Data Access Requests Are Rising: What Owners Should Do

Eleanor — Kribel AI Concierge

Kribel keeps every tenant record in one deliberate place, so a data request is a quick export, not a scramble — kribel.com

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November 12, 2026

Data access requests from renters are rising, and they can be triggered by a simple phone call. Owners who keep tenant records in one deliberate place, collect only what they need, and delete on schedule turn these requests into routine exports.

The request that doesn't look like a request

A tenant rings your property manager, a little frustrated, and says: "Can you send me everything you've got on me?" That sentence — no legal letter, no mention of the law — has just started a regulatory clock. And according to new reporting, more renters and clients are starting it than ever.

The Guild of Property Professionals has reported a rise in Data Subject Access Requests, or DSARs, warning that mishandling them could leave agents facing regulatory complaints, reputational damage and potential enforcement action, as covered by Property Industry Eye. It is worth a moment of any owner's attention.

What happened

Under UK GDPR, buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants can ask to see the personal information held about them. As the Guild's group compliance officer Paul Offley explains, that can include emails, viewing notes, property records, correspondence and internal communications — anything containing their personal data.

The catch is how easily a request is triggered. People do not need to write a formal letter or say the words "Data Subject Access Request." A verbal request made over the phone to a negotiator carries the same legal weight as a written one. Agencies generally have one month to respond, with extensions allowed in certain circumstances.

And responding is more than handing over a file. Offley notes you must identify the relevant personal data, consider whether disclosure affects anyone else's rights, apply any appropriate exemptions, and share the information securely. He adds that this is not solely a job for compliance officers: "Frontline staff, negotiators, property managers, administrators and branch managers all have a role to play in recognising requests and ensuring they are passed to the appropriate person." The hardest cases, he says, are the ones involving years of accumulated correspondence and records.

Our take

We think a surge in data requests is a gift disguised as a burden.

A DSAR is uncomfortable for exactly one reason: it forces you to go and find everything you hold about a person. If that information is scattered across a personal inbox, three spreadsheets, a messaging app and a shoebox of scanned documents, the request is a nightmare. If it lives in one deliberate place, the request is a Tuesday.

So the real question a DSAR asks is not "can you comply in a month?" It is "do you actually know what you hold, why you hold it, and who can see it?" Most owners, if they are honest, do not. And that gap exists in calm times and only widens under pressure — which brings us to the other half of this week's news.

A separate poll of landlords by Pegasus Insight, reported by The Negotiator, found almost three quarters expect recent tax changes to push rents up, while 52% said they plan to sell property over the next twelve months and 29% anticipate cutting back on maintenance. The point for our purposes is not the politics of it — it is that owners under financial strain tend to let administration slip. Data housekeeping is exactly the kind of thing that quietly rots when everyone is busy and worried. That is the worst possible moment to be caught holding records you cannot explain.

What this means for you as an owner

You do not need to become a privacy lawyer. You need to treat data minimisation as an operating habit — collect less, store it on purpose, and know exactly who can see it. A few practical moves:

1. Collect only what you genuinely need. Every extra document from an applicant is something you must later find, protect and potentially hand back. If you would not want to produce it in a DSAR, think hard about whether to take it in the first place.
2. Keep one source of truth per tenant. One place for the lease, the references, the correspondence and the maintenance history beats a trail across inboxes and apps. When a request lands, you look in one place.
3. Write down your retention rule. Decide how long you keep records after a tenancy ends, and actually delete to that schedule. Old files you no longer need are pure risk.
4. Know who can see what. If anyone helps you manage — a spouse, a part-time manager, a contractor — be clear on who has access and why.
5. Treat a casual request seriously. As the Guild warns, an offhand "send me my file" counts. Acknowledge it, note the date, and don't let it sit.

Do this, and a DSAR stops being a threat. It becomes a routine export — a sign your records were in order all along.

Looking ahead

Renters are more aware of their rights than they were a year ago, and that awareness is not going to fade. The owners who thrive won't be the ones with the most data — they'll be the ones with the cleanest. A request to see what you hold should be a question you can answer in an afternoon, not a scramble you dread. Getting there is boring, deliberate work. It is also, quietly, one of the best investments you can make in your own peace of mind.