Strata Security: A Guide for Owners Corporations

Who is responsible for strata security?

The owners corporation (called a body corporate in some states) owns and manages the common property: entries, lobbies, car parks, lifts, stairs, gardens and shared facilities. Its strata committee makes most day to day decisions, and a strata manager or building manager usually carries them out. Larger changes, such as new access control or cameras on common property, are generally decided by the owners at a general meeting and paid for from the scheme’s funds.

Lot owners are responsible for their own apartment, including its door and windows. Tenants follow the by-laws. Security works best when the committee sets clear rules, the building manager applies them, and residents understand why they matter.

What are the most common security problems in apartment buildings?

Why do parcels and mail go missing in apartment buildings?

Online shopping has turned the lobby of many apartment buildings into an unattended storeroom. Parcels arrive through the day, often while residents are at work, and they are left wherever the driver can reach: the lobby floor, the mail room, a corridor or outside a front door. Anyone who gets into the building can pick them up, and many thieves were let in by someone else.

The problem usually has several causes at once:

• Delivery drivers are let in by residents who do not know them, given a shared code, or follow someone through the door.
• Parcels are left in open lobbies or corridors, with nothing to show who collected them.
• Letterbox banks are in areas the public can reach, or have weak locks that can be forced or opened with copied keys.
• The mail area sits outside camera coverage, or the footage is too poor to identify anyone.
• Large items, such as furniture and appliances, are left in loading docks or car parks.

The losses fall mostly on residents, so parcel and mail theft quickly becomes a source of complaints and disputes for the committee. Parcel lockers, a controlled delivery room, changes to courier access and a concierge each have a cost, a capacity limit and an effect on convenience, and what suits one building will not suit the next. Getting it right starts with understanding how deliveries actually arrive, where they go and who can reach them.

An independent building security review maps the delivery and mail routes through the building and tests the options against its layout, delivery volume and budget.

What is tailgating, and why does it matter in strata buildings?

Tailgating is following an authorised person or vehicle through a secure door before it closes. It is a common way for unauthorised people to get into apartment buildings, and it defeats the access control system the owners corporation has paid for, because no fob is ever presented.

Car parks are especially exposed. A vehicle door that takes a long time to close lets a second car, a person on foot or a bicycle follow the first one in. Once inside, an intruder can work through cars, storage cages, bicycle racks and letterboxes out of sight, and if the lifts and stairs from the car park are not controlled, can reach the residential floors as well.

Tailgating happens for reasons that are easy to understand and hard to change:

• Residents hold doors open out of politeness, or to avoid a confrontation.
• Vehicle doors are set to close slowly so they do not hit cars, which leaves a long window to walk in.
• Doors are propped open for moves, deliveries and contractors.
• In a large scheme, residents cannot tell a visitor from an intruder.
• Cameras record people coming in but do not stop them, and footage is often only reviewed after a loss.

The risk is not only theft. People who get in unchallenged may sleep in stairwells or car parks, damage property or confront residents, and residents who feel unsafe in their own car park or corridor bring that concern to the committee. Reducing tailgating usually takes a combination of door hardware and timing, the layout of entries and lifts, how visitors and contractors are managed, and resident awareness, and every change has to be checked against fire safety and accessibility requirements.

The right combination depends on the building. Agilient’s independent review looks at how people and vehicles actually move through the entries and car park, and recommends the changes that will make a difference for the cost.

How do you check a strata building’s security?

A committee can do a useful first check without specialist equipment. The aim is to see the building the way an opportunist would, then agree a short list of fixes.

• Walk it twice. Once in daylight and once after dark, starting at the street and working inward to the car park, mail area, lifts and plant rooms.
• Test the doors. Every external door and gate should close and latch on its own. Time the car park door after a car passes through.
• Reconcile the fob register. Compare the register with the access control system and cancel any fob that cannot be accounted for.
• Read the incident log. Look for patterns by place and time. If there is no log, start one.
• Check the cameras. Play back footage from last week, check the date and time, and confirm someone knows how to export it for police.
• Agree priorities. Fix the cheap and fast items first, and get advice and quotes for the larger ones.

The way a building is laid out affects how easy it is to misuse. Agilient’s guide to crime prevention through environmental design explains how sight lines, lighting and landscaping help, and the guide on how to assess building security covers the wider method.

Can an owners corporation install CCTV in a strata building?

Yes, but cameras on common property must be approved in the way the state’s strata law requires. In NSW this is usually a special resolution at a general meeting, often with a by-law that sets out where cameras may go and how footage is managed. A by-law change must be registered with NSW Land Registry Services within six months of the resolution, or the resolution must be passed again.¹ Other states have their own strata legislation, so the committee should check the rules that apply before buying equipment.

Surveillance devices laws in every state restrict recording private conversations and private activities, so strata cameras should record video only and should not look into lots, windows or balconies.² A short written policy should say who can view footage, how residents and police request it, and how long it is kept.

Image quality matters as much as approval. A camera at the main entry should produce an image clear enough to recognise a face, day and night, which is the kind of requirement the AS/NZS 62676 series of video surveillance standards helps specify. If a system is ageing, the CCTV upgrade guide sets out the options and the free CCTV health check gives a quick first read.

When should a strata committee get an independent security review?

• There have been repeated break-ins, car park thefts or people found inside the building.
• The owners corporation is about to spend significant capital works funds on access control, intercoms or CCTV.
• Contractor quotes disagree, or the committee is unsure whether a proposal fits the building.
• An insurer has asked for a security assessment.
• Residents disagree about cameras and privacy, and the committee needs an independent view to take to a general meeting.

How Agilient supports owners corporations

Agilient provides independent building security consulting for residential and mixed-use buildings, including security risk assessments, access control and intercom reviews, and independent CCTV advice from options to specification and tender. Agilient does not sell or install equipment, so its advice is not tied to any product, which is useful when a committee needs to compare quotes. See an example in the strata residential development case study. Agilient works across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra.