@Kenny R said:
I am an EC member and we have a potential issue with continuing maintenance to an individual (town house) owner’s wooden patio deck and railings to which the owner alone has exclusive use. Re there any grounds for having this being made the owner’s responsibility? This is the only townhouse in a complex of 12 that has such an area.
Can you copy the exclusive use by-law here? Was the patio deck and railings built before the strata plan was registered (and therefore part of the common property being given exclusive use of), or as part of a special privilege and exclusive use by-law? Or was permission just given (any records?)?
Maintenance of exclusive use areas is usually stipulated in the by-law as being the responsibility of the owner, but the by-law is supposed to state whether the owner or OC is responsible. I’ve just happened to read in Alex Ilkin’s excellent NSW Strata and Community Schemes Management and The Law, 4th Edition (ISBN 978-0-455-22326-1):
Maintenance and repair condition: The bylaw is required to specify whether the owners corporation or the owner is responsible for the maintenance and repair of the common property area the subject of the bylaw: s 54(1). If the bylaw is silent on this point it may be repealed by an [NCAT] Adjudicator: s 158(1)(a). To avoid this happening the owner should promptly seek to have the owners corporation pass and register a bylaw amendment to deal with maintenance and repair.
Hope that’s of some use – more information might help unravel the mess.
Sean