Question: I am an owner resident in an apartment on the Gold Coast. What are the rules of management opening resident’s letter boxes if parcels don’t fit through the letter slot?
Answer: remind the managers of this and advise that they can be reported to the police if they continue the practice.
Opening someone else’s mail without their consent could be considered mail tampering and classed as a criminal offence.
The matter is covered by the Telecommunications and Postal Services Act. Here’s a link to an article discussing this: Is It Legal to Open Someone Else’s Mail? (Australia).
As a first step, you might remind the managers of this and advise that they can be reported to the police if they continue the practice.
They may choose to limit the ways they handle the mail as a result, but that is surely better than the current situation.
Beyond this, mail management is a growing issue at many body corporates. We all get more and more parcels delivered, but it is not always easy to get direct access to a unit or property if no one is home.
Of course, the parcels can be taken back by the post or courier for collection at a later date but if the instruction is to leave them at site that can create a problem – it’s not a good thing to have parcels pile up at the entrance or hallways of a unit block.
If you have onsite managers, they may be happy to receive them and pass them on – although this poses some risk if the item is damaged when opened as they may be accused of it being broken while in the manager’s care.
Solutions will vary from building to building so maybe it is something to raise with the committee to see if a system can be put in place that can allow for easier management.
William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924
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