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Hi All,
Sydney Strata Manager here (I know, eww).
Under sections 181 and 182 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) (SSMA), every owner has a right to request access to the records of the Owners Corporation. CCTV footage falls under this category.
There is a fee payable ($34.10) payable under legislation. Your strata manager may or may not insist that you pay that to view records. This is to subsidise the cost in making the records available (e.g. having a location and system to access and view records) for strata managers and self managed buildings.
However CCTV footage is sensitive for obvious reasons. I once had an owner who was using the CCTV to inappropriately observe (you can guess what I mean) a particular resident. As an owner, he had a right to the records, but we had to obstruct him once we learned what he was doing.
Further, advice from NSW Police is that footage pursuant to an alleged crime is not to be provided to anyone except the Police to avoid tainting witness statements. This is a very specific case, however.
CCTV monitoring the pool or other areas of common property is a net positive. The CCTV systems are not monitored in real time, so barring the example of the inappropriate gentleman above, it is unlikely that anyone will see you in your swimwear.
However, if someone wanted to accuse you of going skinny dipping in the pool, assaulted someone on the common property, or misused the common property resulting in injury etc., residents and the Owners Corporation are better served having footage of the common property to exonerate or prove the allegations as appropriate. Just like insurance, it doesn’t matter when it isn’t needed, but you’ll be glad you had it when it is needed.
As for privacy, a person has no reasonable expectation of privacy when in public pursuant to the Privacy Act 1998 (NSW), however a strata plan is not necessarily a public area. That said, if the Owners Corporation has resolved to install cameras, then the land owners have agreed in accordance with the SSMA and you have the option of accepting it, trying to fight it or moving out. Strata, as a micro-democracy, means that not everyone gets what they want.
As such, privacy does not apply in this context. The exception to this is that, while you can be filmed, conversations cannot be recorded. NSW is a one party consent state, so you can have a participant in a conversation with you record the conversation, but you cannot be eavesdropped as would happen with a CCTV system. If your CCTV system records audio, you have a legitimate complaint and can insist the option be turned off or replacement cameras installed (be prepared for a fight given the cost of this, however).
Regarding procedure to install a CCTV system, section 108 of the SSMA states that any alteration or addition to common property requires a special resolution (at least 75% approval by Unit of Entitlement) at a general meeting. A by-law is only required if an owner is adding/altering common property in such a way as they would need to be responsible for future repairs and maintenance (like renovating their bathroom).
A by-law governing rules for accessing CCTV footage is a good idea in principle, but it would be difficult to cover every situation in which access to the footage would be required. In any event, the legislation allows you access to the records of the OC as stated above, so the expense of a by-law is unnecessary/redundant.
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.