Austman – I don’t know about what occurs in Victoria, but in NSW Owners Corporations (O/C) have an absolute responsibility to maintain and repair their common property and any damage that they may cause in the process of undertaking a repair, and whilst I’ve tried to avoid the complications around insurance, the O/C’s compulsory insurance would cover those repairs if they arose from a “defined event” such as a storm, but not so if they arose from a lack of maintenance or by gradual deterioration (e.g of roof tiles).
So far as I’m aware, in neither instance is an O/C obliged to repair any consequential damage such as that to a Lot’s contents, that is, whether that be from a lack of proper maintenance on or from a defined event involving its common property.
It’s worth noting that a refusal of an insurance claim by an O/C’s insurer does not negate that O/C’s absolute responsibility to still repair any common property that may have been the subject of that claim, however as I observed before, the Lot Owner’s insurer (of contents) will usually cover consequent damage to that Lot in circumstances where the O/C’s insurer and/or the O/C itself will not do so and states that in writing.