Security for condominium buildings and complexes: who comes in, what is seen and who responds.
For condominium buildings and complexes (in Panama, «propiedad horizontal» or PH): access control for residents, visitors and suppliers, cameras in common areas and parking, an alarm for technical rooms and optional 24/7 monitoring. ADVSYSA supplies and installs; monitoring is provided by AMS from the ATG Group monitoring center, under a separate contract.
What a building or a complex has to solve, in plain words
In a condominium, owners, tenants, visitors, suppliers and staff all share the space, and decisions are made by the owners’ meeting. These are the points we review first.
See what a building has to solve
Visitors and suppliers with no record
Who comes in, to which unit and at what time. With access control, every entry is recorded with its date and time, and the management decides who may look at that record.
Keys and cards of people who no longer live there
A key or a card keeps opening doors until someone deactivates it. With one credential per person, the management deactivates just one without changing the others.
Parking, basements and vehicle entrances
Areas with few people and sometimes little light. Cameras on ramps and in blind spots, and vehicle access control with one credential per vehicle, so you know which vehicle came in and when.
Common areas after hours
The pool, gym, party room, rooftop or trash room at odd hours. Schedules by area on the readers, and cameras that leave a record of who was there.
Fire in technical rooms and storage rooms
Electrical rooms, pump rooms and storage rooms are risk points. Fire detection and alarm has its own scope, defined during the visit; it does not replace what the fire department requires, and it does not promise to meet a standard on its own.
Recordings without clear rules
Who can see the cameras? How long are the images kept? What happens if a neighbor asks for a recording? It is best to put it in writing before installing, with your condominium’s bylaws, and to set up the system so it follows them.
From the first conversation with the property manager to the owners’ meeting
In a condominium, everyone has a role: the owners’ meeting approves the budget and special expenses, the board reviews quotes and contracts, and the property manager carries things out. We prepare the proposal so each of them has what they need.
See who decides and how we assess
Owners’ meeting
It is the condominium’s highest body and looks after the security and good management of the common property (art. 58). It approves or rejects the annual budget (art. 94) and votes on special assessments and improvements with the percentages in arts. 35 and 36.
Board of directors
It carries out, and makes sure others carry out, what the owners’ meeting decides about the management, maintenance, operation and security of the common property (art. 80). It reviews the property manager’s quotes and approves or rejects the manager’s contracts (art. 80, items 12 and 13).
Property manager
Carries out what has been approved with the budget of the owners’ meeting, agrees the ordinary contracts that the board approves or rejects, and drafts the budget that the board takes to the owners’ meeting (art. 93, items 2, 6, 7 and 15).
First conversation
You tell us how many towers, units and entrances the condominium has, what happens today and what the board has already discussed. With that, we know whom to coordinate with and what to present.
Visit to the building
We walk with the property manager through the pedestrian and vehicle entrances, the lobby, the parking areas, the technical rooms and the common areas. We note blind spots, doors, conduits and the existing network.
Itemized proposal
Equipment and installation, monthly monitoring (if you want it) and maintenance, each one separately, so the board can compare them and take them to the owners’ meeting. If the board asks, we prepare a one-page summary to present it.
Approval and handover
Once it is approved, we coordinate dates with the property manager to install without leaving the building without access, we test every point and we hand over the test documentation. If the proposal includes it, we explain the system to the management and gatehouse staff.
Access control + cameras + alarm, and monitoring if you want it
Each part has a clear owner. ADVSYSA supplies and installs; monitoring, if you contract it, is operated by the ATG Group monitoring center; each device comes with its manufacturer’s warranty.
Access control
See details of Access control
Readers in the lobby, the towers and the parking areas, with one credential per person or per vehicle that the management activates and deactivates, schedules by area and a log of entries and exits.
See access control →Cameras (CCTV)
See details of Cameras (CCTV)
At entrances, the lobby, parking areas, ramps and common areas, with recording. Who views them and how long the images are kept is defined with the board and the condominium’s bylaws.
See video surveillance →Intrusion alarm
See details of Intrusion alarm
For technical rooms, the management office, storage rooms and common areas that are closed at night, with alerts to the people the condominium designates.
See alarms with monitoring →24/7 monitoring (optional)
See details of 24/7 monitoring (optional)
The ATG Group monitoring center, operated by AMS, receives the signal, verifies it and contacts whoever the board has defined, in the agreed order. It does not dispatch the police or the fire department on its own, and it does not promise an arrival time.
How our monitoring center responds →Fire detection
See details of Fire detection
Detection and alarm with a scope of its own, kept separate and defined during the visit: for example electrical rooms, pump rooms or storage rooms. It does not replace the building’s fire system, and it does not promise to meet a standard on its own.
See fire detection and alarm →Structured cabling
See details of Structured cabling
Conduits and network for cameras, readers and panels, separate from the management’s network if needed.
See structured cabling →What it covers, what we need from the condominium and what it does not cover
Better to know before the owners’ meeting than after the installation.
See what it covers, what we need and what it does not cover
What it covers
- A design with the location of every device on drawings.
- Supply and installation of readers, cameras, alarm and cabling, according to the items you contract.
- Programming of credentials, users and schedules with the data the management provides.
- Testing of every point with the property manager, and handover of the test documentation.
- An explanation for the management and gatehouse staff, if it is an item in the proposal.
- Each manufacturer’s warranty, under the conditions that manufacturer sets.
What we need from the condominium
- A responsible person (the property manager or a board member) who gives access to the building and coordinates the visits.
- The condominium bylaws and the drawings, if they exist; if not, a walk-through.
- The decision of the board and of the owners’ meeting on the expense, with the percentages the law sets (arts. 35 and 36).
- The list of units, residents and vehicles to be loaded into the system, provided by the management.
- Power and backup, and a data network at the indicated points.
- Written rules on who views the cameras and the logs, and for how long.
What it does not cover
- Guards, doormen and gatehouse staff.
- Civil works, gates, barrier arms and their motors, unless the proposal includes them in writing.
- Lighting of parking areas, entrances and common areas.
- Insurance.
- The response of the police or the fire department, or arrival times: the center contacts whoever the condominium defines.
- Deciding who may come in, who views the images or how an owner who is behind on payments is treated: the owners’ meeting and the board decide that, under the law and the bylaws.
Each line item and its limits go in writing in the proposal; anything that is not there is not included.
What Law 284 of 2022 says that concerns a security project
A summary of what concerns our work, with the number of each article so you can check it in the official text.
See what Law 284 of 2022 says
Law 284 of February 14, 2022, on the Condominium Regime (Régimen de Propiedad Horizontal)
«Sobre el Régimen de Propiedad Horizontal y que subroga la Ley 31 de 2010» (on the condominium regime, replacing Law 31 of 2010), Gaceta Oficial Digital (Official Gazette) 29476-C. The articles cited are from that law; check the Official Gazette for later amendments. Text on Legispan, National Assembly (PDF, in Spanish) ↗
- Who decides. The owners’ meeting is the highest body of the regime and looks after, among other things, the security and good management of the common property (art. 58). The management, maintenance and upkeep of the common property belong to the board of directors and the property manager, who carry them out in coordination (art. 60).
- How spending is approved. A special assessment needs, at the first call, the favorable vote of at least 51% of the units that are up to date on their fees; at the second call, a minimum of 30% of the units up to date is enough (art. 35). Improvements beyond those the condominium already had when it joined the regime also require the favorable vote of 51% of the units up to date (art. 36). If you are unsure which of the two cases applies to your project, ask the condominium’s lawyer.
- Board and property manager. The board reviews the quotes the property manager presents (art. 80, item 12) and approves or rejects the contracts the manager intends to sign (item 13). The property manager drafts the budget that the board presents at the annual ordinary owners’ meeting (art. 93, item 15), and that draft is sent to every owner at least fifteen calendar days in advance; if not, the meeting does not take place (art. 95).
- Access for an owner who is behind on payments. When fees are overdue, the law allows restricting the use of entry by remote control or technological means for the owner in arrears and their dependents, but the owner must be allowed in through the visitors’ entrance (art. 28, item 5). It also allows restricting vehicle access for visitors and for suppliers that are not essential or urgent, and it requires letting through ambulances, emergency vehicles, authorities and suppliers of medicine or food when people in a vulnerable situation are involved (item 6). It is an option: if your condominium decides to use it, the system is set up for that.
- Data of the people who occupy the units. For security reasons, owners must give the board of directors or the property manager a copy of the national ID card (cédula) or passport of whoever occupies their unit as a tenant or on any other basis, and that information is handled under the principle of confidentiality the law sets (art. 56, item 13).
- Camera images. Among the owner’s rights is confidential treatment in matters of their private life or privacy, and «la administración deberá asegurar que el manejo de las herramientas tecnológicas de seguridad, las imágenes e información obtenidas a través de estos medios, deban ser entregadas solo por requerimiento de las autoridades competentes o del propietario afectado, por actos de dolo, culpa o negligencia cometidos en contra de la ley y/o el Reglamento de Copropiedad o uso del bien inmueble» (in short: the management must make sure that images and information from the security tools are handed over only at the request of the competent authorities or of the affected owner, for intentional or negligent acts against the law or the bylaws) (art. 57, item 10). We help you set up who can view and export the recordings.
Law 81 of 2019, personal data protection
Gaceta Oficial (Official Gazette) 28743-A. The law defines personal data as «cualquier información concerniente a personas naturales, que las identifica o las hace identificables» (any information about natural persons that identifies them or makes them identifiable) (article 4, item 9). A recording in which a person can be recognized, or an entry log with their name, may fit that definition, so it makes sense to set who views the recordings and the logs, how long they are kept and how they are handed over to an authority. We help you set that up in the system. Text on Legispan (PDF, in Spanish) ↗ · How we handle data on this site
This is a guide, not legal advice. It summarizes only what concerns our work, not the whole law, and your condominium’s bylaws may add rules of their own. We help you prepare the technical part and the proposal so the board can take it to the owners’ meeting; the decisions and their legal validity belong to the condominium.
What people ask us before a quote
Who has to approve the installation?
It depends on how the expense is classified in your condominium and on your bylaws. The law sets how the owners’ meeting votes on special assessments and improvements (arts. 35 and 36), and the board reviews quotes and contracts (art. 80). We prepare the itemized proposal so the board can take it to the owners’ meeting.
Can it be installed in stages?
Yes, when the design allows it: for example, the entrances first and the cameras afterward. Each stage is a separate item in the proposal, and we confirm it during the visit.
What happens to the credentials of someone who moves out or stops working in the building?
The management deactivates that credential without touching the others. Who can do it is defined with the board, and we help you leave it set up.
See more questions
Can access be restricted for an owner who is behind on payments?
Law 284 allows restricting the use of entry by remote control or technological means for the owner in arrears and their dependents, within limits (art. 28, items 5 and 6, summarized above). It is an option: the system is set up for whatever the condominium decides to apply, and the condominium defines the procedure.
Who can view the cameras, and how long are the images kept?
The condominium defines it with its bylaws and the law (for example art. 57, item 10, on handing over images). We help you set up the users and their permissions. How long the images are kept depends on the equipment, the number of cameras and the storage space, and we calculate it in the proposal.
What happens if the power or the internet goes out?
Controllers and alarm panels run on backup batteries; how long they last depends on the equipment and is calculated for each point in the proposal. What each door does when power fails (stay unlocked or locked) is defined in the design with the property manager, because it affects how people leave the building.
Is 24/7 monitoring necessary?
It is not needed to have the system: it is optional. With monitoring, the ATG Group monitoring center, operated by AMS under a separate contract, receives the signal and contacts whoever the board defines, in the agreed order; without monitoring, alerts are handled by whoever the condominium designates. The center does not dispatch the police or the fire department on its own, and it does not promise an arrival time.
How much does it cost?
It depends on the number of entrances, towers and cameras, and on whether monitoring is included. The proposal is itemized (equipment and installation, monthly monitoring fee if you contract it, and maintenance), with what is included and what is not. Ask us for a proposal for your condominium.
Tell us about your building
How many units the condominium has and what worries you today is enough to start. An advisor will contact you through the channel you leave, and we will set up the visit with the property manager.