This week’s question of the week is a particularly tricky one because it addresses a problem that it all too common and terribly tricky – mould.
The reason it’s tricky is because it can be caused by a number of factors which allows people or bodies who don’t want to take responsibility to fob it off on others.
For instance, mould can be caused or exacerbated by poor circulation in the apartment. Okay, says the owners corporation, open more windows.
But what if the apartment is designed to limit air circulation so as to conserve energy? Isn’t that a design fault and therefore a defect?
And what if the airflow is limited by design but the resident restricts it even further?
It’s an infernally complicated issue and it doesn’t just affect the look of an apartment or damage clothes, books and other personal possessions, it can seriously harm people’s heath.
So, perhaps anyone seeking a simple answer would do well to abandon that thought and accept that there is no silver bullet, there may be no single cause and it may be that no single person or body is responsible.
On the other hand, we should be wary of any owners corporation that says it’s too complicated to know who to blame, but it certainly isn’t them. You can read an edited version of strata lawyer David Bannerman’s response from the Lawyer in the Hot Seat webinar HERE.
Elsewhere on the Forum
- What are the new inspection rules on childproof window locks? That’s HERE.
- Who pays when a leak caused by your tenant damages a common property ceiling downstairs. That’s HERE.
- What information am I supposed to put in a section 184 statement for an apartment sale? That’s HERE.
- Why aren’t there tighter limits on the maximum length of initial building management contracts. That’s HERE.
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Forum. Question of the week about mould, new childproof window locks regs, tenant’s flood damages flat below, tighter terms for building managers.
[See the full original blog post at: Forum: No silver bullet to solve mould problems To comment on the post, click on reply here.]
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