› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Common Property › Self Managed Strata – Who pays for termites treatment? › Current Page
I think the basic problem here in owners thinking “it doesn't cost them anything to get fixed” is the disconnect in owners' minds between the levies they pay and the payments the Owners Corporation makes.
In Struggler's example, the owners will end up paying for termite treatment anyway, since all the owners will either pay directly or through their administration and/or sinking funds.
However, there is a legal obligation on the Owners Corporations to maintain common property so a selfish owner could theoretically wait until everyone else has had their termites done (at their own expense) then demand that the OC attends to theirs.
Owners agreeing that they are taking responsibility for their own termites would have to be written into your by-laws for that situation to be avoided and would p[robably have to include a clause dictating how often termite inspections had to be done for it to be legal (not sure about this – do any lawyers have a view?)
I would have though this was a fairly critical issue because of the way termites can spread. But if, for instance, this was a case of rising damp in one unit or townhouse, the lot owners could reasonably demand that the OC attended to it at its and not their expense.
On the question of making their homes available for inspection, it can be a real pain but the OC has the right to demand entry for essential work to be done (not that you would want it to get to that point).
However, including in your by-laws agreement to impose a call-out fee when owners fail to make their properties available for inspection (after being offered two or three options) would soon sort that out.