This article discusses who is responsible for maintaining and repairing fire doors located wholly within a lot under a building format plan.
Question: Our complex is a building format plant. Would the fire door that is contained wholly within the lot be a lot owner’s responsibility to maintain and repair?
Our complex is a building format plant. Most of the apartments gain access via a gate leading into a private entry foyer with a fire rated door as the secure entry to each lot.
On the CMS plan, the entry foyer area is clearly shown as part of the lot, so that the gate and external foyer wall are the shared boundary between the lot and the common property.
Would the fire door that is contained wholly within the lot be a lot owner’s responsibility to maintain and repair?
Answer: Yes. A lot owner must maintain their lot.
Yes. A lot owner must maintain their lot; s211 Standard Module.
If the lot is created under a building format plan, then the body corporate must maintain parts of the lot, which are not common property, if they fulfil what Adjudicators have called a ‘whole of building’ function, such as waterproof membranes, foundation structures etc and which are detailed in s180(2) Standard Module. A fire door inside the lot, and not a common boundary, does not, in my view, fall into the categories in that section (despite it fulfilling a ‘whole of building’ function – being to slow the progress of fire!).
Michael Kleinschmidt Stratum Legal E: info@stratumlegal.com.au P: 07 5406 1282
This post appears in the November 2022 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.