Seeff is ready for POPIA which comes into full effect on the 1st July

By now you are possibly well aware of POPIA which is the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI Act) and comes into full effect on the 1^{st of} July 2021. The Act aims to promote the safeguarding of personal information through various legislative and regulatory requirements.

Personal information has always been a vital part of real estate businesses as we receive, pass on and store personal and often sensitive information of customers including sellers, buyers, landlords and tenants.

Estate agents require and use this information to assist customers to sell or rent out their homes as well as to help buyers and tenants find the right homes to meet their needs and wants.

The information is also required to complete various documentation such as rental property applications, lease agreements, FICA compliance affidavits, mortgage bond applications, bond approvals, transfer deeds and related documentation. Information is also passed on to Conveyancers, SARS and so on as part of real estate transactions.

Real estate agents also use personal information to conduct market campaigns such as email newsletters, property listing alerts and so on.

All of this falls within the scope of the Act and Seeff along with the rest of the real estate industry has had to take various steps to facilitate and ensure compliance with the various regulations of the Act.

Seeff has been hard at work to ensure that our documentation and systems are upgraded to meet the requirements of POPIA. There are essentially four main areas, namely:

1. We have updated our documentation to include the necessary compliant clauses, phrases and permission.
2. Our marketing activities have been updated to include the necessary permission and opt-out clauses and you will always have the option to opt-out of any market activities that you subscribe to.
3. We have put a policy and process in place for safeguarding of information entrusted to us in the course of our business and marketing activities.
4. We have an Information Officer in place who will be registered as required and assume the respective duties prescribed by the Act.

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