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[Louie]

An owner was told by 2 garage door tradespeople sent by strata Managing Agent, that his garage door was operating correctly.  Due to its age, the owner insists the door is heavy and needs replacing, causing an upper back injury.  The owner waited and is now on EC and is telling the garage door tradespeople now being sent by strata what to put on their reports, ie, replacement door.  He also wants the option of an auto door motor.  When his garage door gets replaced and he then puts on an auto motor, who would actually then own the door for future maintenance?  As he is on EC, we can see the Exclusive Use By-Law being by-passed.

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[Jimmy-T]

The simple answer is to let the owner attach a motor provided that, under the special resolution required, they accept ongoing responsibility for the maintenance of the motor and the door.  If they aren’t prepared to do that, let the door stay exactly as it is.

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[Cosmo]

In the circumstances you outline, under the Land and Property guidelines (https://www.lpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/163297/2011_07_Defining_who_is_responsible_for_items_in_a_Strata_Scheme.pdf) the Owners Corporation is responsible for the door and the owner the motor.

As I understand it the problem with the old one is “heavy and needs replacing, causing an upper back injury”.

Why does the owner need a new door if a motor is attached to the old one? 

From my experience the owner might argue that even if a motor is put on the old door they are still going to hurt their back if the opener malfunctions and they have to open it.  The question then becomes, is this door any harder, heavier to open than the other garage doors in the strata?  

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[Louie]

Thanks for the replies – sorry I wasn’t clear.  The original door does not have an auto motor – the resident wants strata to pay for a new manual door and he’ll add an auto motor.  Others in the strata have paid for both door and auto motor and are aware they are responsible for ongoing maintenance, etc, costs.  Call us cynical, but the actual door is okay – just needs possibly new side rails (slightly rusted).  If this owner is successful (which he will), other owners who only have a manual door are waiting to put in their claims for a new manual door.  When owners have been changing over to auto doors, because of the width of the motor, a new narrower door has to be put on – then a piece of wood to cover from motor area to ground level.  This fellow simply wants strata to pay for new door and he will pay for an auto motor.  He doesn’t want to pay for both.  Fingers crossed that the rest of his EC will stand up to him!

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