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I own an apartment in Alexandria and when I moved in 6 months ago, my removalists accidentally knocked off a panel in the lift which they say was loose anyway and had wires hanging out of it. They say that they made good (i.e. refixed the panel to the wall) and that the lift worked fine which it did. 6 months on and the Strata Committee (which I am not on at the moment) have presented me with a $500+ bill for damage caused and my removalists are refusing to contribute to the cost. Given that this is the case I asked the Strata Committee if they would agree to pay half and they won’t budge. So I am stuck in the middle with the bill for a problem I didn’t cause. Is there anything I can do here? Thanks
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You have a bit of a battle ahead
There is no provision in the SSMA for the OC to recover money for damage to common property. There is a rule that states that owners are not to damage common property , but that applies to things like renovations rather than accidental damage.
The OC is responsible for maintaining common property. That includes wear and tear and damage over time.
So the OC is responsible to repair the damaged lift. They have no recourse to you under the SSMA to ask for any payment. The damage costs would be covered by the OC insurance. But the excess is probably more than the $500. Again the OC can’t ask you to pay the excess.
The only way the OC can recover the money from you is to start an action for willful damage ie they sue you under NOT the SSMA for willfully damaging the common property (Yes you are responsible as the owner who contracted the removalists, but you could sue the removalists as well). The difficulty is that the OC has to prove the damage was not an accident, and to prove that your removalists did it.
If the OC continues to ask for the money, go to NCAT for a decision. The OC will need to state the part of the SSMA which they are trying to recover the money under, which they will not be able to do (as no such provision exists)
Remember that any outstanding amount owed to the OC, whether real or otherwise and not paid by you makes you non financial. You cant just sit on this and hope it goes away because in the mean time you can’t get onto the SC
Hope this helps
@kaindub said:
Remember that any outstanding amount owed to the OC, whether real or otherwise and not paid by you makes you non financial.I am really not sure if this is the case. If the OC can’t recover damages under the SSMA, then surely it can’t charge for those repairs as a contribution. And the Act specifies that it’s unpaid contributions that render owners “unfinancial”. Relates expenses, such as penalty interest and NCAT authorised fines would, I believe, count as unpaid contributions.
But unproven damage claims?
In any case, the $500 claim seems arbitrary – more like a fine than an expense. The OC should have receipts to show what work was done and how much it cost.
In the first instance they should calm that against their insurance (and you can get NCAT orders compelling them to do so), then they should claim any excess against VLS, who should pass that on to the removalists.
If the removalists refuse to pay, they should be warned that they could end up on a blacklist. But the sensible thing for them to do would be to claim it against their insurance and this shouldn’t cost VLS a cent.
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NCAT is the NSW Civil Adminstration Tribunal and they are the “court” for strata. In most cases, like this, you would go to Fair Trading for meditation first, then go to NCAT for orders.
And no, you may not name the removalists in this forum. We work on the basis of anonymity and that goes across the board.
I suggest you spend a bit of time looking at previous posts – do a few searches – and you’ll get an idea of what we’re about.
And I don’t know why you are even suggesting that you pay half. Between them, the OC and the removalists should be insured. It’s not like you went and damaged the lift yourself.
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The Standard By-Laws required that the OC/EC had to be notified in advance if any furniture etc was to be moved through common property. Would failure to do so affect the owner’s liability, or the failure of the OC to have a representative to supervise the movement reduce the owner’s liability?
6 months is far too long – if there were a legitimate claim, they should have notified you at the time or shortly after. The removalists would have the same position.