@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.
Where are the unit boundaries? I am aware that NSW does not have the ACT’s class A/B unit distinction but if the townhouse has an area of land around it that is part of the unit area and the deck is within that area, doesn’t that make it the unit owner’s responsibility to maintain? It certainly would be here in the ACT.
On the the other hand, if the deck extended out onto common property, then the unit owner should only have exclusive use of it through the granting of a special privilege* to use that area of common property and the conditions of use (such as maintenance) should be part of the motion that granted that permission.
*In some circumstances in the ACT permission could be via an alternative mechanism of a ‘minor use’ if certain conditions are met, but the motion should still say something about maintenance.