How long should we wait?

Hi,

I recently started renovating my bathroom. Initially, I wanted to make some changes to the location of the shower and toilet, so requested the strata manager to get approval from the executive committee. After 3 months of following up nothing had happened and I couldn’t wait any longer, so changed my plans and went with a straight replacement of fixtures, no movement of anything so strata permission wasn’t required.

I informed everyone in my 12 unit apartment building that the work would be taking place and no-one had any issues.

I moved out of the unit, anticipating that I would be out for up to the 4 weeks that the renovation would take to complete (I only have one bathroom).

On day 1 of the renovation work, when all the fixtures and fittings had been removed and all the tiles taken off the walls and floors, it was discovered that the concrete slab under the bathroom was affected by concrete cancer and would need to be replaced. The concrete slab is common property and is only under my bathroom (doesn’t extend to anyone else’s unit or further into my unit).

I got a quote that day for the work required and sent it to the strata manager with an explanation that the work needed to be done urgently as I am unable to live in my home until the bathroom is replaced.

4 weeks later (with a LOT of hassling from me) the strata manager had finally managed to get one other quote for the work and sent both quotes to the executive committee asking them to approve the work.

3 weeks later, they still have not done so. I have offered to do anything and everything needed to get approval to do the work, including to pay for it and have the cost credited to my strata fees (although there’s plenty of money in our sinking fund), but am getting nowhere. I know that the people on the executive committee are all busy people, but as far as I’m concerned all they need to do is email the strata manager their approval.

At the moment I have been living out of home for 7 weeks, with at least another 5 weeks to go (one week to replace the slab and 4 for the rest of the bathroom) and I am fast running out of funds.

Am I justified in having the slab replaced on the basis of the EC’s (and strata managers) unjustified delay? Can I tell them “I’m going to proceed on such-and-such a date if I don’t hear anything to the contrary”? I have a comprehensive file of all my communications with them, whether by email, phone or in person – is there anything else I should be doing?

Thanks, in anticipation.