Portfolio · Apartments and owners corporations
Security in apartments and strata buildings
What you can do inside your lot, what needs approval, and who pays.
Borderless Solutions installs security and intercoms in Melbourne apartments, townhouses and multi dwelling buildings. Strata properties have a set of rules nobody explains until you are already halfway through, so this page explains them first.
What you can and cannot do in a strata property
Each answer below is written to stand on its own, so it makes sense whether you read the page or see it quoted somewhere else.
Can I install a security camera in my apartment in Victoria?
Inside your own lot you generally can, but anything fixed to common property or facing a shared area usually needs owners corporation approval, and Borderless Solutions checks which surfaces are lot property before quoting.
The boundary between lot and common property is not where most people assume. In many Melbourne buildings the internal face of a wall is yours and the wall itself is not, which means a camera screwed into it sits on common property even though it is inside your apartment. Your plan of subdivision defines it. We ask for it, because it decides whether this is a straightforward job or one that needs a committee.
Do I need owners corporation approval for a video intercom?
Replacing a handset inside your own lot usually does not need approval, but anything that touches the building entry panel or the common wiring does, and Borderless Solutions will tell you which category your job falls into at the assessment.
This is the most common confusion in Melbourne apartment work. Swapping your internal station for a video handset is often within your rights. Changing the door station at the street, adding a camera to it, or altering the riser cabling affects every lot in the building and is an owners corporation decision. Doing it without approval can mean removing it at your own cost.
Who pays for security in a strata building?
Common property security is an owners corporation cost funded through levies, while anything inside your own lot is yours, and Borderless Solutions quotes the two separately so the split is clear before any work starts.
That separation matters when a committee is deciding. A quote that mixes a building entry system with one owner’s internal upgrade is difficult to approve. We issue them as separate documents so the owners corporation can approve its part and you can proceed with yours independently.
Can a camera in a shared hallway record my neighbours?
Common area cameras are permitted where the owners corporation has approved them, but they carry notification obligations and should not log who enters which individual lot, and Borderless Solutions frames and masks them accordingly.
A camera on a lift lobby or a bin room is normally uncontroversial. One angled down a corridor so it captures who enters which door, and at what time, is a different thing and it is where complaints come from. Framing at the lobby rather than along the corridor, plus privacy masking over lot entrances, is what keeps these installations out of trouble.
Can I secure a townhouse without drilling into shared walls?
Yes, and in most Melbourne townhouse blocks that is the correct approach, so Borderless Solutions uses wireless detectors and mounts off your own structure rather than any party wall.
Party walls are shared property and cutting into one is both a strata issue and a practical one, because a cable in a party wall is difficult to service later. Wireless detectors, cameras mounted off your own eave or fascia, and equipment sited within your lot avoids the whole question. It is usually also faster.
Why apartment jobs go wrong
The usual sequence is that someone buys equipment, books an installer, and discovers on the day that the wall they wanted to use is common property. Work stops, the deposit is spent and the committee meets in six weeks. Almost all of it is avoidable by looking at the plan of subdivision first, which takes ten minutes.
The second issue is the entry system. Building intercoms are shared infrastructure running on shared cabling, and a single lot cannot change them unilaterally. What a lot owner usually can do is change their own internal handset, and modern video handsets will work with most existing door stations. That distinction is the difference between a job you can book this week and a proposal that needs a vote.
Then there is the turnover problem, which is specific to buildings with a lot of rental churn. Access codes on a shared door get passed on, written down and never changed. Credential based access solves it because a card can be cancelled the day a tenancy ends, but it is a building level decision rather than an individual one.
Finally, the recorder. In a house it sits in a cupboard. In an apartment there is often nowhere secure and nowhere ventilated, and a recorder in a linen press with no airflow fails within a couple of years. On small installations we usually recommend recording to the cloud or to the camera itself rather than fitting a recorder that will cook.
Apartment and strata jobs across Melbourne
Each links to the area page for that part of Melbourne, where the local conditions are set out in more detail.
Nothing cut into a shared wall
Owners corporation rules ruled out chasing any cable into the party structure. Wireless detectors sited within the lot, equipment mounted off the owner’s own surfaces, approval not required because nothing common was touched.
Local detail: apartment security in South Yarra
One entry, several households, one approval
The building entry panel is common property, so the work went to the committee as its own quote. Once approved, credentials replaced codes so access can be cancelled the day a tenancy ends.
Local detail: shared entry work in Carnegie
A video handset without touching the building
The owner wanted video at the door and assumed the whole system had to change. The existing street station was fine. Only the internal handset was replaced, which sits inside the lot and needed no approval.
Local detail: intercom work in Prahran
Codes that outlived the tenants
A shared door code that had been passed on for years and never changed. Credential based access on the common doors, reissued per tenancy, so leaving means losing access on the same day.
Local detail: apartment security in St Kilda
A street entry that opened for anyone
A bluestone laneway entry serving several dwellings, with a buzzer that released the door for whoever pressed it. Video door station, credentials per dwelling, and the release logged.
Local detail: laneway entry work in Brunswick
Somewhere for the equipment to actually live
The previous recorder had been sitting in an unventilated cupboard and had failed twice. A ventilated, lockable cabinet in the services room, sited and approved as common property equipment.
Local detail: building infrastructure in Box Hill
What to sort out before you book anyone
Get your plan of subdivision. It tells you which surfaces are yours and which are common property, and it decides whether you need approval at all.
Ask the installer to separate the quote into lot work and common property work. A mixed quote is difficult for a committee to approve and slows everything down.
If you only want video at your door, ask whether a handset swap will do it. In many buildings it will, and that is a job you can book without a vote.
Ask where the equipment will physically live and whether that space is ventilated. This is the most common cause of early failure in apartment installations.
If the building has high rental turnover, raise credential based access with the committee rather than trying to solve it lot by lot.
Get a fixed price for your property
Send us your plan of subdivision and we will tell you what needs approval and what does not, before you spend anything. Assessment and written quote are free.
Licensed and insured. Security Licence Z67-511-50S and ACMA Cabler Licence T59216. 5.0 from 82 Google reviews. Head office 81 Junction Rd, Nunawading VIC 3131. Monday to Saturday, 7:00 to 20:00.