Who repairs what in a multiplex building

Where the boundary sits

The strata plan defines each strata lot, and everything outside those boundaries is common property that the strata corporation looks after. In most buildings the structure, the roof, the exterior walls, the shared paths and the parking area are common property. The inside of your home is yours.

The complications live at the edges. A patio, a balcony or a parking space attached to your home is often common property designated for your exclusive use, which means you get to use it and the strata is generally responsible for repairing it. Windows and doors sit differently in different buildings. Anything that serves more than one home, such as a shared pipe, is usually the strata's.

None of this is guesswork. The strata plan and the bylaws answer it for a specific building, and both are available before you buy. If a seller tells you a deck is yours and the plan says it is common property with exclusive use, the plan is right.

Ask specifically about windows, doors, and anything that penetrates the exterior of the building, because these are the items where buildings differ most and where the cost of getting it wrong is highest. A window that turns out to be common property is the strata's to replace. A window that turns out to be yours is a bill you were not expecting.

The same question applies to heating and hot water equipment. Where it serves only your home it is usually yours, and where it serves several homes it is usually the strata's. In a new multiplex both arrangements exist, so read the plan rather than reasoning from where the equipment happens to sit.

How the money works

Section 91 of the Strata Property Act makes the strata corporation responsible for the common expenses of the building. Section 92 requires two funds for that purpose, both paid for by owners through strata fees: an operating fund for expenses that occur once a year or more often, and a contingency reserve fund for expenses that occur less often or that do not usually occur.

So a light bulb in the shared entrance comes from the operating fund and a new roof comes from the reserve. Section 93 requires the strata corporation to determine the annual contribution to that reserve, subject to the regulations.

Section 94 is the one buyers should care about most. It requires a strata corporation to obtain a depreciation report from a qualified person, estimating the repair and replacement cost for the major items in the building and the expected life of each. That document is a forecast of what is coming and when.

Put the report next to the reserve fund balance. If the report says the roof has eight years left and the reserve holds a fraction of what the roof will cost, the difference will be asked for at some point. That is not a reason to avoid the building; it is a number to take into account when you decide what to offer.

Special levies, and how to see one coming

When a repair costs more than the reserve fund holds, the owners are asked for the difference through a special levy, divided according to the schedule registered for that strata.

The way to see one coming is to read minutes. Two or three years of strata minutes will show you what has been discussed, what has been deferred, and whether the owners have been putting off a decision that keeps returning to the agenda. A repair that has been discussed at four consecutive meetings without being funded is a levy that has not happened yet.

Ask directly as well: is any special levy currently proposed, approved, or under discussion. Ask in writing and keep the answer. A levy approved before you buy but payable afterwards is a matter to sort out at the point of purchase rather than a surprise to inherit.

• Read two or three years of strata minutes, not just the latest
• Compare the depreciation report against the reserve fund balance
• Ask whether any levy is proposed, approved or under discussion
• Look for repairs that keep appearing on the agenda without being funded
• Check the strata plan for what is common property with exclusive use

Small buildings, and the honest trade

In a two, three or four home building, the owners are the strata council. There is no manager quietly handling things and no larger group to absorb a disagreement. If a repair needs organising, one of you organises it.

That has real advantages. Decisions are quick, costs are visible, and nobody is paying a management company for work the owners can do themselves. Many small stratas run well on exactly that basis for decades.

It also means the quality of your experience depends on your neighbours in a way it would not in a larger building. A household that will not agree to spend money on maintenance is a genuine problem in a four home strata, and the routes to resolving it are slower and more formal than most people expect.

In our view this is the strongest argument for reading the minutes carefully before buying into a small building. You are not only buying a home. You are joining a very small organisation, and its recent history tells you how it functions.

It is also worth asking who has been doing the work. In many small stratas one owner quietly handles everything: the insurance renewal, the annual budget, the contractor who fixes the gate. That arrangement works beautifully until that owner sells, at which point the building discovers how much was being done for free. If you are buying into a strata that runs on one person, find out whether that person is the one selling.

For a brand new building, ask a different set of questions. There is no repair history to read, so the useful material is the warranty rather than the minutes: who built it, which warranty provider covers it, and what the coverage periods are. Any defect that appears in the early years is potentially a warranty matter rather than a repair the owners have to fund, and knowing which is which is worth real money in the first few years.

That is also the reason to record everything you notice in the first year, even the small things. In a new building the boundary between a warranty claim, a repair the strata funds and a repair you fund yourself is decided partly by what the problem turns out to be and partly by when it was first reported. A dated note with a photograph settles the second half of that question completely.

Report anything that affects the shared parts of the building to the strata as well as noting it yourself, even where you expect it to be a warranty matter. In a small building the strata is your neighbours, so this is usually an email rather than a process, and it puts the item on a record that outlives everybody's memory of the conversation.

The habit costs nothing and it is the single most useful thing a new owner can do in the first year. Buildings are remembered badly and recorded well, and in ten years the written record is the only version anybody can rely on.

Questions buyers ask

More in Cost of Owning

• Insurance, both kindsThe strata's building policy, your own policy, and the gap between them
• Your monthly totalBuilding the whole figure from documents you can get before you buy
• Utilities and heatingWhat is metered to you, what is in the fee, and how to compare two homes

Also worth reading

• Depreciation reports
• Special levies