POPIA for community schemes and gated communities

18 November 2021
Accounting
South African Accounting Academy

Community housing schemes have to ensure that their record-keeping systems and those of their managing agents are compliant with POPIA (the Protection of Personal Information Act), and from 1 July 20211 they should be able to prove such compliance.

It’s not just about how POPIA affects your organisation, but also how it affects the world in which you live, e.g. your office park, your complex, your estate, etc.

POPIA affects sectional title properties (e.g. complexes), homeowners' associations (e.g. property estates), retirement housing schemes, share block companies and housing cooperatives. Gated communities (e.g. office parks) are also included, as the collection of personal information is very similar.

The POPIA law & regulations require schemes to have:

A POPIA policy (which should include details of the type of personal information that the complex collects and holds, as well as how the complex collects and stores personal information)
Amended the rules of the scheme to comply with POPIA;
An information officer who is the POPIA oversight representative of the scheme;

POPIA agreements with stakeholders who have access to the personal information of owners and tenants

How does this affect you and your clients?

Relevance to Auditors, Independent Reviewers & Accountants:

POPIA is yet another piece of legislation that your clients must comply with, and which you must assess compliance with. If they don’t comply with the relevant laws and regulations, you have certain reporting obligations in terms of NOCLAR (NOn-Compliance with Laws And Regulations) – this could include reporting to management, qualifying your audit opinion, reporting a Reportable Irregularity, etc.
As an employer, you also need to comply with POPIA in your workplace – and in this regard, where your practice is situated within an office park with access control
If you stay in a community scheme, you need to comply with the POPIA requirements

Relevance to Your clients:

If your client operates as a managing agent, or is a body corporate (or a trustee), homeowners’ association (or a director), retirement housing schemes, share block companies or housing cooperatives, they must comply with POPIA and the specific requirements.

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