Data Protection for community schemes

Your community scheme exists to provide a safe and secure living environment for tenants and members of a community scheme. Directors and trustees (who are also sometimes members) share the responsibility of looking after the communal land and property.

To achieve the community scheme’s main purpose, you inevitably gather and use personal data. Since data protection law applies to the processing of personal data, community schemes cannot avoid having to comply. 

You process personal data for your community scheme when you:

• use biometric information to grant access to the premises;
• monitor and store CCTV footage for security and other purposes;
• source goods or services from suppliers;
• employ and pay your employees;
• gather and store tenant details;
• send out AGM notices or other communications to members or tenants;
• collect various levies from members; or
• collect the health data of tenants or members (such as the health data of senior citizens living in a retirement village).

What laws apply to your processing?

Different data protection laws will apply to your community scheme depending on where the data subjects are from, where they may be at the time you process their personal data, or where your community scheme is based. If you are based in South Africa, you need to comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). But if you also process the personal data of European Union (EU) data subjects, you may also need to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You will need to work this question out at the start of your compliance journey.

We understand that you may feel overwhelmed at this stage. Rest assured, you are not the only one asking questions about your community scheme’s data protection compliance. Many people in your position have been coming to us, asking:

• Must I comply with the GDPR?
• What is POPIA?
• How do I determine what information we can and cannot share with members and tenants?
• What assistance does Michalsons provide to community schemes?
• What else should I be thinking about?

Will joining this programme help my community scheme comply?

Yes. We understand that you may be working with limited resources and budgets. We want to help you in the most efficient and cost-effective way.  Our data protection for community schemes programme specifically answers these questions for you. This practical programme takes you through the key actions community schemes must take to comply.

Our data protection for community schemes lens is worth joining for someone who is:

• Involved in property management and administration (also commonly referred to as managing agents);
• A director or the chairman on the board of directors of a Home Owner’s Association;
• A trustee or the chairman on the board of trustees of a body corporate; or
• Anyone employed by the body corporate or Home Owner’s Association to help with compliance-related issues.

We believe that our programme is better suited for one or two people from the community scheme. They can join and work through the programme and will be accountable and responsible in helping the community scheme comply with their data protection obligations.

• Raise your awareness by knowing about the data protection laws that apply to your community scheme.
• Keep your community scheme safe while processing personal data lawfully by learning about CCTV cameras and access control.
• Protect the personal data of your data subjects (members, tenants, and even visitors) by finding out what data protection quick wins you can score.
• Empower yourself with tools to help you with your compliance efforts by working through the tools section of our programme.
• Reduce your overall costs of compliance by doing it yourself with our assistance.
• Ensure the security company that secures your premises processes personal data lawfully, by finding out what applicable data protection laws require.

The data protection for community schemes lens contextualises our main data protection programme into a comprehensive and manageable size. We help you achieve specific outcomes by providing written guidance in the lens for you to work through. We provide you with links to useful resources, actions for you to take, and an introductory video for you to watch. To help you achieve the outcomes we also provide tools like templates, checklists and frameworks to fast-track your compliance efforts.

You can watch the introductory video by clicking ‘Watch Intro’ at the top of the page.

• We believe in using the law as a tool to prevent harm from coming to people.
• We have significant practical experience dealing with data protection law.
• We cover only those areas of data protection law that are most relevant to you, saving you time and money.
• We provide insight and simplify the issues, empowering you to work through the obligations yourself.

Once you have joined the data protection for community schemes programme, you can decide when it would be best for you to start working through it and how long you are going to take. You can work through it at your own pace.