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Our strata manager has circulated a sign off sheet to make the owners of the units which have roof access responsible for any changes and the maintenance issues on that roof.
I think that is a dodgy outcome for us, as there is already an issue about water ingress that will require major work on the roof level. I believe, if the by-law is agreed to by the majority, but not by the roof access owners, that we have 2 years to challenge this otherwise by efault it becomes the rule. Is this correct? How do we challenge it?
Is this a legal process?
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You take it to NCAT, which for something like this may require legal advice. I think it breaches the basic principle that common property is the responsibility of all lot owners. In the unit block I’m in, I’m one of about 25% of owners who have the roof above them. If it leaks it is not my problem, it is the problem of 100% of owners because that is the deal that they all signed up to.
Transferring responsibility for the repair and maintenance of common property requires by-laws to which the affected owners must agree. However, I can see the value of documents that require owners to acknowlege that they will be responsible for any repairs or rectification to common property required due to changes they have made to the roof space. This changes nothing legally but makes the owners aware of their existing responsibilities (of which they might be entirely ignorant).
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A sign-off sheet?
Is there is already a by-law in place that says that the owners of the roof-access apartments are responsible for the repair and maintenance of the the roof? If not, no sign-up sheet will override the principal that all owners (not just the roof-access apartment owners) are responsible for maintaining common property.
If there is already a by-law in place that says that the owners of the roof-access apartments are responsible for maintenance of the roof, then the sign-up sheet might just be clarifying that you all understand this; a kind of preparation for the work and associated cost that is coming your way.
The only reason I can think of that the owners of the roof-access apartments might be responsible for maintenance of the roof is that those owners (current or past) might have made modifications or done something on the roof, and when that happened a by-law was created saying that the owners of those apartments would be responsible for the roof maintenance going forward. So check the existing by-laws and if there is nothing there relating to the roof, don’t take on that responsibility.
A post about owners who moved their hot water tank into the roof space without notifying the OC or seeking permission (the post has since been removed at the OP’s request) illustrated how this apparent annexing of common property roof spaces can happen, possibly quite innocently.
Did the apartment owners not know they needed permission or was it a case of it being easier to apologise after the event than seek permission beforehand? In any case, it was resolved with retrospective permissions.
Being asked to sign a document like the one described by the OP might have avoided this.
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