PAIA Compliance for Body Corporates: What Your Manual Must Contain

The Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) gives every person a constitutional right to access information held by both public and private bodies – and a body corporate, as a legal entity managing shared property and funds, falls squarely within its scope.

Why Body Corporates Must Comply

A body corporate holds records that owners, prospective purchasers, financial institutions, and other parties may have a legitimate right to request – financial statements, minutes, insurance policies, and rules. PAIA sets out the formal process for requesting that information and the timeframes within which a body must respond.

What a PAIA Manual Must Include

The body corporate's contact details and the designated Information Officer
A description of the categories of records held (financial, governance, correspondence, contracts)
Which records are available without a formal request, and which require one
The prescribed process, forms, and fees for lodging a PAIA request
Grounds on which access to certain records may be refused (e.g. records containing another owner's personal information)

Handling a PAIA Request

Request Received

The requester submits the prescribed form (Form 2) to the Information Officer, specifying the records sought.

Assess and Respond

The body corporate must respond within the statutory timeframe – typically 30 days, sometimes extendable – either granting access, granting partial access, or providing written reasons for refusal.

Fees

A request fee and, where applicable, an access fee may be charged in line with the regulations.

Internal Appeal or Tribunal

A requester who is refused access, or receives no response, may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator.

Balancing Transparency and Privacy

PAIA compliance sits alongside POPIA obligations: a request for "all owner correspondence," for example, cannot simply be handed over wholesale if it contains another owner's personal information. A well-drafted manual sets out how these competing obligations are balanced.

A Manual Is Only as Good as Its Use

Publishing a PAIA manual is a compliance checkbox – but the real test is whether the body corporate can actually process a request efficiently and lawfully when one arrives.

Need a PAIA Manual or Request Process in Place?

PPSP maintains PAIA manuals and manages information requests for every scheme in our portfolio.

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