Question: Our on-site manager did not carrying out necessary tree pruning and we’ve had to engage a specialist contractor. Surely this extra expense should be the caretaker’s cost?
Our on-site manager/caretaker has not maintained the trees in our complex. They are now above a safe height for the manager to trim. If the manager had done the work on a regular basis this would not have happened. The on-site manager now needs to hire a tree specialist at the cost of the Body Corporate. Surely the manager is a fault here and should be pay for the work to be done.
Answer: The manager ought to bear the costs of engaging the specialist contractor to restore the tree to the standard required of the agreement.
Without reviewing the terms of the agreement to confirm that:
- that the manager’s obligations were to maintain the tree to a level that would remain safe to work on without the need for a specialist contractor; and
- the manager’s duties actually exclude maintaining trees above a particular height,
it is difficult to confirm.
However, if we assume that the above assumptions are correct, then yes, the manager ought to bear the costs of engaging the specialist contractor to restore the tree to the standard required of the agreement.
This post appears in Strata News #485.
Todd Garsden Mahoneys E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au P: 07 3007 3753