› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Hard floors and tough decisions › Spalling causes damage to wooden flooring with under heating – who pays? › Current Page
The discussion to date appears to have been around a floor that was installed, with or without permission, that is a fixed floor. It sounds like a fixed floor if it has underfloor heating. If it was installed with permission, then in the absence of a by law holding the owner responsible for its maintenance, it would be owners corp responsibility. If without permission, it is hard to see why the OC would have any liability at all.
Things change if it is a floating floor; floating floors are not part of common property. They are lot owner’s responsibility, but may be covered by the OC’s Building Policy under Owner Fittings. If the damage is not claimable under the OC’s Owner Fittings Policy, then it is hard to see why the OC should have any liability, in the absence of negligence as opposed to building failure.
Now of course if the floor has to be torn up to fix the spalling, then whatever is torn up would have to be replaced at OC’s expense – but only if the floor had been installed with OC permission, where permission is required.