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Hi,
My strata is charging me $200 for 2 x call out fees when power in my apartment blew out because someone needed to come over to open the mains box so I could flip a switch. Both of these occasions were out of hours (outside Monday-Friday 9-5)
On the first instance, the managing caretakers sent someone over opened the box, flicked the switch, no problem.
Following this, I asked strata for a key to the mains box, but it wasn’t issued. I was told that it was locked with some sort of “tradie” lock which is utter BS. It is a normal Bunnings padlock. I could have just cut it off, but as a good strata paying owner, I instead I got my sparkie to come over and i had to take time off work to be at home when the day to day caretaker was on site (Monday-Friday 9-5) to get access to the mains box for my apartment to look for the fault. My sparkie came over after work the next day, did some tests but wasn’t able to determine the cause straight away and with everything working I left it at that.
A week or two later the same thing happened, the managing caretakers sent someone over, opened the box, flicked the switch, no problem. In the telephone call to get someone over, I said that I had had my sparkie over and he thought it could be either my stove top or oven but wasn’t sure, the managing caretakers then said that if it happened again, they would have to consider charging me a call out fee.
I wrote a letter to strata arguing that it is a matter of safety that someone onsite in my complex should have access to keys to the mains box for all apartments in case of emergency ie if there was a fire and it needed to be switched off, it would be ridiculous to have to wait an hour for someone to come to turn off the power.
In the meantime, I again arranged for my sparkie to come over (whilst the 9-5 caretaker was onsite), on this occasion, my sparkie determined that it was indeed the stovetop which had caused the trouble, I had it replaced and have had no problem since.
A few weeks after sending my letter to strata, I received a brief response that no keys would be kept on site for accessing the electrical mains.
Two months down the track, I receive a letter from strata attaching an invoice from the managing caretakers for 2 call out fees of $100 each for each time they came out to open my box so that I could flip a switch as the cause of the power trip was not associated with common property, the OC would not be liable for the call out fee.
My perspective:
1. all apartment owners/tenants should have reasonable access to keys which open their mains power box as a matter of safety. I had asked for this after the first incident.
2. The managing caretaker had said in my telephone call to him (on the second occasion) – “if this happens again, we will have to consider a call out fee”. This implies that no fee would be attributed to that or the prior call out.
Can anyone please advise if I am out of line here or if there is any regulatory or legislative basis for them charging this to me? There is certainly nothing in the by-laws that I have seen. Perhaps I need to cite the OC’s contract with the managing caretakers?
Finally, is strata allowed to “advise that this expense will be charged to your levies”?
any comments most welcome
ta
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