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Estate Agent Data Breach – How To Claim Compensation

If an estate agent data breach affected you financially or psychologically, you could potentially claim compensation. This article discusses what makes a valid claim.

Estate agent data breach claims guide

Estate agent data breach claims guide

Estate agents often process personal information from their clients when they are renting or selling a home. If this data is breached, you might experience emotional distress. Moreover, an estate agent may process financial information such as bank statements. If certain financial information is accessed by criminals, they could use it to steal money or assets from you. You could claim if you suffer financial loss or mental harm, or both, because of a personal data breach.

If an estate agent data breach harmed you, you might be eligible to claim data breach compensation. We can appoint a skilled data breach solicitor to work on your claim if your case qualifies.

Please get in touch with us to make your enquiry:

  • Call us on 0800 073 8804
  • Could you fill out our online claims form?
  • Or use the Live Web Support widget to ask us a question about making a data breach claim.

Select A Section

  1. What Is An Estate Agent Data Breach?
  2. Does The UK GDPR Apply To Estate Agents?
  3. Types Of Data That Estate Agents Handle
  4. Examples Of Estate Agent Data Breach Cases
  5. What Could You Claim For An Estate Agent Data Breach?
  6. How To Claim For An Estate Agent Data Breach

What Is An Estate Agent Data Breach?

An estate agent data breach is a security incident that leads to the unlawful or accidental loss, destruction, disclosure, change or access to personal data. The data breach may affect anyone who has shared their information with the company, such as clients, employees, or stakeholders.

Personal information or personal data is information that can be used to identify you. It can include your name, for example, or your credit card details.

The following errors can count as a data breach:

  • An estate agent loses personal data, or a criminal steals it
  • The company discloses personal information without a lawful basis to do so
  • The company alters, encrypts or destroys personal data without a lawful reason
  • Unauthorised persons gain unlawful access to personal data

Rates Of Data Breach By Sector

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the public body in the UK that upholds data protection laws. The ICO publishes data security incident trends quarterly. From Q1 2019/20 to Q4 2021/22, there were 1,346 data security incidents reported in the land and property services sector. 399 data breaches were cyber security incidents, and 947 were non-cyber security incidents.

Does The UK GDPR Apply To Estate Agents?

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 are laws that require data processors and data controllers to protect the personal data they collect.

Data controllers are organisations that decide how and why they process personal information. An estate agent, for example, may require your personal information in order to provide you with a service. A data processor is an organisation that processes personal data on behalf of the controller if needed.

Property businesses are responsible for training their employees to handle personal data correctly, to avoid an estate agent data breach. Without proper training, an employee may make an error leading to a data breach. Moreover, estate agents are responsible for proper security measures to protect against cyber crimes or malicious actions.

Sometimes, you can claim data breach compensation if an estate agent breached your personal data. You will need to prove that the following happened:

  • A data breach occurred because of the wrongful conduct of an estate agent. For example, the company had substandard online security so your personal data was easily accessed online by hackers.
  • Your personal data was compromised in the breach.
  • Subsequently, you experienced financial loss or mental health injuries (or both) because of the personal data breach.

Please note that, sometimes, there may be exemptions for an estate agent to share your data without your consent. For example, if the police require your personal data, a business does not necessarily need to ask your permission.

If you suffered because of a data breach, why not get in touch?

Types Of Data That Estate Agents Handle

Estate agents may collect the following personal data about a client, employee or stakeholder:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Date of birth
  • Email address
  • Phone number
  • Bank account details
  • Debit card information
  • Credit card information
  • Password

If an estate agent data breach compromises this data, criminals may use the data to commit fraud or other crimes. So, the data breach could be a security risk.

Examples Of Estate Agent Data Breach Cases

We will now look at examples of two recent estate agent data protection breaches.

The Life At Parliament View Ltd

The estate agent Life At Parliament View Ltd suffered a security incident. The company left personal information exposed online from 4 March 2015 until the vulnerability was discovered in 2017. The data included the following:

  • Bank statements
  • Salary information
  • Postal addresses
  • Images of passports

The Infomation Commissioner’s Office investigated the data breach and fined Life At Parliament View Ltd £80,000.

The Foxtons Data Breach

The Foxtons estate agent data breach occurred in 2020—over 16,000 data records were sold on the dark web. The stolen information included financial details.

Please contact us today if you are eligible to claim compensation for a data breach. If we can determine if you are eligible to claim, we can provide you with a skilled No Win No Fee data breach solicitor to work on your case.

What Could You Claim For An Estate Agent Data Breach?

A personal data breach can be the digital-age equivalent of a criminal breaking into your home. You can potentially claim the below damages for the harm the estate agent data breach caused.

  • Material damages: Compensation for financial losses because of the data breaches. You could claim for necessary expenses and money or assets lost because of the data breach, such as medical expenses if you needed medication because of a mental health injury.
  • Non-material damages: Compensation for emotional distress or psychological injuries you experienced because of the data breach.

You can use the below compensation table to estimate how much non-material damages compensation you can claim. Material damages are not included, but if you call us, we can help you estimate what your material damages payout could be.

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Injuries And Seriousness Damages Notes
PTSD – Severe £59,860 to £100,670 The psychological trauma could have left the person with significant impacts. They may find it hard to cope with areas of their life such as education, work or relationships.
PTSD – Moderately Severe £23,150 to £59,860 This person has been affected in a similar way to above. But there is a better prognosis for recovering.
PTSD – Moderate £8,180 to £23,150 The claimant should have almost fully recovered. They will not have any symptoms which are grossly disabling.
PTSD – Less Severe £3,950 to £8,180 In one to two years a full recovery should have been made.
Mental Health Illness – Severe £54,830 to £115,730 The person could have marked issues with regards to their family life and relationships, their ability to work and their ability to continue in education.
Mental Health Illness – Moderately Severe £19,070 to £54,830 Whilst they could have been impacted similarly to those above, people in this category do have a better prognosis for future recovery.
Mental Health Illness – Moderate £5,860 to £19,070 By the time a claim or case reaches trial, there should have been significant improvement.
Mental Health Illness – Less Severe £1,540 to £5,860 The level of award the person could get will depend on how long any symptoms lasted for and what these were.

We used the compensation brackets from the April 2022 Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) to help create the compensation table above. These Guidelines can be used by solicitors when they value claims. Please take note if your claim is successful, your compensation payment may differ from what is on the table. For a free estimate of what you could claim, why not reach out?

How To Claim For An Estate Agent Data Breach?

Why not contact us today to see if you can claim compensation for an estate agent data breach? You could make a No Win No Fee claim if you have enough evidence to support your data breach claim.

Traditionally when you claim compensation, you pay an upfront solicitor’s fee. The solicitor’s fee may not be refundable if you don’t win the claim. To reduce the financial risk of funding the services of a solicitor, you can make a No Win No Fee claim.

What Are The Benefits Of Making A No Win No Fee Claim?

  • You won’t have to pay the solicitor a fee for their services if the claim doesn’t win. This means they share the risk of the claim with you.
  • If the claim does win, the solicitor’s fee is taken from your compensation payout so you don’t need to worry about having enough money to pay for the service upfront.

Please get in touch with us today to see if you can claim compensation for a data breach:

  • Call Legal Expert to speak to a claims advisor on 0800 073 8804
  • Or write to us via our website
  • Or ask us a question using the web chat widget on your screen

Related Commercial Data Breaches

You may find the following data breach guides helpful:

Thank you for reading our guide to claiming compensation for an estate agent data breach.

Written by Chelache

Edited by Victorine