This Q&A is about parcel delivery in QLD. Due to limitations at our apartment complex, couriers don’t know how to deliver my parcels and the building manager will not help.
Table of Contents:
- 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?
- QUESTION: Our intercom system is broken. Couriers don’t know how to deliver parcels to my Gold Coast apartment and the Complex Manager will not assist.
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: [email protected]
P: 07 5609 4924
This post appears in Strata News #606.
Question: Our intercom system is broken. Couriers don’t know how to deliver parcels to my Gold Coast apartment and the Complex Manager will not assist.
I own a townhouse in a resort complex on the Gold Coast.
The letterboxes are on the inside of the secure gated complex. The Complex Manager owns the PBAX system that operates the intercom system to contact owners via the gate.
I have been told that the PABX system does not work and that no one can contact me via the intercom system. This is creating a lot of difficulties for me to receive any parcels that are delivered to my property. Couriers don’t know how to deliver parcels to my apartmnent.
When a parcel arrives via Australia Post the Complex Property Manager tells them they can not leave the parcel and turns them away, even if I am at home. Australia Post has advised me that they are not allowed to make mobile phone calls to let me know that they are at the property and they have a parcel for delivery to my apartment. They must use the intercom to contact me directly so I can collect the parcels. Can anything be done about this?
Answer: The Complex Manager is not a concierge.
Normally things like PABX etc are what is considered utility infrastructure and owned by the body corporate. If the wiring (or whatever it is) was fixed the problem goes away. The default position is that unless there is some form of paperwork where the obligations were passed to the manager it does reside with the body corporate.
After that, the manager is not a concierge. It is not their job to provide services to owners for purposes like this. They also are usually not there to collect parcels and the like unless they agree to do it gratuitously.
Frank Higginson
Hynes Legal
E: [email protected]
P: 07 3193 0500
This post appears in Strata News #269.
Have a question about parcel delivery at your apartment building or a resident or something to add to the article? Leave a comment below.
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The complex manager has said they will receive parcels “as good will” (something that has always been done by all previous managers) but when something goes wrong they claim they are not responsible and simply say the parcel never arrived (even though Australia Post has confirmation they received it).
Isn’t receiving mail on behalf of the owner and then misappropriating it considered mail tampering?
All I have asked is that they do their due diligence but they seem to think that because they are doing it as a favour that means they can do whatever they want
What rights do we as owners have? (Not all companies will deliver to parcel lockers so we do not always have a choice)
Hi Kevin
We refer you to Frank Higginson’s response above: The Complex Manager is not a concierge.
Your building may wish to look at alternatives such as Groundfloor Parcel Delivery. They’ve just answered a similar question from a NSW lot owner here:
How are parcels and boxes delivered to my apartment?
We have installed a locked metal locker in our secure mailroom with plenty of shelves for parcels to be left. Key to this locker is only handed out on receipt of a notice left by Aust Post or other delivery person in our letterbox. Of course this is not failsafe because other people could remove parcels not intended for them but it’s better than leaving parcels on the ground unattended.
We installed a secure parcel box with combination lock beside the letter boxes for parcel delivery. Works fine.