Previous owners illegal renos

Hi Miss,

Very interesting scenario.

Where the former owner of your lot is still an owner in the building, in my view yes, he can still be pursued for this past breach of the by-laws (subject to their precise wording…) and legislation.

In relation to the legislation, see section 111 in the SSMA 2015:

111 WORK BY OWNERS OF LOTS AFFECTING COMMON PROPERTY

An owner of a lot in a strata scheme must not carry out work on the common property unless the owner is authorised to do so–

(a) under this Part, or

(b) under a by-law made under this Part or a common property rights by-law, or

(c) by an approval of the owners corporation given by special resolution or in any other manner authorised by the by-laws.

To be pursued for breach of this section, the owner just has to be “an owner of a lot”, not necessarily the owner of the lot where the work impacting the common property was carried out.

Clever. I’d love to know how it plays out.

In my view, until this is sorted out, the Owners Corporation retains responsibility for the common property impacted by this illegal work. So, the Owners Corporation should be the one bringing the application for rectification. That application can be made under section 132, which also permits a specified amount to be paid, in place of the work being done.

Owners corporations try to pin this type of responsibility on subsequent owners when there is no evidence of when the work was carried out, so the OC can take the position that it’s as likely to be the current owner as any previous owner. In your case, it sounds like you have evidence that it was the former owner and this person can be pursued because they are still an owner in the building. If the Owners Corporation refuses to act on it this, then they are accepting responsibility for the impacted common property.

Amanda.