Neighbor’s rangehood ducted into building air ventilation

You have two basic problems here.  The first is that you have to be able to prove that the rangehood has been vented to the common property ventilation system and secondly you have a building manager who is not doing his job.

Let’s take the building manager issue first.  The building manager is not the boss of the the building – he is an employee of you and all the other owners, as represented by your Executive Committee.  You need to ask them to tell him to do something about this.

Now, establishing that the rangehood has been improperly installed is a whole other issue. you could always ask them if this is the case and you never know, they may have done this in all innocence and be prepared to remedy the problem one they are told they have breached by-laws.

But, for the sake of argument, let’s assume they don’t want to cooperate. Since your neighbour’s rangehood has already set off smoke alarms, there is a legitimate reason for the equipment to be checked as part of normal fire safety checks.  

That would be my first option – your units should all be getting regular fire safety checks (which are compulsory) and in the case of this unit your building manager should attend, look at the equipment and take photographs for future reference, if need be.  There may even be a way of tracing where fumes from the range hood go.

Failing that, in NSW, NCAT (formerly the CTTT) can order owners to allow access for inspections of common property.  The same applies in Victoria via VCAT. 

So go back to the building manager and ask them what they plan to do about this. If that doesn’t work take it to the executive committee and if they aren’t interested then you are off to NCAT (or VCAT) seeking orders that the Owners Corporation fulfill its legal duty to maintain common property.

The original post was sent in 2014.  I would hope the issue would have been resolved by now.  Meanwhile, please check the dates on the posts, just in case you are wasting your keystrokes.