Call 1300 010 169 for emergency repairs outside business hours. The emergency repairs contact is for common property which is the responsibility of the Owner's Corporation outside of business hours. This service is a third party contact for emergency repairs only. Any other repairs or contact with this emergency service that is found not to be the responsibility of the Owner's Corporation will be billed directly to the lot owner. Neither Sarraf Strata or the Owner's Corporation will be liable for fees or charges incurred.
The concept of strata title, where persons own and have title to individual lots within buildings or complexes, was originally devised in New South Wales in the early 1960’s. Before this time a title was held by a company or co-operative rather than an individual. Today strata titles are held for a variety of different developments such as residential, commercial, industrial, mixed use and retirement villages. Where strata titles are used for a building or complex, the property is often referred to as a ‘strata scheme’.
Sections 196B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K and L Conveyancing Act 1919.
The creation of mixed-use developments where shopping centres, commercial offices and residential home units occupy separate floors within the one building necessitates the preparation of a plan of stratum subdivision. To enable the conflicting needs of the various occupants to be accommodated the building can be subdivided horizontally into lots, each of which can then be sold, leased, mortgaged or further subdivided by a strata scheme. For example, a multi-storey building on a city block may contain a carpark with four underground levels, commercial retail outlets at ground level, followed by ten floors of office space and finally five floors of residential units at the top of the building. The residential units and some of the carpark may form a separate strata scheme subdividing one of the stratum lots, while leases may be created for the commercial offices and/or shops comprised in the other stratum lots. Stratum subdivision of a building is not limited to large inner-city office towers it may also be utilised by small land owners such as clubs and other organisations which seek to take advantage of a commercially viable site by selling off commercial or residential units while retaining totally self-contained club rooms and administrative offices within the same building.
A Building Management Statement (or, if a strata scheme will be created over one or more of the stratum lots a Strata Management Statement) may be lodged setting out the provisions for the management and maintenance of the building as a whole entity.
Mutual easements for support and shelter come into effect automatically upon registration of the plan. Statutory forms of easements for services and rights of vehicular and personal access may be created to regulate the use and maintenance of the building by the owners of the stratum and strata lots.
For further information see Registrar Generals Directions for Strata Schemes, Sections 28R, 28S and 28T Strata Schemes (Freehold Development) Act 1973.
All community schemes are depicted in community plans. The community plan is a subdivision of a parcel of Real Property land into three or more separate lots. The lot numbered 1 is association property. The association property is similar to common property in a strata scheme and is owned by an association comprising the registered proprietors or each of the other lots. For the purpose of this explanation community schemes include schemes based on community plans, precinct plans and neighbourhood plans.
LEGISLATION
With regard to community schemes in LPI, the relevant legislation includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Community Land Development Act 1989
- Community Land Development Regulation 2007
- Other legislation which is relevant to community schemes but not necessarily to LPI is:
- Community Land Management Act 1989
- Community Land Management Regulation 2000.
Go to NSW Legislation website www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/ for more information for Plans and Titling contact E: plan-info@lpi.nsw.gov.au
The O.C. insurance covers damage caused by a single event to any part of the premises except for carpet, blinds, dishwasher, dryer, microwave and any item that the owner or tenant has put into their unit. These items are covered by your contents insurance.
The O.C. insurance covers these items for insurance purposes but these items, as per most things inside your unit are maintained and repaired by the owner of the unit and not the O.C.
To determine if something is an insurance claim the damage must be caused in an event of break-in, impact or fire. For example, hotplates, ovens and hot water systems regularly fuse, blow, or cease to work. As you would expect this is not an insurance claim as no event caused it to happen and the damage occurred due to the life of the product. If you had a fire that caused damage to these items they then would be claimed on the O.C. insurance.
Not all water leaks are the responsibility of the O.C. A water leak through the floor, ceiling or boundary wall is generally the responsibility of the O.C. but any water leak inside your unit, ie between two interior walls [the wall between your shower recess and your bedroom], under the sink, from your shower rose or from the toilet cistern are always at the expense of the owner of the unit.
All the owners of lots combine to make up the O.C. Put simply the O.C. is made up of you and your neighbours.
The managing agent is required by law to carry out all necessary repairs. He must not spend money on items that are not Owners Corporation expenses, all other items are considered as follows: Is it in the best interests of the majority of owners? Is it value for money? Will it improve the appearance and value of the property? From the answers a decision to spend money is made.
Remember a sensible person finds it very difficult to spend other people’s money. An unwise person would carry out any amount of repairs and expenditure with another person’s money.
Mould occurs during the moist months of winter to south facing units. It is caused by inadequate airing of the units. It is generally a lifestyle problem as units were mostly designed for one or two adults and we now find many units housing three or more people.
The last generation would on a weekly basis wash down all the walls of their bathroom with a bleach solution and keep the bathroom door shut when showering. Today many people do not wash their bathrooms as often and as many people work and because of the security risks windows are rarely left open during the day to allow the unit to dry out. In general, the O.C. is not responsible for mould inside a unit.
Levies can only be set at meetings of unit owners. Only owners can vote on this motion, the managing agent has no power to set levies and will never vote on levies at a meeting. It is a requirement that levies not be set at what owners wish but that a budget for what is to be spent be set at the meeting and that levies be determined at the expected expenditure for the year. If the amount set is inadequate it must be increased the following year to make up the deficit. If the amount is too high that money is accumulated in the interest bearing bank account of the O.C. for future use.
Unit levies are set as a total amount for the year. This amount is divided by a figure called the unit entitlement. In many buildings the entitlement for each unit is the same but in others it varies according to the size and value of each lot. Accordingly, two identical units may pay different levies as one may have a water view. The entitlement is set at the Land Titles Office at the time the strata plan is set up and whilst it can be varied at a later stage the cost is too expensive to make it practical.
For further explanation of Strata matters the Strata Living Booklet as produced by NSW Fair Trading is available by clicking on the link below.
