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[Jimmy-T]

I’m in the weird position of asking my own website for advice but here goes.

Last week our EC advised that some recessed light transformers inside the Common Property ceiling had been overheating due to being packed around with insulation.  They offered to arrange for an electrician inspect the transformers – for a fee.  The minutes of the meeting stated in bold letter that the transformers were not common property.

Now, the Fair Trading “Who’s responsible …” memorandum is a bit of a muddle over this but in any case, our Owners Corp has never adopted it. Instead we’ve always previously worked on the basis that anything inside the ceiling was common property.

I dug out a Strata Community Australia (formerly Institute of Strata Titles Management) document that says this:

“Any pipe, cable, ducting, plug or the like that is for the exclusive use of the lot, then if it breaks:
• Within the lot – Owners responsibility
• Outside the lot or in a wall, floor or ceiling that abuts to either common property or another lot – Owners Corporations responsibility.

To me that reads the cables and transformers in the ceiling are common property.  So, before I go and annoy the Executive Committee (again), who’s with me on this?

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