david2708 –
Below is an extract from the Strataman site. It should answer your questions:
“The provisions of the Work Health & Safety Act 2011 and the Work Health & Safety Regulation 2011 require that the Owners Corporation provide and maintain the common property to
- ensure it’s safe and without risk to the health of contractors and others who may use it
- agree to undertake ongoing risk management assessment to identify and eliminate any such risks
One way to undertake such risk management is to have an independent expert inspect the common property and report to the Owners Corporation any identified risks. This is commonly known as a Safety Audit or a Work Health & Safety Audit. Once notified, the Owners Corporation MUST address the risk(s) and repair the common property as required. Failure to do so can result in severe penalties. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Public Liability Insurance requirement
A regular and ongoing assessment of risk is also necessary to provide evidence to the public liability insurers of the proper management of the common property in the event of a claim. The minimum cover is currently $20,000,000.
See NSW SSMR 2016: Regulation 40 – Insurance amount.
Some more information
Safework NSW have a huge section on Work Health and Safety (WHS) which offers helpful summaries, information pages and even a link to the legislation changes which came into effect on Feb13, 2015.
Another section Safework NSW has is the one on on Strata Title Body Corporate – Employer obligations which discusses the WHS requirements for strata. So, if you need to know about Work Health & Safety and all it entails (plus details of the latest amendments, this is a fantastic place to start.
TIP – If you DO go onto the Safework NSW homepage, don’t forget to have a good look in the navigational menu across the top. There’s lots of sub-menus under the main menu tabs. Just hover your mouse over any of the tabs and the bigger submenus will open up.
Should you spend the money? Again, it’s far better to get anything fixed that needs fixing as soon as possible rather stalling or not doing it at all and then having to deal with the severe consequences, courtesy of a letter from a friendly litigation lawyer, if an ‘accident’ happens. Only then do you discover that your scheme violated one or more Work Health & Safety requirements thereby leaving the Owners Corporation liable for any litigation claims (and fines) that may surface. Besides having to deal with the lawyers, you’ll also have Workcover breathing down your neck gunning for a prosecution. Is it really worth the risk to delay things or, heaven forbid, not fix them at all? Absolutely no way in the world. You could be putting someone at risk of injury or worse, as well as breaking the law.”