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Hi All, from NSW and am new to this great forum to help find answers…I too have water flowing through my garage. It is a parking and garaging area under a slab that has a garden above, and water enters through the double brick wall of the corner wall – we have had a waterproofing guy have a look and there is no vent to the garage either – he is not sure why the vents stop at next door’s garage when built. Apparently is odd from when built. So when it rains or when the garden club leave the sprinklers on too long we have water entering through garage edges of roof down walls , flows across garage diagonally to exit and flow to drain in carpark area outside garage. Our boxes are wilting, spilling contents to floor though on raised shelving, possessions are becoming mouldy and very very musty smelling. So, I need some help here – is there a strata law/ guideline I can cite when approaching my OC formally ? Responses so far when verbally opening subject range from: 1) ‘oh they built the floor like that so it would drain out – is meant to be like that’ 2) ‘good luck, all are same’ – not true – as strata minutes show repairs to wet ingress over the years to 2 others, & asking around none currently have same problem & it was originally built to be dry. Am hoping I can persuade OC to repair with solid argument backed by strata NSW facts . To act on waterproofer’s solutions – soon. Thank you (originally posted on another thread – garage water ingress – but politely told to start my own )
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Car parking areas in strata buildings are typically class 7 building areas.
That means not only are they allowed to have wet walls and floors, they are sometimes purposely designed that way.
It doesn’t mean they should flood. But thousands of strata car parks across Australia get wet areas after rain. It can make storage difficult but it shouldn’t affect car parking.
Of course an OC/BC can chose to try to mitigate any problems.
Strataman – Are you sure about your interpretation of the Building Code? My interpretation is that the strata building would be a class 2 building.
The class 7 building would be a building that only contained carparking.
The Owners Corp has an absolute duty to repair and maintain common property, regardless of whose fault it is. The ongoing debate over flammable cladding proves that even if it’s not the OC’s “fault”, it’s ultimately their responsibility.
So, if you can establish that similar flaws have been repaired by the OC previously (indicating that it was accepted as a defect in common property) then you can offer them the two options – either they fix it, expediently, or they refuse, you take them to the Tribunal, they waste money on lawyers and strata managers … and then they fix it (and you don’t have to pay a share of the costs of them defending your case).
If you want get bush lawyer on them, quote Section 106 and Section 232 of the Act
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<p style=”text-align: left;”>Strataman – Are you sure about your interpretation of the Building Code? My interpretation is that the strata building would be a class 2 building.</p>
The class 7 building would be a building that only containedYes, I’m sure. I live in a building with a common property basement car park and that’s the way it is officially classified by the public surveyor and the fire safety engineers. Buildings can eg be class 2 in parts and class 7 in other parts.
Basement car parks sometimes get wet. It’s not a habitable area. Sometimes they are purposely designed that way.
If the car park meets all the relevant building codes, then it’s not a required maintenance issue. But it’s certainly something an OC/BC could decide to improve.
And here’s a link that shows how there can be several classes within the one building (see the mixed use example):
https://www.abcb.gov.au/-/media/Files/Resources/Education-Training/Building-classifications.pdf