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My daughter lives in the US but has a flat here in Sydney. It is on the ground floor. The flat above hers had some work done a short time ago on the external stairs up to that flat. Apparently the work done is faulty, and water started running down a timber upright, which has now rotted. Before the current storms water started leaking into my daughter’s flat. Following the storms there is now much more water damage and apparently water collected in the kitchen ceiling causing it to collapse. The tenant in my daughters’ flat is, as you can imagine, pretty cross. She has asked for a reduction in rent, which seems reasonable, and that’s not the real problem. They have put in a temporary fix, but it is only very temporary, given the variable weather patterns of late. My daughter wants to get the problem fixed asap. Can she authorise repair work without waiting for the owners’ corporation to give their authority? Apparently one owner is suggesting it is not their responsibility, and the delay in approval isn’t helping. What remedy does my daughter have?
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Gay – The responsibility for repairs and the extent to which any insurance claim may assist in meeting the costs of those can be difficult enough to resolve without the introduction of complications, so IN NO CIRCUMSTANCES should your daughter arrange any repairs to the common property or to her own.
On the assumption that the external stairs are common property and that it was therefore the Owners Corporation (O/C) who arranged for the initial repairs, then the O/C remains responsible for attending to the repairs that are now necessary to that area and to any consequently damaged within your daughter’s unit.
It appears the O/C has acknowledged their responsibilities by undertaking the initial repairs to the staircase, so your daughter needs to now formally advise the Secretary of her Executive Committee (copy the Strata Manager) that unless all necessary repairs and maintenance to areas of its common property including to areas within her Unit are properly commenced in accordance with its functions under Sect. 62 of the Strata Schemes Management Act (SSMA) within say 7 days, that she will be seeking Orders in the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal under Sect 138 of the SSMA in order to force the O/C to do so.
You’ll note that under Sect. 138 Cl. 2(b) an O/C will be judged not to have exercised its functions if has not done so after 2 months of it being requested to do so; verbally or otherwise (but a written request is preferable).
If the 7 days passes without a satisfactory outcome, then your daughter or her Agent needs to lodge THIS application in the first instance, and if Mediation fails, then come back to FlatChat for further advice regarding the Application for Orders.
Whilst it may be a worthwhile bluff, there’s no provision for any loss of rent that your daughter may suffer to be met by way of recompense by the O/C (of which she’s a part by the way), although the proposed new Strata Legislation in NSW will include such a provision in circumstances such as this, and your daughter may make mention of this as a further incentive for it to get moving.