#17950
Whale
Flatchatter

    I don’t think you’re at all out of line. The Caretaker may be within their rights to lock the meter boxes to individual Units for safety reasons, but they are also under an obligation to have someone available to unlock those whenever maintenance is required, and to do that quickly in an emergency.

    Whether or not the Caretaker is able to charge you a fee to unlock your meter box is something that you’ll have to check in their Agreement with your Owners Corporation (O/C), but whilst any fee that may be permitted cannot be “charged to your levies” it can be included as a separate amount on your Levy Contributions Notice (invoice).

    If your Levy Contributions Notice arrives before you can resolve all this with your O/C and Strata Manager, then just pay your Levies and ignore the fee.

    On a related issue, in NSW if the meter boxes also house the meters, then they may only be secured with a lock issued by the electricity supplier, to which most electrical contractors have a key. Perhaps that’s the “tradie” lock that your Caretaker was referring to.