Is a strata manager restricted by the Privacy Act from disclosing lot owner details to the Executive Committee due to the Privacy Act?
Table of Contents:
Question: Can we release the full corporate register, including personal details in addition to names and addresses, to the Executive Committee?
Our Chair has requested we release the corporate register to the Executive Committee. I thought the Privacy Act and APP did not allow us to release personal details without the consent of the individual?
I understand the sect 119 requirements (in the ACT) but the query is more about the EC wanting personal details other than name and address as stipulated in our UTMA.
Can we release the full corporate register to the EC?
Answer: There is clear ACAT authority that the executive committee is entitled to view the corporate register. See especially Executive Committee Units Plan No 930 v Capital Strata [2012] ACAT 46.
Christopher Kerin
Kerin Benson Lawyers
E: enquiries@kerinbensonlawyers.com.au
P: 02 8706 7060
This post appears in Strata News #456.
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This article is not intended to be personal advice and you should not rely on it as a substitute for any form of advice.
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Just to state the obvious, the strata manager is appointed by the body corporate, of which the EC controls. It is difficult to see where the body that appoints the manager is prevented from seeing its own records. Say, for example, the EC terminates the strata manager’s contract and takes over the management of the complex itself – those records would be handed over to the EC. And somehow this is a breach of privacy? This is the sort of lunacy that regularly occurs in the ACT where the number of public servants per square metre is the highest in the country!
This decision would but it has been appealed and we are awaiting the decision. I will publish a summary of the appeal decision on the Kerin Benson Lawyers website when it is to hand.
I am wondering whether the decision of ACAT in August/September 2021 to order an owners corporation to provide a member of the OC with access to the corporate register — DAVIDSON v THE OWNERS – UNITS PLAN NO 1475 & ANOR (Unit Titles) [2021] ACAT 76 — would change the advice provided above?
Many thanks