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Try as I might I haven’t been able to find the answer to this. Hope someone can help. We’re in Sydney in a block 0f 42 units built in the early 70s.
A renovation has just taken place where extensive bathroom plumbing was moved and added to inside common property floors and walls and a newly created wall. There are two new by-laws approving this reno. Supposedly ‘protecting’ the Owners Corporation forever; even after the ownership changes hands more than once.
I remember in the old days under the old NSW Strata Titles Act, if I recall correctly, problems arising from this would become the responsibility of the Owners Corporation after a period, as far as things going wrong, damage created and repairs etc. Is this the case now?
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Costa wrote:
I remember in the old days under the old NSW Strata Titles Act, if I recall correctly, problems arising from this would become the responsibility of the Owners Corporation after a period, as far as things going wrong, damage created and repairs etc. Is this the case now?
You’re going back a way with that. Current (and recent) strata law says that where there’s a special resolution by-law with regard to changes to common property, ongoing responsibility must be ascribed to someone, and if it isn’t the lot owner, then it fall to the owners corporation.
However, the intent isn’t to pass the buck to the owners corp, but to make them think before they pass by-laws that might mean they are responsible for shoddy work and wear and tear on additions to common property.
On the other hand, where people have made changes without proper by-laws, the owners corp can refuse to repair them if and when things go wrong.
But if there’s a by-law permitting the change and ongoing responsibility hasn’t been ascribed to the lot owner, then the owners corp can find themselves having to repair something that is effectively a single lot owner’s property.
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