When thinking about buying or renting a property, after finding a property that works for you, the first things that probably come to mind are organising deposits and insurance and maybe even removals but it would be a beneficial idea to put this at the top of your list: Check your landlord or estate agent is registered with our office.
Why, you may ask? Well, any landlord, estate agent, letting agent and managing agent will be processing personal information that you have given them: including your name, address and phone number (just for starters!).
More importantly, it is a legal requirement for all those entities that keep and process personal information to register with us at the Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner. That legal requirement falls under the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 (DPJL). So by checking they are registered with our office, you have reassurance your personal information is taken seriously.
The law places certain obligations on those organisations that are responsible for processing it. Essentially, if you use an estate agent, letting agent or landlord that is holding your personal information, it is the law that they should be registered with our office and you can check this by typing in their name here: jerseyoic.org/search-the-registry/.
If you are working as a landlord or estate agent and still need to register, you can do so by heading to jerseyoic.org/membership. We also have a registration leaflet for landlords and estate agents which may be useful when registering with us.
Here at JOIC, we offer help and guidance around the registration process and have a team of highly skilled caseworkers that help those who are concerned about personal data being misused.
We are located at 5 Castle Street, near Sand Street Car Park in St Helier and are here to assist with any queries. So please do pop in, call us on 01534 716530 or email enquiries@jerseyoic.org if we can help you in any way.
