Common Property Or Lot Owner, And Who Pays

Most delays on strata repairs are not technical. The work is straightforward. What holds it up is a disagreement about whose repair it is.

We are not the ones who decide that. But we do write the reports that decide it, and there is a pattern to which jobs are contested and why.

The general line

Broadly, the structure of the building and the services that serve more than one lot are common property. What sits inside a lot and serves only that lot is the owner's.

That sounds clean. In practice the boundary runs through the middle of the things that break.

Where it gets argued

Pipes. A branch serving one apartment is usually the owner's. The stack it joins is usually common. A leak at the junction between them is where the argument sits, and it is decided by exactly where the failure is, which nobody knows until it is opened up.

Waterproofing. A shower membrane sits under the tiles inside a lot, which sounds like an owner item. But in many schemes the original waterproofing forms part of the building fabric, and where it sits relative to the lot boundary depends on the strata plan. This is the single most contested repair we attend.

Windows and doors on an external wall. The frame is often common, the glass and the hardware often not, and the two fail together.

Balconies. The slab and the membrane are usually common. The tiles on top are frequently not. Which means a balcony leak is a common property repair with an owner-funded finish sitting over it.

Air conditioning. The unit is the owner's. The penetration through the wall, the bracket bolted to the facade and the drain line running through common property are not.

Why the report matters more than the opinion

An owners corporation cannot spend on a lot owner's repair, and an owner should not fund a common property one. So the question has to be answered on evidence rather than assumption.

That means a report that states what failed, exactly where it is, and whether that location sits inside or outside the lot boundary as the strata plan defines it. Photographs of the actual failure, not of the damage it caused.

With that, a strata manager can put a resolution to the committee. Without it, the job sits.

The trap of waiting for the answer

The determination can take weeks. The water does not stop while it happens.

The sensible move on an active leak is to make it safe and stop the damage first, then settle responsibility for the permanent repair afterwards. Damage that spreads while the question is being resolved becomes a much larger bill, and it is usually a bill nobody wanted to own.

Most schemes have provision for urgent works for exactly this reason.

What to ask for when you engage anyone

Ask for the failure point to be identified and photographed, not just the symptom. Ask for it to be described relative to the lot boundary. Ask whether the repair can be staged so the urgent part happens now and the finish follows once funding is agreed.

That is what turns a contested job into a scheduled one.

We do a lot of work for building managers and strata managers across the Eastern Suburbs, and the reports are written to be usable at a committee meeting rather than just to justify an invoice. If you have one sitting unresolved, send it through.