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Topic
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One unit of three in our block extended their floor area by excavating into the common property at the rear of their unit. This was done with the agreement of the other units, which included a requirement to properly maintain the drainage so affected. There was not anything like a special resolution. When the strata plan was re-issued, the excavated area was included in the relevant l ot. Now, damp is entering that unit from the excavated area. It appears that required waterproofing and a drain that are shown on the engineering drawings were not installed. That unit now seeks the Owners Corporation to rectify both the need for drainage and repair their unit. The 76% entitlement other owners don’t see this as quite fair. The issue is how absolute is the sec. 62 obligation on the Owners Corporation to maintain the common property and repair the damage which flows from the work done by that unit?
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I don’t fully understand your situation as a new Strata plan and bylaws can only be registered with the State once a Special Resolution has been passed. If this has not happened then anything this owner has done is illegal damage to common property and you can ask them to return the common property to it’s original state.
The only time the OC would be liable would be if a previous owner did the faulty work and then the OC would then be liable for the cost of returning the common property to it’s original state (and not repairing the faulty structure).
The OC is never responsible for maintenance of alterations done by owners unless it specifically states that is the case in the bylaw added at the time of the request for the change and registered with the state gov.