Automatic gates: the responsibilities of the condominium manager
Automatic gates: the responsibilities of the condominium manager
What regulations govern the installation and maintenance of automatic gates and what is the responsibilities of the Condominium Manager?
Automatic gates of various kinds are installed increasingly more often inside condominiums, for instance the sliding or swinging ones. But what are the condominium manager’s responsibilities? The manager is responsible for the realization and installation of the automatic gate, which must have a CE mark and declaration of conformity. Later on he must also look after its maintenance, to prevent any type of problem.
What is the legislation with regard to this?
The legislation on gate automations has been reviewed and then modified by the European Community with “Directive 98/37/EC”: this states that automatic gates must be considered as real machines and therefore, to be installed, they must comply with very rigorous safety standards. This applies to both the installation of new automatic gates and the conversion of existing ones, the latter must be secured with the various types of safety systems.
What are the mandatory certificates that the manager must obtain to install automatic gates?
When the automatic gate, or any other type of automation, is purchased, the installer is legally bound to create a technical file proving its safety. The file will contain a series of documents such as: CE declaration of conformity, test certificate, drawing and wiring diagram of the automatic gate, any installation and maintenance technical manuals. To guarantee safety and certify the system, the installer must take some measurements, with the appropriate instrument, to test impact forces that must not exceed the provisions of the EN 12445-12453 regulations. To guarantee that the gate is safe and certified, Tau recommends you use low voltage motors fitted with an encoder.
Moreover, the installer must issue also the system maintenance register that must show all the various interventions carried out, ordinary and extraordinary maintenance as well as any repairs and/or modifications. The same applies to the replacement of an existing gate.