› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Common Property › unusable common property due to safety issues › Current Page
In relation to the external access staircase – given the advice provided by the engineer, the OC needs to take urgent/immediate action to prevent access to that staircase. If it doesn’t, then the OC is likely to be liable for anything that occurs such as injuries to a person using the staircase, and an insurance company would not pay out on it. That is a very serious matter as the owners will be personally liable.
It may be that the staircase is a fire exit in which case a number of issues also flow from that.
We had similar issues with our external staircase (which fortunately isn’t a fire exit), and we got builders in to block off access. Blocking off access has the effect of crystallising matters.