Who pays for damage to strata common area?

The issue isn’t the private courtyard per se … the issue is where the gate is located. Check the boundary line on the building plan. Without seeing it I am assuming that the gate would be in a common property boundary so therefore the gate would be a common property maintenance issue. 

I believe that the OC would have been responsible for repairing the latch when the problem first occurred, and the OC is still responsible for repairing the latch.

Was the OC notified about the latch when it first broke? Did any of the adjoining resident owners notice that the latch needed repairing, and did they just ignore it?

It is the general responsibility of the Tenant to report this type of maintenance issue to their Agent, who then passes it on to the Owner, who then passes it on to the OC. However, sometimes Tenants do not know what to do when they face a maintenance issue such as this. 

Now the issue has become worse because the initial repair was not undertaken. However, the OC is still responsible for all the repairs of the gate.

In my opinion it will only become an Owner responsibility for the common property gate repairs if there was deliberate and wanton destruction by the Tenant. This would be a difficult case to argue under the circumstances.

Dudley – Have you considered the option of contributory negligence i.e. both parties being negligent?

This option considers that the following chain of events may have occurred – the  OC may have have been responsible for not repairing the latch in a timely manner, however the additional damage may have been exacerbated by the Tenant’s subsequent behaviour.

A response to this option would involve the OC obtaining a quote and then the OC and the Owner agreeing to pay a proportionate amount of the repair cost depending upon the level of negligence e.g. 50/50, 60/40 etc.

The OC can either repair the gate and then seek reimbursement of the Owner’s proportion from the Owner, or can wait until the Owner provides their proportion.

However, be mindful that if this gate provides security to the Lot (assuming that the gate is located in the common property wall) then there is a strong argument that this gate needs to repaired as quickly as possible. If not repaired quickly then the OC may find itself responsible for the cost of any damage or theft of the occupant’s property now that the gate no longer provides security to the courtyard.

I would advise the OC to repair the gate ASAP and then seek compensation from the Owner.

The OC may have largely avoided this situation had the latch been fixed from the outset. 

Interesting, as a basement door lock in the building I am in was busted and the door frame damaged – perpetrator unknown. The building has lots of tenants, and OC has paid up, for security reasons, no doubt,  Notices go up on other matters, and whether I should recommend notices on this, am wondering. Already the by-laws on common property damage are displayed. Thanks everyone.

Thanks very much for that; a learning curve is this strata business. Shall watch this space!

The fundamental problem here is if you say the  gate  latch or hinge failed and tenants were observe misusing it and that led to further damage, it’s hard to blame them without the owners corp accepting some responsibility.

There is no limit on an owners corp’s responsibility for maintaining and repairing common property.  You could argue that the lot owner had a responsibility too, but the whole thing would be so complicated that the owners corp would be better off paying for the gate repair and taking the opportunity to send out a warning to all owners that they have a duty to report problems with common property on their lots.