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  • #8522
    Whale
    Flatchatter

      I’ve just had another strata lesson that I thought I’d share.

      I recently received an Invoice from a Property Manager for works undertaken by their electrical contractors on a unit’s electricity supply within the Common Meter Room and behind the Sub-Board of that unit.

      Whilst not disputing that payment of the Invoice was the Owners Corporation’s responsibility, I contacted the Property Manager to request an Invoice from the electrical contractors made out to the Owners Corporation (O/C) [because I don’t pay third-party invoices], and because I wanted to determine the background to the invoiced works – about which the O/C had no prior advice.

      I found out that sometime in early January the occupants of a rental unit in our Plan contacted the Property Manager to report that the unit’s airconditioner was inoperative.

      The Property Manager contacted their electrical contractors whose employee, according to information on the invoice they’d provided to the Property Manager (who paid), reset the circuit breaker on the unit’s sub-board, and then let himself into the Common Meter Room and replaced one of the unit’s fuses with a heavier one (higher amperage).

      Sometime later, the airconditioner again malfunctioned; the Property Manager was again contacted and in turn contacted their electrical contractors, who again dispatched an electrician – a different employee to the one who attended on the first occasion.

      That electrician found a fault with the unit’s airconditioner that caused the circuit breaker on the unit’s sub-board to trip, but also caused some of the insulation on the common wiring behind the sub-board and in the common wall cavity to melt!!  

      So because the aircondtioner itself was not initially checked, and possibly because the amperage of one of the main fuses in the Meter Room was increased, the building could have caught on fire!! 

      The O/C has little ability to control the tradespeople who Property Managers or Owners engage to attend to electrical and other faults within units, and yet if there’s a fault with a sub-board, fixture, fitting, or appliance within the unit that they don’t properly check for (if at all) before they start fiddling with the Common Property infrastructure for which the O/C’s responsible and liable to pay for, and that causes a problem as in the instance described here, then the O/C has to find the means to exercise some control.

      After discussions at a recent Executive Committee Meeting, I’ve just placed this appropriately worded “Attention Electrical Contractors” notice in the Common Meter Room:

      “Faults in this Meter Room usually occur for a reason; right?

      So if you’ve been sent here by an Owner or Property Manager (Real Estate Agency) to find and fix a fault with the electricity supply to a Unit, then before you do anything in this Meter Room , please check that the Unit’s Meter’s connected, and then check and test inside the Unit and make sure that the Sub-Board, all GPO’s, switches, and fixtures (e.g. hotwater heater) in there are AOK!

      Your costs to check, test, and if necessary fix any faults within a Unit must be invoiced to the Owner or to their Property Manager (Real Estate Agency).

      Only your costs to fix any faults within this Meter Room may be invoiced to the Owners SP – together with a Statement that you checked-out the Unit’s Meter, Sub-Board, GPOs, switches etc beforehand, and that all those were AOK.

      Sorry but…no Statement on the Invoice; no payment!

      The Owners Corporation’s Invoice and your bank / account details may be sent directly:

      by e-Mail to (


      ) OR by post to The Secretary, (


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    • #17905
      excathedra
      Flatchatter

        I’m no electrician, but dealing with an appliance failure by fitting a higher capacity fuse seems like a last-resort admission of incompetence.  I was once told by an electrician that fuses or circuit breakers are there, not as people believe, to protect electrical appliances but to protect the building’s wiring.  The reported damage to the insulation seems to prove this point!  The first electrician’s action seems at best irresponsible and potentially criminal.

        #17910
        kiwipaul
        Flatchatter

          @Whale said:

          Whilst not disputing that payment of the Invoice was the Owners Corporation’s responsibility, I contacted the Property Manager to request an Invoice from the electrical contractors made out to the Owners Corporation (O/C) [because I don’t pay third-party invoices], and because I wanted to determine the background to the invoiced works – about which the O/C had no prior advice.

          I tend to disagree, the faulty wiring serves only one unit and the cause of the problem was the a/c unit (which is totally lot owners responsibility). The damage was caused by an incompetent contractor employed by the property manager and so the contractors insurance (or contractor or property manager) should pick up the bill for the damaged wiring.

          I don’t see why the OC should pick up the bill for this automatically as their was nothing wrong with the wiring or fuse.

          It sets a dangerous precedent for the OC to pay for repairs caused by other peoples incompetence especially when they had no say in the matter.

          #17913
          Whale
          Flatchatter
          Chat-starter

            KiwiPaul – yes, point taken. I guess I was focused on trying to devise a means to  in future make electrical contractors check individual units for faults before undertaking any works in the common meter room. Hopefully they’ll do that rather than just make that statement on their invoice, but otherwise the O/C’s not paying!

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