Reference Data held by Excentum relatable to you to see if this could be the reason why you might have been refused. If there are any errors, mistakes or inaccurate information contained in any Tenancy Reference Data held by Excentum, which could be relied upon by others, you can seek to have this amended or corrected.

Looking for Accommodation – If you are looking to rent a new house, flat or apartment your prospective landlord or letting agent can use Excentum to check Tenancy Reference Data held by Excentum. The opinions of landlords or letting agencies, held as Tenancy Reference Data by Excentum, about previous tenancy periods may be relied upon by new landlords / letting agents.

Job Applications – Prospective employers and recruitment companies can also obtain Tenancy Reference Data from Excentum, so a prospective employer could become aware of any issues or opinions related to tenancy periods.

Applying for Credit – If you are thinking of looking for a loan, financing or credit, it makes sense to review your Tenancy Reference Data first and make sure that everything is accurate, complete and up to date. If there any errors, mistakes or inaccurate information contained in Tenancy Reference Data held by Excentum relatable to you, you can seek to have this corrected before you make an application for credit or financing.

Answer: A Tenancy Reference Data Report is a copy of the data supplied to Excentum by Landlords, Letting Agents, Letting Agencies, Property Management Companies and other authorised agents acting on behalf of Landlords (Business Members) in relation to periods of tenancy in residential properties.

Where a Business Member requests the use of our Tenancy Reference Data Matching Service, Excentum will check the data supplied by the Business Member against its Tenancy Reference Data records. If a data match occurs, the Tenancy Reference Data the Business Member will receive will include details we hold about that particular Tenancy period.

You can view a copy of a sample Tenancy Reference Data Report under the Business Members navigation at the top of the page.

Answer: The Data Protection Act 1998 gives you the right to know what information an organisation, in this instance Excentum, holds about you. To obtain a copy of any Tenancy Reference data Excentum may hold about you, you need to submit a Subject Access Request to Excentum.

In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, Tenancy Reference Data held by Excentum does not constitute ‘Personal Data’ and as such, is not subject to said act.

However, Excentum takes its responsibility regarding the obtaining, processing, management and use of all forms of ‘data’ in it possession seriously as a Data Controller for data protection purposes.

In keeping with the underlying guiding ‘good practice’ principles of Data Protection, Excentum treats all Tenancy Reference Data it holds as subject to the disclosure/right of access as applies to ‘Personal Data’ for the purpose of Subject Access Requests (SAR’s) under relevant Data Protection legislation.

In addition Excentum upholds the rights of an individual to seek to correct and amend incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information as may be held by Excentum, as allowed for by Data Protection legislation.

Answer: We hold Tenancy Reference data provided by Landlords, Letting Agents, Letting Agencies or other authorised agents acting on behalf of Landlords in respect of periods of tenancy of any property that they rent or lease on a residential basis.

Excentum does not hold or process any Personally identifiable information (PII) relatable to current or previous tenants.

Answer: We do not hold credit scoring records, credit histories, copies of County Court Judgements (CCJs), electoral roll information, details of PPI policies or payments. We do not hold the names, date of birth, telephone numbers, e-mail address, Social Insurance Number or any other personally identifiable information about tenants during a particular tenancy.

Answer: There is a maximum retention period of 6 years.

Answer: If you make a Subject Access Request (SAR) you will receive a copy of Tenancy Reference Data, as may be held by Excentum, which you have declared is relatable to you regarding a period of your Tenancy at a specific address. Any information provided to you will not include any “Personal Data” about the person who submitted the Tenancy Reference, as this “Personal Data” is protected under the Data Protection Act.

You can view a copy of a sample Tenancy Reference Data Report under the Business Members navigation at the top of the page.

Answer: A Landlord, Letting Agent, Letting Agency or other authorised agents acting on behalf of Landlord may have submitted Tenancy Reference Data to Excentum in order to make it accessible/available to other Excentum ‘Business Members’ through the Excentum Tenancy Reference Data Matching Service.

Answer: Not all Landlords, Letting Agents, Letting Agencies or other authorised agents acting on behalf of Landlords submit Tenancy Reference data to Excentum. This is not a cause for concern. This can change, and Tenancy Reference data can be submitted to Excentum at any stage.

If you submit a Subject Access Request and Excentum does not hold any Tenancy Reference Data relatable to you at the time of your request, Excentum will record your Subject Access Request and will undertake to notify you if it receives any Tenancy Reference Data submissions relatable to you, based on the information in your original Subject Access Request, within 12 months of your original Subject Access Request.

Answer: No. Excentum does not check/confirm or validate the content of any Tenancy Reference Data submitted by Business Members.

By submitting Tenancy Reference Data to Excentum, Landlords, Letting Agents, Letting Agencies, Property Management Companies and other authorised agents acting on behalf of Landlords (Business Members) accept and agree that they are solely responsible for, and assume all liability regarding, (i) the information and content contributed to Excentum by means of any Tenancy Reference Data provided or have provided for on their behalf by any other party; and (ii) the information and content submitted, transmitted, published, or otherwise made available (hereinafter “Submission”) to Excentum and its Tenancy Reference Data records.

Landlords, Letting Agents, Letting Agencies, Property Management Companies and other authorised agents acting on behalf of Landlords (Business Members) further accept and agree that they will not provide inaccurate, misleading or false information to Excentum.

If information provided to Excentum is subsequently found to be, or becomes inaccurate, misleading or false, Landlords, Letting Agents, Letting Agencies, Property Management Companies and other authorised agents acting on behalf of Landlords (Business Members) accept and agree that will promptly notify Excentum of such change.

Excentum reserves the right to remove any Tenancy Reference Data, that in its sole opinion violates, or may violate, any applicable law or the letter or spirit of its policies, as it sees fit.

Answer: Yes, you may be able to dispute information contained in Tenancy Reference Data. Please see our Tenants – Dispute a Tenancy Reference page for further information.

Answer: No. Excentum is unable to amend or remove any Tenancy Reference Data without the explicit permission and consent of the Landlord, Letting Agent, Letting Agency or other authorised agent acting on behalf of Landlord (Business Member) who submitted the Tenancy Reference Data.

If you disagree with the content of Tenancy Reference Data, please see our Tenants – Dispute a Tenancy Reference page for further information.

Excentum reserves the right to remove any Tenancy Reference Data, that in its sole opinion violates, or may violate, any applicable law or the letter or spirit of its policies, as it sees fit, as may be allowed for by Data Protection legislation.

Answer: Yes, the Tenancy Reference Data supplied by Business Members to Excentum does not constitute ‘Personal Data’ about a tenant in accordance with the Data Protection Act, and does not prevent Landlords, Letting Agents, Letting Agencies, Property Management Companies and other authorised agents (Business Members) acting on behalf of Landlords (Business Members) from sharing this Tenancy Data with others where ‘Legitimate Interest’s’ exist.

‘Personal Data’ refers to data which relates to a living individual who can be identified – (a) from those data, or (b) from those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller, in this instance Excentum. Excentum will not be able to identify any individual from any data provided by a Business Member nor will it hold, or have access to, any other data or information which could lead to the identification of the individual.akk

Tenancy Reference Data provided by Excentum to Business Members could eventual constitute ‘Personal Data‘ , only where the Business Member acting as a ‘Data Controller’ in their own right is in possession of Tenancy Reference Data supplied by Excentum and has access to, or seeks to obtain, other data which could lead to the identification of an individual. However, Tenancy Reference Data held by Excentum, and supplied to Business Members, does not itself constitute ‘Personal Data’ in the absence of such secondary data which could lead to the identification of an individual.

In this instance, the ‘Legitimate Interest’s’ condition provides grounds to process this type of data in a situation where an individual, business or organisation needs to do so for the purpose of its own legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of the third party that the information is disclosed to.

Excentum is satisfied that the processing of the data, identified as Tenancy Reference Data, complies with this definition and does not prejudice the rights and freedoms or legitimate interests of any individual where data is being processed.

Answer: No. The Tenancy Reference Data supplied by the Landlord, Letting Agent, Letting Agency or other authorised agent acting on behalf of Landlord (Business Member) does not constitute ‘Personal Data’ about a tenant in accordance with the Data Protection Act. It does not contain any ‘Personally Identifiable Information’ about an individual or tenant.

In this instance, the ‘Legitimate Interest’s condition provides grounds to process personal data in a situation where an organisation needs to do so for the purpose of its own legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of the third party that the information is disclosed to. Excentum is satisfied that the processing of the Tenancy Reference Data submitted, identified as Tenancy Reference data, complies with this definition and does not prejudice the rights and freedoms or legitimate interests of the individual whose data is being processed.

Answer: An Excentum Business Member is not required to inform or advise any individual of their intention to conduct a Tenancy Reference Data search with Excentum, or of their intention to seek to rely on data obtained from Excentum, either solely or in conjunction with other data, in relation to the processing of any application or submission from an individual for tenancy, employment, credit or financial services – where such action is not in contravention of the Equality Act 2010 or where such action is not in contravention of any legally enforceable industry regulation.

Answer: An Excentum Business Member is not legally prohibited from refusing an application for tenancy, employment, credit or financial services where they have sought to rely on data provided by Excentum, either solely or in conjunction with other data, in determining the outcome of such application – where such decision is not in contravention of the Equality Act 2010 or where such decision is not in contravention of any legally enforceable industry regulation.

Answer: No. A Landlord/Business cannot require that an individual make a Subject Access Request to Excentum in order to obtain copies of data held about them by Excentum. Doing so is deemed as requiring a person to make ‘Enforced Subject Access’ and may be illegal under Section 56 of the Data Protection Act.

Section 56(1) of the Data Protection Act states: “(1) A person must not, in connection with (a) the recruitment of another person as an employee, (b) the continued employment of another person, or (c) any contract for the provision of services to him by another person, require that other person or a third party to supply them with a relevant record or to produce a relevant record to them”

Any Landlord / Business engaging in Enforced Subject Access requests will be deemed to have breeched the terms and conditions of the Excentum service, and wil no longer qualify for Business Membership of Excentum.

Answer: No, data is only used to provide Tenancy Reference Data Matching Services to ‘Business Members’ of Excentum.

Answer: The Data Protection Act 1998 gives you the right to know what information an organisation, in this instance Excentum, holds about you or that may be relatable to you. To obtain a copy of any Tenancy Reference Data Excentum may hold about you or that may be relatable to you, you need to submit a Subject Access Request to Excentum.

In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, Tenancy Reference Data held by Excentum does not constitute ‘Personal Data’ and as such, is not subject to said act. However, Excentum takes its responsibility regarding the obtaining, processing, management and use of all forms of ‘data’ in it possession seriously as a Data Controller for data protection purposes.

In keeping with the underlying guiding ‘good practice’ principles of Data Protection, Excentum treats all Tenancy Reference Data it holds as subject to the disclosure/right of access, and right of correction, as applies to ‘Personal Data’ for the purpose of Subject Access Requests (SAR’s) under relevant Data Protection Act.

In addition Excentum upholds the rights of an individual to seek to correct and amend incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information as may be held by Excentum, as allowed for by Data Protection legislation.

Answer: To obtain a copy of any data held about you by Excentum, under a Subject Access Request (SAR), the fee is £10.00.

Answer: The charge is in line with other non-credit reference agencies, and in accordance with the Data Protection Act. It covers the administration costs to handle the request.

Answer: Yes, the fee is still applicable even if there is no data held about you, as we incur the same resource and administration costs to conduct the searches.

Answer: Under the Data Protection Act 1998 we have up to 40 days to respond to your request. However, we do try to process requests as quickly as possible, once we have everything we need.

Online: If you make your request online, and pay the £10 fee online, we may be able to process your request within 24-48 hours, possibly sooner.

Answer: Yes, Excentum can require that persons making what is in effect a ‘Subject Access Request’ provide proof of identity by means of suitable documents in order to complete an application, as allowed for under Data Protection legislation. Any copies of identification documents or proof of residency are securely destroyed.

Answer: Excentum is solely concerned with Tenancy Reference Data. Unlike credit reference agencies, we do not hold any credit scoring records, credit histories, copies of County Court Judgements (CCJs) or electoral roll information.

Answer: Yes. Debt collection agencies may have access to Excentum Tenancy Reference Data Matching Services if they are Business Members of Excentum and comply with the Business Membership requirements.

Answer: You may have been directed to us if your application for Tenancy, Employment, Insurance, Credit or Financial Services has been unsuccessful, and where the organisation concerned has referenced Tenancy Reference Data Matching Services provided by Excentum.

This does not necessarily mean that Tenancy Reference Data held by Excentum has directly contributed to that refusal or unsuccessful decision.

If you are in any doubt, you may want to check the Tenancy Reference Data Excentum may hold relatable you. You can do so by submitting a Subject Access Request.