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There is much confusion over this and you would think that a failure of common property causing damage elsewhere would see the costs sheeted back to the owners corp. But then it gets complicated by the idea that the OC needs to have been negligent – i.e. they failed to maintain common property and that failure had forseeable consequences.
There’s also a lot of discussion about this on the internet in various legal and strata management sites
Section 106 of the Strata Schemes Management Act says an owners corporation must properly maintain common property and keep it in a state of good and serviceable repair.
It also says lot owners may recover expenses and damages from the Owners Corporation because they’ve failed to repair and maintain common property.
However, as has frequently been pointed out on this website, sometimes this simplest solution is to by-pass the strata committee and strata manager and make a claim directly to the strata insurer (they will be named on your latest AGM minutes).
The insurer, who would have to pay up if the OC lost at NCAT or in court, will quickly assess their liability and might decide to pay up rather than have to pay the costs of legal defence then have to pay up anyway.
It’s worth a phone call but don’t expect your strata manager to help if they are already throwing up obstacles.