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I’m the chairman of a light industrial strata plan. We’ve had the situation where one unit had a plumbing leak in their plumbing (not common property) which affected the unit next door and the ones below. As always with strata, there is lots of politics about exactly what happened that aren’t relevant to here.
The water damaged owner is asking the EC for help to recover their costs from the owner who caused the leak. What is the EC’s place in a dispute like this? It wasn’t caused by common property and hasn’t affected common property.
Is there anything the EC legally should do to help resolve the situation? Is it just up to the affected owner to sue the owner who caused the problem?
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Hi Peter,
This is a problem often faced by strata managers who are faced with the demand that they, or the owners corporation, help to recover damages from the lot responsible for the leak. I think you sense that this is not the OC’s responsibility and indeed it is not.
If the OC were to be party to any claim it would be acting outside its authority / duty which is narrowly defined as repairing and maintaining Common Property. That said it would be reasonable for the OC to share with the lot owner any evidence it has as to the effects of the leak. If a leak in one lot has reached another lot, then presumably the water passed through common property raising the question of whether it did any common property damage to the slab and whether this was properly dried out etc.
In essence I agree that this is not a matter requiring the attention of the OC.
John Hutchinson
m: 0418 797470 e: john.hutchinson@strataanswers.com.auS T R A T A A N S W E R S PTY LTD practical solutions for strata living
abn 11 600 590 083
http://www.strataanswers.com.auI have a similar problem. Water from a dishwasher in the unit above leaked through cracks in the slab above and damaged my suspended ceiling. The leak was in the base of the dishwasher and was about a litre spill. Had there been no cracks in the concrete slab the water would have pooled on the kitchen floor, and the leak identified.
I believe that the Owners Corporation is responsible in this case because of the cracks in the slab. The Owners Corporation, now it is aware of the problem, should properly repair the cracks.
Hello
Regarding the water leak from the unit upstairs.
If the shower was causing the leak would the OC be responsible?
We have had a similar problem in our block and the answer we obtained from the Strata company was that the OC would repair the leaking shower but the owner underneath would have to pay for the damaged paintwork on the ceiling and walls himself…is that correct?
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