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In Victoria there is a prescribed per page fee of circa $5 per page for provision of documents such as the Minutes or of Financial statements
However its free to simply attend at the Manager’s office and inspect to documents on eg a computer screen
The fee is paid to the Manager.The question is: Should you be allowed to photograph such, when attending at to inspect?
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Should you be allowed to photograph such, when attending at to inspect?
You can in NSW. The Act says this:
(4) A person entitled to inspect a document may take extracts from, or make a copy of, the document but must not, without the consent of the owners corporation, remove the document from the custody of the owners corporation.
However in Victoria, it says this:
(1) The owners corporation, on request by a lot owner, a mortgagee of a lot, a purchaser of a lot or the representative of a lot owner or mortgagee or purchaser of a lot, must make the records of the owners corporation required to be kept under this Division available to that person for inspection at any reasonable time, free of charge.
(2) The owners corporation may at the request of a person entitled to inspect the records and on payment of a reasonable fee provide a copy of any record of the owners corporation.
(3) A fee determined by the owners corporation for the purposes of this section must not exceed the prescribed maximum fee.
Now, does “provide a copy” mean allow you to photograph or scan it? It would depend on the individual manager. As for a reasonable fee, again, it would depend a lot on the strata manager. Use your phone if you can.
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.
Living in NSW, I agree with Jimmy regarding photographing records. If you want to print them later, often it helps if convert the photos to PDF and then print.
Photographing means you can avoid the nasty per page fee charged by the agent for any record.
Access to the records is (at least in NSW) time based, where there is a minimum fee for the first hour and then a fee for every extra half hour. By photographing you’ll be able to minimise the cost of accessing. On arrival, the records should be on a desk or in a box ready for you to inspect.when inspecting the records, if a document looks half relevant, don’t read it at the inspection. Just photograph it and move on to the next page.
Remember to make a note of what records are “unavailable”. Often a committee member or an agent, will not include certain records or remove certain records from the collection as it suits him/her. I had problems accessing bank statements when I queried certain expenses. As I was not a committee member I could not ask the bank to reissue the statements.
If you want to print them later, often it helps if convert the photos to PDF and then print.
A lot of modern smartphones have a scan function where you essentially take a picture of a document and the phone scans it as a pdf. In Androids it’s often an option on your live camera settings.
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.
In Queensland, at least, the law has been superseded by technology. The property manager won’t allow you a copy of the owner’s roll unless you first pay a fee for service. The legislation vaguely says a fee but not how much. But that’s all fine if someone was required to stand by a photocopier on your behalf but those days are essentially over and today you typically want and get a digital record in pdf form which can be produced in a few clicks. So flick them a few bucks for a copy to be sent, and they must do so, regardless of how defensive the manager or the committee may be in trying to deflect you from getting such – usually as they feel threatened you will use it to contact other owners about their theatrics or general silliness. But persist regardless as they are your records and you do have right to them. If you do attend the manager’s office I suppose taking pictures of any records hardcopy or screen will keep them guessing as to what your interest is and which might help keep the surprise in your court.
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