It has been fairly well established that the fact that you are attempting to get defects fixed by the builder doesn’t mean that your duties as an Owners Corporation to maintain and repair common property are somehow on hold.
You need to make sure that the repairs are done by reputable and experienced contractors and you also need to get three quotes to show that you have performed “due diligence” on the contracts. However, I am led to believe that if you have taken all possible care to a) establish that there is a fault and b) make sure it is fixed for a reasonable fee, then the developers may find it even harder to argue in court that there was no defect. You may, however, have to at least give them the opportunity to fix the defects themselves. Regarding your insurers – you need to talk to them about any concerns they may have.
As regards financing the repairs, you can raise a loan through a company like Lannocks (who advertise at the foot of theis websites home page) or the cashed up owners could offer to lend money to the Owners Corp until such times as the defects case is resolved.
But getting individuals to pay for the work and then try to get the money back from the developer or the Owners Corp would be the worst possible option – next to doing nothing, of course.
Chris Mo’ane at IBC (who advertise on this page) will give you good advice on a strategy going forward.