Who is responsible for damage after minor renovations in NSW?

Section 110 (minor renovations by owners) of the Strata Schemes Management Act (‘the Act’) does contain two key subsections relevant to the circumstances:

Minor renovations by owners

• Section 110(2) – “The approval may be subject to reasonable conditions imposed by the owners corporation and cannot be unreasonably withheld by the owners corporation.”
• Section 110(5) – “An owner of a lot must ensure that: (a) any damage caused to any part of the common property by the carrying out of minor renovations by or on behalf of the owner is repaired, and (b) the minor renovations and any repairs are carried out in a competent and proper manner.”

However, in my opinion it does not specifically transfer the ongoing obligation of repair and maintenance for the affected common property to the lot owner in the same way that a special resolution and by-law under section 108 of the Act would do.

Therefore, one of the “reasonable conditions” the owners corporation may want to impose is that the owner of the lot, from time to time, is responsible for the ongoing repair and maintenance of the common property and furthermore any damage caused to the common property as a result of the works. These should be included in the motion.

One challenge with this approach is that an owners corporation is only required to keep certain records (such as the meeting minutes that contain these conditions) for 7 years, and so the conditions could be lost over time.

For that reason, it would be prudent, in my opinion, for the owners corporation to make a by-law even though it is not required to. This will ensure that the obligations are recorded on title, forever.

It would therefore allow the owners corporation to clarify the answer to the questions you raise long after the decision was made.