Common Internal Areas

Common internal areas are the shared interior spaces of apartment buildings: the entrance lobby with mailboxes and intercom, corridors and lift lobbies on each floor, stairs, and shared rooms such as bike stores, parcel rooms, gyms and residents' lounges. They are common property, owned and maintained collectively through the owners corporation, body corporate, residents' management company or landlord, and funded from levies or service charges. Functionally they must give residents safe, secure access and escape, present the building well, and stay affordable to maintain. This page draws together the residential aspects; the entrance, corridors and stairs each have their own space page.

Because costs are shared, decisions are collective and often deferred. Many owners corporations have long-term maintenance or capital works plans that are not followed, or none at all, and common areas then deteriorate until a defect or compliance order forces action.

What shortens fitness for purpose:

• Furniture moves without protection, damaging walls, doors and lifts.
• Resident storage in corridors, stairs and bike rooms.
• Network changes: older intercoms, lift phones and alarm diallers depended on networks that have been switched off, such as Australia's 3G networks in late 2024 and copper lines being retired in Britain and the United States.
• Deferred maintenance from collective decision-making.

Flat entrance doors and resident alterations

Each flat's entrance door protects the corridor escape route from a fire in that flat. Residents replace doors with non-rated ones, remove closers, add cat flaps and letterboxes, and fit hardware that defeats the seals. Responsibility for these doors is often contested between owners and the building.

Storage and battery fire risk

Bikes, prams, furniture and e-bikes left in corridors, stairs and lobbies obstruct escape and add fire load; e-bikes and scooters charging in common areas and storage rooms are a growing fire source.

Intercom and access control obsolescence

Intercoms and access systems depending on retired mobile networks or copper lines stop working; proprietary fob systems tie buildings to one supplier; lost fobs compromise security.

Wear and damage

Moves, deliveries and heavy use damage lobbies, corridors, lift cars and doors; damage is often not recovered from residents.

Security failures

Doors that do not close and latch, tailgating, and unmonitored CCTV allow intrusions, parcel theft and vandalism.

Underfunding and deferral

Without a funded long-term plan, common area refurbishments and compliance works are deferred until they become urgent and more costly.

Building defects in newer buildings

Newer apartment buildings often carry construction defects in common areas, such as waterproofing, fire separation and façade issues. Owners corporations must pursue them within statutory warranty periods, and the funds and expertise to do so are often lacking.

On a walk-through

• Items stored in corridors, stairs and lobbies; e-bikes charging in common areas.
• Flat entrance doors of mixed designs, without closers, or with added openings.
• Intercom panels faulty or replaced piecemeal; parcels piled in lobbies.
• Entry doors not closing or latching.
• Damaged walls, doors and lift interiors from moves.
• Worn carpets and dated lobbies.

In the records

• Capital works or maintenance plan and fund balance.
• Annual fire safety certification.
• By-laws on storage, moves and alterations.
• Defect reports and claims.
• Intercom and access control contracts.

• Notices about defects, special levies or compliance orders on lobby noticeboards.

Separate common property defects from resident behaviour: the first needs funding and works, the second needs by-laws and enforcement. Many common area problems combine both.

Findings are graded by what they demand: safety (can hurt someone now), failure (failed and damaging the building), condition (distress present and progressing), lifecycle (renewal due on age and exposure), deadline (a regulator or ordinance sets the date), check (investigate before sizing works) and nil (cosmetic or stable).

A building surveyor leads, with fire safety and security specialists, working through the strata manager, managing agent or landlord so residents can be notified and flats accessed.

• Common area walk-through of every floor, stair, lobby and shared room at different times, recording storage, doors, finishes, lighting, signage and security.
• Flat entrance door survey of every door: rating labels, closers, seals, gaps, hardware, glazing and alterations, with ownership noted.
• Intercom and access control review: technology, the network it depends on, vendor support, fob management and integration with lifts and car park gates.
• Storage and battery review: where residents store bikes and e-bikes, where they charge them, and what rooms exist for this.
• Capital works plan review: whether the plan reflects actual condition and whether the fund can pay for what is due.
• By-law and enforcement review: rules on storage, moves, door alterations and renovations, and how breaches are dealt with.

The report should list safety items, a funded refurbishment and compliance plan, and recommended by-law changes.

• Flat entrance doors: complete a survey, enforce by-laws on alterations, and replace non-compliant doors, settling cost allocation between owners and the building first.
• Storage and charging rules with designated bike and storage rooms, battery charging rooms with detection, and enforcement.
• Intercom and access upgrades to supported systems using current networks or the internet, with open fob formats so the building is not locked to one vendor.
• Move management: booking, lift and wall protection, and recovery of damage costs from residents.
• Security: door closers and latches restored, CCTV reviewed, parcel lockers to reduce theft.
• Refurbishment of lobbies and corridors funded and scheduled through the capital works fund.
• Capital works plan prepared from a condition survey and reviewed regularly.

Common area works are paid for by levies or service charges and, for larger items, special levies. Flat entrance doors are priced per door, often the largest compliance cost in older apartment buildings. Intercom and access control upgrades are lump sums per building. Refurbishment is priced per floor or for the lobby. Planning and surveys are modest costs that reduce the risk of sudden special levies.

Safety items are code compliance; refurbishment is lifecycle and the core of the capital works plan.

• Australia. State strata legislation requires owners corporations to maintain and repair common property, with New South Wales requiring a ten-year capital works fund plan and Victoria requiring maintenance plans for larger owners corporations; annual fire safety certification applies to essential safety measures; by-laws control storage, moves and alterations.
• United Kingdom. The Building Safety Act 2022 creates duties for higher-risk residential buildings, and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require quarterly checks of communal fire doors and annual checks of flat entrance doors in buildings over 11 metres; leasehold law and the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 govern service charge consultation.
• United States. State condominium and homeowners association laws govern common elements and reserves; Florida requires milestone inspections and structural integrity reserve studies for condominium buildings of three or more storeys; local fire codes require corridors and stairs kept clear.

• Capital works or maintenance plan and current fund balance.
• Annual fire safety certification and any orders.
• By-laws and records of enforcement.
• Defect reports and claims.
• Intercom and access control contracts and network details.
• Flat entrance door survey results.
• Minutes of owners corporation meetings on major works.