canada rental-property small-claims-court british-columbia
Landlord illegally copied drivers licences; already going to court, what should I ask for?
<p>I'm not looking for personalized advice and I'm not looking for legal advice.</p>

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

<blockquote>
  <p>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.</p>
</blockquote>

<p><a href="https://www.oipc.bc.ca/guidance-documents/1456" rel="nofollow">https://www.oipc.bc.ca/guidance-documents/1456</a></p>

<p>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?</p>

<p>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).</p>

<p>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?</p>

<p>PIPA has a dispute resolution process. See page 39 of the <a href="https://www.oipc.bc.ca/guidance-documents/1438" rel="nofollow">guidance document</a>. 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.</p>

<p>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. </p>
