Stone the crows, is no one safe?

QUESTION: The concrete roof of our building is covered in a tar membrane on top of which are river stones – presumably to protect the membrane and reduce the heat transfer. Crows are picking up the stones and attempting to fly away with them.  Some stones are falling ten levels onto our apartment balcony which projects out several metres beyond the building façade.

The stones are smashing plate glass windows and even the sun roofs of cars in the street. Our tenants fear for the safety of their young child.

The issue has been raised with the strata managers and the Executive Committee for three years but they say we can’t prove the crows are picking up the stones from our building – “it may be a neighbouring building”. And they say nylon netting over the stones may cost too much and they need legal and engineering advice.

The insurance company’s policy states that a safety audit must be conducted each year. Clearly this is not occurring. Does someone have to be killed or injured before something is done? – T-World, via Forum

ANSWER: One of our StrataGurus, PeterC, had a safety concern that had been deliberately ignored by a succession of Executive Committees in his building while owners were reluctant to pay for work they didn’t feel was necessary.  But when a new EC took over they asked a strata lawyer where they stood.

“The answer detailed the considerable penalties for ‘failure to comply with a safety duty-general’ and ‘negligent exposure to substantial risk of serious harm’, let alone what we might have be liable for if someone had actually been hurt or killed,” he says. “It was very useful to be able to read out the lawyer’s answers at the AGM.”

PeterC‘s Owners Corp approved the long overdue spending by a huge majority. He suggests T-World and his concerned neighbours get together and pay for a legal opinion on what their liabilities are if they ignore a clear danger to residents and others.

Is it just a quirk of nature?  Is your EC shirking its safety responsibilities? Read the whole discussion HERE.