Summary

When owners pay their levies they are to be used only for the maintenance, repairs and management of the common property and other expenses such as insurance, common utilities, strata company administration, etc. to which all lot owners enjoy a benefit.

More Information

From time to time situations arise where there is ambiguity about whether the responsibility for a repair is lot owner or common property. 

In the first instance, you can request that ESM check the strata plan to see if the lot boundaries are clearly defined. Where there is ambiguity, the Strata Company (by way of it's Council of Owners or from a General Meeting), may make a determination regarding this ambiguity. This will enable the Strata Company to make decisions which are fair and consistent to all owners going forward. The Strata Company may wish to take ESM Strata's advice, or may wish to seek other independent advice.

SAT orders

Generally, SAT won't want to make a decision regarding these matters, unless an owner took the Strata Company to SAT. This can happen where an owner feels that a decision made by the Strata Company is unfair or outside the powers of the Strata Company.

Example story

In a complex of 28 lots in Hillarys, (which had been self managed), several front doors had required replacement. The Council of Owners for the Strata Company had incorrectly assumed that the doors were common property and paid all the associated costs with replacements to date. 

There had been 12 units which had benefited from new doors, when the professional Strata Management Company was appointed. When the next request was received, the Strata Manager correctly advised the COO that the lot boundary extended to the external surface as defined on the Strata Plan. This meant that all of the doors should have been replaced at lot owner expense and never at Strata Company expense. 

A meeting was called to discuss this issue and the Strata Company (all owners) agreed that they must recover the money from the current owners of the units which had received the replacement doors, so that no lot owner was disadvantaged. All future replacements would be at lot owner cost which was consistent with the strata plan boundaries.