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Southern Housing Group Limited (202016172)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202016172

Southern Housing Group Limited

26 August 2021


Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this. 

In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.

The complaint

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of a data breach.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

  1. In April 2021, the landlord made the resident aware that an email had been sent in which all recipients were populated into the CC field instead of the BCC field. This meant that the resident’s email address was shared with the other recipients of the email.
  2. The resident raised a formal complaint, as they felt the incident constituted a breach of GDPR regulations.
  3. On 27 April 2021, the landlord issued its stage 2 response, advising that it did not consider that the resident had experienced harm as a result of the data breach, and that it felt that compensation was not required.
  4. Unhappy with this response, the resident referred their complaint to this Service.


Reasons

  1. Paragraph 39(m) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that:

The Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion…fall properly within the jurisdiction of another Ombudsman, regulator or complaint-handling body.

  1. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) was set up to deal with concerns about the handling of data by organisations. As the resident’s complaint is about an alleged breach of GDPR, this is a matter best suited to review by the ICO.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 39(m) of the Scheme, this Service cannot consider complaints that fall properly within the jurisdiction of another Ombudsman, regulator or complaint-handling body.
  3. The resident may wish to contact the ICO to discuss their concerns:

Make a complaint | ICO