Is this energy conservation gone mad? A high-rise building in Sydney has just announced what amounts to fines for residents who forget things in their flats and then have to go back for them.
“This is an incredible waste of electricity,” said Mr Olaf Pirlo, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Dardanelle Towers in the city’s Eastern Suburbs. “People wander out of their apartments, get the lift down to the lobby then remember they have forgotten their papers or wallet or something. So they go back, get their things, and come back down again. They are using three times the electricity of people who make an effort to remember what they need to take with them when they go out.”
Mr Pirlo said the by-law, which was passed at an Annual General Meeting in February and registered to come into effect today, is perfectly legal. It will be policed by volunteer residents watching the tapes of the building’s security cameras and allowances will be made for residents picking up mail or dumping rubbish.
“The vast majority of people in this building voted for this,” he insisted. “I am sick of well-organised and careful residents subsidising people who are hung-over, half asleep or too lazy to check their pockets.”
The way the by-law works is that residents who return to their floor within three minutes of having left are hit with an admin charge of $3 for every floor above the ground on which they live. Someone living on the 23rd floor would therefore be charged $66.
At the same time they are sent an official Notice To Comply with the by-law. If they pay the ‘admin fee’ the Notice to Comply is withdrawn. If they don’t, the next time they are caught “over-using” the lifts, they could be fined up to $550 for breaching a by-law. Tenants could even be evicted, if they are found to have broken by-laws, as compliance is a condition of most leases.
Mr Pirlo created controversy last year when he brought in a by-law banning “fat girls” in crop tops and low-rider pants and young men in low slung jeans and hoodies from entering and leaving through the building’s lobby, saying they were inappropriately and offensively dressed on common property.
A long term resident of the block said Mr Pirlo carried more than 150 of the 183 votes in the building as proxies so he “pretty much gets what he wants”.
“He’s a nutter,” said the owner, “But, hey, at least he gets things done. Anyway, I live on the ground floor so I don’t give a stuff.”
