The peril of going away and not leaving a house key

Unless its a real emergency the OC needs an order of the court to enter a property

In an extreme emergency ie a fire the OC can enter without a court order. The only damage I can contemplate is a broken door. As the door is OC property, they have to repair it at their cost. But thats going tobethe least of the problems.

Maybe you can be more specific about the type of damage you are thinking of.

If an OC is granted entry to a property it needs to take reasonable precautions not to cause any damage to owner property. However how one proves the OC damaged owner property may be harder to prove.

NCAT is a civil court, so the standard of proof is “on the balance of probabilities”. Unless you can show recent photos of undamaged property, proving such a case, even with such a low threshold, is difficult.

Shortcrust wrote:

Surely withholding keys from the OC when one is  absent and in fact not passing the keys to a neighbour or friend is the very definition of hindering? No?

No. If it was, there would be a standard by-law to that effect.  The section you quote is to deal with people who don’t want anyone coming into their apartments for reasons that range from privacy to criminal activity and in so doing interfere with essential or emergency repairs.  The front door is common property so the OC has a lot of leeway in that regard.

Shortcrust wrote:

Is there another section in the SSM Act that speaks to this?

Not really. There are issues of personal privacy and security that would mitigate against any by-law or strata law requiring keys to be left with third parties. Having lived in a building where a corrupt building manager allowed security mates to enter apartments using special master keys I can see why there is no requirement for owners to leave keys with anyone else. This is the relevant section of the Act.

122 Power of owners corporation to enter property in order to carry out work
(1)An owners corporation for a strata scheme may, by its agents, employees or
contractors, enter on any part of the parcel of the scheme for the purpose of carrying
out the following work:
(a) work required or authorised to be carried out by the owners corporation in
accordance with this Act (including work relating to window safety devices
and rectification work carried out under Part 11),
(b) work required to be carried out by the owners corporation by a notice given to
it by a public authority,
(c) work required or authorised to be carried out by the owners corporation by an
order under this Act.
(2) An owners corporation for a strata scheme may, by its agents, employees or
contractors, enter on any part of the parcel for the purpose of determining whether
any work is required to be carried out by the owners corporation in accordance with
this Act.
(3) In an emergency, the owners corporation may enter any part of the parcel for those
purposes at any time.
(4) In a case that is not an emergency, the owners corporation may enter any part of the
parcel for those purposes with the consent of any occupier of that part of the parcel
or, if the occupier does not consent, in accordance with an order of the Tribunal under
this Division.
(5) A person must not obstruct or hinder an owners corporation in the exercise of its
functions under this section.
Maximum penalty: 5 penalty units.
(6) An owners corporation is liable for any damage to a lot or any of its contents caused
by or arising out of the carrying out of any work, or the exercise of a power of entry,
referred to in this section unless the damage arose because the owners corporation
was obstructed or hindered.

David Ng wrote:

Surely you have to be asked to grant entry first before you can be accused of hindering access?

Absolutely, or at least be subject to a Tribunal order. In an emergency, however – such as the all-too-common burst washing machine hose scenario – the scheme would possibly be compensated by its insurance.

I don’t think it is unreasonable for an owner to be absent and not leave their keys with anyone. I do not believe it is common practice for people to leave keys when they go away, on the off chance there will be an emergency in their apartment building necessitating access to their property. So that is irrelevant to the question of who is responsible for repairs.

The door is common property – if the OC had to damage it to gain access the OC should repair the door. I had first hand experience of this many years ago, when there was a flood in my apartment, and the fire brigade had to break the door down. The OC paid for the door and the splintered doorframe to be fixed.

If you are interested, this has been discussed on this week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast.