› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Common Property › Should we ask the insurers about a potential problem? › Current Page
Is the ramp part of the common property? If so, the Owners Corporation has an absolute responsibility to maintain it. I don’t know about where your boundary is relative to high and low tide lines but if it was part of the original construction to have a boat ramp and if, in order to function it had to extend a bit past the boundary, then I would expect it is still your common property to maintain.
Sometimes committees can get spooked about costs. Where I am past committees had looked into and rejected replacing a particular gravel path with concrete even though it kept getting washed out, became at best uncomfortable and at worst a trip hazard, and kept needing to be fixed. When looking back over decades of minutes I found that every few years somebody suggested concreting it, had got a quote and then the committee of the day had baulked at the expense. Eventually, when I was treasurer, we fixed the path permanently, all regarded it as a big improvement, the cost was small compared with the overall budget, a matter of several 10s of dollars per unit, and nobody got upset.
On the other hand, is the boat ramp disused? If so, is that because nobody is interested or because it is in such poor shape? If people would like to use it, then put it in the proposed budget for the coming year to get the funding to get it repaired properly. If it would be better removed, then you would need to check your legislation for the class of resolution required for an OC to decide to not maintain (and remove) some bit of common property. Where I am, that would take a special resolution.