The whole question of splitting costs is coming up more and more. The law says that all common property costs must be charged to owners according to their unit entitlements. But my investment property has some apartments not serviced by lifts and so only those that are pay for maintenance, under a special contract with the OC.
I’d like to see a situation where, for expensive essential works, they could be split between those who can pay special levies up front a(and therefor don’t pay interest) and those who need a strata loan to avoid having to sell their homes.
In this case, all you need is an agreement that the upstairs owners will be allowed to carpet at their own expense and it will only become common property after a reasonable time set out in the contract. But then, I’m no lawyer.
My other question is, how was the landlord of the flat able to walk away without compensating for the damage caused by their tenants?