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I own an apartment in Melbourne located on the first floor. There are over 60 apartments on the property. Earlier this year, a leak started above the doorway leading to the balcony. My body corp does not think it is their responsibility and blames many of the leaks in the property on “poor housekeeping”. If I want to make a claim through insurance, it will cost me an excess of $2.5k.
I don’t really know what avenue to take. I can pay the money for the insurance claim or try and get the work done cheaper. I really think that it’s the body corps responsibility but they seem to think it’s nothing to do with them.
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I don’t see why this would be an insurance claim (unless it’s a new building and you are claiming under the builders warranty and then their would be no excess).
Sounds to me like it’s it’s straight forward building maintenance and this is clearly common property and so it is the strata’s problem to fix and pay for. I’m assuming it’s rainwater comming in.
I would suggest you obtain a quote yourself to get the problem fixed and hand the quote to the Sec or SM and ask them to vote the issue (give them the option of getting their own quote) and give them say 21 days to get back to you.
[NB: The following advice applies to NSW. See above for the relevant advice for Victoria (where Marina lives)]
If they ignore your request or vote to do nothing you will have to take them to CTTT due to their failure to abide by section 62 of the act.
62 What are the duties of an owners corporation to maintain and repair property?
(1) An owners corporation must properly maintain and keep in a state of
good and serviceable repair the common property and any personal
property vested in the owners corporation.The cost of going to CTTT is approx $160 and you are almost certain to win and force the OC to carry out the repairs.
The Owners Corporation has an absolute and unlimited duty to maintain and repair common property (see below). As an owner, you can take an action at Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) and, if necessary, Victorian Civil Administration Tribunal (VCAT) to force them to repair what I am pretty sure would be common property.
Have a look at THIS web page. It outlines the strata complaint procedure in Victoria. Although it is mostly written from the point of view of caomplaints against owners, it also covers complaints by ownrs.
The main points you need to remember are that if you make a complaint to the owners Corporation, they have to respond in writing (even if their decision is to do nothing).
If the dispute is resolved , they should have an internal disputes procedure that you can follow (and CAV recommends that you do so)
However, owners taking a complaint against their Owners Corp don’t have to follow the internal procedure and can apply directly to the CAV for mediation (although, again, it’s recommended that you should at least have tried the internal process).
Finally, if you aren’t satisfied with the response, you can apply to VCAT for an order compelling the Owners Corp to fulfill its duties. It’s a bit of a process but it’s worth it in the end.
I would lay a pound to a penny that your Owners Corp hasn’t done anything about getting defects fixed and now it wants individual owners to pick up the tab for their laziness and incompetence.
This is what the Owners Corporation Act says:
46. Owners corporation to repair and maintain
common property
An owners corporation must repair and
maintain—
(a) the common property; and
(b) the chattels, fixtures, fittings and services
related to the common property or its
enjoyment.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.
In Victoria, waterproofing, even of external areas (like balconies), can be an owner responsibility. It all depends on exactly what is causing the leak – and where. Has the exact source of the leak been determined? If not, the OC should be at least establishing that.
“Poor housekeeping” – what does that mean? That gutters are not being cleared? That’s probably an OC issue too if the gutters are Common Property.
What ‘work’ are you proposing to get done? If it turns out to be a building defect, the cost of repairing the defect will not be covered by the OC’s insurance, but the cost of repairing any consequential damage due to the defect should be.
I don’t know why an insurance claim should cost anything to make. It’s either knocked back or accepted with a possible excess to pay.
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