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My water cut off valve is in a room where there is electrical meters. This only happens on corner units on each floor.
Essential Energy said they do not care who goes into the room. The strata board will not give me unrestricted access to the room. All other unit have unrestricted access because their cut off valve is not in the electrical room.
NCAT has told me that it would help if I could find any case law that states that I should have access or any other documentation.
Does anyone have anything that might assist?
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Does anyone have anything that might assist?
It’s an area that interests me very much. You might like to read EB 9 & 10 Pty Ltd v The Owners SP 934:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWCA/2018/288.html
It goes into quite some detail about an OC’s obligations to provide access to common property. Even providing access the lot itself (a fundamental right of the lot owner) across the common property needs only to be “reasonable”. What is “reasonable” is for the courts to decide. It might be reasonable for an OC to provide 24/7 access across common property for the occupiers themselves but restrict that access to certain times for the occupier’s goods (furniture). It might be reasonable for an OC to restrict access to certain areas of common property due to safety and security concerns.
OCs can certainly restrict access to the common property in many situations. But the restrictions have to be both fair and reasonable.
Is it reasonable for you to have 24/7 access to your water cut-off valve? I think that would be considered reasonable unless the building had on-site 24/7 management (or another way) that provided that access in the case of an emergency.