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Urban,
Did the contact at Fair Trading promise to indemnify you and your Owners Corporation if someone was injured while working on your common property?
There's a big difference between what's mandatory and what's good practice and this is such a grey area anyway I reckon, if anybody is doing any work in your building in any capacity, you are taking a huge risk by not complying with Occupational Health and Safety requirements.
Reading the available literature, I'm pretty sure you have been given bad advice (how unusual to get that from Fair Trading!)
I also think that if an OHS survey told your Owners Corporation to fix something and your EC decided it wasn't necessary or too expensive, and someone was then injured as a result, your EC's liability insurance would be invalidated because of negligence and the individuals who made the decision could be facing substantial PERSONAL pay-outs in damages.
Sure, there may be some strata managers who are picking up fees, some of which may be excessive, for arranging these things – but if they are getting excessive commissions for recommending necessary services from incompetent suppliers, that's about having bad strata managers, not about not needing OHS surveys.
In any cas, have a look at Mr Strata's response above about disclosure of fees.
I have heard the legal view that if, for instance, just one person is working from home in your strata block, your requirement to have an OHS surveys kicks in. And that's not the only trigger, by any means.
FYI: the Institute of Strata Title Management's submission to the National Review of Model OHS Laws in 2008, said they were concerned that Owners Corporations were being misled about their OHS responsibilities and that the exemption for OHS liabilities in private dwellings only applied to strata in very limited circumstances.
Read that submission HERE and ask yourself who's right – some phone jockey in the Fair Trading call centre or the Strata Managers' professional body and their legal advisors?
I had a feeling I had been asked this question before and I found THIS COLUMN dating back to 2008. The answer is the same. Be very careful before deciding you don't need an OHS survey, and even more so before you decide to ignore professional advice given to you as a result of one.
Now, I don't want to get this wrong so if there's any strata professional out there with a definitive opinion on this, especially if things have changed in the past three years, please let us know.
JimmyT