› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Common Property › Ceiling water ingress and damage › Current Page
@dwmyhome said:
Question. Once the damage is fixed who’s responsibility is to paint the ceilings and internal walls to restore them to the original condition.
This is an interesting one and it is an ssue I have had a lot of arguments over the years with the powers that be:
Basically, if the ceiling and paintwork are damaged during the fixing of the problem then the Owners Corp has to pay for the repair and repaint.
However, if the paintwork is damaged by the original problem (and not by the repair) then the OC is not liable – unless you can show that the original problem was caused by their negligence.
So, for instance, if a gutter pipe broke and wasn’t repaired and that caused damage to your internal paintwork, they would be liable.
But if the guttering was merely unable to cope with flooding rain, then they would not and you would claim the paintwork on your home and contents insurance.
In your case, it’s a grey area – if they tried to fix the problem but it didn’t work. Were they negligent? Hard to argue. But if they didn’t even try then yes, they would be.