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[Ruby]

I’m new here, and in need of advice.

My apartment is in VICTORIA. Recently, ceiling plaster damage has revealed a leak coming from the apartment above. A licenced plumber, looking through an inspection hatch in my ceiling near to the damaged area, identified a shower waste pipe as the culprit.

The pipe comes down through the concrete above. When the shower is in use, the water drips at a rate of one drop per 4-5 seconds. It is yet to be determined if the pipe connections below the concrete are faulty, or if the leak originates from higher up, such as the shower grate. At the risk of stating the obvious, all of this pipe work exists above my ceiling.

Repairs to the plaster damage will be upward of $2000.

I have notified the Owners Corporation (OC) Manager who is providing very little assistance in putting me in touch with the other owner. Should I be asking the owner of the apartment above for the costs of pipe and ceiling repair, or should I pursue the OC to pay?

Or is this something I must pay for myself?

I have the Plan of Subdivision available, if this helps.

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[Jimmy-T]

Strata law is different from state to state but in Victoria, as in NSW and most other places, the Owners Corporation has a legally enforceable duty to maintain and repair common property (which the ceiling/floor between your flat and the one above almost certainly is). See section 46, below.

Basically, the OC or manager should be investigating whether the problem is in common property or caused by a fault in the lot above.

Once they have established that, they should either repair the common property pipes or insist that the owner upstairs fixes the problem in their lot. The key issue here is that it’s not up to you to pursue the lot owner – this is an Owners Corporation issue and your manager should be dealing with it directly.

The process for pursuing complaints in Victoria is very different from NSW.  And with my lack of detailed knowledge in mind, you should definitely talk to someone in Victoria who has experience of this kind of thing, or at the very least call Consumer Affairs Victoria on 1300 55 81 81.

That said, as far as I can see, you need to fill in an official complaints form and attempt mediation before you can go to VCAT (the Tribunal) and seek orders.  You’ll find a link to the official complaints process and forms HERE.

Now, having said that, I would be calling the manager and saying, “look, this is your responsibility and I don’t want to cause you any trouble but if I haven’t seen any progress on this within seven days, I’m afraid I have to start the official process and that involves making a complaint to the committee about you.”

If you don’t get the required response, then start the process by filling in the official complaints form with a complaint about the manager, not the other lot owner, for failure to maintain common property as required by section 46 of the Act.

I’m now hoping one of our Victorian Flatchatters will hop in here, put me right if I have said anything wrong and provide more reliable advice. 

VICTORIAN OWNERS CORPORATIONS ACT 2006 – SECT 46

Owners corporation to repair and maintain common property

An owners corporation must repair and maintain—

        (a)     the common property; and

        (b)     the chattels, fixtures, fittings and services related to the common property or its enjoyment.

  

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[Ruby]

Thank you Jimmy for your prompt reply. I will call Consumer Affairs as well. If I may, I’ll add a few points here from the Plan of Subdivision:

– “All internal columns, service ducts and pipe shafts within the building unless labelled otherwise, are deemed to be part of common property … the positions of these columns, ducts and shafts have not all been shown on the diagrams contained herein”.

– “The common property is all the land in this plan except [long list of all the lots]”.

– “Location of boundaries defined by buildings: median“.

– The cross section diagram of the building does not show common property spaces in the ceiling cavity between one floor to the next.

I don’t know how to interpret “pipe shaft” or “median”.

Could there any possibility, either:

a) that the space from above my ceiling plaster up to the concrete through which the pipes penetrate is not common property, and therefore is entirely my responsibility?

or

b) that even if the OC agrees to repair the leaking pipe (or insists the owner upstairs repair their lot) they still require me to pay for the repair of my own ceiling?

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