Letter - No need to reveal data

I think that readers of Star letters, particularly SSHA tenants, might find this letter of some interest.

SSHA are sending letters to tenants saying they are 'carrying out visits to all its tenants over the next three years to make sure their records are up to date' under the heading 'Routine Tenancy Audit'.

As a tenant of 18 years I have never heard of a Routine Tenancy Audit.

This visit to update their records is to meet face-to-face and obtain information from you, also to fill in a brief form, which includes mundane data such as 'your ethnicity, your faith, the age category you fit into, whether you are disabled, your gender, your sexuality, your income, your household income and what benefits you are on.

If anyone thinks these questions are a little too personal and intrusive, as the housing association have no right to enter your home to ask you for any personal information or data, they have included a full inspection of the property during the visit which, of course, gives them legal power of entry and a tenant cannot refuse such an inspection. This then gets them entry to all personal and intrusive questions.

Can I say to any tenant who, like me, does not want to tell SSHA details of their personal and private life, if you receive such a letter, politely decline the data-gathering part of the letter and arrange the property inspection as a separate issue, as I have done.

You can refuse entry to any housing official coercing you into supplying personal details and, by separating the two issues in the letter, you are able to let the housing official carry out their legal right to conduct a periodic property inspection.

I am informed with legal assurance that if you do not want to give personal details or information of your tenancy to SSHA, no one can make you. It is not a condition of your tenancy.

As an organisation SSHA can keep any data they have obtained on a database but cannot force you to give data. It is, after all, called the Data Protection Act – not the Data Collection Act.

I hope this letter is of help to any tenant who has received the letter and is worried by its content. Private tenants should treasure their privacy. So lucky.

John Taylor, Cleobury Mortimer