Question: Can the strata manager be liable for damages if the owners corporation or strata committee refused to perform repairs and maintenance?
Answer: Possibly, yes. There are two primary considerations.
Possibly, yes. There are really two primary considerations. First, what functions of the owners corporation have been delegated to the strata manager? In particular, has the strata manager been delegated the function of organising maintenance and repairs to the common property? If the answer is no, the strata manager can’t be held liable because that’s not their responsibility. If the answer is yes, possibly. The strata manager might be liable if the strata manager was negligent.
The second consideration is, what limitations on the liability of the strata manager are contained in their agency agreement? Most standard form agency agreements, particularly the ones published by Strata Community Association, contain very broad limitations on the strata manager’s liability that would make it very difficult for an owners corporation, for example, to say, “Well, you’re our strata manager. You should be looking after repairs and maintenance. This is all your fault, and we want you to indemnify us for any money we are ordered to pay this poor apartment owner whose apartment was wrecked by water ingress.”
Those limitations of liability obviously aren’t binding on apartment owners because they don’t have a contract with the strata manager, but they will have an effect on what duty of care, if any, the strata manager owes the individual apartment owner who suffered the loss.
This post appears in the October 2024 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Adrian Mueller
JS Mueller & Co Lawyers
E: adrianmueller@muellers.com.au
P: 02 9562 1266
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