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For townhouses. Is the courtyard inside your own gate and outside your front door common property?
If you replace the paving who is responsible for the cost, you or strata?
Thank you.
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The only definitive answer about boundaries is what is shown on your strata plan.
The strata plan is a legal document. If you are a lot owner, your strata manager (or strata committee) should let you have a copy of it. I cannot say who is responsible for that area outside the front door without seeing your strata plan.
By way of example, here is what my strata plan says. My strata plan is also townhouses. Each townhouse has an area called “garden court”, which is an enclosed courtyard at the rear of the lot.
“GARDEN COURTS ARE LIMITED TO A HEIGHT OF 3.66 ABOVE, EXCEPT WHERE COVERED AND A DEPTH OF 1.525 BELOW UPPER SURFACE OF GROUND FLOOR LEVEL OF RESPECTIVE ADJOINING UNIT.”
Therefore, in my strata plan, paving in the garden court would be the responsibility of the owner.
Just remember: this wording on your strata plan is going to be different. Ask your strata manager for a copy of the strata plan.
Therefore, in my strata plan, paving in the garden court would be the responsibility of the owner.
This is the most common arrangement although, as Tina says, it’s by no means universal.
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The area of the strata plan that Tina accurately describes will potentially outline a “stratum” for courtyards. This will be what you need to know to start to understand who is responsible.
The strata plan will also show where your courtyard is and they are usually tied to the lot with a “veniculum”. Looks like an S that has fallen over.
The best place to start looking will be to grab a copy of your strata plan and look for the notes on it and see if they clearly details these things for you.
Or even easier, ask your strata manager! They are trained to interpret strata plans, which can be tricky for inexperienced owners to do. They will also (probably) do this and report to the owners corporation for “free” – ie, under their regularly contracted duties.
This is an issue in our B-Class devlopment in the ACT. The unit fences in our complex do not always align with the boundaries on the unit plan. Some of the discrepancies are minor, but in one case there is a major discrepancy. One owner relied on the fence line when undertaking work, and the minor discrepancy in that particular case is now causing a major hiccup for them. It’s worth knowing exactly where the unit boundaries are.