Commercial strata: appliances in CP kitchen

Wouldn’t  a kettle and a fridge in a shared kitchen be a useful thing? Perhaps someone feels they have been generous in donating them for general use?

In the context of the total electricity consumption of a commercial building, the electricity consumption of one fridge and an occasionally used kettle is likely to be very minor.

How about putting a note on them asking whoever put them there to contact a member fo the strata committee?

Each state would have its equivalent of the Uncollected Goods Act (or similar title) that sets out what you have to do to legally dispose of someone else’s property when left on your property. A strata manager who manages more than a few properties should be across the process as they will have had to deal with this sort of issue often enough.

I expect you are legally obliged to attempt to find the owner before you can dispose of their goods. Then, if they are sold without finding the owner, there might be a requirement to hold the proceeds in a trust account for some period of time. The stringency of the requirements varies with the estimated value of the goods. If the fridge is small and old, you might fall below a threshold that make the process relatively simple.

Still, if you think it is actually quite handy to have the wherewithal to make a cup of tea or coffee and store some non-curdled milk, perhaps you could survey the other tenants and owners to see if they are happy to host a fridge and a kettle. If most are happy, the one upset occupant might be persuaded that it is not such a big deal.

Before involving the manager and legal processes, I would ask around and put a note on the fridge door requesting a discussion with a committee member. Otherwise you might make the upset occupant happy but make another occupant unhappy, perhaps an occupant who thought they were just being nice and doing everyone a favour.

Similar to the laundry issue (if my memory serves), if each lot owner installed their own fridge, then there would certainly be an issue (not enough space). Also, over time, I expect the “shared” fridge (assuming the owner of it is happy for other lots to use it to store their own things) will eventually get dirty and need cleaning, who is going to clean it? Finally, what happens in two years when the fridge stops working and needs repair/replacement, who will pay for that? Or pay for the disposal?

I think this is a fairly simple issue:

1) Whoever is using common property to store their fridge needs to get approval, and potentially pay for the exclusive use of the space. If they are happy to share the space with others, then potentially there is no cost.

2) Once the committee agrees to permit the fridge on CP, they might also agree to cover the electricity costs.

3) The committee might then agree to either take responsibility for the maintenance and management of the fridge, or might require the lot owner that “donated it” to cover the costs for maintenance/management.

4) As for the kettle, similar to above, get permission from committee. Also, would the complaining party also have an issue with one lot owner storing a cup in the cupboard, or a plate, or some other object? A kettle could be considered the same as those other objects.

5) Finally, some of the other items such as a microwave could be treated the same as the fridge, but a fryer or even a toaster might have significant issues in relation to fire/safety hazards, as well as a lot more cleaning implications. So, if you require approval for each appliance, then you can easily allow/disallow each item on it’s merit. Tacitly permitting items could lead to creeping boundaries, and real problems.

Just my 2c… hope it helps.