All property of a person or company declared “en désastre” (the désastre entity) vests in the Viscount. That property includes both physical and intellectual property.
In relation to a computer, this will include the hardware and any data or software belonging to the désastre entity.
Erasing data from storage media
The Viscount is of the view that it is not satisfactory to erase data from storage media (eg computer hard drives) due to the following considerations:
- confidentiality
- data protection
- use of non-transferable software and related licences
- ability to retrieve erased data
Because of this, storage media will need to be removed and will be retained at the Viscount’s discretion.
This department’s general policy is to remove attached storage media. This should not significantly impact upon the commercial value of the equipment due to the low cost of replacement storage media.
Finance agreements
In the event of a finance agreement under which title to the computer equipment has not passed to the désastre entity, two options are available to the finance company:
- allow the Viscount to sell the property account to the finance company for the net proceeds and for the finance company to put a claim in the désastre for any outstanding amounts on the relevant finance agreement
- seek return of the computer equipment in order that the finance company can make use of that equipment, by resale or otherwise
In either case, the Viscount will have no alternative but to remove the hard drives (storage media) from the computer equipment if they are perceived to contain property deemed to be that of the Viscount.
Finance companies will be fully aware of the issues surrounding security and the non-transferability of software licences, and also of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005 and general duties of confidentiality. In most circumstances the Viscount feels that a finance company would not itself sell computer equipment with the original hard drives, but would similarly remove and (in this case) destroy them.
In the circumstances, the department anticipates that the reason for us to remove the storage media will be understood and that this will be considered by a finance company as a small part of the commercial risk attached to financing the purchase of computer equipment.
Finance companies will be required to sign transfer of computer equipment form by way of receipt for goods received back from the Viscount.
Download transfer of computer equipment form (size 22kb)
gov.je