Is the Body Corporate required to provide owners contact details when requested by another Lot Owner?
In a recent adjudicator’s order the adjudicator very clearly ruled that owners have the right to be provided with a full copy of the Body Corporate roll.
In the case of ‘The Point Apartments – Bargara’ [2021] QBCCMCmr383, an owner has lodged an application against the Body Corporate for failing to provide a copy of the roll to enable the lot owner to directly contact other non-resident owners.
Adjudicator I Rosemann has order that:
“1. The Body Corporate for The Point Apartments – Bargara has breached section 205(2) of the Act by failing to provide the applicant with records within seven days of receiving a written request and the prescribed fee.
2. Within 7 days of the date of this order the Body Corporate for The Point Apartment – Bargara shall provide the applicant with a complete and unexpurgated copy of the body corporate roll.”
Rosemann further states that:
“The Act defines ‘records’ as “…for a body corporate, means the rolls, registers and other documents kept by the body corporate under this Act (including under the regulation module applying to the scheme).
“Importantly,section 205 of the Act does not provide an exemption from disclosure for information that may be categorised as personal or confidential. Furthermore, the disclosure of records is not subject to the consent of those with information contained in the records.
“The Act does not impose restrictions on why an owner seeks records or how those records are used. An owner does not need to justify a need for records.”
In a separate adjudication order for ‘Merrimac Heights’ adjudicator I Rosemann has previously clarified that:
“Therefore, if an owner provided their contact details to the body corporate in a letter, form, email, or fax, the communication would be ‘correspondence’ which would be part of the records. There would be no legal right for the body corporate to redact that correspondence to remove any email addresses or telephone numbers, even if the owner concerned asked for that to occur. As such, the contacts would be accessible from the ‘source’ documents even if a collated list of contacts information such as entries in the body corporate roll was withheld.”
“A body corporate roll must contain the names and addresses of all owners, along with other specified details. Telephone numbers and email addresses are not included in the information that is required to be maintained in the roll. However, in my view whether there is a legislative requirement to include the contact details on the roll is not relevant to the question of whether they are part of a body corporate’s records if they are in fact recorded on or with the roll. I am satisfied that any contact details held in a document (whether electronic or otherwise) that is retained by a body corporate will form part of the body corporate’s records.”