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Hi Cristiane – As I've recently coordinated the installation of 6 x 2kW Solar Arrays and Inverters on the Common Property of our 27 Lot Plan in NSW, I thought I'd offer this short response in advance of those by Jimmy and others.
After discussions with our local Electricity Supply Authority we resolved to create a Special By-Law that covered where the various components of the Solar System could be placed on the Common Property (roof & walls).
Generally, we stipulated that all components except the roof-mounted solar panels themselves (which should ideally face north) had to be placed on the Common Property such that they weren't visible from the street frontage of the Plan, or from the living or recreational areas of other Lots.
Our only compliance issue was the cabling, which has to be within a white coloured PVC conduit, but we overcame that by using conduit with a square profile which was placed hard-up against the edges of the downpipes.
The Inverters were placed on the internal wall of the garage/s; again Common Property but covered by the Special By-Law.
Where there's a (good) will, there's a way.
I'm not familiar with Qld Strata Laws, but I'm sure that as with NSW, Owners Corporations are required to behave reasonably.
Over to the others …….
Newbie – In my experience the call-handling, maintenance coordination, and financial reporting capabilities of Strata Management Companies is consistently good, but the value of the more specific strata management service to an Owners Corporation is very much related to the applied knowledge and experience of the individual Strata Manager who that Company assigns to your Plan; and that can be a bit of a lucky-dip.
Quite frankly, with a 6 Lot Plan, I'd be looking for a suitably committed Owner or Member/s of your Executive Committee to take-on the management role!
Such a person could get plenty of relevant advice via this Forum, but if you or they are daunted by the financial and administrative aspects, you could ask your current Strata Managers for an Agreement that's limited to Record Keeping , thus leaving only the day-to-day operations of your 6 Lot Plan to self-management.
Good luck!
Paula – The reason I asked about the nature of the occupancy in the Unit above was in order to suggest the most appropriate way-forward without leaving you burdened with the expense for identifying and rectifying a problem that’s clearly not yours.
Anyway, irrespective of the occupancy (i.e. owner or tenant) and the (irrelevant) fact that the water drops are in the “air-space” of your Lot during their journey to your kitchen windowsill, resolution of the matter is something that should be coordinated by your Strata Manager, who will have contact details for the owner and/or the tenant’s property manager.
Ask your Strata Manager to arrange access to the Unit above by a plumber, who can then investigate and provide advice to him/her about the source of the leakage. Once that’s known, your Strata Manager will be in a position to advise the Unit’s Owner if the costs of rectification is their responsibility (e.g. in the example given by Mr Strata), or to give the plumber the go-ahead if rectification is the Owners Corporation’s responsibility.
Under either scenario you’re not involved in the coordination or the costs of rectification, which is the preferred position particularly as leak detection is often a difficult process, when water tends to follow a consistent pathway even though the source may vary.
Paula,
Before I (and possibly others) can offer any specific advice, could you please advise if there is a Resident in the Unit above, and if so whether that person is a Proprietor or a Tenant?
The costs of operating and maintaining Common Property assets such as your Plan's communal air conditioning system should be calculated in accordance with the Units of Entitlement applicable to Lots at your Plan.
Some of our Legal “posters” would be in a better position than me to respond, but so far as I'm aware the Special By-Law that's been put in place with regard to payment for the air-conditioning is improper (read: illegal).
If such arrangements were proper, your suggested turnstile might just as easily be extended to other high maintenance areas like pool and the elevator; and that's why I believe it to be improper!
Would one of our Strata Lawyers like to respond?
Hi Chopsuey,
From the perspective of your O/C it doesn't matter; it's really up to you.
Whilst it sometimes depends upon the membership of your Plan's Executive Committeee (and it shouldn't), your O/C should only need to know that your tradespeople are appropriately licensed, that they hold current Public Liability Insurance, and that nothing proposed will impact adversely on the Common Property or upon other Residents.
Perhaps ask your Strata Manager or Executive Committee Secretary what's required at your Plan, and it's then good planning to include sufficient details to at least address that – such as copies of licenses, insurances, the materials to be used and how those and the tradespeople's equipment is to be manouevered around the Common Property, work times, and any structural works etc.
Hope this helps.
The short answer is YES, you do need to advise your Owners Corporation (O/C) about what's intended and obtain their written authorisation.
Soundproofing in areas that are already tiled is not as much of a problem, but as you're going to seek your O/C's authorisation anyway, I'd include this aspect also.
MikaelA,
As reluctant as I am to comment upon the legal advice obtained by others, here goes…
Your legal advisor has relied upon Section 81 of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (1996), which deals with the Insurance that an Owners Corporation (O/C) must hold for its Common Property (CP).
S81 Clause (a) deals with “owners’ improvements and owners’ fixtures” forming part of the Building (i.e. CP), and which are covered under the O/C's Building Insurance.
The fuse-box (actually a sub-board) within a Unit or Lot is classified as an “owners' fixture” that whilst covered under the O/C's Building Insurance IF it's damaged due to an “event” described in that Policy, is in all other circumstances the responsibility of Lot Owners – and is as you say not covered by Contents Insurance.
I hope this non-legal opinion clarifies the situation for you.
In my experience people do not usually cause a nuisance on purpose, so your first approach should be to speak with your neighbours about the problem.
If the noise disturbance persists, advise your neighbours that (in NSW) Strata By-Law #1 states:
An owner or occupier of a lot must not create any noise on a lot or the common property likely to interfere with the peaceful enjoyment of the owner or occupier of another lot or of any person lawfully using common property.
A Breach of this and any other Strata By-Law may be addressed by your Executive Committee and/or Strata Manager who can issue a written “Notice to Comply”, after which punitive actions may be applied by application to the Consumer, Trader, and Tenancy Tribunal (again in NSW).
mmvilleowner, the wall between Units is Common Property, and the maintenance / repair of anything within it (like plumbing) that serves both Units, either totally or in part, is the responsibility of the Owners Corporation (OC).
So your OC should have attended to the original repair, where its Building Insurance would cover the investigative works involved.
The problem that you describe may be due to galvanic corrosion, that occurs most commonly in hot water pipes where there's condensation on the outer surface of a copper pipe, and that pipe is touching something galvanised; like the tip of a nail or pipe saddle.
If the mark on the wall that you described is a dark green, galvanic corrosion may be the problem, and it will need to be repaired as the corrosion will eventually eat through the copper pipe.
I believe that you're right about the rent issue; if the Unit's habitable.
I haven't experienced any difficulties in directly negotiating Insurance for our self-managed Plan (NSW) with Insurers such as CHU & SUU, although none would reduce our premium to account for the fact that they would be paying 22% of that same premium as a commission to a Strata Manager (as their Agent) if we had one!
Our Building Insurance is due in November and I propose to deal with a Broker who will entertain the concept of sharing his/her commission (>50:50) with the Owners Corporation.
Any knowledge about Brokers who may do that would be appreciated.
PK – so here's another one of those complications that we discussed in another post to Flat Chat .
If there's one thing that I've learn't about operational strata management, it's that there will almost always be conflicts (within the interpretation of the rules) that can get in the way of resolution; if we let them.
Alfred's original query was about a water supply isolating tap to his Lot that leaked and the water damaged his cupboard, and I believe the salient point to be that the tap controlled the supply to his Lot alone; irrespective of where bits of that valve were or weren't.
Discussions between Lot Owners, Executive Committees, Strata Managers et al concerning the complications such as what part of the tap leaked, how much of the tap was within the air space of the Lot and how much was within the wall, and whether that wall was a common or internal wall will just see a continuance of the discussions – possibly in the CTTT (heaven forbid).
I'm very much into a logical, reasonable, agreeable, logically correct, and consistently applied (in the Plan) resolutions to matters such as Alfred raised; I think that's what the Forum achieved.
PK – hear, hear!! I only said that identifying the “customer” was irrelevant because I thought (wrongly) that like some others, you may have been raising a perceived complexity in order to make the operational management of a strata scheme more complex than it already is; apologies!
I'm not a Strata Manager, but as Secretary, Treasurer, and all-round “dogs' body” of a self-managed Plan I've so far learn't as much as I need to know about Strata Management, and particularly how not to make my life harder than the Legislation, Property Managers, and (some) Proprietors try to make it. Which was your point also.
So…back to your somewhat atypical circumstance with the meter room at your Plan, I'd make the observation that as the meter boards that supply each individual Lot are permanency fixed to the Common Property (CP) wall within that room, each would be classified as a “Lot Owner's Fixture”.
Other such fixtures include toilet pans, baths, basins, built-in wardrobes/cupboards, wall ovens, and cook-tops – where each is permanently affixed to the CP such that that CP would be damaged if the fixture was removed, and where the Lot Owner is responsible for its maintenance and repair.
And…here's one of those complications. If a Lot Owner's Fixture is damaged by a defined event on the Owners Corporation's Insurance Policy, then it is usually covered under that Policy.
I told you that Strata Management can be overly complex, but isn't bouncing ideas and opinions around this Forum great !!!!!
“bath” – The bath plug & waste would not connect directly to a house service line that serves more than the Lot concerned; it should connect to a branch or junction, that is there specifically to serve / provide a connection for the wastewater from the Lot.
Consequently, I'm inclined to agree with the majority, by concluding that the drainage under the bath tub, and as far as the communal house-service line, is the responsibility of the Proprietor of the Lot.
“PK” – That’s irrelevant really, but the Customer would be whoever it is who receives the Electricity Usage Account; in this case each Resident and the Owners Corporation.
“ozelle57” – One further suggestion. The Meter Room is Common Property, and therefore there's absolutely no reason why anyone other than the Strata Manager and/or the Secretary of the Executive Committee would need to hold a key to that area.
So I'd suggest that you ask your Electricity Authority to re-key the Meter Room Door with one of their master-key system variants, and to supply the O/C's representative with a duplicate key. In that way, only that representative, the Authority's representative, and Licensed Electricians (most have keys) will have access to the Meter Room, and nobody will be able to store their junk.