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What happens when mould keeps returning despite remediation? Who’s responsible for fixing it and how liable are they?

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[Bannermans Lawyers]

This is a very common issue for owners corporations and residents because it’s particularly hard to diagnose the cause of the mould and there’s a million reasons why it might exist.

Typically, though, there’s a failed membrane and there’s water entering from some part of the building and it’s spreading to somewhere else and the mould’s just coming through wherever the water can find a way out.

But owners’ corporations struggle to find that solution and get it right the first time. And so there’s frequently recurring mould claims.

If the recurring mould claim is causing somebody a financial loss – such as loss of rent because the apartment is not safe to live in – there’s a strict liability that the owners corporation must reimburse that person, that financial loss.

And we certainly have seen an increasing number of personal injury claims. We don’t do personal injury, but we’ve referred quite a number of personal injury claims relating to mould in strata schemes to personal injury law firms. There could be large claims and settlements that might occur from a personal injury caused by mould.

But property damage is typically what the owner’s corporation would be tackling, whether there’s loss of rent or property damage occurring from the mould. And that can be very significant sums of money.

However, you can have so many different causes. For instance, many new buildings have less circulation of air to comply with new energy rating systems.  But with reduced circulation of air you’re getting more condensation and then more mould.

A lot of owners corporations try to blame the build-up of the content condensation on those buildings on the owner’s behaviour, saying there’s no problem with water entering through another part of the common property, so it’s not their problem.

They may claim it’s your failure to allow sufficient air circulation through your apartment that is causing the condensation buildup and the mould to follow. But the circulation of air might be determined by the way in which the apartment block is constructed, and that’s a common property defect.

It’s an incredibly complex issue because there are often multiple reasons for a build-up of mould with different entities responsible for the problem to greater or lesser extents. You can access more information about that on our fact sheet HERE.

Bannermans Lawyers
www.bannermans.com.au

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