If you own an apartment in Adelaide CBD, you might have noticed a peculiar situation: it is your property, you are paying the mortgage, and yet when you want to upgrade the front door lock, someone else has a say. That someone else is your strata corporation — and understanding exactly where their authority starts and stops is the key to making any security upgrade work smoothly.
The confusion is understandable. The boundary between what you own individually and what the strata corporation manages collectively is not always obvious from the inside of your apartment. Most owners find out where the line falls only when they try to cross it.
The Legal Framework: Strata Titles Act 1988 (SA)
Strata ownership in South Australia is governed primarily by the Strata Titles Act 1988 (SA) for older schemes, and the Community Titles Act 1996 (SA) for newer community titled schemes established after 1 June 2009. Most of the apartment stock in Adelaide CBD — including the older mid-rise buildings along Hindley Street, Sturt Street, and parts of King William Street — was registered under the 1988 Act.
Under both pieces of legislation, the key distinction is between a lot (your individual apartment) and common property (everything else). The strata corporation, which is automatically constituted by all owners in the building, manages and maintains common property on behalf of all lot holders.
Common property in an Adelaide CBD apartment building typically includes:
- The external walls of the building (meaning the outer face of your apartment walls — not the interior surfaces you look at from inside).
- The roof.
- The building’s foyer and entry lobby.
- The main entrance door at street level and any security intercom or electronic access system controlling it.
- Shared corridors and stairwells.
- Lifts and lift lobbies.
- Car parks and access gates (where these are not part of an individual lot).
The practical implication: that impressive front door at the base of your building — the one with the electronic fob reader and the intercom — belongs to the strata corporation, not to any individual owner. Changes to it, including updates to the access control system or the addition of a key safe nearby, require a strata corporation decision.
What You Can Do to Your Own Unit Without Approval
Let us focus on what is actually within your control first, because the picture is more positive than many owners assume.
Your front door — meaning the door between the shared corridor and your individual apartment — is generally your lot. You own it, and you can make changes to the hardware on your side of it, provided those changes do not affect common property or the external appearance of the building in ways the strata plan restricts.
What this means practically:
- You can rekey your apartment’s deadbolt cylinder without strata approval. If you have just purchased a resale apartment and want to ensure no previous owner holds a working key, this is entirely within your rights as the current owner.
- You can replace the lock hardware on your front door — upgrade from a basic Grade 3 deadbolt to a Grade 1 high-security cylinder, for instance — as long as the new hardware fits the existing door prep and you are not cutting into or structurally modifying the door frame.
- You can add a door chain or security bar to the inside of your apartment door without seeking approval. These are internal fittings that do not alter the door itself.
- You can upgrade the cylinder in your balcony door, provided the balcony forms part of your lot — which it typically does in most Adelaide CBD strata schemes.
Pro Tip: Before purchasing any new lock hardware for your apartment, check your strata plan and by-laws — some schemes have aesthetic requirements about door hardware finishes visible from common corridors.
What Requires Strata Corporation Approval
Now for the more restricted category. Any work that affects common property requires the strata corporation’s approval. In practice, this covers a broader range of scenarios than most owners initially expect.
The foyer entry door and its access control system
This is the one that catches most owners off guard. The electronic access control on your building’s main entry — whether it uses key fobs, swipe cards, a PIN pad, or a Bluetooth mobile credential system — is managed by the strata corporation. If you want additional fobs issued, you apply to the strata manager. If you want the system updated — say, to a newer platform that integrates with your phone — that is a strata corporation decision requiring a vote of owners.
Car park access gates
If your building has an automated boom gate or roller door protecting the basement car park, this is common property. Lost car park fobs are replaced through the strata manager’s office. The locksmith does not have authority to duplicate or reprogram those fobs independently.
Shared corridor lighting and CCTV
Security cameras covering common areas are common property assets. They cannot be installed, repositioned, or removed without strata corporation approval.
Any penetration of the external wall
If a security upgrade would require drilling through an external wall — running a cable for a smart lock Wi-Fi bridge to an antenna, for instance, or installing an external keypad on the outer corridor-facing side of your door — that penetration affects common property and requires approval.
The Approval Process in Practice
Getting strata corporation approval for a security upgrade is rarely as cumbersome as owners fear, particularly for improvements that clearly benefit the whole building.
Your first step is to write to the strata manager (not the body corporate chair — the professional strata management company that most Adelaide CBD buildings retain) with a clear description of what you want to do, why, and how it affects common property. Attach any product specifications or diagrams where relevant.
For minor works — adding a video doorbell that sits entirely within your lot, for instance — many strata managers have delegated authority to approve these without convening a full owners’ meeting.
For significant works — replacing the main foyer entry system, adding new access control to the garage — approval typically requires a motion at an AGM (annual general meeting) or an SGM (special general meeting) called for the purpose.
The key to getting approval: frame the request in terms of benefits to all owners, not just yourself. A security upgrade that protects the building’s common areas is an easier sell than one that only benefits your individual unit.
Smart Locks in a Strata Setting
Smart locks deserve their own treatment in the strata context, because the marketing for these products does not always make the strata boundary clear.
A smart lock on your apartment door works the way any apartment door upgrade works: it sits within your lot, you own it, no strata approval is required to install it on your side of the door. The complication arises when you want the smart lock to also control building entry — to let a visitor in from the street without them having to buzz you first.
Most building intercom systems in Adelaide CBD are not compatible with smart lock apps. The intercom is common property, it runs on the building’s own system, and integrating a third-party smart lock app with it typically requires either replacement of the intercom hardware (a strata decision) or installation of an intercom integration bridge (which may also require approval depending on whether it involves common property penetrations).
What smart locks can genuinely do at the apartment level, without any strata involvement:
- Allow keyless entry to your unit via PIN, fingerprint, or mobile app.
- Provide a digital log of when your door was accessed.
- Enable temporary access codes for guests, tradespersons, or Airbnb guests.
- Integrate with home automation platforms for remote locking and monitoring.
- What they cannot do on their own in a strata building:
- Control the foyer door remotely.
- Replace the building intercom’s function.
- Allow a visitor to access the building lobby independently.
I work with owners in these buildings regularly, and my standard recommendation is to install a quality smart lock on your apartment door for convenience and unit-level control, while having a separate conversation with your strata manager about what the building’s access control system can support at the entry level.
A Real Job in a King William Street Apartment
I was called out last year to an apartment on the upper floors of a building on King William Street — one of the older mixed-use buildings with commercial tenancies on the ground and lower floors and residential above. The owner had purchased the apartment from an estate, which meant the keys and key register from the previous occupant were disorganised and incomplete.
She had been given three keys: one for the apartment, one for the car park, and one described by the conveyancer as “the old front door key.” The front door in question was a shared entry to the residential floors, not the street-level commercial entry. When we tested it, that key turned the front door. It also — and this is where the job got more interesting — turned two other doors in the building that it should not have.
The building was old enough that the original staggered keying system had been partly eroded over years of ad hoc cylinder replacements done without reference to the building’s master key schedule.
We presented a written report to the strata manager detailing which cylinders were cross-keyed and recommending a building-wide audit. The strata manager took the report to the next owners’ meeting, a full audit was commissioned, and the building ended up with a new restricted master key system that prevented the problem from recurring.
For the owner on King William Street, the starting point was simply wanting to rekey her apartment. What we found along the way required strata-level intervention — but because she engaged a locksmith who understood the strata framework, the response was orderly rather than chaotic.
Pro Tip: When buying a resale apartment in Adelaide CBD, ask your conveyancer to obtain a complete key register as part of settlement. If none exists, flag that in negotiations and allow for the cost of a rekey post-settlement.
Understanding By-Laws and What They Can and Cannot Restrict
Strata by-laws (called articles in SA) can regulate a lot of things — noise hours, pet ownership, renovation approvals. But they cannot overrule an owner’s fundamental right to maintain their own lot in good repair.
What this means for locks: if your front door lock fails and needs immediate replacement to maintain the security of your apartment, you have the right to replace it. You are not required to wait for a strata committee meeting while your door cannot be secured. Document the situation, engage a locksmith, effect the repair, and notify the strata manager in writing as soon as practicable.
By-laws can specify that owners must use approved lock hardware brands or finishes for aesthetic consistency. They cannot specify that owners must use a single nominated locksmith to the exclusion of all others — that would be an unenforceable restraint of trade.
Summary: Who Decides What
Your lot (your authority):
- Rekeying your apartment’s cylinder.
- Replacing hardware on your front door.
- Adding internal security devices (door chains, security bars, window locks on lot windows).
- Installing a smart lock on your apartment door.
Common property (strata corporation approval required):
- Foyer entry door and intercom.
- Electronic access control system (fobs, cards, PINs).
- Car park access gates.
- Corridor and external CCTV.
- Any penetration of an external wall.