› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Living in strata › Water damage and Insurance claim › Current Page
@scotlandx said:
It doesn’t matter whether you have an insurance claim or not – the primary issue is whether a defect in the common property caused the damage to your property.If it did, then the OC is responsible for fixing the damage. They have to lodge the insurance claim, and if it is refused then they have to pay anyway.
I think it depends if the OC is legally liable for the damage. And that might depend on the exact circumstances.
My experience is that the OC must be negligent for them to be legally liable. It might be hard to establish that is some situations: burst water pipes inside walls comes to mind.
I’ve just gone though that exact event and neither the OC nor the OC’s insurance company (CHU) would repair damaged lot property as they claimed they were not legally liable. They said claim on contents insurance. They did repair damaged common property and damaged lot fixtures and fittings covered by the OC’s building insurance.
This building management company has the same view:
Unit Owners Exposed to Uninsured Losses
There has to be some sort of negligence proven against the Owners Corporation or Body Corporate for there to be any sort of potential liability.