Water leaks caused by OC

Start proceedings at Fair Trading seeking mediation leading to a binding agreement to start work within a specified time frame.

If the committee refuses, start proceedings at NCAT seeking orders and costs under Section 232 (extract below) which says that he Tribunal  can make an order to settle a complaint or dispute about the operation, administration or management of a strata scheme, and/or failure to exercise, a function conferred or imposed by the Act or the by-laws of a strata scheme.

Failure to maintain and repair common property is right in this Section’s gunsights.

232 ORDERS TO SETTLE DISPUTES OR RECTIFY COMPLAINTS

(1) Orders relating to complaints and disputes
The Tribunal may, on application by an interested person, original owner or building manager, make an order to settle a complaint or dispute about any of the following:
(a) the operation, administration or management of a strata scheme under this Act,
(b) an agreement authorised or required to be entered into under this Act,
(c) an agreement appointing a strata managing agent or a building manager,
(d) an agreement between the owners corporation and an owner, mortgagee or covenant chargee of a lot in a strata scheme that relates to the scheme or a matter arising under the scheme,
(e) an exercise of, or failure to exercise, a function conferred or imposed by or under this Act or the by-laws of a strata scheme,
(f) an exercise of, or failure to exercise, a function conferred or imposed on an owners corporation under any other Act.

(2) Failure to exercise a function 
For the purposes of this section, an owners corporation, strata committee or building management committee is taken not to have exercised a function if:
(a) it decides not to exercise the function, or
(b) application is made to it to exercise the function and it fails for 2 months after the making of the application to exercise the function in accordance with the application or to inform the applicant that it has decided not to exercise the function in accordance with the application.

@Silly Cow said:
Are there no enforcement remedies for breach of NCAT orders contained in their legislation?

I don’t know about the NCAT. In the ACT, the ACAT can make orders but does not have the power to enforce those orders. Nonetheless, failure to comply with an order is an offence. 

Where I live, we had an owner who failed to comply with an ACAT order that she must remove an unapproved structure from her unit. In order to have the order enforced, we had to go to the Magistrates Court for an ‘enforcement order’. The owner attempted to use the magistrates court to re-argue her case that she should not be required to remove the structure. The Court was very clear that the matter had been examined by the Tribunal and it would not entertain anything other that determining how the owner would comply with the Tribunal’s order. At the Tribunal, we (members of the OC’s executive committee) had anticipated that if we received the orders we were seeking, the owner might not comply with the order and we asked the Tribunal how they might then be enforced. The Tribunal helpfully set out the enforcement procedure in its written Decision and Reasons document. Essentially, we needed to seek an enforcement order from the magistrates court pursuant to a particular magistrates court rule. The Court gave us the order we sought and the owner then complied. We did not apply for an order that the owner pay the fine for failure to comply with Tribunal order. We just wanted the unapproved structure removed with the least fuss and ill-will. 

@newlsie said:
No, all NCAT can do is issue paper.  That’s it!…   

Nonetheless, that paper will contain very specific orders. Only a very foolish person would fail to comply with the orders of a Tribunal. It is a bit of bother getting a compliance order from the Court but the Court takes a very dim view of people who don’t comply with orders.