Question: There isn’t sufficient lighting in the garage and common areas of our old building. Is the owners corporation required to improve this for the health and safety of residents?
Our building was built in 1963. Five garages don’t have any electricity. There isn’t sufficient lighting on the driveway and the common area between the garage and the front entry. I often don’t feel safe.
Is it reasonable to request that the owners corporation:
- connect electricity to our garage so we can see and
- improve the light in the common area
Is there any standard, regulation or legislation in NSW regarding electricity access or lighting for health and safety purposes?
Answer: The strata scheme would need to pursue a voluntary decision to implement lighting in the area.
We get this question quite a lot from owners or tenants with a bit of an axe to grind or a personal agenda.
It’s understandable that they would like lighting from the parking area to the door of their unit, but there are no clear mandatory references that support this requirement.
When the complex was constructed, if the buildings passed with no electricity in the garages, there is no retrospective requirement to change this.
From a WHS point of view, lighting can be a recommendation for traversing the common property at night, but it is very subjective, and no one can easily come in and determine how much lighting makes an environment safe vs the annoyance to nearby bedroom windows etc.
Unfortunately, I’m sorry there is no real useful answer for this query. The strata scheme would simply need to pursue a voluntary decision to implement lighting in the area.
This post appears in Strata News #651.
Dakota Panetta Solutions in Engineering E: dakotap@solutionsinengineering.com P: 1300 136 036