• Creator
    Topic
  • #11340
    danih
    Flatchatter

      hi there, I’m new to this forum so please bear with me if my question goes over old ground. I’ve done a search but can’t find a similar query. This is a long story. I will try to be as brief as I can.

      i’m a member of the owners committee for a small strata in sydney. In March 2017, when we had high humidity and extreme rain, two of the units in our block (my ground floor unit and another in the same position two stories above) experienced ‘popping’ of our original parquetry flooring. My instinct was to blame the high humidity as I knew several areas of the parquet were ‘drummy’ and the glue had pretty much powdered as the building (ergo the floors) was about 50yrs old. The owner of the other unit, which is rented out, informed the strata manager that their floor was also damaged, however that person insisted that the cause was water soaking through the double brick walls, coursing under the floor and effecting the damaged patches, which were located some distance from the wall, in central, high traffic areas (NB about 12.5% of her floor was deemed damage by the builder hired to quote on repair).

      The owners committee were at a loss to understand this owners reasoning however we organized the appropriate investigations. The owner repeatedly accused the committee (of which they too are a member) of downplaying the seriousness of her concerns (we did not) and then began berating us for ignoring the issue of the floor repairs (despite insisting we investigate the water ingress issues before fixing the floor). Our strata manager advised the committee that an insurance claim would be unsuccessful as the floor damage appeared to be wear and tear and we had explicit exclusions for that in our policy. Despite this advice this owner insisted a claim be made… and so the committee authorized the strata manager to initiate the process (NB despite insisting that my floor NOT be included in the claim it was and so consultants hired by the insurance company investigated both units). Needless to say the claim was rejected. The owner in question appealed the results of the consultant builder and engineers reports. This appeal was also rejected.

      Somewhere in this process the owners demand morphed from insisting the committee repair the floor (which we all acknowledged we had a responsibility under the law to do), to us replacing the floor in its entirety – despite the owner insisting that before the March weather event her floor had been in pristine condition. She has stated in writing that over the lifetime of ownership the floor has been sanded and polished 3 times – always, she insists, “very carefully”. Despite this the reports from the insurance company explicitly state that the vibrations from a sander MAY have caused the glue to pulverize. 

      So… Upon receipt of the reports from the insurance company the owners committee applied to department of fair trading for mediation – as I had been advised to do during several calls to DFT strata help line. Our desire was to clarify the scope of our responsibility towards the floor given the owners past actions and negotiate a reasonable settlement. We repeatedly acknowledged our responsibility to repair the floors however since the demand morphed into replacement, and therefore the cost impost on owners has trebled, we sought guidance through the mediation process to define the scope of our responsibility.

      last week I followed up on our mediation application only to be told by the customer service supervisor that OCs shouldn’t really initiate these things – despite there being no mention of this in the mediation guideline… but that the aggrieved owner could initiate against us for this issue (she was incensed at the very idea of mediation). He promptly cancelled our application. I wanted to scream!!

      the committee are about to make what we deem to be a fair offer to the owner – to repair the floor as is or to give her the equivalent value in cash towards replacement. 

      My question is… have we acted properly and with due care? Is there anything else would coul have/ should have done??

      thank you for you patience and, in advance, for your wise counsel. ????????

    • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.