Question: As an onsite manager, can I receive the owner roll with contact information such as email and phone number?
I am an onsite manager. I requested, via the strata manager, the owner roll. I was supplied a version without contact information and told the owner’s contact information could not be provided due to privacy issues. Is this true? I have previously received a roll of all owners, including contact information from a different strata manager.
Answer: The provision of the roll can be a touchy subject.
William Marquand, Tower Body Corporate:
As a caretaker, you may need to contact owners to complete your work. As such, you might advise the body corporate or manager that if you don’t have the owner.s contact details, you will only be able to contact them through the body corporate or by letter. This doesn’t seem like a very efficient way for you to do your job, so you would think the body corporate would provide you with the contact details you require.
Otherwise, owners and interested parties are entitled to access body corporate records. The complete roll should be available if you go through the formal process of accessing these records. See the link below for how to access information.
It’s worth noting that the provision of the roll can be a touchy subject. Of course, the body corporate needs owners’ telephone and email contacts to facilitate good communication across the scheme. However, many people don’t realise that when they provide this information, it becomes part of the public record for the scheme. When they find this out, they often feel their privacy has been violated somehow. This may not technically be true, but it is emotionally true, and that factor can be just as important as the technicalities. It’s not unusual then that there is a reluctance to part with the information even if it is a legal requirement. It’s another area where the body corporate legislation is out of step with modern living, but until there is a wider overhaul of the rules, it is one we are stuck with.
Queensland Government: Accessing your body corporate’s records
Todd Garsden, Mahoneys:
I agree with what Will has stated above. In Merrimac Heights [2018] QBCCMCmr 278 the adjudicator relevantly provided:
personal information can be used or disclosed if that use or disclosure is required or authorised by law. Section 205 of the Act [BCCMA] specifically requires the disclosure of body corporate records, so the disclosure of records that include personal information is authorised by law. Accordingly, as adjudicators have consistently held, there is no prohibition in the Privacy Act on the disclosure of personal information when it is disclosed pursuant to 205 of the Act.
After making a proper records request, the person requesting the records is entitled to the information. It should not be redacted for “privacy”.
Although there is no strict requirement for phone numbers and email addresses to be recorded, there is no prohibition in doing so. The adjudicator relevantly provided in Hope Harbour Marina [2016] QBCCMCmr 239 that:
“[w]hile the Act [BCCMA] and Standard Module specifically require certain records to be kept by bodies corporate, they do not specifically provide for the body corporate’s collection of owners’ email addresses and telephone numbers. Nor do they prohibit the collection of these details. In practice, many bodies corporate do collect these details to assist their communication with lot owners. The respondent acknowledged in its submission that it does possess the requested contact details.”
William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924
Todd Garsden
Mahoneys
E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au
P: 07 3007 3753
Leave a Reply