Question: Can an owner fasten a CCTV camera to common property without the Committee’s permission? What if they refuse to remove the camera?
Can an owner fasten a CCTV camera (recording both vision and sound),to common property without the Committee’s permission?
If the answer is no, must the camera and sound equipment be removed? What can the committee do if they have followed the correct procedure, but the owner refuses to cooperate?
Answer: Any improvement to common property requires committee approval.
Chris Irons, Strata Solve:
The answer is no. So when it comes to common property, an owner must seek approval to make what’s called an improvement to common property. The level of approval required is dependent upon the value of the work. But effectively, Frank, if it’s over $3,000 worth of improvement, it will go to a general meeting for approval.
Frank Higginson, Hynes Legal:
Even if it’s under $3,000, a committee can make a decision but it’s not obliged to. For something like that, it might choose to refer it to general meeting for approval. The simplest analogy is any improvement to common property requires that. If I want to go paint the wall in the gazebo pink in common property, then I need to get committee approval for it. So no.
In Queensland at least, you potentially would be off to the commissioner’s office for an order that it be removed. Although and again, it wouldn’t be legal to do it, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen committee members or lot owners take the law into their own hands in the sense of just rip it down. That absolutely would happen too. Not that is a legal way to approach that particular issue. But that’s usually what happens because the Commission’s office will take 9 to 11 months to make a decision.
Chris Irons, Strata Solve:
One of the other options there, Frank, is that the owner could be invited to seek retrospective approval for the installation. In fact, that is typically one of the orders that comes out of the commissioner’s office. If the owner has not sought approval, then the owner can be asked to seek approval, and the committee or general meeting does have the power to do so retrospectively.
I think this person is looking at the scenario where all those options have been exhausted and the owner refuses to either do anything about it or refuses to seek approval. You can seek an order from the commissioner’s office and yes, absolutely it can be ordered to be removed and replaced back to how it was, yes.
This post appears in the March 2021 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
Chris Irons Strata Solve E: chris@stratasolve.com.au P: 0419 805 898
Frank Higginson Hynes Legal E: frank.higginson@hyneslegal.com.au P: 07 3193 0500