Question: A building needs $2,000,000 in rectification work after years of unaddressed defects. Can the owners sue the long-serving strata managing agent for failing to push the committee to maintain it?
Our 22-lot strata building hasn’t had any waterproofing done on the roof since it was built forty years ago. We now need major rectification work costing $2,000,000, including treatment of concrete cancer.
We don’t have a capital works fund plan in place, and on inspecting the records, we’ve discovered missing strata plan records.
I believe our strata managing agent, who has managed the building for 20 years, has failed in the management of our building. Can we sue them for failing to insist that the strata committee address the building’s maintenance?
Answer: The owners corporation is responsible for maintaining common property, so it may be unlikely to succeed in suing the strata managing agent unless the agent helped hide defects or failed to report them transparently.
The owners corporation (OC), under section 106 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, has the obligation to maintain common property. The OC must inform themselves of their obligations under the Act. Short of the strata managing agent being complicit in helping the OC to hide defects or not transparently report or record them, it may be unlikely that the OC can sue the strata managing agent. However, if you felt the strata managing agent had failed in their duty of care or acted in a nefarious way, you are best to speak to a specialist strata lawyer to seek advice on the viability of pursuing a case against the strata managing agent.
The example you have given is unfortunately an all too common story in Australian strata buildings. They are underfunded, and because of inadequate or non-existent capital works planning and fund saving, you end up with a much larger remediation project that would otherwise have been avoided if the building had undertaken proactive maintenance and capital works before building elements failed.
It is a statutory requirement that all strata plans have a capital works fund plan (CWFP), with renewal recommended every 5 years. Include this alongside your capital works remediation project to start planning for future capital remediation works.
This post appears in the November 2026 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Michael Hopwood
Valen Projects
E: m.hopwood@valenprojects.com.au
P: 0488 666 682
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