NSW: Do you need authority to install a Ring Doorbell/Camera?

Hi, everyone, it’s Allison Benson here from Thoughts from a Strata Lawyer.

I had a question posed to me today and I thought, oh, that makes a really good blog. The question was, whether and a lot owner needed a by law to install a ring camera on their front door of their lot.

Now, it comes up, I would say, pretty regularly this question, so hopefully this is going to help a few people out there.

If you don’t know what a ring doorbell is, maybe just Google it, but it’s basically a little gizmo that you can whack on your front door, a little box basically. It allows security. Sometimes it’s an intercom type function. Other times it is a camera effectively that captures movement outside your front door.

I don’t know what it says about me, but I mostly see their footage happening when on YouTube or coming up on my social media feeds, where a cute animal has gone up and pressed a doorbell. You often see it with UPS drivers and that sort of thing coming and delivering parcels and then being scared off, that sort of thing.

But that’s that’s what they’re for. That’s effectively what they do.

So in this case, in our New South Wales strata schemes do you need a by-law to install one?

Now, the device itself can be seen from outside the lot so I’m going to tackle that query and I know people will be saying, oh, what about the exemption to the minor renovations by-law and the cosmetics works section, that you can’t install anything that changes the external appearance of a lot under either “cosmetic works” or “minor renovations” under section 109 or 110 of the Strata Schemes Management Act.

Well, my answer is, have a look at section 111 of the Strata Schemes Management Act. That section basically prohibits an owner carrying out work on the common property, unless they’re authorised, under that particular part of the Strata Schemes Management Act, so, for instance, by a by-law, by a special resolution under section 108 of the Act. or by another approval, such as it’s authorised because it’s a cosmetic work or it’s authorised by the strata committee or the owners corporation through the minor renovations exemption. Importantly, if it is wrk that is already authorised by a by-law, the owner can do the work.

Now, in most of our schemes, you are going to have a model by law that says something to the effect of (I’m going to read it because it’s pretty common across all the schemes) It will say something to the effect of an owner or person authorised by an owner, can install without the consent of the owner’s corporation, any locking (or relevantly for us) other safety device (such as a ring doorbell camera) for the protection of the owner’s lot against intruders, or to improve safety within the owner’s lot.

I think a ring security camera falls clearly within the boundaries of that model by-law.

Have a look in most schemes, it’s going to be probably by-law 5, particularly older schemes. It will be called something Damage to Common Property. It’s a model by-law. In newer schemes, it’ll probably come up under model by-law 2, which is called Changes to Common Property.

So, if your scheme has that by-law, then section 111 of the Strata Schemes Management Act has already authorised the installation of the ring doorbell or the ring security camera.

That does not, however, mean that the camera installation itself is not going to offend other provisions of the act, and I have done a blog on this before, um, about a security camera that was causing a nuisance, uh, and whether or not it could be a breach um, of the nuisance provisions under the Stata Schemes Management Act. Hopefully that’s helped somebody out there.

Interested to see your comments on this one. But for the moment that is it for me.

Please, as always, get advice that is tailored to your particular scheme. So for instance, this ring security camera could be a nuisance if it is installed in such a way that it covers more than what it needs to cover. For instance, if it is covering the door of another lot owner, or a window and can see into their lot. That’s going too cause a few problems, I would have thought and potentially be flagged as a nuisance. Always get the advice that’s tailored to your scheme.

See my previous blog on Electronic Surveillance Devices here: https://allisonbensonau.com/2023/06/15/using-electronic-surveillance-devices-in-nsw/

Allison Benson
Benson Legal
E: allison@bensonlegal.com.au

This post appears in Strata News #802.

This article has been republished with permission from the author and first appeared on the Benson Legal website.