Gold Coast body corporate forced to apologise to wheelchair user

The body corporate of a Gold Coast unit complex has had to pay compensation to a resident who could not access an indoor pool.

A Gold Coast unit complex body corporate has to compensate and apologise to a woman who uses a wheelchair because she has been unable to use the building’s indoor swimming pool, which has steps.

The body corporate for beachfront 19th Avenue, Palm Beach, failed to install an $8161 electric pool hoist that would have allowed Alison Knox to use the complex’s pool.

Despite unit owners voting to approve the pool hoist in April, 2019, the spending associated with its installation was not approved, a tribunal heard.

Since Mrs Knox had a stroke in 2010, which affected her ability to walk or move, she has been confined to a wheelchair, Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard.

Mrs Knox, who has lived in a unit at 19th Avenue with her husband William since 2015, told the tribunal she has had to go to a public swimming pool to do her aquatic exercises.

A body corporate for 19th Avenue on the Beach Apartments at Palm Beach, are having to compensate and apologise to a woman who uses a wheelchair because she cannot use the indoor swimming pool, which has steps. Unit owners voted last year for a pool hoist to be bought and installed, but that was not done. Picture: Supplied

A new indoor swimming pool was built in the complex in 2015.

On December 16, a tribunal member found the body corporate had indirectly discriminated against Mrs Knox.

The member said the requirement that Mrs Knox use the stairs to get into the pool was not reasonable after the pool hoist approval by lot owners on April 24, 2019.

The body corporate was ordered to pay Mrs Knox $5000 in compensation for the inconvenience and loss of use of the swimming pool and make a private apology to her within 45 days.

The member accepted that the inability to use the pool despite other owners approving the pool hoist caused her hurt and humiliation.

Mrs Knox first raised issues about disability access in the complex in 2013 and about access to the swimming pool in 2016.

The proposed swimming pool hoist would have cost $8161, and the body corporate still had one million in its bank account, despite it spending $665,000 in 2013, the tribunal heard.

The member said the body corporate’s concerns about safety and liability of a pool hoist were not proven and should have been investigated before a motion about the pool hoist was put to owners.

It was now up to the body corporate how it addressed access into the pool and the member did not order it to install a pool hoist.

Mrs Knox’s other discrimination complaints, about her inability to access parts of the building, were not upheld.

The member found Mr Knox was responsible for some delays in obtaining necessary approval for some of the approved disability access works.

Originally published as Gold Coast body corporate forced to apologise to wheelchair user