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I'm not looking for personalized advice and I'm not looking for legal advice.

Where I live it's illegal for a landlord to copy the tenants drivers license.

A landlord may not collect, copy or use a person’s driver’s licence information because it is not necessary in order to consider a prospective tenant’s rental application. A landlord may not refuse the application of a tenant who refuses to prov ide his or her driver’s licence . A landlord may ask to examine a person’s driver’s licence in order to verify the person’s identity. However, the landlord must not write down or photocopy this personal information.

https://www.oipc.bc.ca/guidance-documents/1456

I had an ex-landlord do this. I normally wouldn't care but I'm taking him to court anyways to get my damage deposit and other things back. How should I bring this up?

I moved into the house with 3 other tenants. The landlord asked to see our driver licenses. He then took out his phone and took pictures of them without asking us. I can prove this, as he had taken me to court and included in his evidence package, pictures of mine and other tenants licenses (I won the case and had it dismissed).

How are these things normally brought up in court? Should I ask for monetary compensation? If so how much? Can the judge order the landlord to destroy the copies?

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  • You need to contact someone familiar with and authorized to provide advice regarding tenancy law in British Columbia and describe the problem to them. Ideally an attorney. It is also possible that a tenants' organization or hotline may be able to provide some guidance
    – Tom
    Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 8:00
  • @TomW Never call a Canadian lawyer an attorney. Ever. :)
    – Zizouz212
    Commented Feb 3, 2016 at 2:50
  • @Zizouz212 why not?
    – phoog
    Commented Feb 3, 2016 at 19:27
  • @phoog You can call us a lawyer, or counsel - defence counsel and Crown counsel, but please don't call friends north of the border attorney's. They apparently don't like it. :)
    – Zizouz212
    Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 1:19
  • @Zizouz212 but what I'm trying to find out is why they don't like it.
    – phoog
    Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 15:11

1 Answer 1

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PIPA has a dispute resolution process. See page 39 of the guidance document. The judge in your current case may have the power to award you damages under PIPA, but most likely not. You are probably best served by using the information as evidence that the guy is a bad person, has little regard for the laws, openly defied PIPA, etc. However, if he's smart he will say that you consented. Look at pages 5 and 6 of that document that you linked to. Unless you protested when you handed him your license and watched him photograph it, it's hard for you to say that you did not provide implied or verbal consent. This is especially true when coupled with the PIPA dispute resolution which start with you attempting to resolve this issue before filing a complaint.

In summary, it might help you demonstrate a pattern of bad behavior but your current legal dispute is not the place to resolve your privacy issue.

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  • 2
    The guidance does not seem to say "without consent."
    – phoog
    Commented Feb 3, 2016 at 19:29
  • @phoog no, but there is an entire section on consent. Starting at page 12. It's fairly detailed and certainly circumscribed, but it's an escape hatch for sure.
    – jqning
    Commented Feb 4, 2016 at 4:35

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