If a person states that a property is empty for the purposes of a
council tax exemption or discount, how can it be surveillance or
snooping to check whether the property is indeed empty? Admittedly, they
must check to see that the exemption / discount is still being claimed,
but what harm is there in checking on an empty property? If the property
is empty, there will be nobody in it, nobody will have been surveilled
and nobody's rights would have been infringed.
I don't want to live a council area where people get spied on in the way
that Poole appeared to have done. Equally, I don't want to live in a
council area where common sense and proportionate methods are not
employed to make sure that people don't cheat the system.
Tim Turner
NHS Manchester
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Roland Perry
Sent: 05 August 2010 11:13
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [data-protection] Poole Council Decision
In message
<[log in to unmask]>, at
09:18:45 on Thu, 5 Aug 2010, "Bradshaw, Phillip"
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Last year I occupied two houses for a period of eight weeks during a
>staggered move. As far as I was concerned the one I 'lived in' was the
>one with the lower Council Tax band so I had the empty property relief
>on the other. That was the only deciding factor which seemed relevant
to
>me ....
This happened to me five years ago (I was moving from rented, into a
purchased house that I was doing up). The rule is, strictly, that a
house must be completely unoccupied, with no furniture at all, to get
the exemption. And guess what - the council will perhaps send round a
snooper to peer in the windows and check.
I wonder if this counts as 'directed surveillance'? It is, according to
a lawyer on another list I subscribe to. I wonder if Poole have
reviewed/stopped this practice too?
In my case the chap had a wasted journey, because he only arrived after
I'd fully moved (and I'm sure after I'd told the council's other hand
that this had happened, and the other house had been fully signed over
to the next occupant).
--
Roland Perry
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