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Topic
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In strata we know about dwellings used for different use including private and commercial.
Safety regulation is different in that for private use they are approved as built unless there has been a change to construction or usage unless the amended or new regulation specifically states retrospectively but commercial property must meet current requirements.
In strata common property can be private but if there are no locks on the entry doors or gates and no signage about illegal trespassing the public has right of entry like a door to door sale person can legally enter the property and use the stair wells etc.
If the railing in the stairwell is legal as built but significantly lower than current minimum requirement and known by all including the executive committee to be unsafe to today’s standard and a door to door sale person enters legally and falls down the central light well over the known unsafe railing that is legal as built, who is the then responsible for building safety.
Is the intent of the strata Act that clearly define the difference between different usages to allow unsafe common property that is legally accessible by the unsupervised public?
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Replies
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leif..I’m sorry but much of all that is a bit rambling, but I think you’re asking if an item of common property, to wit the handrail of an internal staircase, is illegal and therefore a safety hazard because it’s known to be non-compliant with current building standards / codes.
In my opinion the handrail would remain compliant if and until such time as the Owners Corporation undertook some works on its Common Property that affected it, such as replacing a section or perhaps raising the stairs (e.g. by re-tiling), whereupon the entire handrail would likely need to be made compliant (i.e. higher) concurrently.
That’s a bit rambling too, but suffice to say that if your Committee is aware of the safety issue, then compliant or not, it probably has a moral obligation to do something the lessen the risk (of someone falling) by perhaps installing an additional handrail above that existing or even by placing appropriately worded signage at/near the stairway; not advising that the handrail’s low but perhaps advising people to take care on the stairway and not to run whilst negotiating them.
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