- This topic has 16 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 1 month ago by .
-
Topic
-
I own a unit in an art deco building of 30+ units in NSW. The OC intends fully rewiring the building from, and including, the connection to the grid. (This alone is $50K.) After then replacing all the unmetered wiring, the OC intends to move all the distribution boards from communal cupboards on each level and into each unit, running a submain from each electricity meter into the unit.
Can they do this? Is this wiring common property? If it is common property, does the fact that each submain and distribution board services only one unit make it the owners’ responsibility?
If the OC does have the right to run a submain to each unit, do they have the right to *enter* the unit (versus perhaps terminating it at an outside wall of the unit) and to install a distribution board *inside* the unit. Would an owner be within their rights to decline?
- This topic was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by .
-
Replies
-
This sounds like the best and most practical way to upgrade the wiring. A modern distribution board in each unit can be small and unobtrusive. I can’t see any reasonable grounds to object.
In a unit, wiring IN the ceiling will be common property. The OC is required to maintain the common property. That includes updates for safety or extra capacity needed because more people are fitting aircond and/or EV chargers etc. You can’t decline. And the OC has a right of entry to your unit for the purpose of maintaining common property although not for the purpose of stealing your valuables.
You can’t decline. And the OC has a right of entry to your unit for the purpose of maintaining common property although not for the purpose of stealing your valuables.
If an owner refuses entry, the OC can seek orders granting them entry from NCAT. They can’t just barge in. If the owner still refuses entry in defiance of NCAT orders, then they are in breach of Tribunal orders and can be fined.
The OC or its employees can’t force their way into a unit unless it is a genuine emergency where personal safety or damage to property is immediately at risk.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
If yours is “a tiny 1-bedroom unit” and others are larger, your unit entitlements are likely to be less than others. If the owners corporation does the block-wide wiring upgrade, you will pay a smaller fraction of the cost compared with others, in proportion to unit entitlements. The real cost might be rather more similar from one unit to another, regardless of size. So, you might be better off going in with everyone else than doing it separately later. And that is before even considering economies of scale.
Fair Trading’s much-quoted “Who’s responsible …?” document is ambiguous on this as it says that wiring in a ceiling is common property but wiring in a wall that services only one unit isn’t. Complicating the issue is that many apartments have false or dropped ceilings which, according to my block’s lawyers, are technically a wall.
So I would say that if the wiring is embedded in a concrete ceiling, then it is common property but if it is above a dropped ceiling and only serves that unit, then it is lot property. Make sense?
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
What about replacing aircon ducting? Is that common property? Or is it the owner’s responsibility?
A dropped ceiling isn’t a common wall …
Didn’t say it was …
The wiring the OC has declined to repair is in a metal conduit embedded in a concrete ceiling (which is also the floor of the unit above, I think).
Then it is common property unless there has been a by-law created (during renovations, for instance) to state otherwise. Start mediation proceedings at Fair Trading – that will sort them out and costs nothing.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
SteveBoo said:
The wiring the OC has declined to repair is in a metal conduit embedded in a concrete ceiling (which is also the floor of the unit above, I think).
You might be able to sell them on this by mentioning insurers reduce premiums on rewired buildings!
If it’s an art deco building, with split metal conduit in the ceiling slab – and usually running down the walls too – you could well be looking at vulcanised Indian rubber, single conductor wiring. Even if working fine now, it’s well past it’s use by date.
We still have some remnant in the ceilings here that went out when moisture penetrated recently. It’s better to be proactive on replacing it before it fails I will say.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by .
You might be able to sell them on this by mentioning insurers reduce premiums on rewired buildings!
This might get them over the line but the simple fact that they have a legally enforceable duty to maintain and repair common property should be enough. They know this, you’d think, which is why they are arguing that it’s lot property.
You just have to tell them they’re wrong and they can either waste money on lawyers and then fix it anyway, or just fix it.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
It’s not the wiring, it’s the fact that it’s embedded in common property. If every owner was left to fix this themselves, then common property ceilings (which are also floors) could be seriously compromised. Your strata committee needs to stop acting like a group of self-interested individuals and start taking responsibility for the whole building.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.