Water cascading onto my balcony from upstairs neighbour

Regrettably, apart from the approach to your Owners Corporation (O/C) there's not much else that you can do! However your O/C is in a position to approach your neighbour about inspecting the balcony drainage (see next para) and about limiting “spillage” outside his/her Lot; particularly as that is affecting other residents and perhaps the Common Property (below). 

Depending upon the age of your Building and the design of its balconies, there may be a drain through the bottom course of any bricks or render at the balcony edge, or better still a floor drain that's connected to the stormwater.

Constant hosing-down and watering (of pot plants) can cause dirt and debris to block these drains, or again depending upon the age of the building, any drain hole/s just through the brickwork can have a spout extension added, so that excess water emerges say 300mm away from the outer edge of the balcony, thereby missing yours.

Really, if your Executive Committee and/or strata manager can’t take this on, they are not much cop. This is such a clear breach of even the most basic by-laws that a simple Notice To Comply should be issued at the earliest opportunity – but they won’t do that if you don’t complain in writing. Get your neighbour who also suffers to back you up .
Your next step, if they fail to get on board, is to apply to Fair Trading (tel 13 32 20) for mediation (which will cost $76 dollars or thereabouts) and then the CTTT if that doesn’t work. You can’t skip the mediation, by the way.
As Whale says, it’s probably just a blocked drain (unless they are blithely hosing the dirt off their balustrade on to your deck). But, to reiterate, this is an issue that the EC should take on and I can’t think of any reason why you wouldn’t go to them with this problem.

Thanks for “closing the loop” – my fingers are crossed too!

If you have had no luck with your neighbour and your OC has been similarly unsuccessful with
him, then I suggest Mediation with NSW Fair Trading as a possible avenue. This I believe is a free service.

First you need to determine who owns the balcony you use: you or the OC. This fact is needed, believe, in order to have the right party apply for Mediation.

Under the SSMA, obligations for strata residents include that residents must not:

* Interfere with or impact another person’s lot, including services provided to them or the common property. This includes doing anything to affect another lot owner’s water, sewage, drainage, gas, electricity, garbage, air conditioning, heating or telecommunications services
* Cause a nuisance or hazard to another resident, such as playing loud music or
* Use the common property in a way that interferes unreasonably with others in the scheme using and enjoying it.

Before filling in the online request for mediation form, I urge you to call FT on 13 32 20 and explain the issue to them.

As to your suggestion of installing a solution, if the balcony is OC property, it is not for you to interfere with it in any way without receiving written approval from the OC. And one would think if it is OC owned, then the OC and not you should fix the problem. After all, why should you spend time and effort fixing a problem caused by someone else to property you do not own, whilst you as installer will be responsible for any negative consequence of your installation.

Good luck.