The dispute is all too familiar. A pipe between the walls of your lot and another lot is leaking water into your property. Your strata manager insists on billing you for the plumbing repairs, but you argue that the leak is happening in a common area, making it the responsibility of the owners’ corporation.

For decades strata owners and owners’ corporations have been playing this blame game. Often in order to resolve disputes the owners and the owners’ corporation have had to rely on vague strata plans, not to mention copious amounts of case law.

Fortunately, the Department of Lands has now registered two “memoranda” that will define exactly who is responsible for repairs or maintenance of specific items, and classify which specific items in a strata scheme constitute common property and which items form part of an owner’s lot. The memoranda themselves are not new laws but they can be adopted by owners’ corporations as by-laws in new or existing strata schemes.

 If you are tired of disputes about who is responsible for repairs and maintenance of common property then seek legal advice about which memorandum is suitable to your strata scheme. Even if your owners’ corporation does not formally adopt a memorandum, they will still be a useful point of reference and can save you from the costs and hassles of obtaining legal advice and professional assessments of the property.

For more information on how to deal with property disputes go to https://northshorepropertyconveyancing.com.au/covenants-easements-disputes/.