This article discusses owners corporation facilities, focusing on obligations to maintain disused common property laundry rooms and ensure they remain safe and usable.
Question: What are the owners corporation’s obligations for maintaining or upgrading disused common property laundry rooms?
Our owners corporation property consists of 10 apartments across two buildings connected by open car parking. Two of the 10 apartments don’t have their own internal laundry. Each building has a shared laundry room with troughs and cold taps for washing machines.
The buildings date back to the 1980s, and the laundries have been locked for years after vagrants began using one. A tenant recently asked to use a laundry.
What are the owners corporation’s obligations regarding these disused laundry rooms? Must the OC supply washing machines or upgrade the laundry rooms to include hot water? Do the minimum rental housing standards apply to the OC in this situation?
Answer: The rooms form part of common property and lot owners are entitled to use them so the OC should take steps to make those areas safe and usable.
The owners corporation (OC) has a duty under section 46 of the Owners Corporations Act 2006 (Vic) to repair and maintain common property, which includes the common laundry rooms. However, this duty does not extend to upgrading or modernising facilities unless the OC resolves to do so.
There is no obligation under the Act for the OC to install washing machines or provide hot water as an upgrade. The OC’s responsibility is to ensure that the existing infrastructure (such as taps and drainage) is safe and functional. If the rooms have been locked due to safety concerns, it seems the OC was entitled to restrict access to protect residents and property. However, the rooms form part of common property and lot owners are entitled to use them so the OC should take steps to make those areas safe and usable.
Under the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021 (Vic), rental properties in Victoria must meet minimum rental standards before a renter moves in. These standards are set out in Schedule 4 of the Regulations and apply to all rental agreements that started on or after 29 March 2021. There are 14 categories of minimum standards.
The standard regarding laundries says: If there is a laundry on the property, it must be connected to a reasonable supply of hot and cold water. This relates to laundries within a rented property, although the term ‘property’ is not defined in the Act.
The minimum rental standards under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 set out apply to individual rental properties and are the responsibility of the rental provider (landlord), not the OC. However, under section 75A of that Act, the rental provider may join an owners corporation in an application relating to a breach of the duty to maintain premises relating to damage or defects to common property that adjoins the premises. This may arise in situations where repairs or urgent maintenance are needed to common property (such as roof leaks, broken lifts, defective water pipes) that impact a rented lot, or where tenants or rental providers have experienced loss, damage, or amenity reduction as a result of this failure. It is unlikely VCAT would find that a functional laundry room with cold water constitutes a failure to maintain for these purposes.
Fabienne Loncar
Moray & Agnew Lawyers
E: floncar@moray.com.au
P: 03 8687 7319
This post appears in the December 2025 edition of The VIC Strata Magazine.
Read next:
- NAT: 5 Costly Mistakes Owners Make When Maintaining Their Buildings
- VIC: Q&A Owners corporation responsibility to provide disability access
- VIC: Q&A Stairwells, Fire Doors and Safety
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