Question: A few committee members from one precinct in a layered scheme would like to view security logs for our building. As the Security Contract is with the Principle Body Corporate, we’ve been denied access. Is this right?
I live in a complex with a Layered Scheme. We have Precincts 1, 2 and 3. I am the Treasurer for Precinct 3. We have a Principle Body Corporate.
Of an evening, a Security Patrol logs incidents and sends a daily report to the Principle Body Corporate’s Body Corporate Manager, who then forwards it to the respective Chairs of each Body Corporate. The Security Contract is with the Principle Body Corporate.
A few of our Committee Members would like to view the log. We have been informed that as the Principle Body Corporate pays the Security Contractor, P3 Body Corporate Members have no right to view the document. They cite confidentiality reasons.
Is this correct?
Answer: Individual owners in the Subsidiary Bodies Corporate are not members of the Principal Body Corporate so you are not automatically entitled to access.
What you’re referring to here is, as you say, a layered scheme. In a layered scheme, you have the Principal Body Corporate (PBC) and then a series of Subsidiary Bodies Corporate (SBC).
In your run-of-the-mill body corporate, each owner is a member of the body corporate. Using that as an analogy, in layered schemes, each SBC is a member of the PBC. In other words, that means that individual owners in the SBC are not members of the PBC. Each SBC has specified representation on the PBC.
So, then, when it comes to something like access to records, you are not automatically entitled to access the security log as a committee member of the SBC. Body corporate legislation frames access to records in terms of whether someone is an ‘interested person’ as defined under legislation and so it is possible you could apply to the PBC in that context, arguing that you have what is referred to as a ‘proper interest’.
That said, the claim that the security log can’t be provided for ‘privacy’ reasons is not correct. Body corporate records are generally not subject to privacy regulations.
My question to you: noting what I say above about a proper interest, is there a particular reason you want to see the security log? For example, is there an incident of interest to you? Or is it that you want to see what the security contractor is doing? I ask you this because your motivations for wanting to access the log might mean there some alternate approaches you can take, rather than simply seeking the record.
Chris Irons
Strata Solve
E: chris@stratasolve.com.au
P: 0419 805 898
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