Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
I was denied an opportunity to view and judge this camera angle and told only the strata manager and committee are allowed viewing access. Does anyone have an opinion on this please?
As you will read above, the recordings are owners corp documents and you are legally entitled to see them. Print out the above material and show it to your strata manager.
And thanks for confirming my opinion that strata managers and committees aren’t always the best people to control access to CCTV recordings.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
Thanks for the heads-up. Now fixed. It was a long night on the single malts. I appreciate Flatchatters taking the time to tell me when there are flaws and errors.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
The Committee, as the ‘governing body’ of the Owners Corporation, as well as the strata manager are the most reasonable options for control of the CCTV footage, as they are with all strata records. If you have a Committee or a Strata Manager you don’t trust to hold those records, you have bigger problems than just CCTV and need to look into changing either party.
Thanks for your real world summary of the situation.
I agree with everything you wrote apart from the last part. Committees, their chairs and, indeed, strata managers have wildly differing levels of knowledge and experience of strata laws. For many, the issues of video surveillance are unlikely to have troubled their brain cells until the moment they are confronted by them.
A by-law not only establishes a procedure for viewing CCTV footage, it makes owners think about how much control they want to exercise.
It was only recently that strata managers conceded that email addresses legally had to be passed on to owners who requested them (and some still won’t). And there are committees who will panic at the first mention of legal action and drop the ball completely.
Even if by-laws may not strictly be necessary and might never be invoked, they set the parameters that the majority of owners want to impose and, of course, if they cross the line and supersede strata law then they are invalid anyway.
I’d want a by-law that insisted that owners seeking to view video recordings registered their name and a detailed reason of why they wanted to see it, which would then be noted at the next committee meeting and go on the permanent record of the strata scheme.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
Your first step should be to make sure the leak is coming from your balcony.
Then you should contact the builder as soon as possible to ask for it to be fixed.
If they refuse, approach Domestic Building Dispute Resolution Victoria which, according to its website, will help owners resolve building disputes. It doesn’t mention apartments specifically, but then it doesn’t exclude them either.
According to its website, it is currently snowed under with applications, which is all the more reason to get in as soon as the builder shows any signs of not wanting to fix the problem.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
There’s nothing in the strata Act about accessibility but there are lots of options. If Microsoft Teams can do it, then maybe everyone should get on that.
Do you read Auslan? Perhaps the Owners Corp could hire a signer to be with you during the meeting. Or maybe a neighbour could just be there with you and repeat everything that’s said.
If you don’t get anywhere with the strata manager or committee, contact Marrickville Legal Centre – they give strata law advice for the whole of NSW – and they may be able to
1) Make the committee realise they have to try harder and
2) offer some workable solutions.Click on that link and start filling in their form.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
It’s cosmetic. Just let the committee or manager know what you are doing and when you are doing it in case you need a parking space for the tradies or padding for the lifts. You don’t need their permission, just their cooperation.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
A very interesting and comprehensive article on this issue was published in May 2021. Please see https://picagroup.com.au/article/enhancing-community-living/cctv-cameras-on-your-strata-property/
This may be the article Jimmy came across.
It wasn’t but it’s a very interesting read, covering a number of jurisdictions.
In fact, what got my attention was this article on the Unit Owners Association of Queensland website.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
A very interesting and comprehensive article on this issue was published in May 2021. Please see https://picagroup.com.au/article/enhancing-community-living/cctv-cameras-on-your-strata-property/
This may be the article Jimmy came across.
It wasn’t but it’s a very interesting read, covering a number of jurisdictions.
In fact, what got my attention was this article on the Unit Owners Associaon of Queensland website.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
It appears one owner (not on the SC) is controlling the communication resident system and acts as a censor to stop some residents commenting! That same owner gathers proxies to ensure he keeps control.
The resident can only have one proxy for every 20 owners. That’s another 19 owners per proxy from who you could surely garner someone to support you, if nothing else but to negate their controlling vote.
The easiest way to get uninterested owners to take an interest is to tell them their money is being wasted. Anything else is just garden fence squabbles to most people.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
BTW I first contacted Jimmy many years ago 2011, on the topic of bird feeding and balcony fouling. On your suggestion we got a By-law forbidding feeding or attracting birds. The committee continues to allow the feeding; the balconies around have put BirdPoint on their rails, and we still pay for the steam cleaning.
Victor Dominello (then Fair Trading Minister, no less) told me that his Second Reading of the 2015 Strata Act clearly implies that the Owners Corporation has a duty of care to enforce its by-laws.
You could always ask the strata committee to start issuing notices to comply to the bird feeders then take a Section 232(2) action if they haven’t complied withing two months.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
JT: you say that you believe that Cctv footage is a record of the OC and then suggest hurdles to access the footage. Thst is indirect contravention ofthe many posts you have put up saying owners have unfettered rights to OC records.
No it isn’t and if I used the word “unfettered” it would have been to express the fact that ultimately, an owner can asccess all strata records. As far as the contradiction you allege, access to records are not “unfettered” – if only because you have to pay a fee.
They don’t put hurdles in a track race to prevent the race, they do it to make the competitors work harder. Under my suggestion, if you can’t prevent people from legally viewing OC-generated video footage, you can put a few hurdles in their way, including having to justify why they need to see it. It’s a hurdle not a barrier. There’s a difference.
To answer the posters question, the installation of the pool camera perhaps should be put to a meeting of the OC. There may be valid reasons to install it. The owners can hear the arguments and then make a decision. Majority gets the nod.
That’s pretty much what I said – except I’d want a special resolution.
What the poster does not say, is who suggested the installation of the camera.
I think they implied it was the strata committee.
In Australia, any person or entity is permitted to make video recordings, but not to record the sound, in a public place. Public meaning not in another persons private space.
Also in Australia, people are not allowed to fix cameras to common property without the approval of the owners via a special resolution
by-law. And common property is not a “public place”- it’s a collectively owned residential space. Your definition of “public” is wrong in this context.Also let’s not assume the worst. It’s likely that the installation of the camera is to improve security, not to provide jollies for some pervert.
But that doesn’t mean that people won’t be deterred from using the facilities, or teaching their kids to swim, for instance, because they fear (as the OP clearly does) that someone might take advantage of the presence of cameras to perv on their kids.
I can see why strata schemes would want to install cameras around swiming pools, for entirely benign reasons like safety and deterring bad behaviour. My suggestion was to allow this to happen without deterring people from using the pool because they were concerned about privacy and, yes, paedos.
It’s not a concern I share but I can see how others might feel that way.
However, I regret the day on holiday in Hawaii when my grandaughter was in a mermaid suit in the hotel pool and a stranger stopped and took her picture. Maybe he was charmed, maybe he wanted to show his own granddaughter. Maybe I should have told him to delete the picture.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
I’ve been reading something very recently that says that video recordings on an owners corporation camera are effectively documents owned by the OC and must therefore be made available to any owner who wants to see them.
I’m not sure about video recordings but I know privacy laws do not apply to owners corporations with an annual turnover of $3million.
I would say that the installation of a CCTV camera at a common area like a swimming pool was a significant alteration to common property (even though the physical disruption would be minimal) because of the effect it might have on users of the space.
In which case it would require a by-law and therefore a special resolution. I would include as part of the by-law the assumption that all owners were entitled to see the video but include an application system that required them to jump through many hoops, including providing National Police Checks documentation.
The point of that would be to deter anyone from accessing the video for nefarious and malicious purposes.
But either way, I feel the cameras must be covered by a by-law so that the owners in the building can control the storage of images recorded through them.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
I was unaware of the protocol in posting.
It’s all here and has been for some time: https://www.flatchat.com.au/topic/how-to-post-a-question-or-answer-2/
I understand that owners are entitled to see all created minutes. But what if the SC decided to spend money on R&M (as the agent told me) but chose not to create a document ie.e not to minute that decision – the meeting was said to have been a phone call – can an owner insist on the decision be minuted and then ask to see it?
Any money spent that doesn’t have some sort of paper trail – either a committee minute or an email to the strata manager or similar – would have to be very suspicious. The committee should have had the item about spending OC funds on an agenda and then recorded the decision in minutes.
You can ask the secretary to provide you with a record of the decision that was made, including details of where they are getting quotes for the work.
Maybe they were trying to fast-track the work because of your actions at NCAT. Maybe they are deliberately trying to obscure the fact that they haven’t actually done anything. Who’s to say?
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
I have collated two posts from different threads. These are clearly concerning the same issue and that bothers me a lot.
Firstly you had effectively hijacked another completely different discussion, apparently to promulgate your personal dispute with your strata scheme, then you have opened up another thread with a slight variation on a theme, asking a question to which you surely know the answer.
This is unacceptable.
Flatchatters all, multi-posting in different threads (or topics) on the same issue is not permitted. If you aren’t getting enough attention or answers to your questions, give us a “nudge” by posting a reply to your last post.
If you answer a question in another thread, then want to expand on that in your own topic, by all means refer to the original post in your new topic. Please don’t bury someone else’s issues in your own very specific problems.
To answer the last question here, owners are entitled to see all minutes and correspondence created or received by their strata scheme with the possible exclusion of correspondence between the scheme and its lawyers in a matter concerning that specific owner (and even that could be subject to challenge).
Even verdicts in court actions which have been “sealed” have to be made available to all owners as they are parties to the case.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
This is a change of use which requires a by-law – at the very least to transfer responsibility for the tank and the consequences of its installation to the owner. That requires a special resolution which a strata committee cannot make.
It may also require planning approval and unless there is some sort of structural reinforcement done, the plan probably won’t get it.
There are strata laws about major renovation that supersede by-laws regardless of when your scheme was built.
You are right to be cautious and the upstairs neighbours need to come up with a plan that has been checked by a structural engineer before you even get to considering by-laws (or otherwise).
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.