Serial abusers

[Dick Smith]

Thanks, Beryl.

Experian are being very helpful and making all the right noises, but nothing happens! Would a call to the FSA help, do you think? Or the banking ombudsman?

I have told him to get his company's legal department on to it. Perhaps a legally worded letter will speed them up. I hope...

[Beryl]

I know that Experian trot out with lines such as we only put on what we are told etc, but you can send evidence of this error and put a 'notice of correction' which they will add to his credit record .

Better still try the data protection people ( address etc I will find ) as some one ( experian ?) should ensure that the information they hold on your son is correct .

[Dick Smith]

Thank you very much. I am pressurising him to take a day off to sort this out, but he is 'very busy'. I'm not sure he has seen all the implications of this.

[Logan]

Dick, I have this feeling that we will all end up on some sort of black list eventually. Data especially personal data is becoming a currency. By that I mean it's shared around for a fee or a consideration. The more data collected and then shared the more income is earned and spread. In other words a market. We are all hapless pawns in the process which currently is in it's infancy. The UK Data Protection Act is a bad joke. The UK economy and the Exchequer is now dependent upon services industries. Global manufacturing has moved to China. Control over shared data is likely to be very lightly legislated now and in the future. In France it's hardly started but watch this space. I am trying to get into the business but the French don't understand it. Largely because in France there is a huge amount of legislated personal privacy protection. The politico's need to firewall their dubious activites.

[Dick Smith]

I think the problem is the proliferation of private databases like this one, over which there is control, but little checking. And it doesn't much matter to them if it is wrong, because the data is the commodity not the accuracy of the data.

I've tried to get information (for a UK government department) and run up against the Data Protection Act - it's pretty efficient so long as the rules are applied. Government departments do apply them, but then they are checked up on, and individuals lose their jobs for slack work (really). But it isn't very well understood. Mind you, most of the information held on government databases is pretty trivial and already held elsewhere as a much more vulnerable paper record.

[Maryd1900]

Get in touch with Equifax and Experian (This can be done online).  They will provide you with copies of credit status.  If there are any mistakes you may contact the companies involved and require them to remove the data.  The file will then be updated.  There is not a 'Blacklist' so to speak...

About 90% of all companies including Creit Cards, Vodafone etc use these two credit reference agencies.

In addition to this, if you have a concern about any data held you can write to the agency and ask them to hold on file a brief explanation from you about the point in issue.  Then, whenever someone does a search this explanation MUST also be shown to them. 

I hope this helps

M

[Maryd1900]

Sorry Dick,

I am new to this and had not realised you'd got the reply.

It is important to note that Equifax etc do not remove the listing.  They will advise you to get in touch with the company who made the report.   If these people refuse to play ball remind them of the data Protection Act and that it is offence to knowing record inaccurate data.

M

[Chief]

[quote user="Dick Smith"]Thanks, Beryl.
Experian are being very helpful and making all the right noises, but nothing happens! Would a call to the FSA help, do you think? Or the banking ombudsman?
I have told him to get his company's legal department on to it. Perhaps a legally worded letter will speed them up. I hope...
[/quote]

I would suggest the legally worded letter route Dick.  I had a similar problem a few years ago, involving a man in the same town as me with exactly the same name, and beliwve it or not, his wife also had the same name as mine!!  After getting nowhere for months, the wife's boss (a solicitor) wrote one hell of a letter, listing a whole series of perceived losses he was considering suing for on my behalf.  The responses were amazing and the problem sorted within three weeks....good luck mate

[Dick Smith]

Thanks. Chief.

I have also suggested that he asks his boss for some help - they have a fairly good relationship, and a letter from the legal department might work wonders!

[cooperlola]

A solicitor might even be able to recover his own costs from the company involved, if he proves the fault was theirs.

[Pun]

Hi Russethouse,

I understand what your saying, but we do need some form of being able to ask the questions, (ie are these said people worth taking a chance)

at the moment the owner has little or no way of knowing "in France anyway" if the person asking to rent,"  been a con artist in the past."

 

I dont want to go into to much detail but when I did have my own company I needed to have the people I employed vetted, due to the fact at one point I was working in police stations throught north wales on a monthly basis,

It was costing me £300 per check to find out through a private company if the said future employed had any police form I needed to know about,

with this information given by  myself to the police I was covering my company as to the fact I had made  the effort to check my staff was of good character

from the date I recieved the completed and returned forms of the person I wanted vetted. 

Im sure the police did checks of there own but I had to supply the said info.

The point is I did have a place/company to go to for the said information, we dont seem to have this support at the moment in France for long term lets.

Im sure as time goes by and with the new long term let site we will get more info and with this we may have a better way of dealing with the con people.

I feel  that if the average owner got a sniff of a con merchant they wouldnt take the chance of being done, but having said this If your going to go into any form of gite or rent work you must do your home work befor starting to ask people to take your services, its no good crying after you found you hadnt given enough thought into the pros and cons the good and the bad side of what you intend making money out of.

It.s a pity but understandable that Living France cant help in the service we all need ie name and shame, but we do understand why this can not happen.

Im sure this time next year we all "both owners and customers will be better off and learned when it comes to french law's ref lets.

 

Regards Pun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Dick Smith]

Have you seen my post on mistaken identity?

Can you imagine the legal implications of 'naming and shaming' the wrong people for Archant? The ambulance-chasers would make hay.

And how, exactly, would they, or anyone else, check that information wasn't being provided vexatiously?

[cooperlola]

The law of the land in France and England, so far as I know it Dick is "innocent until proven guilty in a court of law" and Archant just have to abide by it don't they?  Just look at what Dick himself is going through, OP, because somebody mixed up his innocent son with some crook.

[YCCMB]

It's amazing how easily someone's identity can be confused with another person, and unless it comes to light you may have no idea it's happening. In a similar situation to Dick, our eldest son (whose name - or surname, at least - is fairly unusual) bears the same name as a builder who recently went bust in Wales, leaving bad debts. How do we know? We got a letter from our  solicitor as a search of his credit history was required for the recent purchase of a flat. Although it appears that all our son had to do was sign a declaration that he was not this person, we're looking into things further to ensure that he's not likely to end up paying the price for having the same name as a bankrupt.

As cooperlola says, the law makes you innocent until proven guilty, but it would appear that as far as most credit card companies, etc., are concerned, the oppposite principle applies and even if you can prove you aren't a credit risk, they are reluctant to take your word (or proof) for it.

I'm sure we've all played the game of googling your own name to see what comes up. Until I tried it, I always thought my combination of name and surname was pretty uncommon. Not so. I think that what's being suggested here, albeit with probably the best of motives, is a very dangerous idea.

[Russethouse]

How about the old fashioned route - just ask for references and then be sure to check them out until you are satisfied. For instance check the company or people really exist, they are just not headed notepaper.

How do French people satisy themselves about long term tennants ?

[JohnM]

Following on (and hopefully adding to) Wills comments about "warning against people turning up in a certain type of car". This can be far worse than actually naming the people. Anybody who had that sort of car could claim that you are refering to them and state that you have defamed ther character.

Dick, it may be worth pointing out the the Credit Company that they have defamed your son, they have effectively published the fact that he is a bad credit risk. Of course, there may be a legal get out in these circumstances, but it might just make them sit up (Normally, if somebody tells you that you are a bad risk, it's not libel, but if they tell a third party, ie. a potential lendor, then it is).

[Wendy]

This sort of situation is really dreadful and, unfortunately, drop-kicks such as this family, seem to have all the protection. Simply because anonymity is their privilege!.  It seems that pretty soon gite owners will have to carry out checks of the sort you'd do if you were letting out a house back in the UK. For a let of 3 months I would definately ask for references first and especially the contact details of where they had last 'squatted'.  In Australia there is now a database for landlords/property owners to place names of people who do this very sort of thing, also if you get 4 weeks behind in your rent your name is added. If potential tenants cant prove their worthiness then they dont get the keys.

 

[Fumanzoku]

"In Australia there is now a database for landlords/property owners to

place names of people who do this very sort of thing, also if you get 4

weeks behind in your rent your name is added."

There you are, that's what is needed. How does this stand with the law in Oz?

[Collywobble]

[quote user="Fumanzoku"]"In Australia there is now a database for landlords/property owners to

place names of people who do this very sort of thing, also if you get 4

weeks behind in your rent your name is added."

There you are, that's what is needed. How does this stand with the law in Oz?

[/quote]

The database is http://www.thelandlord.com.au/  although I'm sure there would be French/EU objections to a local version.

My

brother lives in Melbourne and rents out a couple of properties.

Apparently the database is legal, but there always concerns about

abuse. E.G. a landlord could have a grudge or simply be unrealistic

about wear and tear. 

I think that users of the system need to

adhere (religiously) to the rules in order to have the appropriate

paper trail, should they be challenged by a tenant. I don't think it's

for things like, "they didn't clean the oven", it's more for people who

do a runner or cause serious damage. I guess it can also be difficult

to officially blacklist 'professional renters' who habitually play the

game and know their rights, stretching things out and paying on the

last day allowed etc, as often they don't actually break any laws. I

have had these sort of tenants in my own properties before. They only

ever intend on staying for two or three months and always skip owing

the last month, but leave the place clean/undamaged so if it went to

court they can look more victims.

On the other hand...when we were first married, we rented a house

from a landlord who was also the builder. His daughter had lived in it

for a few years and when she moved out the place was like a bomb site.

She had never cleaned the oven/toilets/windows etc. I honestly don't

think that the landlord had visited it after she had moved out. We

cleaned it (as we were young and stupid) and when the landlord's son

came around for the rent the first time, I pointed out that there was a

leak in the roof which was causing a stain/small hole in the ceiling.

No one came to fix the ceiling, but the leak stopped.  When we went to

move out 18 months later, the landlord tried to keep the bond as we had

failed to notify him about the ceiling (the leak having stopped must

have been a coincidence).  Basically his lazy daughter must have said

she left the place clean, and his lazy son didn't pass on the message

about the roof.  Now I would have been peeved if I had appeared on some

sort of database.