united-kingdom evidence civil-procedure surveillance
Can a covert recording be used as evidence in UK civil court?
<p>I have a court case against my landlord for disrepair. At the end of last year I had enough of waiting for him to respond to all the issues we have in the property, and I've sent him a letter of claim. After that he came to inspect the property (with his father posing as a building expert) and he was very arrogant, threatened me with eviction and skyrocketing rent if he does any repairs. He talked down to me and in general his visit was extremely unpleasant.</p>
<p>I recorded it all on my iPhone voice recorder and made a transcript of this conversation, but I didn't tell him that I'm recording it as I know that the only way to show his true colours is to do it without his knowledge (example: he phoned my solicitor after she contacted him to tell him, that we will commence legal proceedings against him and said to her, that he is an innocent victim here, that I was very happy with everything until 6 months ago and he didn't know about any problems in the property, which is a lie as I have tons of evidence to prove otherwise).</p>
<p>So my question is: can I ask for admission of this recording in a court, as I believe it is highly relevant and probative?</p>

<p>Yes, you can ask permission from the court. From <a href="https://www.dma-law.co.uk/is-it-illegal-to-record-conversations/" rel="noreferrer">this page</a> (by a firm of solicitors):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Recording a conversation in secret is not a criminal offence and is not prohibited. As long as the recording is for personal use you don’t need to obtain consent or let the other person know.</p>
<p>[...]</p>
<p>A private recording can be submitted as evidence, but with some conditions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>A recording may be relied on in evidence if the court gives permission</p>
</li>
<li><p>An application for permission should be made on form C2</p>
</li>
<li><p>The recording should be made available to other parties before any hearing to consider its admissibility.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>So yes you can probably use it, but you can't play Perry Mason and suddenly produce it in the middle of the court hearing. Talk to your solicitor.</p>
