Birds in roof…

Hi She11e

It certainly sounds like your EC are acting on getting the repairs done to common property, so kudos to them.

As to the act, it only states that the repairs/maintenance should be reasonable: from what you have to described, these birds aren’t really a safety issue.

By the sounds of your description (needing a cherry picker, rotten/destroyed woodwork, points of access needed) this is not an easy or straight-forward excercise; presumably there are also issues such as waterproofing, quotes, engaging builders and tradespeople to be considered – bear in mind that the builder who does the eaves and woodwork may not do the guttering, so the EC or SM will need to co-ordinate to existing schedules, then there’s someone to be onsite a pest controller (etc)

One month doesn’t sound unreasonable at this moment: perhaps a quick chat with the EC to find out what dates they are looking at getting the work done will shed some light on the subject. If they don’t have any dates in mind, or want to go to another EGM, at that point it will be time for you to up the ante.

Hi she11e,

I am not as patient as yourself, this really is not a big job and doesn’t need multiple trades. I don’t know any strata firm that doesn’t have a number of local builders on call.

All that needs to be done by the builder is;
1) Before starting visit the site and work out what materials they need, size of the fascia boards and guttering etc
2) Hire a cherry picker $300-400 for a day
3) Get on the roof and the noise of them working on the roof will get birds out
4) make the repairs and paint in one day, it may take longer but as you described it I don’t think so.

Cost should be around $2,000, the builder should be able to give you a fixed price if not a reasonable estimate.

Now for the OC and SM, the upkeep of the common property is is compulsory under section 62 of the Strata Scheme Management Act, so as these works are required to common property the OC and SM must deal with this issue in a timely manner..

Ask nicely one more time and advise the SM to nominate you as the site contact and this way you will now if a work order has been issued or not. If no action within a week then contact your local CTTT and lodge an application for an order to require the OC to carry out the repairs. I may seem to be a bit hard with this however I can’t understand why simple matters like this can’t just be dealt with quickly, there is just no excuse. If it was the chairpersons unit it would be fixed by now.

Best of luck.