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SMILE
---- YOU’RE ON CANDID CAMERA
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published
January 27, 2014
In
a post 9/11 world, big brother is watching us like never
before. Walk into
any business and you can bet you’re on camera being video
taped. Same thing
goes while walking down any city street for that matter. Indeed, many of us live in communities where there are
security cameras all over the place watching our every move. What happens when a unit owner in a condominium or HOA
wants a copy of the video tape that recorded a scene from the
common areas on a particular date and time?
Is the owner entitled to a copy of that tape?
What about unit owners who are uncomfortable knowing that
another unit owner can get a copy of a video tape which shows
them walking the common elements or perhaps even sitting by the
pool in revealing attire?
There
is no statute which specifically states that this surveillance
tape is an official record of the association.
However, as for condominiums, Rule
23.002(9)(b), Florida Administrative Code, provides in pertinent
part:
Audio
and video recordings made by the board or committee or at their
direction [are official records].
So,
we know that if there is a recording of a meeting, made by the
board or a committee, owners are entitled to a copy, at least
until the minutes of that meeting are officially adopted.This
still doesn’t answer the “surveillance” tape issue. We do know however
that both the condominium statute, co-op statute and the HOA
statute have very broad language which basically makes any
record available to the owners that relates to the operation of
the association. There
are only very limited exceptions such as attorney/client
privileged documents, information obtained by the association
from approval or transfer applications and medical records of
owners. There is
certainly an argument to be made that if The Florida Legislature
did not want owners to get copies of surveillance tapes, the
statute could have easily said so. It doesn’t.
There
is also a declaratory statement written by the Department of
Business and Professional Regulation which holds that
surveillance tapes that are not automatically “dumped” after
30 days and are then copied by the association, are official
records that can be copied by the owners, at the owner’s cost.
This statement does not address whether or not the surveillance
tape is an official record if not specifically copied off of the
hard drive by the association before it gets automatically
dumped.
In
my mind, surveillance tapes are recorded with cameras that were
purchased with association funds.
They are stored on tapes or hard drives that were
purchased with association funds, and they don’t fall within
any exception to the official records statutes.
Moreover, they relate to the security of the property and
therefore the “operation” of the association.
Therefore, these surveillance tapes are official records,
subject to be examined and copied by unit owners. Finally, unit
owners who know that their every move is being video taped by
the association certainly have no expectation of privacy.
What’s
your take? Are you
comfortable with any owner being able to see surveillance tapes
of your community and get copies? Should these tapes only be available for review if a
crime or vandalism occurs? Should
the tapes only be reviewable by the police or through a
subpoena?
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About
HOA & Condo Blog
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Eric Glazer graduated from the University of
Miami School of Law in 1992 after receiving a B.A. from
NYU. He is currently entering his 20th year as a
Florida
lawyer practicing |
community association law and is the owner of
Glazer and Associates, P.A. an eight attorney law firm in
Orlando
and Hollywood. For the past two years Eric has been the host of Condo Craze and
HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show on 850 WFTL. See: www.condocrazeandhoas.com.
He is the first attorney in the State of Florida
that designed a course that certifies condominium residents as
eligible to serve on a condominium Board of Directors and has
now certified more than 6,000 Floridians. He is certified as a
Circuit Court Mediator by The Florida Supreme Court and has
mediated dozens of disputes between associations and unit
owners. Finally, he recently argued the Cohn v. Grand
Condominium case before The Florida Supreme Court, which is
perhaps the single most important association law case decided
by the court in a decade.
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