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art said
Is this now the OC’s responsibility to obtain council approval and sign off.
Yes if it’s common property alterations, because, in the absence of a specific by-law, the OC owns and maintains all common property.
@Lady Penelope said:
Similar answer to JT.Caveat emptor = buyer beware. The buyer has ‘inherited’ the problems of the previous owner when they purchased the Lot. The responsibility lies with the new owner to obtain the correct approvals. The responsibility does not lie with the OC.
I think that only applies to lot property. Without a by-law, the new lot owner is not responsible for any common property alterations that they didn’t do. They only purchased a share in the common property.
scotlandx said
The OC needs to contact the Council – I think they would be very interested in the illegal works.
In a similar situation, when my council found out about unapproved and non-compliant common property alterations, my OC was threatened with legal action by the council (a large fine). We had to bring the works into compliance. The lot owner wanted to keep the alterations, so agreed to paid for that.
I agree too that the OC can choose to inherit or remove the common property alterations or negotiate with the new lot owner about their compliance and on-going maintenance costs.