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Hi there,
We are a self-managed strata building and would like some advice. We recently noticed water leaking onto the side of our building through the brickwork and into the garage below. We immediately contacted our plumber to investigate the matter. Our plumber spent hours investigating the matter to determine where the leak was coming from. He removed some bricks from the side of the building and tested all 3 units above the water leak area. It has been determined that the water leak is coming from a cracked drainage pipe under the bathtub of one of the units. The unit concerned is on the first floor and there are no other units below it, only garages. We are in NSW. Could you please advise who is responsible for repairs of this… the owner or Strata? The pipe in question only services their lot but is the drainage pipe under the bathtub which sits just above the concrete slab in the garage below. Your advice would be much appreciated. Thanks
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Hi twins, as the crack in the drainage pipe is under the concrete slab in common property airspace, it is an OC matter. The lot owner is only responsible for the parts of the pipe in their airspace.
@twins said:
Thanks for your reply. The cracked pipe under this units bathtub actually sits above the concrete slab, not under it. Can you please confirm who is responsible in this case. Thanks,If the pipe is above the slab, chances are it is the owners responsibility. But you need to check your by-laws and your original strata schemes management statement to confirm that this is the case because there was a time when many schemes made bathroom fittings a common property issue to ensure repairs were done professionally before leaks could do too much damage.
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Twins – I tried to respond to your post last night but the hotspot I was using died as I hit “submit reply”; very frustrating.
I agree with Jimmy, if the cracked drainage pipe is below the bathtub of the Lot and above the concrete (ceiling) slab of the garage below that Lot, then it’s the Lot Owners responsibility to make the necessary repairs.
But…it’s never as straight forward as that, particularly when funds have been committed, to in this instance locate the source of the problem, and where that procedure and the problem itself have caused damage to Common Property.
When you say that “we” arranged for the plumber I hope you mean the Owners Corporation (O/C), because that’s appropriate in my opinion as the O/C is generally responsible to make repairs in circumstances where a fault within a Lot is affecting other Lots (e.g. the garage if it’s not part of the leaking Lot) and/or its Common Property.
So as Jimmy T advised, subject to any notations about Common Property on the Strata Title, unless your O/C has resolved how it will manage problems such as the leakage, or resolved to adopt one of the published Guideline Documents [by NSW Land & Property Information and by Strata Community Australia (NSW)] and registered a Special By-Law to reflect that resolution, it’s really up to precedent and common sense.
To me, common sense would entail making the plumbers task as easy as possible by the O/C arranging and paying for all necessary repairs to its Common Property and to the affected Lot/s, and by the O/C then seeking a pre-agreed reimbursement from the Lot Owner/s involved for the component of that cost that relates to works within the Lot/s concerned.
Even though our O/C has a Special By-Law clarifying “who’s responsible”, that approach has worked in my self-managed Plan where both Common and Private Property is involved in a repair, but you would need to make your own assessment with regard to yours