Customer Data

[SRE]

One of our customers has died and I've just had a text asking for data to transfer the system over to the new owners.

Anyone had this before? It's not a problem providing the data, I just want to make sure it's being done legitimately but asking to go through executors seems a bit excessive.

 

[Gavin A]

One of our customers has died and I've just had a text asking for data to transfer the system over to the new owners.

Anyone had this before? It's not a problem providing the data, I just want to make sure it's being done legitimately but asking to go through executors seems a bit excessive.

you'd definitely need to ask for a signed letter of permission from the executors of the will to give the data out to allow the transfer to go ahead IMO.

imagine if they were pulling a fast one, the FIT payments form a significant part of the estate. Shouldn't be a problem to get something in writing to cover yourself, they'll need it for the transfer of ownership anyway.

 

[TedM]

The Data Protection Act only applies to living persons so you couldn't be in breach from that point of view if you release the data, but if there was an expectation that the information you hold would be considered confidential (I wouldn't expect it would be regarding a PV installation) then you should not release it.

edit - Gavin got in just before me. I would get it in writing too.

 

[BruceB]

Having just dealt with probate and various institutions, the practice seems to be as follows:
- below a certain value (say £10k to £30k) then the instution was happy to see a copy of the death certificate and then would transfer a balance to anywhere traceable.
- above a certain value then before they would make a transfer they wanted to see the formal Grant of Representation from the Executors before doing anything.

As long as you take a view on the value of the information you are giving out and make an informed decision on precautions to take having got an instruction in writing then I doubt there could be a comeback.