Question: How can owners resolve ignored leak issues and committee inaction? The situation has been inflamed by ongoing division between committee members, owners and the committee?
Our caretaker renovated their unit, and shortly after, leaks began in the basement car park. The caretaker’s plumbers say they can’t find the cause of the problem. The committee members ignore the issue, and committee member’s opinions are divided.
I’ve reported the matter to the strata manager and the committee and requested we arrange a plumber to investigate, but my requests have been ignored.
Our building owners and committee have been divided for years. I’ve been a committee member, but I was voted off years ago, as our committee supported the caretaker, not the owners.
How do we resolve this?
Answer: There is a series of formal steps you can take to escalate the matter.
If you are struggling to progress an issue with your body corporate via email or discussion, there is a series of formal steps you can take to escalate the matter.
You can start by issuing a letter to the body corporate asking that the correspondence be tabled and discussed at the next committee meeting.
If that isn’t sufficient, skip the letter and submit an owner’s motion. This will require the committee to vote on the matter. You could draft the motion differently depending on the outcome you want. If you want them to vote on a quote, submit that, but if you don’t have a quote, you may have to make a submission to ask them to investigate an issue.
If the committee denies your motion, that gives you a formal record of response. You can submit a claim to the commissioner’s office using the denial as evidence of what action is being taken/not taken.
In this case, one aspect for you to highlight for the committee is that the body corporate has a responsibility to maintain the common property in good condition. There may be discussions to be had about how the damage was caused, and it is not enough for you just to believe the issue is caused by the plumbing in the caretaker’s lot – you need evidence to substantiate this. They may be challenging to obtain, but if the body corporate doesn’t have evidence, the body corporate has to proceed with the repair.
It’s also important to consider how you present the issue. You say your scheme has some divisions between owners, the committee, and the caretaker. This isn’t unusual, but if the issues you raise seem part of an ongoing dispute where the positions are ingrained, simply adding to these problems is unlikely to bring about a resolution. It’s not easy, but try to recast your questions so they are not adversarial but focused on procedure or requirements. Giving people a new context may help shift them away from their longstanding positions.
William Marquand Tower Body Corporate E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au P: 07 5609 4924