Very off topic here, but having no luck finding the answer in Google and know we have a few builders and smart legal chaps here so here goes
A fam member has just moved into an apartment building here in Melbourne. At her old building you could go up and down the stairs to get from her apartment's level to he ground and back, which was great for her as they could walk their dog in and out of the complex without having to use the elevator. She's allowed the dog, it just skipped run ins with bitchy neighbours who don't like animals and that kind of thing, avoided potential complaints.
I haven't lived in an apartment complex before, but in thinking back to visits around the place I thought this was pretty standard. For security there is a swipe sensor thing on the ground floor and levels but you can go up and down between your floor and ground as you choose.
At their new building the stairwell access works in a funny way. To our thinking anyway. From any floor you can enter the stairwell and walk down, but only get out on the ground floor. You can't get out on any floor once you're in, and you can get in on the ground floor to walk back up if you're out.
This just seems ridiculous to me as if there is a power outage or an elevator problem you can't get up to your apartment. I would have thought stair access would be mandatory under whatever building or residence code there is.
If it's supposed to be there though I wondered if we could bring it to the attention of whoever managers building code stuff in the Government and they'd instruct the building to install the swipe access things as required.
She'd liked to be able to use the stairs normally, but obviously they're not going to put in swipe pass things at her request so she can use the stairs for the dog. And if she can get it added the other way she doesn't have to be "that tenant" with the pain in the ass request
Bit of a convoluted story there, hope it all makes sense.
Cheers.