In order to reduce the rent, we need personal documents and we find that not everyone is comfortable just sharing that (which is quite understandable). We believe that personal information is only completely secure when it is both not requested for any wrong purpose, and stored securely so that no other party can access it who does have wrong intentions.
We ask for the personal documents because without them we cannot reduce your rent. Because the essential part is that the reduction is “for you”. At the bottom of the page to initiate proceedings, the Rent Tribunal mentions the lease in passing. They do not give a legally binding conclusion without a lease, because the lease is the document that contains all the agreements. Nor, for that reason, can we write a proposed reduction that would be legally enforceable in the worst case without this document. However, your personal information is not essential to us; we can help you with just your full name as it appears in the contract and your e-mail address. So it is no problem for us if you want to hide other personal information, we will not use it anyway.
Asking for communication from the landlord and a video of the property can also feel personal. As professionals, we only look for the facts in the material that reinforces our argument, just as a dentist is only looking for (signs of) dental problems and, if all goes well, is not trying to take DNA samples from your saliva.
Because our goal is solely to restore balance in the rental housing market by helping tenants en masse claim their rights, we don’t need any other party (except the Rent Tribunal) to share your information with, and we make that explicit in our Terms and Conditions (which by no means all companies do). If we redress the balance and landlords stop trying to get illegally high rents on such a large scale in the first place, we will rather solve another social problem than explore a soulless revenue model.
We keep your information as secure as we can, in the best regarded Cloud services. Our cross-functional team allows us to think about this better than 99% of other legal firms. Have you ever seen a legal firm with such an experienced IT Architect as Wilco?
