Self Managed Strata – Who pays for termites treatment?

I think the basic problem here in owners thinking “it doesn't cost them anything to get fixed”  is the disconnect in owners' minds between the levies they pay and the payments the Owners Corporation makes.

In Struggler's example, the owners will end up paying for termite treatment anyway, since all the owners will either pay directly or through their administration and/or sinking funds.

However, there is a legal obligation on the Owners Corporations to maintain common property so a selfish owner could theoretically wait until everyone else has had their termites done (at their own expense) then demand that the OC attends to theirs.

Owners agreeing that they are taking responsibility for their own termites would have to be written into your by-laws for that situation to be avoided and would p[robably have to include a clause dictating how often termite inspections had to be done for it to be legal (not sure about this – do any lawyers have a view?)

I would have though this was a fairly critical issue because of the way termites can spread.  But if, for instance, this was a case of rising damp in one unit or townhouse, the lot owners could reasonably demand that the OC attended to it at its and not their expense.

On the question of making their homes available for inspection, it can be a real pain but the OC has the right to demand entry for essential  work to be done (not that you would want it to get to that point).

However, including in your by-laws agreement to impose a call-out fee when owners fail to make their properties available for inspection (after being offered two or three options) would soon sort that out.

We did not regular pest inspections until an owner found termites within villa.  We notified owners that they had to organise a yearly inspection.  The strata manager spent alot of time chasing up termite reports but with the introduction of a $50 fee for a reminder letter has resulted in 100% on time compliance.  The EC organising in this complex just would not work.  The EC told owners that pest companies offer discounts to do more than one place at a time (up to 50% off in some instances) but still owners here (no one really talks to anyone here) prefer to organise their own inspection, in a time convenient to them even if at added expense!  So what hope do we have!

If the EC handled the inspections, ie organising and paying for them, then what right does the EC have in telling owners how to maintain within their homes to lessen the risk of termites and therefore damage?  This is a complex where some owners have not reported problems in their villas until it results in considerable damage (again with the “doesn't matter, we don't have to pay for it anyway mentality).  We have seen reports where it has been stated that items left within the unit or lack of maintenance could increase the likely hood of a termite friendly environment.  Where is an owners responsibility?  I read that the Owners Corporation, made up of all owners in a complex, is responsible for maintenance within a complex.  But what if owners don't bother to help themselves, let alone each other or the complex as a whole?

Termites could be a tricky issue where the approach differs from place to place. I live in a large set of class B townhouses with a lot of common ground that depends for its character on lots of trees. I also have an amateur interest in termites so I have read up about the biology of the local species, their behaviour and identification. We regularly remind owners to have private termite inspections done. ECs over several decades have had a consistent policy of paying for the treatment of any nest of a damaging species found on common property but not funding termite hunting expeditions. The main damaging species in our area typically nests invisibly in the base of trees of which we have very many. Finding the nests would require drilling into the trees and the expense would be large to cover them all. On might argue that we should do that as maintaining common property but drilling all the trees on a regular basis could also increase the risk that our trees get fungal infections and become damaged, perhaps a greater risk and in any case damaging to common property. So, if a unit owner finds termites on their unit area, and obtains permission to test trees in the vicinity, in an inspection at the owner's expense, the OC will fund the treatment of any nests found. Living with termites is part of what we have to accept to have the environment we have, just like we sometimes have snakes and always have possums. 

We regularly provide advice about precautions one can take to minimise the risk of termite infestation and encourage private inspections. 

In our area (inland and cool winters) the main damaging species of termites generally do not do a lot of damage in one year. They can and have done a lot of damage where inspections were not carried out for many years. On the coast, especially in warmer areas there are species that can do a lot of damage in a few months. For us regular private inspections seem a sufficient precaution and purging the common property of termites is not practical. Even if we got rid of every nest new nests would be established by adults that fly in every year. In contrast, on the coast a zero-tolerance policy on common property or mandated inspections might be appropriate and perhaps the OC should be held liable. In doing so I would hope the decisions would be based on a subtle appreciation of local conditions and species and not result in blanket rules. 

Another issue is getting accurate identification of species. I have found half a dozen species on our site but only two of those are generally a concern for structural timber. The others tend to have only small nests without the extensive foraging to remote feeding sites (IE the units) and/or only eat well rotted timbers, if you have the latter sort you had a serious problem before the termites arrived!