For residents
Request CCTV footage.
We can review CCTV at buildings that have it. Two things decide whether a request gets anywhere: how quickly you ask, because recordings are normally kept for about 30 days, and whether anybody else appears in the footage — other people’s images are their personal data, not ours to hand over.
Before you fill this in
- Ask now, not later. Recordings are normally kept for about 30 days and are overwritten after that, so a late request usually finds nothing left to look at. Send the form even if you have not yet decided what you want to do.
- Report a crime to the police. A crime reference number is what lets us pass the unedited footage to an investigation, instead of our having to judge what can be shared. Non-urgent, 101 or online; 999 if somebody is in danger.
- Pin down the time. Somebody has to watch the recording. A 30-minute window is a short job; “sometime Tuesday” often is not. A delivery company’s timestamp is usually the best anchor.
CCTV
What we can and cannot release
How long is CCTV footage kept?
Normally 30 days, unless it is needed for an incident or a claim. That is the most important thing to know before you do anything else: a request made six weeks after the event will usually find the recording has already been overwritten. If something has happened, ask straight away — even if you have not yet decided whether you want to take it further.
Can I be given CCTV footage of an incident at my building?
Sometimes, and it depends on who else is in the picture. Footage showing only you is your own personal data and can usually be released to you. Footage showing other people is their personal data as well as yours, so we cannot simply hand it over. Where a crime has been reported, the right route is almost always the police: we give them the unedited recording as evidence for their investigation.
Why will you not show me a picture of the person who took my parcel?
Because an image of a person is their personal data, and data protection law treats somebody caught on camera as a suspect rather than a convicted criminal. Putting that image up in the lobby or circulating it to residents is a public accusation, and it exposes the building’s management to both a data protection breach and a defamation claim. The Information Commissioner’s Office has given retailers the same advice about photographs of suspected shoplifters. The footage goes to the police instead.
Should I report it to the police first?
For anything that is a crime, yes, and it helps your request a great deal. A crime reference number tells us the request is part of an investigation, which means we can release the unedited footage to the police rather than having to decide ourselves what can and cannot be shared. Report a non-urgent crime on 101 or online; always call 999 if somebody is in danger or a crime is in progress.
Does every building have CCTV?
No. Cameras are installed where the freeholder or the residents’ management company has decided to have them and the service charge pays for them, so coverage varies from building to building — and a camera watching the main entrance will not have seen what happened in the car park or the bin store. Tell us where in the building the incident happened and we will tell you whether there is a camera that could have captured it.
How precise do I need to be about the date and time?
As precise as you can manage, because somebody has to sit and watch the recording. The difference between “Tuesday evening” and “between 6.15 and 6.45 on Tuesday” is the difference between a few minutes of work and several hours of it, and a vague window is the most common reason a request cannot be answered usefully. If a parcel is involved, the delivery company’s own timestamp is usually the best anchor you have.
We have written at more length about why a clear picture of somebody taking a parcel still cannot be put up in the lobby, and what to do instead — Caught on camera, protected by the law. Our retention periods, and what you can ask us for about yourself, are in the privacy policy.