Are garage sensors required for apartment buildings?
November 5th, 2009 | by admin |I would like to know if apartment buildings are required to have sensors on their automatic (opened with a key) garage doors. The garage door of my apartment building closed on the hood of my car as I was passing through and the property management is refusing to pay because “they are not responsible.” If they are not responsible for THEIR garage door, then who is?
This is in Milwaukee (Milwaukee County), Wisconsin.
Is it a large parking garage for the whole building? If so, they probably are not required to (even though it is good business sense) since it would then be considered a commercial application even though people live in the building. However you would have to look at your local building codes.
New residential operators are required to have them under UL325. However UL doesn’t concern itself w/ damage to vehicles & the requirement is to protect people, especially children that play under the door. The photo-cells are required to be 2"-5" off of the floor. Therefore a car could already be under a door before the photo-cells "see" the tires and therefore the vehicle could still be damaged (especially when the car is moving faster than the operator can react).
Personally the company I work for would never install this type of door without photo-cells and a reversing edge across the bottom of the door but every company doesn’t live by the same philosophy. In todays world a lot of jobs go to the lowest price & if something isn’t in the specs it isn’t going to be included in the lowest bid. However like I already said, even if they were there the door could still have damaged a moving car.
There are a lot of unstated variables to say who is it at fault, responsible, or liable. Things like were you the one that opened the door, what made the door close as you were driving in, & what actions did you take or not take?
However, one must ask how you couldn’t see the door closing before it hit the car? These types of doors don’t usually close all that fast (1′ per sec) & in most cases it would have to be at least half way closed before it would hit the hood of a normal car. It would be very easy for someone to argue that you had to see the door closing & you assumed that it was going to reverse, so you purposely drove into a closing door. I’m not assuming that is what happened in your case but it would be a very valid argument that you would have to be prepared to defend yourself against should you decide to pursue a court case.
3 Responses to “Are garage sensors required for apartment buildings?”
By TK on Nov 5, 2009 | Reply
Actually, the owners are responsible for the operation of the garage doors in the apartment building that they manage. The question is whether or not the absence of garage door sensors creates a situation in which they may be lawfully required to reimburse you for the damage done to your car because the "unintelligent" garage door closed on your car’s hood.
I don’t know the answer to your question, but I suspect that the owners have casualty insurance and that a claim of damages via a letter from your attorney would clarify their coverage and the insurance company’s willingness to pay all or part of your claim.
I am inclined to think that you will need to retain an attorney to help your pursue compensation for the damages to your car given the property management company’s attitude.
Good luck with your claim for damages.
References :
By dawnb on Nov 5, 2009 | Reply
I would certainly take them to court not only because of the inadvertant damage to your car but because of the lack of safety for people and children. Opened with a key or a garage opener shouldn’t matter. Safety first. An apartment complex should know better and be better prepared against liability.
References :
By DoorDoc on Nov 5, 2009 | Reply
Is it a large parking garage for the whole building? If so, they probably are not required to (even though it is good business sense) since it would then be considered a commercial application even though people live in the building. However you would have to look at your local building codes.
New residential operators are required to have them under UL325. However UL doesn’t concern itself w/ damage to vehicles & the requirement is to protect people, especially children that play under the door. The photo-cells are required to be 2"-5" off of the floor. Therefore a car could already be under a door before the photo-cells "see" the tires and therefore the vehicle could still be damaged (especially when the car is moving faster than the operator can react).
Personally the company I work for would never install this type of door without photo-cells and a reversing edge across the bottom of the door but every company doesn’t live by the same philosophy. In todays world a lot of jobs go to the lowest price & if something isn’t in the specs it isn’t going to be included in the lowest bid. However like I already said, even if they were there the door could still have damaged a moving car.
There are a lot of unstated variables to say who is it at fault, responsible, or liable. Things like were you the one that opened the door, what made the door close as you were driving in, & what actions did you take or not take?
However, one must ask how you couldn’t see the door closing before it hit the car? These types of doors don’t usually close all that fast (1′ per sec) & in most cases it would have to be at least half way closed before it would hit the hood of a normal car. It would be very easy for someone to argue that you had to see the door closing & you assumed that it was going to reverse, so you purposely drove into a closing door. I’m not assuming that is what happened in your case but it would be a very valid argument that you would have to be prepared to defend yourself against should you decide to pursue a court case.
References :
31+ years of working on doors & gates.
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