This article discusses how responsibility is determined for recurring high-rise leaks between lots in Queensland high-rise buildings.
Question: How do I get the body corporate to take responsibility for a recurring leak from the lot above that appears to be a building defect?
I live in a high-rise apartment on the Gold Coast. Several months ago, water leaked through my ceiling from the bathroom in the unit above. The plumber identified the cause as water spilling onto the bathroom floor during a toilet repair, then escaping down into my ceiling.
When the ceiling space was opened, we found a large plastic ice cream container sitting in the cavity directly under the bathroom waste above, along with obvious water staining on the surrounding concrete and pipes. This suggested the problem had happened before and that someone had tried to manage it with a makeshift solution, rather than fixing the defect properly.
The first time, my damage was minor. I immediately notified the building manager and the body corporate committee, and asked them to arrange proper repairs to prevent it from happening again. They did not respond or take action.
The leak has now occurred again, and this time the building manager refused to help, saying it is not a body corporate matter. The strata manager has taken the same position. I have had to hire a carpet dryer at my own cost, run it for three days, and may need professional carpet cleaning and painting. I will probably have to put the ice cream container back in the ceiling cavity to protect my lot from future leaks.
Given the history, the evidence of repeated leakage, and the makeshift container in the ceiling, how can this not be treated as a body corporate responsibility for a building defect? What can I do to require the body corporate to investigate and fix the underlying problem properly, rather than leaving it to me and the lot above to manage each time it leaks?
Answer: It sounds like this issue is with something the owner is responsible for maintaining.
A body corporate (and its body corporate manager) is not responsible for everything that happens within the building.
By the sounds of it, the issue is with something the owner is responsible for maintaining (i.e. their own toilet). Accordingly, it is the lot owner’s responsibility for any damage caused by the toilet, not the body corporate. Unless there was defective common property, or something else the body corporate is obliged to maintain, there is no responsibility on the body corporate to address the issue.
Todd Garsden
Mahoneys
E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au
P: 07 3007 3753
This post appears in Strata News #772.
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Read next:
- QLD: Q&A Why should I pay for damage to another person’s property?
- QLD: Q&A Responsibility for maintenance of common property
- QLD: Q&A Boundary and Common Property Issues
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