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A Guide To Making A Claim For A Housing Association Data Breach
By Mark Armstrong. Last Updated 24th June 2024. Welcome to our Data Protection Act breach examples guide. Have you recently fallen victim to a housing association data breach through no fault of your own? If your housing provider’s failings were to blame for your privacy being compromised, then you could be entitled to compensation for any subsequent damage that you’ve suffered, whether that be mentally or financially.
This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to make a housing data breach claim. We’ll attempt to address some important questions that you may have as a data breach victim, such as:
- What could a housing data breach be caused by?
- How could I be affected by a housing data breach?
- How could I report a housing data breach?
- How much compensation could I be entitled to?
- How could I give my housing data breach claim the best chances of success?
Why not get in touch with our team at Legal Expert today to easily learn all of this information about how to claim? In having a free consultation with one of our advisors, they could tell you whether you have grounds to make a valid claim and offer you open and honest advice on your situation. In addition, they could put you in touch with our solicitors to handle your claim for you on a No Win No Fee basis, with years of experience winning clients the maximum compensation that they deserve for their suffering.
So, whether you’re looking for legal advice or you’d like to begin making a data breach compensation claim today, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team at Legal Expert:
- Call 0800 073 8804
- Complete a contact form
- Chat to us using the chat feature on your screen
Select A Section
- What Is A Housing Data Breach?
- Can I Claim For A House Association Data Breach?
- How Could A Housing Data Breach Happen?
- What Personal Information Could Be Exposed?
- How Do I Claim For A Housing Data Breach?
- What Is The ICO And Could They Help Me?
- How Much Compensation Could I Claim For A Housing Association Data Breach?
- Housing Data Breach Compensation Payouts And Examples
- No Win No Fee Housing Association Data Breach Claims
- How To Find A Lawyer Specialising In Housing Data Breach Claims
- Start Your Claim
- Extra Resources
What Is A Housing Data Breach?
Before offering Data Protection Act breach examples, we’ll familiarise you with some definitions that will be key to your understanding. Throughout this guide, we’ll make reference to the terms data and data breach, as well as the legislation that surrounds them.
Data refers to any of your personal information that could potentially identify you either directly or indirectly. This could include:
- Name
- Address
- Date of birth
- Contact details
- Financial details
If any of this personal information is compromised without your consent, whether it’s unlawfully accessed, destroyed, leaked or disclosed, then this is a security incident referred to as a data breach. A data breach can be deliberate or unintentional but typically describes the act of handling your data without authorisation.
Have you suffered a data breach and believe your housing provider’s failings to be responsible? If so, please continue reading to see how you could make a housing data breach claim against them or speak to one of our specialist advisors today for a free consultation.
Can I Claim For A House Association Data Breach?
The Data Protection Act 2018 is one of two key data protection laws that set out a legal requirement to safeguard data in the UK. The other is the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), which is the UK-specific implementation of EU legislation.
As a data subject, meaning an identifiable individual that data relates to, your data should be protected during processing by up to two parties:
- The data controller, which in this case is likely to be the housing association. This is the party that decides how and when data is processed.
- A data processor, which is a third party that a data controller can instruct to process data on their behalf.
Article 82 of the UK GDPR sets out a right to claim for damage caused by a data breach. You can make a housing association data breach claim if you can show that:
- A data controller or processor, or both, acted against data protection laws.
- This led to a data breach that impacted your personal data. For example, they may have passed data on to an unauthorised person without permission.
- As a result, you suffered psychological harm, financial damage, or both.
To see if you could have a valid personal data breach claim, you can contact one of our advisors.
How Could A Housing Data Breach Happen?
There are many things that could contribute to a data breach happening, whether intentionally or unintentionally caused. In this section, we’ll explore some common examples of this to help illustrate how you could be entitled to make a housing breach data claim against the organisation responsible for your breach.
Data breaches can be caused by cyberattacks, in which case a hacker unlawfully infiltrates data security systems to access personal information. A housing provider could be liable for a hack if their data protection systems were inadequately designed or staff weren’t trained to use them properly. Generally, cyberattacks have a purpose of financial gain, with personal information being used for monetary theft or even identity fraud.
On the other hand, data breaches can also be caused by human error:
- Sending communication containing personal information to an incorrect recipient
- Leaving documents containing personal information in view of those who aren’t authorised to see them
- Unauthorised parties accessing databases to obtain personal information for their own personal use
- Disclosure of personal information in an inappropriate way or without proper authorisation
If you believe that your housing provider’s failings were to blame for your data breach, you could potentially be entitled to compensation for any damage that you’ve been caused. Please continue reading this guide to learn more about whether you could have a valid housing data breach claim or alternatively, don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of our specialist advisors for a free consultation.
What Personal Information Could Be Exposed?
Organisations like housing providers can collect a range of personal information that could be used to identify you. The list below presents some examples of data that are often obtained by these organisations but please note that it isn’t exhaustive:
- Your name
- Your phone number
- Your home address
- Your email address
- Your date of birth
- Your ethnic origin
- Your religion
- Your sexual orientation
- Your housing needs
- Your tenancy details
For more information on the legislation that exists to uphold proper data protection practices, please see the section below or get in touch with one of our advisors today.
How Do I Claim For A Housing Data Breach?
When your personal information has been compromised you could get in touch with the organisation directly to raise your concerns with them.
In an attempt to increase your chances of gaining some form of compensation from them, you could detail the type of suffering that your data breach has caused you, whether that’s financial losses or mental distress. Following this, you could suggest that you intend to be compensated for your suffering.
Whether or not any compensation results from this communication, any response that you do receive from them could still be used against them regardless. For example, they may admit that their failures were responsible for your data breach, supporting any future claim that you may wish to make by evidencing their liability for your suffering.
Once you’ve obtained this information, we advise that you seek legal help to help give your claim the best chances of success. At Legal Expert, our solicitors have years of experience winning compensation for their clients on a No Win No Fee basis. And they can use their experience of handling many Data Protection Act breach examples to help win your case.
What Is The ICO And Could They Help Me?
If you’ve suffered a data breach and believe your housing association to be responsible, you could report them to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Providing that a report is made within 3 months of a said data breach, the ICO could investigate the incident to determine whether they are liable for a breach of data protection regulations.
The ICO provides both guidance and penalties to organisations that don’t comply with data related laws in the UK. If their findings show that your housing association was responsible for your data breach, they could fine their behaviour as they see fit.
However, if your intention is to be compensated for your suffering as a result of your data breach, please note that the ICO does not provide compensation regardless of their findings. As part of a housing data breach claim, the ICO’s findings could be used to support your case by evidencing liability. Therefore, it’s important that you report your incident to the ICO in attempts to boost your chances of making a successful claim.
How Much Compensation Could I Claim For A Housing Association Data Breach?
In this section, we’ll help you understand how much compensation you could be entitled as part of your housing data breach claim. Firstly, we’ll familiarise you with the two different types of compensation that you could claim after falling victim to a data breach; material damage and non-material damage.
- Material damage aims to restore any financial losses that you incurred as a result of your data breach. You may have had money stolen through having your account accessed. Such incidents can cause permanent issues in terms of your credit, which accounts for why future damage is also taken into consideration when calculating compensation for a data breach.
- Non-material damage attempts to account for any mental trauma that may have been caused by your data breach. Having your privacy violated can often equate to the feeling of being robbed, which has the potential to affect wider aspects of your life, such as relationships, work, and even your day-to-day ability to function as you did before.
Following the case of Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc in 2015, compensation for data breach claims can now be awarded for non-material damage alone. Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) can be used to assess mental injury.
Housing Data Breach Compensation Payouts And Examples
To help illustrate how a housing data breach could happen, we’ll present you with a real case study concerning Watford Community Housing.
In the case of the Watford Community Housing data breach in 2020, victims were told they may be able to claim up to £15,000 after their personal information was sent to over 3,000 of their fellow tenants without their consent.
The data breach was reportedly the result of human error, in which a spreadsheet of tenants’ data was mistakenly attached to an email notifying customers about service changes during the coronavirus pandemic. The spreadsheet included thousands of tenants’ identifiable details, such as their names, home addresses, and contact information.
In addition, sensitive details like their housing needs, religion and sexual orientation were included, making the data breach severely problematic. Many of the tenants requiring housing services were older individuals.
Watford Community Housing has reportedly raised this incident with the ICO and is working closely with them. They are undergoing a review of their practices to prevent an incident like this from happening again. And so these serve as strong Data Protection Act breach examples.
Sources:
- https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/18611804.watford-community-housing-tenants-can-claim-15k-information-leak/
- https://www.hayesconnor.co.uk/group-actions/watford-community-housing-trust-data-breach
No Win No Fee Housing Association Data Breach Claims
Did you know that with a No Win No Fee agreement, you don’t have to pay a penny to your solicitor if your solicitor doesn’t win your case for you?
Given claimants’ sense of financial anxiety in regards to making a claim, we ensure that our solicitors always work on a No Win No Fee basis.
If our solicitors secure your compensation for you, then you’ll be expected to pay them a ‘success fee’ from your payout. However, this is a small percentage that’s capped by law so you don’t have to worry about losing much of your settlement money. With no upfront or hidden fees to pay, why not get in touch to see how our No Win No Fee solicitors could help your housing data breach claim today?
How To Find A Lawyer Specialising In Housing Data Breach Claims
If you’re looking for legal help, there’s no need to ask for recommendations or scour online reviews. In addition, you don’t need to worry about your solicitor’s locality as technology means you can connect from wherever you’re based.
With this in mind, why not get in touch with our team at Legal Expert today? With years of experience winning clients the maximum compensation that they deserve for their suffering, our solicitors could help you make a successful housing data breach claim. For more information, please take a look at our reviews page.
Start Your Claim
In having a free consultation with one of our advisors, they could tell you whether you have grounds to make a valid claim and offer you open and honest advice on your situation.
So, whether you’re looking for legal advice or you’d like to begin making a claim today, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team at Legal Expert today:
- Call 0800 073 8804
- Complete a contact form
- Email info@legalexpert.co.uk
- Chat to us using the chat feature on your screen
Extra Resources
As we draw our housing data breach claims guide to a close, we’d like to thank you for reading. If you’d like any more information about anything that you’ve read today, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our advisors at Legal Expert for free advice and support.
In the meantime, we’ve provided some additional resources below that may be of interest to you, including our alternative claims guides and links to access the data protection legislation mentioned earlier in full.
Our alternative claims guides:
Access to the UK and the EU’s data protection legislation:
- Data Protection Act 2018
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- Learn about the laws on CCTV footage and find out if you could claim for a CCTV data breach with our guide.
Thanks for reading our guide on what to do if you fall victim to a housing association data breach. But please get in touch if you want further Data Protection Act breach examples prior to filing a claim.
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