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Hi
Around 7 years ago, due to burst pipes in the above 2 units, i was forced to completely renovate my bathroom (and bedroom/lounge which was on either side of bathroom as by the time strata sorted out burst pipe issues (months), I had major mould growing in my home/ had to move out / big mould machines came in, everything was removed/lost everything inc clothes, artwork, bed, furniture, linen etc as well as putting my cat in a cattery/moved in with a friend whilst strata/my home insurance fixed my home (approx 3 months). Given the extensive damage, the bathroom had to be totally gutted, even having to pay for a new slab myself to my builder contractor. My bedroom was covered in mould, lost my bespoke wardrobe/skirting boards and cornices – it was bad !
Due to the above, renovations were approved by OC/strata but no bylaw was put into place ie that I was responsible re any issues ie pipes etc going forward.
i now have an issue with efflorescence on external bathroom brick wall and plumber advised to inspect they need to rip out my fixed wall mirror in bathroom to get to the shared pipe stack to check (as easier than going through double brick external wall) as there is no access hole to get to the stack to check if burst pipe (strata responsible) BUT could be my toilet cistern (which I would be responsible for re $).
After plumbers report, strata manager firstly advised there is no bylaw for my renovations/that I should have had a bylaw when renovating so we need to call a meeting to pass bylaw now but can they do this now/I wouldn’t have thought so ?
Can you advise my rights/can they do this ?
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After plumbers report, strata manager firstly advised there is no bylaw for my renovations/that I should have had a bylaw when renovating so we need to call a meeting to pass bylaw now but can they do this now/I wouldn’t have thought so ?
Your scheme can pass a by-law to manage the common property elements going forward but they can’t pass a retrospective by-law or one that apportions resposibility to you without your approval. In other words, it depends what the by-law says and you’d do well to get a strata lawyer to look at what they propose before you agree to anything.
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Generally speaking, the owners corp is responsible for pipes inside common property walls, the lot owner is responsible for pipes inside non-CP walls plus pipes, tapware and fittings outside the walls.
So the chances are that if the cause of the efflorescence is the pipe in the wall then it’s a CP issue and if it’s an external cistern it’s yours. If it’s a built-in cistern inside the common property wall my guess – and it is a guess – is that it’s an owners corp issue.
The OC will therefore also be responsible for replacing the wall and mirror and any other damage done in effecting the repair.
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I would of thought a built in cistern in the CP wall would only fall to the OC for repair if it’s the original. If an owner replaced it at some stage, then the problem is his?