A mix of council and privately owned in the street, postie this morning had an easy delivery round, just to some of the addresses, ours being one of them. The only item a card from an estate agent type company indicating they could get a good price for the owner. It was fully addressed to me apart from my name, it said 'The Owner'.
Now how would they go about knowing which addresses were privately owned? Land Registry? The Land Registry entry would supply my full name and address.
Freedom of Information Act request to the council for a list of council owned property.
Or the estate agent walked round and saw who had non-council windows/doors which are usually a giveaway.
Owain
Or, in Scotland, searched the Scottish landlord's register.
Owain
Dont worry. I got those in rented property as well
I'm not sure that they can under GDPR.
They don't care. Its a cold mail shot.
They don't?
This is a council property and I have had several letters/bumph from estate agents 'asking' me if I want to sell.
But that would require a separate application to LR for each property and payment of the £5 fee for the title doc.
They probably don't know, are you sure no council property got one?
Or they could be working off the list of previously sold properties. Zoopla, Righmove have extra features available to their Estate Agent customers that make such listing very easy.
DJC explained on 01/02/2019 :
All I am sure of, is that many properties were missed out on the delivery this particular morning. Had all houses been sent one, then he would have called at them all. I try watch his/her progress so I can ensure the dogs are in when s/he is due here. The progress was much quicker than normal.
I imagine you signed something. They probably know who you are, but do not want to show their hand in case the GDPR police see it. A few years ago a company was sending out cards here to certain addresses showing individual pictures of our properties saying we need your home. I did get a little annoyed and to cut a very long story short. a developer wanted to blocks of four next to each other because that would give them room to put up blocks of flats due to our very long gardens. I find it a bit scary that people out there can plan things for your property without even asking until they are ready to get the properties. Since then I'm a lot wiser. I found out that the usual ploy is to buy the house and use short term letting until all the houses are theirs then put in the planning application. They apparently actively target homes where most of the occupants are older single or couples so they know they will fall off the perch eventually. I do find this a very cynical trait, and I'm glad I'm not in that kind of industry, for that is exactly what it is. Brian
The Land Registry's record of the current owner's name and address is still accessible (for £3 online). AIUI both the Land Registry's and other public registers (eg of shareholders) are seen as OK under the GDPR as having legitimate purposes.
Of course courts might jump the other way. But there are policy and political pressures which militate for maintaining/increasing open data on ownership. The UK in 2016 brought in registers of persons with "Significant Control" of companies. IIRC the EU is working up similar things under money laundering rules. And unsurprisingly some of those who shout most loudly about the importance of privacy for individuals also shout most loudly about the outrageous way some individuals conceal their ownership of companies, property etc.
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