Question: The owner of the apartment above has been renovating for over a year. They have removed the walls and replaced the flooring. I’ve got cracks in my unit. Can I claim any damage on the building insurance?
I live in a building format strata building. The unit owner above has been renovating for over a year. Their initial application stated they were carrying out minor renovations, but I believe they have removed internal walls.
Over the past months, cracks have appeared in the cornices and vertical cracks in my walls below the location of the renovations. Recently, we’ve heard days of jackhammering to remove tiles and replace with timber flooring. The jackhammering was extremely noisy, and vibration was evident. There is now substantial cracking in my kitchen walls.
I’ve reported the damage to the body corporate via the committee. Can I claim any damage caused by the renovations on the body corporate’s insurance? Should the committee take an active role and pursue the claim on my behalf? Initially, the committee took the problem seriously but has now decided it is a matter between the concerned parties. What should I do?
Answer: If you are affected by a situation, you are the best person to drive resolution.
Not everyone will agree with this, but my view is that if you are individually affected by a situation, you are the best person to drive resolution of that issue.
So, I think you have done the right thing in alerting the body corporate to your concerns, but if you are not getting the response you need, it may not be productive to spend too much time thinking about what should happen. As an individual, you are in a position to take action, so why not take it?
In this case, nothing can stop you from making an insurance claim. As an owner, you pay for the insurance and are entitled to claim against it. If you contact your committee or body corporate manager, they should be able to provide you with a claims form. You can also contact your insurance broker or insurer directly if need be. In turn, the insurer may have some questions for the body corporate, and that may prompt action.
As an individual, you are also entitled to file a complaint via the Commissioner’s Office about your neighbour or the body corporate.
I’d recommend that you take the time to document the impact on your unit fully and include this evidence in any submissions you make to the insurer or the Commissioner.
In terms of why the committee may not have given you the support you think is necessary, we don’t know the full history of the events or the information that has been presented to the committee. On the face of it, the committee should be taking action because body corporate property may be damaged, and the committee has been appointed to protect that. However, committee decision making can be complicated by many issues. Or maybe they have the full range of information but don’t agree with you on the action. As an owner, it may be hard to affect that, but the best you can probably do is make your correspondence to the committee very clear in outlining the problem and that it is a body corporate issue. If necessary, make your submissions as an owners motion. This will force the committee to vote on the matter. At some point, you have to accept that the committee has given you a response, and if you are not happy, you will have to move things forward.
This post appears in Strata News #702.
William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924
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