NSW: Who pays to strip out a bathroom for spalling repairs?

Question: We need to repair slab spalling under a renovated bathroom. Who pays to strip out and reinstate the bathroom?

We have recently discovered spalling in the slab beneath the bathroom of one of the units in our complex. The committee will repair this, but is the strip-out of the bathroom and reinstatement of fittings the committee’s responsibility or the owner’s? I understand that the committee is responsible for paying for removal of anything blocking access to common property that needs repairing, as was the case where we paid for the removal of hybrid flooring to gain access to lift magnesite and re-level.

The bathroom has been renovated. We suspect that may be when the membrane’s integrity was compromised, leading to our current situation. Are bathrooms treated differently under the law regarding the burden of cost in making repairs to common property? It appears that a few NCAT decisions have been supportive of the view that the bathroom fittings are lot owner responsibility.

Answer: The owners corporation covers strip-out and reinstatement costs, even with a renovation by-law in place.

You have correctly identified that the owners corporation is responsible for repairs and maintenance to common property, and any spalling to a concrete slab, which is a structural element of the building, is the owners corporation’s responsibility. A properly organised owners corporation will ensure that renovation works to a bathroom are carried out pursuant to a common property rights by-law. Normally, such a by-law not only authorises the carrying out of renovation works, but makes the lot owner responsible for the ongoing repair and maintenance of the renovation works and the common property comprised in them.

However, whether or not the bathroom is original or has been renovated, the owners corporation is responsible for the costs which will be incurred in any necessary “strip out” and reinstatement of the bathroom necessary to enable the concrete spalling to be dealt with. Even with a common property rights by-law in place, it could not possibly be said that the concrete spalling arose from the renovation works being carried out and that, therefore, responsibility has shifted to the owner.

The owners corporation will need to cover the costs associated with the strip out and reinstatement.

This post appears in the September 2026 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.

Warwick van Ede
JS Mueller & Co Lawyers
E. warwickvanede@muellers.com.au
P: 02 9562 1266