Hi Guys,
"This is the first time I am posting thread for help with this forum, so not too sure if I posted at the right place. Apology in advance if I did not. ----"
A Miserable Owner at the moment
I am a first time unit owner, and therefore am quiet new to all the building repair and maintenance issues that revolve around a so-called "owners corporation".
My partner and I have just bought a top floor unit 6months ago, and are now facing extensive water saturation across ceilings of 2 of our bedrooms as well as the kitchen area. There is an infestation of water stains, molds building up across the edges of our ceilings, and worse still, at time of heavy rain, water would start dripping into one of the bedrooms and we would have put a bucket in place collect the rain water coming through the ceiling.
My partner and I had since inspected the rooftop area directly above our unit, and discovered a large standing pool of water around the area above our unit with moldy and cracked rooftop tiles and ineffective water drainage system. We believe that it's the failed water proofing on the rooftop that had led to this extensive water damage on our ceilings down below.
However, when we raised the water leaking problem with the strata manager, his reply was a standard wait and see. He obviously knew what the problem was, and said fairly quickly that our issue was much to do with the water proofing membrane failure that had caused other leaking issues on balconies of other units and the garage basement area that he raised in the owner's meeting last October. He said, since that meeting he had been trying to organize some sort of plumber report to assess the overall problem and was originally scheduled to table the findings in another meeting to the lot owners in February this year. Apparently, submission of plumber reports never came, as in the manager's own word, all the plumbers he contacted was "too busy" and had therefore turned down the submissions at the last minute. For a total of 6 months, he was only able to contact 3 plumbers with no report taken place, and hence the February meeting was canceled as a result. So given this is the situation, he asked us to wait more patiently for him to arrange further plumbing reports that he hopes to table to all the lot owners in another 4-6weeks time.
When I asked if there is anything else the strata management can do to put in an interim measure to mitigate this water damage on my unit, as we are now in a rain season, he said the same temporary job would still cost thousands and for which he would need the 'owners corporation' to approve. He said a better option would be to wait for the plumbing report that deals with the overall issue at once.
As with regards to the 'owners corporation' board, during the last 2 meetings we attended since becoming owners, none of the Chair, nor the Treasurer or Secretary turned up. My partner and I seriously doubt if there is a proper 'Owners Corporation 'Board overlooking the management of the lot buildings. The strata manager seems to be able to do whatever he wishes, and if it's a difficult issue, we would often hear him bring up 'owners corporation' as an excuse.
Thanks for finishing this length and problematic post. We would really appreciate if someone can share some lights on our questions below:
(1) is it really plumber that we need to fix this roof leaking issue?
(2) Would the plumber report generally take up to 6months to produce? (The strata manager kept on insisting that reports on this large scale would take months to produce and since they are legal documents, they would thereby be very lengthy for tradies to table them....)
(3) if there is any other way we can fast track this lengthy "owners corporation" decision making process?
(4) How can we go about finding out who are the unit owners on the board of 'owners corporation' and liaise directly with them?
(5) Any other suggestions/tips are welcome.
"This is the first time I am posting thread for help with this forum, so not too sure if I posted at the right place. Apology in advance if I did not. ----"
A Miserable Owner at the momentI am a first time unit owner, and therefore am quiet new to all the building repair and maintenance issues that revolve around a so-called "owners corporation".
My partner and I have just bought a top floor unit 6months ago, and are now facing extensive water saturation across ceilings of 2 of our bedrooms as well as the kitchen area. There is an infestation of water stains, molds building up across the edges of our ceilings, and worse still, at time of heavy rain, water would start dripping into one of the bedrooms and we would have put a bucket in place collect the rain water coming through the ceiling.
My partner and I had since inspected the rooftop area directly above our unit, and discovered a large standing pool of water around the area above our unit with moldy and cracked rooftop tiles and ineffective water drainage system. We believe that it's the failed water proofing on the rooftop that had led to this extensive water damage on our ceilings down below.
However, when we raised the water leaking problem with the strata manager, his reply was a standard wait and see. He obviously knew what the problem was, and said fairly quickly that our issue was much to do with the water proofing membrane failure that had caused other leaking issues on balconies of other units and the garage basement area that he raised in the owner's meeting last October. He said, since that meeting he had been trying to organize some sort of plumber report to assess the overall problem and was originally scheduled to table the findings in another meeting to the lot owners in February this year. Apparently, submission of plumber reports never came, as in the manager's own word, all the plumbers he contacted was "too busy" and had therefore turned down the submissions at the last minute. For a total of 6 months, he was only able to contact 3 plumbers with no report taken place, and hence the February meeting was canceled as a result. So given this is the situation, he asked us to wait more patiently for him to arrange further plumbing reports that he hopes to table to all the lot owners in another 4-6weeks time.
When I asked if there is anything else the strata management can do to put in an interim measure to mitigate this water damage on my unit, as we are now in a rain season, he said the same temporary job would still cost thousands and for which he would need the 'owners corporation' to approve. He said a better option would be to wait for the plumbing report that deals with the overall issue at once.
As with regards to the 'owners corporation' board, during the last 2 meetings we attended since becoming owners, none of the Chair, nor the Treasurer or Secretary turned up. My partner and I seriously doubt if there is a proper 'Owners Corporation 'Board overlooking the management of the lot buildings. The strata manager seems to be able to do whatever he wishes, and if it's a difficult issue, we would often hear him bring up 'owners corporation' as an excuse.
Thanks for finishing this length and problematic post. We would really appreciate if someone can share some lights on our questions below:
(1) is it really plumber that we need to fix this roof leaking issue?
(2) Would the plumber report generally take up to 6months to produce? (The strata manager kept on insisting that reports on this large scale would take months to produce and since they are legal documents, they would thereby be very lengthy for tradies to table them....)
(3) if there is any other way we can fast track this lengthy "owners corporation" decision making process?
(4) How can we go about finding out who are the unit owners on the board of 'owners corporation' and liaise directly with them?
(5) Any other suggestions/tips are welcome.
