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Hi all, i am new to the forum. Have been living in strata for a while and on a committee for over 11 in my previous strata. Having just bought a townhouse in (NSW) – Sydney area, i was somewhat horrified to see in the electrical switch room / MDF board room the following items stored.
hoses, long peices of 4 x 2 wood, plastic bins (old type) with fold in handles that kept lid on, wheelbarrow and the 'perfect thing' to keep in a switchroom, 4 large tins of Paint the complex was recently painted. the switchroom is Full; it's a wonder that Sydney Electricity hasn't said anything to the Body Corporate.
in my previous unit the switchroom did catch fire (before) i lived there, one can still see the scortch marks on the walls, so we never kept anything in the switchroom except an aluminium ladder and a few fluro globes. i thought / understood it was illegal to store things in a switchroom?
i have been searching for any rules on the internet as to using a strata switchroom as storage!! can't find anything. does anyone know what the rules are?? i have alerted our strata manager who inturn was / is going to let the committee know – i understand from the strata manager there is a tyrant on the committee who is quite a force to be reconned with and want his way – well bring on the AGM we will see…
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Not sure about the legality of storing items in a switch room. Do these items belong to the OC or an individual? If this is common property the items would need to be common property also. If an individual is using this space, then permission/special by-laws would have to apply.
Does everyone have access to this switch room? If so then OC must need to apply a duty of care by ensuring safe access to all i.e. no trip hazards, nothing that can fall over/on someone, everything secured adequately. I would think a clear path to the switch would be necessary.
The following extract from the Service & Installation Rules (NSW) answers your query:
4.2 LOCATION AND ACCESSIBILITY OF SERVICE AND METERING EQUIPMENT
Service metering equipment must be located in an accessible area on common property.
The customer must make sure that access to any enclosure for meters or service and metering equipment is never restricted or made unsafe. The location must always be kept clear.
If access is obstructed the customer must remove the obstruction or relocate the service and metering equipment.
Keep rooms dedicated to housing service and metering equipment well lit, clean and unobstructed. Do not use them for storage of materials or equipment.
The door(s) of rooms and enclosures housing metering equipment must be labelled “Electricity Meters” or “Meter Room”.
Make sure the metering and load control equipment is easily accessible to electricity distributor officers within normal electricity distributor working hours.
That abstract from the NSW Service and Installation Rules doesn't clarify who it is that is deemed to be “the customer”. If the meter room has multiple meters (ie one meter per unit plus maybe one for the supply to the common property lights and common property power outlets), then the power company would have multiple customers that are billed via meters in that room so exactly who would be “the customer”?
Would it be a singular entity (the OC) or multiple entities (ie the OC plus all lot owners) in this case?
PK
It's one thing knowing the rules about what you can and can't do in the electricity meter room, but another to actually get anyone official (including Energy Australia) to truly care… unless you have that fire ozelle57 referred to.
We have 2 meter rooms (2 buildings) – both were filthy and one, in particular, was full of the sort of rubbish referred to above. There were also useful things, like spare balcony and roof tiles.
So we put up a notice informing residents about the date of a working bee to clean up the meter rooms. I knew this would not lead to a massive number of unexpected volunteers – but the point was to warn anyone who had stored their junk there that they must claim their stuff or we may throw it out.
In the long term, we hope to build a separate store room. But for now we at least have some clean spaces, easily accessible electricity meters and even a place to keep the spare light bulbs and fluro tubes. It works for us.
“PK” – That’s irrelevant really, but the Customer would be whoever it is who receives the Electricity Usage Account; in this case each Resident and the Owners Corporation.
“ozelle57” – One further suggestion. The Meter Room is Common Property, and therefore there's absolutely no reason why anyone other than the Strata Manager and/or the Secretary of the Executive Committee would need to hold a key to that area.
So I'd suggest that you ask your Electricity Authority to re-key the Meter Room Door with one of their master-key system variants, and to supply the O/C's representative with a duplicate key. In that way, only that representative, the Authority's representative, and Licensed Electricians (most have keys) will have access to the Meter Room, and nobody will be able to store their junk.
Whale – not sure why it is irrelevant? The point is was trying to make – and obviously failed to make! – is that it is likely that every owner would be a customer, and so the Service Rules would mean that it is the responsibility of every owner – and not just the OC – to ensure that the switchroom is cleaned etc etc. I was hoping to communicate the principle that this issue, like many others, is a collective individual responsibility and cannot be dumped solely at the feet of the EC/OC,and that no single owner can passively absent themselves from responsibility for this matter.
A lot of people in this forum complain about their EC/OC – and often with good reason, it would seem – but many owners seem to believe that ALL of the responsibility for things of this nature sits with the EC and/or OC.
In any case, I'm not looking for a dispute, just some clarity, some opinions!
But while I'm here,and seeing as you appear to have a strong view, I'd appreciate your thoughts on the following electrical switchroom item – our bldg is an older bldg and the switchroom house the EA meters and the main fuses for each of the units. Is that main fuse the responsibility of the lot owner or the OC? The fuse is for the sole benefit of the lot but is housed in common property. The most practical concern is what happens if the main fuse for any apartment blows – who is supposed to fix it? Any thoughts?
PK
PK – hear, hear!! I only said that identifying the “customer” was irrelevant because I thought (wrongly) that like some others, you may have been raising a perceived complexity in order to make the operational management of a strata scheme more complex than it already is; apologies!
I'm not a Strata Manager, but as Secretary, Treasurer, and all-round “dogs' body” of a self-managed Plan I've so far learn't as much as I need to know about Strata Management, and particularly how not to make my life harder than the Legislation, Property Managers, and (some) Proprietors try to make it. Which was your point also.
So…back to your somewhat atypical circumstance with the meter room at your Plan, I'd make the observation that as the meter boards that supply each individual Lot are permanency fixed to the Common Property (CP) wall within that room, each would be classified as a “Lot Owner's Fixture”.
Other such fixtures include toilet pans, baths, basins, built-in wardrobes/cupboards, wall ovens, and cook-tops – where each is permanently affixed to the CP such that that CP would be damaged if the fixture was removed, and where the Lot Owner is responsible for its maintenance and repair.
And…here's one of those complications. If a Lot Owner's Fixture is damaged by a defined event on the Owners Corporation's Insurance Policy, then it is usually covered under that Policy.
I told you that Strata Management can be overly complex, but isn't bouncing ideas and opinions around this Forum great !!!!!
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