Question: Where does the committee stand on a disability door upgrade request, when the same manual disc system is used on many other doors in the block?
A disabled owner has requested an upgrade to the door from our parking area to the ground floor lift lobby. They have a damaged foot from an injury sustained before purchasing in the building. They request an automatic door opener using a coded disc. The present disc/tab releases the locked door but requires a manual action to open it.
Our committee is concerned because this current system applies to many other doors throughout the nine storey block.
Answer: The owner should bypass the committee and put an accessibility infrastructure motion to a general meeting, which has a reduced voting threshold.
In answering this question, I am assuming that the lot owner has a disability within the meaning of section 4(1) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth). The definition is broad and includes a total or partial loss of a person’s bodily functions. I assume the request was made to the committee rather than as a motion for consideration at a general meeting.
The lot owner should not rely on the strata committee to investigate the potential for a new door. First, a change that is not a repair but is an addition or alteration to the common property is not within the strata committee’s powers. Second, the strata committee are volunteers and may not have the time to investigate and prepare a motion for approval of the owners corporation, or the inclination to put forward a proposal that may incur costs. However, there is another path to approve the change.
An automatic door between the common property car park and the common property lift is accessibility infrastructure, as it would assist the disabled lot owner to access the common property and, presumably, also their lot from the car park. As such, the lot owner can prepare and submit an accessibility infrastructure motion to the owners corporation for consideration at a general meeting. This is a motion to change any part of the common property by installing, removing, modifying or replacing anything on or forming part of the common property, such as changing the common property door, its opening mechanism and security system to make the door automatic. This type of motion has a reduced threshold for calculating a special resolution, bringing it down to 51% of the unit entitlements present and eligible to vote in favour.
Before voting on an accessibility infrastructure motion, section 132C of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (the Act) requires the owners corporation to consider:
- the cost of the change and how it will be financed and the expected maintenance and operating costs (for instance, will the lot owner pay for the change, or is a special levy or strata loan required?)
- who will own, install and maintain the new accessibility infrastructure. In this case, it would be impractical for anyone but the owners corporation to own, install and maintain the new door, opening mechanism and security system.
- who would be able to use the accessibility infrastructure mechanism. In this case, depending on the system, it may be possible to have a door that opens automatically for some key fobs but not others, but this likely would not be practical.
- the extent to which not installing the accessibility infrastructure will cause, or be likely to cause, detriment to the disabled person in question, and whether the building can support the type of accessibility infrastructure requested.
My suggestion is that the lot owner investigate options to convert the door to an automatic door and prepare an accessibility infrastructure motion with enough detail so that lot owners have the information required by section 132C of the Act. If the motion is defeated, the lot owner should consider the reasons given and seek advice about a potential claim for discrimination, on the basis that operating and maintaining the common property door is a service provided to lot owners.
This post appears in the October 2026 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Leave a Reply