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Topic
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I am secretary of the strata committee of a building that has one apartment per floor on five of the seven floors. On these floors, the lift opens into a foyer area and then there is a locked door entry into the apartment itself as well as access to the fire stairs. Whilst on the plan, these foyers are marked as Common Property, each of the owners has decorated “their” foyer area in keeping with their apartment and has enjoyed exclusive access as the security system prevents the lift from opening onto each floor without the appropriately programmed fob.
Two issues have arisen lately:
1 to access the roof, lift control room and “machinery” room, tradespeople have to either walk up effectively 9 flights of stairs, or enter one of the upper foyers via the lift exiting via the fire stairs to walk up the remaining flights. There is now some pushback from the owners of the upper floors not wanting anyone to access their floor foyer without their permission and/or presence at the time.
2 our strata committee members each have a master fob which gives lift access to each floor for emergency purposes. This means that they can enter the lift foyer areas to check on certain things to do with the building. Is this permissible because the foyer is common property? One of the owners of a whole floor apartment believes that the area is “theirs” and anyone else is trespassing.
What is the law on this and how can we resolve these two issues.
If anyone has had a similar experience, we would appreciate your thoughts and ideas.
Thank you.
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Replies
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My view is that accessing common property in a building is not an “emergency” situation. Those foyers should be available to everyone because if there is an actual emergency, you might need neighbours to come and help and they can’t if they don’t have access.
It’s nice that everyone can decorate the common area outside their own apartment how they like, but those are common areas and it’s unfair that trades can’t get up there without walking. Also all those “decorations” – do those owners have permission via by-laws to install items in the common areas?
The quick fix is to change the security on the lift so that everyone can reach every floor. If owners complain, explain that they are actually required to remove all fittings and fixtures from the common area foyers (at their own expense, and returning the walls and floors to their original state), but the Committee will overlook this so long as the lift can open on every floor.
There are many areas in strata schemes that are common property but only limited access is allowed. Communications and electrical switch board cupboards being an obvious case. On the other hand, in some states, incl the balcony is common property but only the owners of the adjoining lot have access to it.
Why isn’t it lot property? Because balconies profoundly affect the look and even the physical integrity of the building and it’s easier to maintain them and set standards for their use if they are common property.
The lift lobbies in this building fall into that category, which is common property but which is normally only accessed by the adjoining lot owner and so it feels like lot property. But the lot owner does not have the right to forbid legitimate access by agents for the strata scheme or, indeed, do whatever they want on it.
This is why smoke drift has become an issue in a lot of buildings; the strata scheme has the right to create by-laws covering the use of common property and people affected by smoke drift get frustrated when their neighbours on the committee or at an AGM refuse to do anything about it.
So the person on the top floor who doesn’t want tradies traipsing through “their” lobby should be quietly reminded that it’s not theirs exclusively and in an extreme situation, they could be ordered to remove all their stuff and repair all the holes in the wall from their picture hooks.
However, the committee is not going to do that but maybe they will let them know when tradies require access and they can sit on a deckchair and watch them pass by, if they want. But if they do so stark naked and/or shouting abuse at the workers, they could get a notice to comply with the by-law that says you can’t behave offensively on common property.
Common property isn’t always just common property but common sense is always common sense.
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