Then why, in the 21st centuary is there need to keep a photocopy of the agrrement as if your life depends on it? Why not just keep the original and take a photocopy if it is called for? In nearly all cases, nobody ever requests sight of the agreement. It is also noteworthy that many previous posts accept that the originals are sold on.Pottapaug1938 wrote:If the original has been destroyed, as many of the previous posts indicate is increasingly the case in the 21st century, then the whereabouts of that data are probably in a box somewhere, well blended with other recycled paper and now used as packing material. It is completely illegible.Tuco wrote:Can I just point out that my issue is not that they cannot produce the original per se. My issue is that the original contains my private data and there was a duty to protect this data. A failure to keep hold of the original is a failure to adhere to a term of a contact entered into. I have every right to enquire as to the whereabouts of that data, it is after all mine. I also have every right to enquire as to whom exactly has had access to this data.
Simply losing an agreement behind a filing cabinet is no excuse, neither is claiming that it is in a box somewhere gathering dust. It is noteworthy that they can put their hands on the photocopies quickly enough.
As for your assertion that "[a] failure to keep hold of the original is a failure to adhere to a term of a contact entered into", that is only correct if the original contract provides that the originals must be preserved; and even then the remedy for destruction of the originals is rarely going to result in the contract being void or voidable.
My assertion is that the term breached is that of failing to protect my data, NOT that an original copy must be preserved. If they (for some bizarre reason) chose to destroy the original then I would have no argument. However, the fact that the agreement is traded is enough for me to ask questions.