Cheap, imported or damaged electric scooters, bikes and skateboards could be banned in apartments or their owners held liable for fires they cause under by-laws suggested by one of Australia's leading strata groups.
The Owners Corporation Network (OCN) has launched a legal template suggesting new rules on the use of battery-powered mobility devices in apartment buildings, as well as a "code of conduct" on how apartment owners and residents can safely use lithium-ion devices.
The suggested by-laws, launched in a seminar with strata building owners on Thursday, comes after a rising number of e-scooter and e-bike fires in Australia, which insurance experts said caused significant damage to apartments and could force up the price of policies.
EV FireSafe chief executive Emma Sutcliffe told the group battery-powered personal mobility devices had become a major cause of home fires in Australia as many were poorly manufactured, unregulated, and owners often continued to use them even if they had been damaged.
"In Australia, we're seeing at least one e-bike or e-scooter catching fire each week," Ms Sutcliffe said.
"There's no training for people to repair or maintain these, they take an enormous amount of wear and tear in daily use then, of course, people bring them inside their homes to charge them up which is where we see issues."
Allianz emerging risks manager Chris Wood said the insurance company recently analysed 183 claims involving lithium-ion battery fires and found fires were most commonly caused by electric scooters, bikes and skateboards, and often by models that had not been "bought from a reputable provider".
Mr Wood said most of the battery-powered devices affected caught fire while they were being charged, and often after they had been left unsupervised.
"The devices, even though they only required an hour or two on charge, they'd been left on (charge) for many hours, many days, and sometimes even weeks after they were fully charged," he said.
OCN chairman Fred Tuckwell said the new by-laws they were suggesting would not seek to ban the use of e-scooters or e-bikes as long as they did not fit into a high-risk category, such as damaged models or cheap imports.
However, the rules would explain risks associated with personal mobility devices for apartment residents, he said, and would "outline the consequences" of their improper use.
"It does not seek to ban e-bikes or e-scooters, apart from those that are non-compliant," he said.
"If somebody that does something that causes a fire in a building, that's not just their home that's going to be affected, it's everybody's home, so it is entirely legitimate for the owner's corporation to be regulating something if it represents a real risk to other parts of the building."
Mr Tuckwell said advice to strata owners would also include a code of conduct and education about the safest use of e-bikes and e-scooters.
Strata Community Insurance technical director David Ellis warned the issue could raise the price of insurance premiums if the risk was left unchecked and "there continues to be an escalation of EV battery fires within apartments".
