Q. “I live in a building with storage lockers for cooperators on the ground floor and one storage locker on each floor. All the lockers are closed, so the contents are not visible. The building porters inspect the rooms in which the lockers are located. However, they cannot check inside the individual lockers. Management does not inspect the storage lockers, although they could hold potentially hazardous items such as lithium batteries, paint, etc. Aside from being a fire hazard, the lockers could also harbor vermin and insects that may not be visible in the hallways where the lockers are located. Should there be an annual inspection of the lockers?” 

                     —Concerned with Safety 

A. “The cooperative could call for the inspection of all lockers and ask that the building leave a key for the inspections to occur on a certain day to remove hazardous materials, and invite all owners to be present during these inspections,” says attorney Adam Leitman Bailey of New York City law firm Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., “No objects should be removed without more than one building witness observing the removal, and the owner told where the dangerous contents were taken. Pictures and video should be taken of the items before and after removal. A few possible times for these inspections to take place may be provided, allowing owners the opportunity to be available for inspection in the name of safety for the building residents. One idea is to ask the local Fire Station to assist you in this process as they have protocols for these types of inspections.”

 “One of the first orders of business for this cooperative is to determine whether lithium batteries and paint have been lawfully banned by the building’s corporate documents. My understanding is that both lithium batteries and paint can be maintained in a safe manner if certain fire prevention precautions have been taken, although for lithium batteries the locker would have to be very large. Either way, neither item mentioned have been deemed per se dangerous per City, State or Federal law as of today’s date and therefore the cooperative would have to ban them or have banned them already.“ 

 “While finding vermin may be unpleasant but not difficult, rules may want to be in place banning food or other materials attracting vermin or bugs.”