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In a two-storey building the neighbours on the first floor have installed their hot water tanks above their apartment in the roof cavity (common property) without seeking permission of the owners corporation, by-laws or any compensation to the downstairs apartments.
What steps should the downstairs apartments follow to ensure that by-laws are in place and adequate compensation is received (taking into consideration that about 50% of the owners will vote down any by-law detrimental to their self-interest).
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If it is unlikely to actually do any harm for the upstairs units to have their tanks in the roof space, why not just have a bylaw that says those units owners are responsible for the maintenance of tanks connected to their units and responsible for any costs that the OC might incur as a consequence of them being there, say one leaked and damaged the common property or a unit. It would require a certain brazen disregard for simple decency if the upstairs units would not agree, seeing as they are getting the benefit of putting their tank out of the way.
They WOULD need the by-law if you told them to either agree to a reasonable by-law covering repairs, maintenance and liability or be ordered to get their water tank off your (common) property. You don't have to play hard ball but they should realise that you can do so if they don't come to the party. And never mind the CTTT – a plumber with a pipe wrench would get a more immediate and reliable response. They are in the wrong – let them take you to the CTTT when you remove their hot water tank.
There's a difference between shared property and common property and they have no right to put anything in a common property space without permission.
If you allow them to leave the tank there without the requisite special resolutions, when they sell, the water tank's maintenance, repairs and other liabilities will become the Owner's Corporation's responsibility, not the new owners'. For that reason alone, you have a very good chance of success at the CTTT.
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.
Errr … no, I wouldn't recommend doing that. Must learn how to use those smiley faces when I'm being facetious.
However, I wouldn't hesitate, if push came to shove, to explain that employing a plumber might be an option open to you. I'm a great believer that most sensible people, faced with a situation where they are likely to lose and all it takes is for them to be reasonable, will take the line of least resistance and do the right thing (however much it irks them).
The problem is that your time and energy is being taken up by their intransigence so a quick result is a good result. All they need to know is that a) they are in the wrong and b) you are serious and thing should move along nicely.
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.
Get it Right,
You have a bigger issue here… You may want to do some research on the OH&S requirements re pressure vessels.
We had gravity feed hot water tanks in the ceiling, being the original hot water tanks in the building. On behalf of our OC I investigated our options at length, searching for the most cost effective, and possibly energy efficient option (see Jimmy tomorrow at the Green Forum), as the hot water tanks are common property in our building. So I looked into solar, gas boosted solar or just plain gas, together with the concept of placing mains pressure electric tanks inside the laundry of each apartment or otherwise mains pressure electric tanks in the ceiling, or gravity feed in the roof again. Any plumber I spoke to about the mains pressure in the roof clearly stated this should not even be considered unless you are ok with having a bomb in the roof. It is an extremely risky situation as they are a bit of the out of site, out of mind, so no one will keep an eye on them until something goes wrong… And when if that happens it could be seriously disasterous.
Interestingly, we ended up replacing the 8 gravity feed tanks with a reticulating gas hot water system. The other owners did not wish to go with the cheapest option (after the government rebate) being the gas boosted solar system. Also, though we were replacing 8 tanks with just 2, when I investigated government rebates (at the time) we were only eligible for 1 rebate instead of 8…
In long and short, the owner’s have done the wrong thing and should agree to correcting this, and paying all costs associated, or if not be prepared to remove the hot water tank from the ceiling space. There are two sections of the act that are relevant, being s52 and s65a.
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