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My son had a dangerous emergency Tuesday night due to his fuse box smoking and shorting out. It is located in the kitchen of this unit. As well as being unsafe it was completely untenable for him to have this continue as he and his wife have a 3 month old and are up several times during the night feeding.
After lighting some candles and digging out the camping headlamps there was a burn mark that made it clear this was unsafe and needed immediate fixing. Power was also out to most of the outlets in the apartment and some lights. He had a licenced electrician who lives in his building do the repairs.
The electrician was able to start work first thing Wednesday morning. As well as doing an outstanding job, the speed of service was crucial to ensuring his and his neighbour’s safety as well as making sure the baby was fed and warm.
He understood this cost would be met by strata rather than individual owners. The strata manager doesn’t seem to agee. Who is right here?
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It’s probably the owner or occupant of the unit who’s responsible. If the strata scheme has adopted Fair Trading’s common property memorandum, it says lot owners are responsible for “fuses and fuse boards within the lot and serving only that lot”.
Even if the scheme hasn’t adopted the memorandum, Fair Trading says; “The supply of electricity is the owners corporation’s responsibility. However, any cabling within the unit’s internal walls that only services the individual lot, is the owner’s responsibility.”
That would suggest to me that the fuse box withing the unit is the owner’s responsibility.
Unless your son can show that the electrical supply to the fuse board caused the problem rather than, say, a fault or overload within the unit, then the strata manager is probably right.
Just as an aside, even when schemes haven’t adopted the Fair Trading memorandum, in the absence of any definitive by-laws or rules, Tribunals use it as a guide to who’s responsible .
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’m sorry to hear your story
Im also sorry to say that it’s the lot owner responsibility.
The reason is that the fuse box located in your lot services just one lot – yours.
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