This is one of those stories that you remember whenever anyone complains about there being too much bureaucracy around apartment blocks and buildings in general.
One Flatchatter in Victoria has a problem in his block that for reasons of expediency (or cheapness) when it was constructed the builders put the electrical distribution board in a storage room inside his lot area.
Now, he can’t use it for storage and he can’t renovate to make use of the space. Not only that, he has to allow frequent and unrestricted access if there are any electrical faults in the block, or for safety inspections … whatever.
Now, with more modern cabling available, he thinks the power board could go on the other side of the wall, which is common property. Moving it would have a cost attached, but he would get to use the space he owns.
His strata committee has said, “yeah….nah!” As he says, they have zero incentive to change anything since there’s no obvious benefit to them.
The answer? Give them an incentive, we said, and we had a cunning plan. But it turns out there’s a quirk in Victorian law called and “implied easement”. You can find out what that means HERE.
Elsewhere on the Forum
- Owners corp hasn’t warned us about big ticket repairs on the way. That’s HERE.
- The owners corp lost three of the cases that I brought, and I dropped the rest, now they want to charge me for defending the ones I dropped. That’s HERE.
- Three committee members. One votes to issue a breach notice, one votes against, one abstains: what happens next? That’s HERE.
- Can Real Estate agents put “for sale” signs on common property and how long can they leave them there after the property’s sold? That’s HERE.
- Is changing paint colour on a building considered to be maintenance or an improvement, which needs different process for approval? That’s HERE.
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