Body Corporate
Plan ahead in any request for body corporate records
Article by Frank Higginson
Current as at July 2, 2026
Ten years ago, CCTV in strata was a new thing, but clearly there are plenty of buildings with it now.
A question we’re constantly being asked is: Who has access to the CCTV footage?
For how long must it be kept?
Is CCTV footage a body corporate record?
And up until now, we’ve been quite comfortable saying that CCTV footage is a record of the body corporate, meaning it’s available to be accessed by people who are legitimately entitled to it, which includes owners and occupiers.
But that has just changed.
A recent decision from the Commissioner’s Office – which is an absolute boomer if you’re inclined to be into these things – went into much detail about what records a body corporate must keep under the Act, what it may keep under the Act, what is a record and how these records are actually created, looking at the question of whether they’re created by the body corporate themselves or by third parties.
To cut a very long story short, the adjudicator in this decision expressly said that CCTV footage in that particular instance was not a record of the body corporate and therefore the body corporate did not have to keep it. And further, that the body corporate did not have to make the footage available to an interested person.
As always with the Commissioner’s Office rulings, there are carve-outs at play here.
The key carve-out comes at the very end of the decision, where the adjudicator acknowledges that preceding decisions aren’t necessarily consistent with this new ruling. Essentially, they said that the decision was their view based on the particular set of circumstances.
However, from a jurisprudential perspective for strata lawyers, this is an excellent decision in relation to what CCTV footage actually is and how it should be administered by a body corporate.
Again, this decision about CCTV footage will not be absolutely applicable to every single scheme; the need to act reasonably still exists.
A committee will need to be careful in how it handles requests for access to footage because circumstances change.
If you need help in this somewhat grey area of the law, get in touch.
The full adjudication about CCTV footage can be found at: https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QBCCMCmr/2025/330.html?context=1;query=calmwater%20shores;mask_path=au/cases/qld/QBCCMCmr
More adjudicators are confirming that, in certain circumstances, CCTV footage is not a body corporate record.
Our November 2025 video and article on a BCCM decision that reshaped how CCTV footage is treated within a body corporate attracted significant interest, and a recent decision provides further confirmation of this approach.
In the January 2026 case regarding Caprice Peregian Springs, the adjudicator stated:
“I also find myself persuaded by adjudicator Ananda’s reasoning and, I am satisfied that there will be some documents, including electronic documents like CCTV, that will not automatically be body corporate records just because they are kept by the body corporate.”
…
“In this current dispute, I understand the Body Corporate for Caprice has installed several cameras to monitor, amongst other areas, the scheme’s common property carpark. And, after careful consideration, I am not satisfied the footage from those cameras is being kept by the body corporate ‘under the Act’. While the Act may empower a body corporate to acquire, hold, deal with and dispose of property, it makes no provision for the keeping of CCTV footage. Accordingly, there is no connection between the Act and the body corporate’s retention of the CCTV footage in question.”
None of this is to take away a body corporate’s obligation to act reasonably, which still could mean that CCTV footage should be provided to a party requesting it.
Read the full adjudication here: https://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QBCCMCmr/2026/18.html
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