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Not quite the same but I had a water heater leak in my old apartment affecting the carpet in the lounge. Insurance covered it, but only in that room.
I am not currently a renter, but I think it is unreasonable to have an inspection when the resident is not present. It is your personal space and you should have the right to be present when an inspection is carried out or at least be given the right to advise when it would be convenient. I do not think that seven days is enough. With more notice one could ask ones employer for the day off. I also think it is unreasonable to expect a resident to ask a friend or neighbour to sit around for up to 6 hours waiting for someone to carry out the inspection!
A similar matter happened to me (as an owner) when the strata manager wrote to advise that an inspection would be carried out in 7 days of the properties on my side of the complex for a “problem” that half of us did not have nor had complained of. I was not home on that day, did not have anyone who could be there and did not really feel comfortable asking a neighbour as, unlike the example above, no time was given for the inspection at all. With 10 units to be inspection, could have been a 10 hour wait for all I knew.
I believe that more notice is needed. We all have lives! So do our family, friends and neighbours. 7 days notice to sit around for the entire day is just not on. One gets 6 weeks of a wedding invitiation, 4 – 5 weeks notice for a big birthday bash, but only 7 days for a stranger to invade your home and poke around your things! Outrageous!
When you say you have sufficient funds, does that mean to pay for the works and have enough money left in the bank to cover other incidentals?
Our complex has discussed previously that, should we need any major works, we would take some of the money out of the fund and organise a special levy with payments stretched over a number of quarters in order to “restock” the account. We would never leave less than $10,000. I believe that the current regulations for strata do state that there has to be enough money in the bank to cover an major repairs that may occur.
Yes, we had a 10 year plan done for our complex. It did highlight some things we had not even considered, like the cleaning and resurfacing of the driveway (we had no idea that driveways needed resurfacing and that is something we attended too fairly quickly). The report pointed out that if we didn't do this, we may need to redo the driveway in the future at considerably more expense.
However, the report also covered items that we did not believe was common property. The report was based on the inspection of one unit in the complex and there are different layouts and designs in this complex. So good idea to spell out any differences in units in your complex to get a more accurate report.
We are in need of having our complex painted too. It has never been painted and according to information I have received, painting should be scheduled about every 8 years. The quote was reasonable and from a reputable painter (who has painted interiors in the complex). But the quote was knocked back at the AGM. They do not seem to realise that we have had some wood rot and to replace/repair that is far more per unit that the cost to paint per unit. We have also had the exterior “steam” cleaned in preparation for painting. We will probably have to do this again. The cost of repairing wood and cleaning will add to the cost of painting, so obtaining a cheaper quote is useless.
Have you spelt out to those reluctant to spend money how much it would cost to have someone fall on your stairs? We had a fall and the insurance company came out to inspect the complex, found areas they were not happy with and we had to spend $10,000 before our policy would be continued. As well, our premium increased quite a bit. If we did not carry out the works, we may not have been covered by insurance and no one could tell us what it would mean to not have insurance.
And there is no doubt that it would improve the value of the units if the entrance ways look great.
We have not had to look at getting finance for our complex. We have a good balance in the account, it is just that no one wants to spend the money (unless it is on their unit no doubt). And those who do not want the OC spend the money, will also not put their hands up to help the OC in any way shape or form.
I have owned 3 properties. The first about 7 years old when I purchased and the second about 30 years old. My current property I bought off the plan.
With the two older properties, you knew exactly what you were getting. You get a building inspection done that will point out any visible problems. You can decide whether these problems are too big to consider purchasing, or small enough not to really matter if the property is right. With my two older properties, nothing ever eventuated from any “problems” found on the building inspection.
Then there is the “new” place. Of course, being new it looks fantastic. Perfect infact. But nothing is ever perfect. With a new building you get “settling” that can result in cracks. May be nothing, may be something. Then you may find other problems that need addressing, usually the week after the builders guarantee has expired.
For me, neither is better. They both have advantages and disadvantages.
I still go by the older (>30yr) property regularly. To my knowledge it nor the building has ever had any major works done to it since I sold it. My current place however seems to have something new to address every week!
We were given the same info regarding trees in courtyards. The owners corp paid to remove dangerous high branches from trees and where a whole tree has been removed, the owner and OC went halves. Of course all done with council approval!
We did not regular pest inspections until an owner found termites within villa. We notified owners that they had to organise a yearly inspection. The strata manager spent alot of time chasing up termite reports but with the introduction of a $50 fee for a reminder letter has resulted in 100% on time compliance. The EC organising in this complex just would not work. The EC told owners that pest companies offer discounts to do more than one place at a time (up to 50% off in some instances) but still owners here (no one really talks to anyone here) prefer to organise their own inspection, in a time convenient to them even if at added expense! So what hope do we have!
If the EC handled the inspections, ie organising and paying for them, then what right does the EC have in telling owners how to maintain within their homes to lessen the risk of termites and therefore damage? This is a complex where some owners have not reported problems in their villas until it results in considerable damage (again with the “doesn't matter, we don't have to pay for it anyway mentality). We have seen reports where it has been stated that items left within the unit or lack of maintenance could increase the likely hood of a termite friendly environment. Where is an owners responsibility? I read that the Owners Corporation, made up of all owners in a complex, is responsible for maintenance within a complex. But what if owners don't bother to help themselves, let alone each other or the complex as a whole?
In our villa complex, owners who have had termite treatment have paid for it themselves. We have compulsory yearly termite inspections which owners have to arrange and pay for themselves. We did this as we have found that for the EC to organise this was a nightmare. One resident can't do this day, one can only do that one, and some “forget” to be home on the day.
By telling our owners they are liable for any termite damage, they all keep on top of the inspections. I can only speak for our complex, but we have found that if it believed that it is the OC that has to pay, people seem less likely to maintain their properties because “it doesn't cost them anything to get things fixed”.
If your OC wants to cover repairs such as this, they may need to review levies and increase to ensure that they don't drain the bank account should a few want to claim and to avoid/lessen special levies to cover this. The OC can get someone in to do a budget to see if the levies are suffient to cover everything.
The owners here have made it clear that they do not want increased levies and want to avoid special levies. However, it is difficult to cover absolutely everything on low levies. Perhaps your complex needs to decide whether owners want to pay increased levies all the time, or pay a one off amount to fix something when should it occur.
I believe it states in the NSW Strata By Laws (do not have my copy near by) that though an owner/resident cannot change common property without permission, when it is for security or protect against insects then you can do it, or words to that effect.
Personally, I just changed the flyscreen on my front door myself. All the materials cost about $15 and the job took about 20 mins (and I am not that handy a person). I did not change the look of the front door (it had flyscreen on it already).
To get someone to do it, via the strata manager, would probably add $60 for handypersons time to the bill (not to mention the materials would probably cost a bit more too) so the job would be about $80. Multiply that my how many flyscreens are in the complex. I have actually offered to do this for my neighbours who are older and not able to do the job themselves.
Check the state by laws for the clausing referring to changing common property.
We have previously had a big problem with owners/residents using the visitors car parks. We kept a record of dates that this occurred for each car (Flat Chat has advised taking photos as well). We issued a notice to all residents that the visitors car parking was just for that, visitors, and that residents could not use it for parking without written permission. Then we sent them the NSW Strata By Laws regarding parking in visitors car spaces.
I believe I also read in Flat Chat that if the provision of visitors car spaces was a condition of the development approval from council, then these spaces cannot be used for anything other than visitors, even if the EC and OC want to, as this would contravene the development approval?!
We also found effective the leaving of notes under the doors of the offenders stating that “we have noticed that car XXX-XXX has been sighted parking in the visitors car spots without permission on XX/XX/XX…” and list all the dates. Any resident who has received this note has quickly removed his/her car and it hasn't returned (except for the resident who has 4 cars and thinks that we will not notice when the other one is there). We have had to, for a couple of serious offenders, issue a notice to comply. But they quickly stopped then and have been good since.
Our EC is open to any resident who may have a need to use these car spots if they ask. But, despite many using them over the years, there has not been one request to use them. But it has been great since the last notices went out. Can it finally be sinking in?
Don't know whether you are right in saying you don't need any approval. There would be common walls involved? And the floor that the tiles come off, common property?
By getting approval for anything in a unit from the EC/OC wouldn't you then be “covered” should there be something down the track that causes a problem to the common property of your apartment?
My first home was a little one bedroom unit. It had a decrepid kitchen with rotting timber cupboards that I decided, for financial reasons, had to stay until I could afford a new kitchen. That lasted about a week as parts of the timber cupboards came off and into my food. I rang a builder, he gave me a quote that meant only eating baked beans for 6 months instead of 12. He said he could start next week. He pulled out the cupboards before I even thought about permissions/requirements/common property etc. Two of the four walls in the kitchen were “common”. I wrote to the managing agent. I apologised for my oversight and not contacted them/the OC sooner. I explained the health risk of the cupboards causing me to aske quickly. All, thankfully was OK.
Don't forget that permission was needed to even put a nail in a common wall to hang a picture up! So pulling off cupboards, ripping off tiles?
I would love to know how this issue with the damp in the kitchen and the owner knowing about a problem ends up.
We have a similar problem. An owner sent an email to the EC saying “we have a problem with our unit and we need an engineer”. We responded that of course we were responsible for common property areas of the unit, so where is this problem and what is the problem. No response.
Then the owner next to this one goes to the strata manager and says there is a damp problem under their unit. The first owner then pipes up and say that the EC were told of this problem earlier. The first correspondence did not mention damp, mould, water, damage nor any of the wheres or why fors.
We did get an engineer. We had a report done. The first owner doesn't like what has been said in the report. We tried to get another inspection done but this first owner would not allow access on day as they were “busy”.
So, years down the track, the problem still exists. The owners say it is bad, the engineer says it isn't. The problem of mould in the properties could also be attributed to the owners maintenance of this area (in a store room, not a habitable area). And in all these years, except for the initial email, there has been NOTHING in writing from the owners stating there is a problem (and that first email did not really give an indication). Any complaints, requests have only been verbal on the part of the owners. I really feel that, should these owners want repairs done that we should argue that their inaction played a part in any damage that may have occurred.