whoops ……. I’ve just posted concurrently with Jimmy T, but at least we’re on the same page!
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Your Strata Manager is probably being cautious, just in case the unapproved alterations to the Lot don’t involve the Common Property of the Plan, but she needs to understand that it’s the Owners Corporation who’s responsible for whatever actions may be taken to make prospective purchasers and those acting for them aware of the situation, and for the consequences of not doing that.
At some stage between the exchange of Contracts and Settlement (typically 6 weeks) the Solicitor / Conveyancer acting for the parties will apply to the Owners Corporation (O/C) for a Sect 109 Certificate, where details applicable to the townhouse such as the Owner as shown on the Strata Roll, Levies, etc need to be completed – usually by the Strata Manager on behalf of the O/C.
The last Item on the Certificate is “other items”, and that’s where I always include, in circumstances such as with your Plan, a statement that “the Owners Corporation has NO RECORD of a Consent ever being granted to any Owner of the Lot for the purposes of adding to, altering, or erecting any new structure on the Common Property areas within the Lot or elsewhere on the Plan under the provisions of Sect 65(A) of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (1996), including but not limited to (add any areas of suspected non-compliance such as to the laundry and kitchen areas of the Lot).”
Any accompanying note, such as an e-mail, to the recipient of the Certificate should make reference to the information provided there under “other items”.
In that way the interests of your O/C, and those of any new Owners are suitably protected by virtue of the fact that a monetary adjustment can be made at Settlement to account for the costs of the new Owner either restoring the Common Property to its pre-renovation state or for seeking and obtaining the O/C’s retrospective (and perhaps conditional) Consent to those.