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I live in a heritage building on the top floor. I have just moved furniture, my last review of the south facing wall was 6 months ago. I have found in patches water damage; it is not just where the furniture was placed, which had a good 10 cm air gap. The areas of damage are about 60 cms off the floor. It is in unlikely places; nowhere near the windows and above the skirting. It is a painted brick wall, with lime scale ‘bits’ growing out of the wall. My Strata Manager asked me to send pictures of my walls, now he says it is internal.
My downstairs neighbour has had trouble with moisture. They have no windows under mine; there is another section of the building which butts into their wall. My question is who do I call for remediation. My Strata Manager says a plumber or a roofer, but I am not entirely convinced. Also should I be responsible for the cost. I’m at a loss, who do I call.
Regards, Orange
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I know some very clever strata managers but I doubt if any of them would say definitively that dame and water damage was an internal problem, just from looking at pictures.
I would take one last run at them and tell them you want a building consultant to come in and look at the problem and see where it begins. It could be anything from an internal pipe in the wall to a missing roof tile.
If they refuse, take them to Fair Trading and demand that they fulfill their obligations under the strata Act to maintain and repair common property (ie, your wall). You’ll find the appropriate form HERE.
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Hi Orange,
There may be more to the comment from your SM than meets the eye. I know that on this forum we are more often than not dealing with strata schemes registered after 1974 and as such these schemes come under the Strata Schemes Management Act 1989, however we also have company title schemes and Strata Schemes registered before 1974 which may well be your scheme based on its age.
Strata Schemes registered before 1974 have what is called the “Centre Line Rule” which means that the current common property rules don’t apply, for example with schemes registered before 1974 the external walls, windows and doors are the responsibility of the lot Owner. So it may well be that the issue as you have discussed may be your responsibility to repair.
What concerns me about this is that if I am right why did your strata manager not take the time to explain this to you as if he/her did so, you would not need to seek advice.
The bottom line is you need to get an experienced Building Consultant to review the issue and advise what the issue/s are and how to fix it. I would ask your strata manager to explain why they say it’s your problem and suggest that it is to all Owners advantage to have the problem reviewed professionally. Of course you could go directly to your executive committee and ask them to direct your SM to engage a Building Consultant to review and report.
As well as the damp issue is the issue of, Is the external wall common property or lot property, this can only be determined by review of the registered strata plan and the by-laws. Only by this process can it be determined who is responsible for the repairs.
Integrated can help with both of these issues and we would be happy to provide a quotation. I hope this is of some assistance,
Chris Mo’ane AIAMA, MASBC-CPC
GMD Integrated Consultancy Group
Principal Sponsor OCN, Corporate Members SCA and FPA – Engineers and Building Consultants