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Hi all,
Owners Corp. have been provided one quote by strata committee for “common property” repairs totalling in the order of $20K and presented an extraordinary meeting to raise levies. The most expensive item in the quote is “Cavity Flashing – remove two or three courses of brickwork as required on the external skin of brickwork” at around 16K.
Would’ve been nice to be provided with more than one quote which has been the case historically, to compare diagnoses, solution and price. The lot owner in question, who is also a member of the strata committee, has said that more than one quote would only need to be presented if the quote is above 30K as per law. This may be the case, but it still doesn’t sit right given the dollar amounts involved. This isn’t something “small.” Would Owners’ attending Fair Trading mediation be able to make a case for more than one quote and for it to be accepted or do we just have to be strong-armed into this quote that the strata committee seems bent on.
Lot owner has said that there is water ingress into their apartment where it puddles on the floor during heavy rainfall and thus the need for repair. Apparently the water is coming in where the wall meets the floor at the edge. Do the builder and engineer go on the lot owner’s word that water is coming on or does a water ingress test need to be undertaken first before proposing fixes?
Lot owner also said that water ingress is attributed to wall cracks in her property but again, no water ingress test.
Also, these are much less expensive repairs but there’s other internal cracks which according to the structural engineer are just ordinary thermal movement and nothing structural (engineer suggested fix was insert expansion joints) and patching. Lot owner is saying that because the engineer said their bedroom wall crack (internal wall) correlates to the one in the stairwell (common property), then that constitutes an overall common property repair, so even her internal wall gets classified as common property and she is not accountable for costs associated with installation of expansion joint, patching and painting for her internal wall. Does that sound right to everybody if the cause is just ordinary movement from thermal movements and the passage of time?
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Lot owner is saying that because the engineer said their bedroom wall crack (internal wall) correlates to the one in the stairwell (common property), then that constitutes an overall common property repair, so even her internal wall gets classified as common property and she is not accountable for costs associated with installation of expansion joint, patching and painting for her internal wall. Does that sound right…?
An “internal” wall that adjoins another lot or common property IS common property. A majority of owners at a general meeting can demand three quotes (or however many you want). Get the signatures for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) with that on the agenda. If you can’t get enough signatures (25 per cent of UEs) then you probably don’t have the support to get the additional quotes anyway.
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.
As Jimmy-T says. But water leaks are an emergency measure, and so need to be responded to quickly. The extra time to get more quotes may not be warranted, so the repairs can start immediately. The cost looks in the ball-park for this sort of work, so I’d say go with it.
And as a long-suffering secretary of a strata building, I am a little peeved at other owners telling the committee to get more quotes, when the quotes are reasonable. It’s bloody hard to get quotes! Tradies prefer to do paid work than to turn up and help make 3 quotes, when they aren’t likely to get the work. It’s really hard, currently, to get any quotes at all for jobs… So, my common response for owners, like you, who want more quotes, is to say “thank you for helping out, and please arrange them and provide them to me within the next 10 days, or so, as we need to progress with the job”. Never hear anything further…
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