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What responsibility does a developer who is a part owner in a scheme have to follow up on having defects corrected within the warranty period?
Five owners in a seven member scheme are now attempting to have defects rectified as the period draws to a close but the developer, who is married to the builder’s sister, has made no effort.
Our concern is that the minority owner may at some point in the future expect to have repairs that should have been rectified under warranty later paid for by the Owners Corporation’s Sinking Fund.
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I think you may be coming at this from slightly the wrong angle. The owners corp (you and the other owners) should be having a defects survey done and then making an official claim against the developer.
He has no legal responsibility to go looking for defects. But if you find them – major defects withing six years and non-major within two – he has a duty to fix them at his expense.
By the way, “non-major” is basically anything that is a defect but doesn’t mean the block or any part of it is uninhabitable.
Get a professional defects survey done before it is too late then present that to the developer along with a statement of claim.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
I wonder if it’s a simple as the committee, in writing, asking the developer to identify any defects in their lots – or allow a surveyor to so so – and to sign off on an agreement that they will not claim any defects in the future that do not exist at this time.
They will probably refuse, but at least you will have a paper trail for the day when they ask the other owners to pay for their defects out of your collective funds,
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
Good idea, Jimmy. The only possible negative I can suggest is that when the unit is sold to someone else, that later owner would not be bound by the developer/prior unit owner’s agreement. That later owner could legitimately want the OC to fix defects which by then would be the OC’s problem.
In the ACT there is a provision that the OC can enter a unit if it is necessary to inspect or maintain the common property after giving reasonable notice etc. Does NSW have something like that?
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