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Topic
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Good Morning All,
I hope I am in the right place for this question.
My question relates to a problem in my strata’s garage area.
A brief description of our property will help to understand the problem.
Our property (inner west Sydney) is a 4 townhouse strata with individual garages and a common area. The entry to the garage area is at ground level and the property is on a slope with the garage area excavated into the slope.
Next to our property is a large apartment block, between the properties is a narrow space (aprox 1800 mm). The roof area of the apartment block is very large and the gutter and downpipes do not cope during heavy rain.
The result is that area between our properties becomes a river and the water penetrates our wall and floods our garage area.
I would appreciate any suggestion on where I would start to seek a solution to this problem?
Dudley
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Replies
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Dudley – as you’ve had no responses as yet, Ill advise in the first instance that the problem is NOT one for your Owners Corporation to address but is rather one for its neighbours to rectify.
The Building Code of Australia provides technical standards for all aspects of building, and in relation to stormwater Australian Standard AS/NZ 3500 Plumbing and Drainage applies, where it is stated that “roof water and surface water from a property must be collected and discharged through underground pipes to legal points of discharge including to Council’s public drainage system including the roadside gutter or to an inter-allotment system.
Clearly the roofwater collection and disposal system at your neighbour’s property is not functioning properly, and whether that’s due to a lack of maintenance (e.g. blocked gutters) or a non-compliant design, your Owners Corporation needs to write to its equivalent for the neighbouring property in order to make them aware of the issue, and to seek prompt resolution of it.
If that polite and reasoned approach is not reciprocated, then perhaps seek the advice of your Local Council and depending upon their interest (or a lack thereof) your O/C could seek professional mediation via a Community Justice Centre.
I held off replying to the original post becasue I was trying to find out what had happened with a friend who had the same issue with and adjoining terrace hose where the neighbor, an architect no less, concreted his entire garden with no drainage, causing all the rainfall to run off into hers.
The concreting, was illegal, of course but the architect was able to prevaricate and dissemble effectively that my friend ended up deciding that she was paying more than it was worth to lawyers (and architects) and she just gave up.
Whale’s advice is sound and worth pursuing. If that doesn’t work, there is an obscure clause in the SSMA relating to adjoining strata schemes where you can apply for orders to settle a dispute between them.
Oddly, though, it reads as if you can only apply if the other scheme consents. Seems a bit daft if a possible dispute resolution depends on one half of the argument giving their permission to be taken to a tribunal.
Anyway, here it is:
139. Order for settlement of dispute between adjoining strata schemes
(1) An Adjudicator may make an order to settle a dispute between 2 strata schemes if:
(a) the strata schemes concerned are contiguous, and
(b) the matter in dispute is not regulated by or under any other Act.
(2) An application for an order under this section may be made only by an owners corporation for a strata scheme involved in the dispute.
(3) An order must not be made under this section unless the owners corporation for the other strata scheme involved in the dispute consented to the making of the application for the order.
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.
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