Current Page

[paulandrenee]

Hi,
 
I bought a unit in the Sydney CBD area nearly 9 years ago and currently rent it out.  Several years ago a number of water leaks started up in the building, which is about 9 or 10 stories high.  A large amount of money was spent waterproofing each floor through the then HIH rescue package.  Apparently an assessor from the Fair Trading Dept was sent out and approved works to occur at that time several years ago.
 
To cut a long story short, for the last 3 years, on and off, my unit has had water coming through from the unit above, in several areas.  The Strata managers contract a building manager to work onsite and he liaises with the tenants and plumbers to arrange access etc. 
 
My issue is that these water leaks have been going on for 3 years and they don’t appear to be being fixed.  I use a managing agent to manage the unit but I was recently forced to become involved directly because of the ongoing water issues re-occurring.  I ended up sending an email direct to the strata managers and they advised that when the waterproofing occurred 3 years ago, the assessor from Fair Trading only approved for PART of the area in the unit above mine to be waterproofed.  I might be off the mark, but I would have thought that after a year or so of the leaks continuing, someone from the strata managers should have realised that maybe the leaks are occurring because the unit above was only partly waterproofed.  I had always been under the impression that the whole unit above had been waterproofed.  When I received the email I immediately wrote back and said that in my view, doing only part of the above floor was negligent – it’s like doing half a job. 
 
The current situation is that the strata managers have sent an urgent request to the Fair Trading Dep’t asking for the original works job to be resurrected and for further waterproofing to occur.
 
Over the last 3 years I have had to grant rent reductions to the tenants because of the leaks.  I am currently giving the tenants a rent reduction because of the current water leaks.  Under the circumstances, can I claim compensation?  and if so, which tribunal should I approach and who can I claim compensation from to re-in burse me for lost rent.  I was thinking that the strata managers may have sat on this information for too long before deciding to try and get the original works continued!  Also, if the Dep’t of Fair Trading refuses to resurrect the original works job, who would be paying for repairs?  Would I personally be up for repair costs? 
 
Can you advise me please as I probably won’t be able to continue to offer the rent reduction?
 
Thanks for your time
Regards

Topic

[Jimmy-T]

It has been established in law that the Owners Corporation has full responsibility for maintaining and repairing common property, regardless of whatever claims they may have against anyone else.

I can only recommend that you speak to a specialist strata lawyer about what claims you can make but it would think loss of rent because of the leaks, repairs needed to your property and a demand that they get this properly fixed NOW would be on the agenda (plus any legal costs that accrue).

They will advise you on the best course of action but I would also say, if possible, do anything you can to avoid taking this to the CTTT which is a lottery and which can't award costs.

Don't forget, it's none of your concern who should have done what and when – the OC has to maintain and repair common property and face the consequences if it doesn't. However, they should be having a hard look at their building manager if this is the level of service they are getting.

JimmyT

If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.

Quote

[Author]

Replies