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Hi,
My partner and I are planning to renovate the kitchen of her unit. Shortly after purchasing the unit about 5 years ago, strata identified rot in the concrete subfloor due to water damage and performed the repair. This involved ripping up the carpet and kitchen floor, grinding down the concrete to remove the rot, then replacing the carpeting and kitchen floor.
The issue we are facing now is that the original repair work ground down the floor everywhere in the unit except underneath the kitchen appliances, so they currently sit about 1-2 cm higher than the rest of the floor. We are planning to change the layout of the kitchen and install new floors. Due to the prior repair job, we will have to level out the floor either by pouring new concrete or grinding down the areas currently covered by the appliances.
My question to the forum is, would this repair be the responsibility of strata? One could argue the prior repair for concrete rot was an incomplete job? We are happy to cover the cost if it’s not strata’s responsibility but we don’t want to be on the hook for repairs that should reasonably belong to strata.
Thanks,
Jeff
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Replies
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Jeff – as it would be unusual for “rot” in the concrete sub-floor to be limited to the trafficable areas of the kitchen, it sounds to me like the Owners Corporation (O/C) took a minimalist approach to the original rectification works.
The best approach in my opinion would be for you to obtain a quotation for the remediation of the previously un-repaired areas of the kitchen floor, and for your partner to include that with correspondence to the Secretary of her Executive Committee (E/C) seeking advice regarding any requirements that it may have with regard to her proposed renovations (the scope of which should be outlined), setting out the circumstances that you’ve described here, and requesting that they either arrange for the previously un-treated areas of the kitchen floor to be repaired in a timely fashion or to reimburse her costs of having that done as part of the overall renovation.