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Dear All,
Our building of 12 Lots was recently given an order by Council to conduct a Fire Audit. We have followed the recommendations and now have a list of work to do. Surprisingly, the list isn’t too bad for a block that was built in the 1970’s.
Some of this work includes:
– Replacement of general power outlets within units.
– Installation of safety switches within units.
– Installation of hard wired smoke alarms.
Some units did not require this work as it had already been done and certified during their renovations. Most units in the building needed to do this work. After researching, the work above is of the Lot Owner’s responsibility and they should be paying for it themselves.
When this work was occurring, I asked the strata manager for advice, who said that we should stick with one/two qualified contractors to do all the work to ensure that it is done according to standards. He also said that we could charge Lot Owners for the individual work on their levies. Unfortunately, this information was given in a phone call, yet he continued to imply this in email.
This was all fine until he completely denied saying this and has now said that it can’t be done. He says that due to it being for a Council Order, that strata now must accept responsibility and pay for all the work, even if it is of Lot Owner responsibility.
This just doesn’t make sense. Owner’s who don’t need to do the above work are annoyed and don’t want to be paying for other Lot Owner’s work. Most of the work has been completed as we thought that we could get the money recovered from owners, but as you can see, we are now in a pickle.
Has anyone had a similar experience to this? I feel like we may need to seek legal advice regarding the payment situation. We obviously can’t trust the strata manager.
Thank you in advance for any responses.
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Whilst compliance with a Fire Order is the responsibility of the Owners Corporation, there’s no impedement to it seeking a reimbursement of any component of its total costs that involved consequent works on lot owners’ property.
So the Strata Manager’s original advice was correct, although it now seems that he’s confusing responsibilty for compliance with responsibility for payment.
Whilst the amount of owners’ reimbursements cannot be added to their respective levies as they were determined / set at the most recent AGM, they can be added as a separate line-item on the next contributions invoice/s.
Seek legal or reliable advice on who pays for the new fire safety works, and if required, request an Extraordinary General Meeting so that all owners can discuss and decide on the liability for payment.
Consider also that the Fire Safety Inspection certifier must be satisfied that the fire safety work undertaken in previous years by some owners meets current standards for issuing the Annual Fire Safety Statement to Council.
We were in a similar situation with hard wired smoke alarms. We decided the end result was easier & cheaper if we just bought the units in bulk & had them installed by the same contractor who was already doing fire order related work in the building.
The OC paid for the purchase & installation of the smoke alarms. Doing it this way ensured that all units complied, reducing the risk to all other lot owners in the strata. Also kept our fire protection & insurance people happy.
Much bigger strata though, 300+ lots.
All the best with your cost recovery.
apples45 – it is generally accepted, and apparently confirmed by your own research that power outlets within lots, safety switches on power boards within lots, and hard-wired smoke alarms with lots (that are not connected to a central control board on common property) are all the responsibility of lot owners.
In that circumstance Sect 63 (4) of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (1996) could be used as the basis for your Owners Corporation (O/C) to recover from lot owner/s its costs to carry out works that would otherwise be the “duty” of those owner/s.
The only “hitch” in applying that provision literally to your situation is that the Fire Order requires the O/C and not the lot owner/s to comply, although I’d interpret that more generally as the Order requiring the O/C to ensure that required works are completed and certified as compliant.
Nonetheless, and particularly as none of your owners responded to the earlier letter and I interpret from your posts that all works have been completed (?), I agree with that part of larry’s advice (post #4) about putting the whole thing before owners at the next General Meeting, possibly including an option that the O/C pays and reimburses those owner/s who have already made certified changes to their lots.
Not so sure about legal opinions in this case though; give “strata democracy” a chance!
Whatever the outcome, remember that whilst your Strata Manager may offer advice and opinions (albethey conflicting) there are no “battles”, as he’s required to act in accordance with the directions of his client (the O/C) provided those are in compliance with the Act.