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Who can access the strata roll, and what does it contain?

State strata law requires the owners corporation to keep a roll and make it available to the people the Act entitles. In New South Wales that is an owner, mortgagee or covenant chargee of a lot, or a person they authorise, on written request and payment of the prescribed fee (s 182(1), (2)). It holds owners' names, service and postal addresses and other prescribed details. Because the law compels this disclosure, "privacy" is generally not a ground to refuse an entitled person, though a covered manager must still not release it to anyone else.

By Jon Oates, Founder of Privaproof · Last updated

General information, document templates and tools you tailor, not legal advice. Privaproof is not a law practice.

What the roll actually contains

The roll (called the "strata roll" or "owners register" depending on your state) is the statutory record of who owns and is connected to the scheme. It is not a marketing list, it is a legal register the manager keeps on the owners corporation's behalf.

In New South Wales, section 178 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 sets the prescribed content. For each lot that is the owner's name, an address for service of notices, an Australian postal address and an email address if the holder has one, the name and service address of any agent the owner has appointed, and information given in a strata interest notice or a tenancy notice (s 178(1)). For the scheme itself, s 178(2) records the plan number and building address, the names and service addresses of the original owner and any strata managing agent, unit entitlements, insurance particulars and the by-laws in force. In Victoria the owners corporation keeps two things: the records under section 144 of the Owners Corporations Act 2006, which include the full name and address of each lot owner, and the owners corporation register, established under s 147 with its contents set by s 148 (the plan number and address, the name and address of each lot owner, the manager's name, registration number and contact details, lot liability and lot entitlements, rule amendments, notices and orders, contracts and insurance particulars)., and in Queensland section 204 of the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 requires the body corporate to keep its rolls and registers, and to give access to them, in the way provided for in the regulation module applying to the scheme. The roll's contents are set by the module, not the Act: under the Standard Module Regulation 2020 s 224 the roll must contain the name and address of the original owner and of the current owner or co-owners of each lot, the contribution and interest schedule lot entitlements, and details of any mortgagee in possession. Section numbers move with amendments, so confirm the current provision for your own state before quoting it.

The practical point: the roll pulls the names and addresses of the scheme's owners, and of the other people the Act names, into one document, which is why access is regulated rather than open.

Who is entitled to inspect it

Access is not public. State strata law defines a specific class of people who may inspect the roll and records, typically:

In New South Wales that class is set by s 182(1) and it is narrower than most managers assume. It does not name strata committee members separately: a committee member who is also an owner is entitled in that capacity, not by virtue of sitting on the committee. Other states define their own class, which in some extends to prospective purchasers acting through the owner or their representative, so confirm your own.

In NSW this inspection right runs through section 182 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, which lets an owner or other entitled person inspect the roll and records on written application and payment of the prescribed fee (a prescribed amount set by regulation and updated periodically (in New South Wales it is now tiered, with a higher rate for a non-owner searcher), so confirm the current figure). Victoria and Queensland run their own access provisions, and Victoria differs on fee. Under the Owners Corporations Act 2006 a lot owner, a mortgagee, a purchaser, or the representative of any of them may inspect the records (s 146(1)) and the register (s 150(1)) at any reasonable time free of charge, with a capped fee payable only for copies. In Queensland the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 s 205 requires the body corporate to permit an interested person to inspect within 7 days of a written request accompanied by the fee prescribed by the regulation module, and that fee is tiered by whether the inspector owns a lot (Standard Module Regulation 2020 s 233(1)(a)). If you operate outside New South Wales, Victoria or Queensland, check your own state's strata legislation for the equivalent right and fee, because the detail differs in every jurisdiction.

A member of the public, a debt buyer, a data broker or a neighbour with no lot interest is not in that class in New South Wales or Victoria, where the entitled list is closed. Queensland is the exception to watch: s 205(13)(e) extends the class to a person who satisfies the body corporate of a proper interest in the information sought, so the answer there turns on what the requester can show. Being outside the entitled class is the ordinary reason to refuse or limit a request, not "privacy" in the abstract.

Why "privacy" is usually not a lawful reason to refuse an entitled request

When an entitled person makes a proper request, state strata law compels you to make the roll available. In Walker v The Owners - Strata Plan No 1992 [2020] NSWCATAP 192 the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal Appeal Panel held that privacy did not defeat an owner's statutory right to inspect the levy register, finding "no issue of 'privacy' which in this case derogates from the statutory right of an owner to access financial information and accounting records where such a right is expressly provided under the SSM Act" (at [42]). Disclosure that is required or authorised by law is exactly the kind of disclosure the Australian Privacy Principles permit, so a covered manager is not breaching the Privacy Act by complying with a lawful inspection.

There are narrow express exceptions, and each is statutory rather than a general privacy discretion. In New South Wales s 182(5) bars disclosure of how an owner voted in a secret ballot. In Queensland the body corporate need not release a part of a record it reasonably believes is defamatory (s 205(3)), or records privileged from disclosure where a proceeding with that person has started or is threatened (Standard Module Regulation 2020 s 232(2)). In Victoria, a person whose personal information is in the records or register may apply to VCAT under Owners Corporations Act 2006 s 172 for an order restricting access, which VCAT may make if it considers exceptional circumstances exist. That is the person's own application to VCAT, not something the owners corporation or its manager can grant.

Refusing an entitled person is a strata-law problem before it is a privacy one. The duty sits on the owners corporation, and it is penalty-backed: in New South Wales the s 182(3) duty carries a maximum penalty of 5 penalty units and NCAT can order the record be made available under s 188(2), and in Queensland s 205(2) carries a maximum of 20 penalty units. It reaches a managing agent through the delegation of the owners corporation's functions. Read: is the Privacy Act a shield against strata record access?

Where the manager's privacy duty still bites

Holding both sides of this is the whole skill. The duty to disclose to entitled persons does not license you to release the roll to anyone else. If your managing-agent business is covered by the Privacy Act, then over that same roll you still owe the following. Coverage turns on s 6D, and turnover is only one of its tests: annual turnover above A$3 million is one trigger (and it ratchets one way once crossed), being a body corporate related to a body corporate that is not a small business is another (s 6D(9)), and s 6D(4) lists four more, including disclosing personal information about another individual for a benefit, service or advantage, which is subject to the consent and required-by-law carve-outs in s 6D(7).

So the honest rule is two-sided: disclose to the entitled, protect against everyone else. Whether the roll can be released with direct contact details removed is state-specific and, on the phone and email question, unsettled. In Victoria the records and the register must contain each owner's name and address (ss 144(a), 148(b)) and entitled persons may inspect them, so removing those would cut across the access right; owner phone and email are the genuinely open category there. In New South Wales a telephone number is not prescribed content at all under s 178, while an email address is prescribed where the holder has one. Confirm the position under your own state's legislation before adopting a fixed practice, and do not treat redaction as a universal rule. Whether that redaction is permitted or required is state-specific, and we have checked New South Wales and Victoria rather than every state, so treat it as a practice to confirm, not a universal rule. Read: can a strata manager give out an owner's details?

If your business is under $3 million and not part of a group

You may genuinely sit outside the Australian Privacy Principles, and we will say so rather than sell you coverage you do not have. But note two things. First, the state duty to keep the roll and make it available to entitled persons sits on the owners corporation and applies whatever its manager's turnover, so those access rules govern the work you do for it however the Privacy Act falls. Second, even if the APPs do not reach you, releasing an owner's details to someone with no entitlement is still governed by your management agreement and the state strata legislation. Good roll handling is not only a Privacy Act question. Read: does the Privacy Act apply to strata managers?

The short version

The roll must be kept and made available to the people the Act entitles, on request and on payment of the prescribed fee, and privacy is not a lawful reason to refuse them. It contains owners' names, addresses and other prescribed details. Everyone outside that entitled group has no right to it, and a covered manager must actively protect it under APP 6 and APP 11. Confirm the exact content, entitled persons, fee and any redaction practice under your own state's strata legislation, because the detail differs in every jurisdiction. Read the cornerstone: privacy compliance for strata and owners-corporation managers.

Common questions

Can any owner in the building see the strata roll?

Generally yes. State strata law entitles owners to inspect the roll and records on written request and payment of the prescribed fee. In New South Wales s 182(1) extends that to a mortgagee or covenant chargee of a lot, and to a person authorised by an owner, mortgagee or covenant chargee. The specific list and process differ by state, so confirm your own jurisdiction's provision.

Can the manager refuse to hand over the roll on privacy grounds?

Not to an entitled person making a proper request. State strata law compels the disclosure, and disclosure required or authorised by law is permitted under the Australian Privacy Principles. Refusing an entitled owner is more likely to breach the strata legislation than to comply with privacy law.

What information is on the strata roll?

Prescribed details set by state law, which in NSW (Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 s 178) include each owner's name, an address for service, an Australian postal address and an email address if they have one, any agent the owner has appointed, unit entitlements, the strata managing agent's details, insurance particulars and the by-laws in force. Victoria and Queensland have their own register content provisions, with section numbers that change over time.

Can a member of the public or a debt collector inspect the roll?

No, not as of right. Access is limited to the class of persons the Act entitles, which in New South Wales is an owner, mortgagee or covenant chargee of a lot, or a person they authorise (s 182(1)). A party with no lot interest and no authorisation is outside that class, and releasing the roll to them can breach both the manager's duty and, for a covered manager, APP 6. Queensland is the exception to watch: s 205(13)(e) extends the class to a person who satisfies the body corporate of a proper interest in the information sought, so the answer there turns on what the requester can show.

Should I redact phone numbers and email addresses before releasing the roll?

Do not assume you may. The prescribed content has to be released to an entitled inspector, and in Victoria the records and register must contain each owner's name and address (ss 144(a), 148(b)), so removing those would cut across the access right. Owner phone and email are the genuinely open category there. In New South Wales a telephone number is not prescribed content at all under s 178, while an email address is prescribed where the holder has one. Confirm the position under your own state's legislation before adopting a fixed practice, and do not treat redaction as a universal rule.

This is general information and document templates you tailor to your own business, not legal advice. Privaproof is not a law practice and does not provide legal advice. Whether the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) applies to your managing-agent business depends on your turnover and structure; the small-business exemption (s 6D, turnover A$3 million or less) remains in force. State strata legislation on the roll and record access, and the prescribed inspection fee, differ across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and the other states and change over time, so confirm the current provisions and fee for your own jurisdiction. For advice on your specific circumstances, consult a qualified Australian legal practitioner.