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Topic
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Water penetration in a tiled bathroom/shower on a common property wall has compromised the waterproofing material on the wall and on the shower floor and rendered the membrane ineffective. Whilst the Owners Corporation is accepting responsibility for the cost of re-waterproofing and re-tiling of the wall and shower floor, there is talk of a subsequent claim by the owner for consequential damage to flooring material (i.e. carpet) in areas immediately outside the affected bathroom.
Who is responsible for the cost of repairing consequential damage of this nature?
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The Lot Owner is responsible, and if covered could lodge a Claim against their Contents Insurance Policy.
It’s been covered many times before. It’s the OC’s responsibility.
If common property fails, the OC must repair it and the OC will be responsible for any damage the failure of common property caused to private property (ie the lot) (that’s common law).
Happy to stand corrected when I’m wrong, but just to be clear my assumptions are that…
- flatmate is talking about the responsibility for rectifying damage to an item of private property, where that property is not a lot owners’ fixture.
- “responsibility” is not limited to that of the Owners Corporation’s Insurers
- the damage caused to the private property was consequent to a failure for which the Owners Corporation has accepted responsibility (and there’s more to say on that too; but I won’t)
- the damage to the private property was not caused by the Owners Corporation’s repair of that failure.
If all assumptions are correct, then I stand by my original advice.
I know that it doesn’t seem fair and that a Common Law ruling may be different depending upon specific circumstances, but based upon interpretations of (NSW) Strata Law by organisations far more competent at that than me, that’s where I believe an Owners Corporation’s “buck” stops in terms of its perceived responsibility for simply everything.
It’s an interesting situation.
But consider if the OC’s common property failure caused damage to an adjoining (private) property. The OC would be liable for that.
And the OC’s insurance policy should have a Liability to Others section that covers such property damage. Ours certainly does – I just checked it.
I can’t see that lot private property could be different to external private property.
The question might be who pays the OC’s insurance excess?
The ‘Who’s Responsible …’ Memorandum says that the Owners Corp is responsible for damage caused in repairing a fault in common property but seems to suggest that the OC is not responsible for damage caused by a failure of common property in the first place.
Now, bearing in mind that this is an advisory document and not the law, and that what insurers do and don’t cover has nothing to do with who is and isn’t responsible, I would think anyone who has a claim against their Owners Corp for damage to their property caused by a failure of common property should proceed straight to the small claims court and not even bother with the CTTT where logic is usually most obvious by its absence.If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.