Apologies also for pursuing the point about “who’s responsible”, but the line I was taking is in accordance with the NSW Land and Property Information (L&PI) Memo. that, even though it’s only a guideline, suggests that Owners Corporations (O/C) are responsible for locating and fixing the source of any water leakage (only) when that’s affecting Lots in addition to the one from where the leakage emanates and/or the Common Property.
So even though the source of the leakage was within caj’s Lot, it makes sense to me that the O/C would be responsible for stopping it in the circumstances outlined above, and for the costs of doing that, simply because the impacts of the leakage are broader than just caj’s Lot as the source and include property for which the O/C is responsible (e.g common walls & the floor/slab between the Lots).
I agree with other posts that Caj and/or his/her Insurance is responsible for rectifying the damage that the leakage caused within his/her Lot and the one below.
To conclude, I know that both the L&PI Memo and the Guideline issued by Strata Community Australia only applies if O/Cs resolve at a General Meeting to adopt one or the other of them for their Plans, but in the absence of anything better I’ve found that whether adopted or not, a consistently applied approach that combines common sense with a reference to those documents works for me!
(Just thought of something related to the above….can anyone explain why the various guideline documents suggest that problems with the isolator for the electricity supply within a Lot is the Proprietor’s responsibility, and yet problems with the isolator for the water supply to a Lot is the O/C’s responsibility??)