› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Common Property › By-law absolves OC of all responsibility › Current Page
I’m no lawyer but I can see several holes in this and, yes examples of over-reach. The one that jumps out is the automatic door closure exclusion. The door closure contributes to fire safety for the whole building, not just the lot in which it’s fitted, so it can’t be left to individual lot owners.
I also have issues with the exclusion of everything on the balcony because, depending on the age of the building, the balcony may well be common property.
As for your exhaust fan, the fire safety officer has told you it requires elements that contribute to the fire safety of the whole building, therefore it shouldn’t be left to individual owners to repair and maintain (in my humble opinion).
In your shoes, I would tell the strata manager that the by-law is significantly flawed and if it is used as an excuse to save the owners corp from fixing your extraction fan, you will seek to have the whole by-law thrown out on the grounds that it seeks to supersede superior laws and is therefore invalid.
The legal costs of defending that at NCAT will be more than the cost fixing the fan and then they will have to pay for a whole new by-law. Their call.
In any case, they need to get a strata lawyer to go through the by-law and remove the bits that render it an unreliable document.