Hmm. A typical and all-too-common passing of the buck there and it won’t wash if you don’t want it to. The Owners Corporation has a statutory responsibility to maintain and repair common property and the owner (but not the tenant) has the right to seek orders compelling them to do that.
Or, look at this the other way, the owner has the responsibility to the tenant to provide “reasonable security” whaich means they should be taking the necessary action to compel the OC to fulfil its duties, if need be by taking action at Fair Trading and NCAT.
The standard residential tenancy agreement says this:
LOCKS AND SECURITY DEVICES
32. The landlord agrees: 32.1 to provide and maintain locks or other security devices necessary to keep the residential premises reasonably secure.
Section 106 of the strata schemes management Act says this:
106 Duty of owners corporation to maintain and repair property
(1) An owners corporation for a strata scheme must properly maintain and keep in a state of good and serviceable repair the common property and any personal property vested in the owners corporation.
(2) An owners corporation must renew or replace any fixtures or fittings comprised in the common property and any personal property vested in the owners corporation.
So your owner should be hassling the OC to fix the lock and they have the power to ask the Tribunal (NCAT) to issue orders compelling them to do so. The owner should at the very least be seeking mediation as a first step to seeking orders under section 106.
If they don’t then they have breached the conditions of your lease and you are entitled to ask for a rent reduction. You might also tell other tenants in the building that they can ask for rent reductions too.
Your rental agent has zero interest in asking the landlord to do anything except take your rent so you have to give them a form of encouragement, perhaps by telling them that if there is no sign of the landlord insisting that the lock be fixed, you will want a rent reduction and you are prepared to go to Fair Trading to get one, if need be.
I would lay odds that your landlord isn’t even aware of this issue, so proceed politely and civilly, at least to begin with. And have a look at this page on the
Tenants Union website which doesn’t refer directly to strata but the principles are the same.
And when the rental agent says the problem is the Owners Corp, you can say no, the problem is the lock and that’s the landlord’s problem. If the landlord has a problem with the OC, it has nothing to do with you.
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