› Forums › From the Front Page › Fatal inaction – call for e-bike strata regulations › Current Page
No strata in Australia can create a rule or govern appliances which are plugged into their own unit. That’s not tricky. That’s just a fact.
That’s obvious but avoids addressing what by-laws can be passed. What is tricky is that the hysteria that you describe could push OC into making “all or nothing” decisions.
Here’s another fact for you – owners corporations can pass by-laws to govern the use of common property. My building has a by-law that says you can’t charge your e-bike or e-scooter on common property (a such as your balcony). You have to do it inside your apartment.
There seems to be hysteria on both sides and the less calm and sensible discussion there is on these issues, the more likely it is that sooner or later a strata scheme will decide to not allow any kind of e-vehicles on any part of common property and that is when the real fight will begin.
The NSW fire department has told our OC that there is “no safe place” to charge e-vehicles in an apartment building. Our strata committee is clinging to that like it isthe word of God, partly because purely technically it’s true if they mean a battery fire can start anywhere and spread eventually.
The dumb thing is that we have a bicycle room that is effectively a solid concrete box where e-vehicles could be charged, their charging monitored and the risk of fire spreading seriously mitigated.
But no, the fire God says “nowhere” so we have a by-law that would probably fall over the first time it was challenged and which I’m pretty sure is ignored anyway because you can’t see what’s going on every balcony.
That’s what’s tricky – the gulf between the theory and the fears it fuels, and the realpolitik of strata.