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Yes, I’m referring to the registered Strata Plans.
If anyone is interested these are the 3 best resources explaining how to interpret them that I’ve found. All NSW but hopefully still helpful.
https://nsw.stratacommunity.org.au/strata-community/free-online-executive-committee-training/ (you’ll need to register and go to the “Interpreting Strata Plans” module)
https://www.lpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/143078/Strata_Plans_Fast_Facts.pdf
I rang the Land and Property Information Service (what used to be NSW Department of Lands) for help and the advisor there pulled up the plans and ended up saying that they were unclear too. The fact that they don’t match the outline of the house but we have to follow them, makes things some things very difficult, which is why he gave me the surveyors number. But even if I can contact the surveyor I’m not sure what can be done anyway, since the plans were registered.
The biggest problem is that the house has a wall running down the middle, parallel to the common side walls. On the second storey the wall down the middle is marked as a common wall, but the outer wall that is physically common with the house next door is not present at all. We can reasonably guess that the surveyor meant to put a bold line on the wall dividing the houses and mistook the internal wall for that one (14 times). Anyone looking at even just the front facade would realise the SP doesn’t add up, so maybe the liquid lunch theory applies here too.
So I guess I have to assume that the wall that divides me from next door (not marked at all on that floor) and the internal one (marked with a thick line) are both common walls for the purposes of getting permission from the OC for alterations, and are both mine for the purposes of getting the OC to pay for repairs……