Maintenance issues - problems and opportunities

MAINTENANCE ISSUES

Richmond is a gracious old building. Its walls are strong, the apartments are well proportioned and they all have magnificent 10 foot ceilings.

            Because the building is 96 years old, maintenance and modern upgrades are always being discussed. The following are some of the areas currently on the agenda. They are all achievable and many improvements have already been made. I give below a brief summary of each issue and as time permits I will link some summaries to separate documents with more detail. Note that this page is a work in progress.

Access down the western side of the building.

The boundary fence between 2-4 and the Horizon to the west is not built on the property boundary. This photo taken in Farrell Avenue shows the boundary marked in yellow. The pink line is a right-of-way for the stormwater and sewerage lines. (Photo link.) The boundary is about 1 metre east of the Horizon fence line at Farrell Avenue and expands to about 2 metres at the boundary with Premier Lane in the north.

            Owners have built their walls and gates over this boundary and the entire south-west corner of common land was given as an exclusive use right to the owner of lot 2 in 1993. It is thus very difficult to access the west side of the block. When we had the land surveyed recently, the owner of lot 2 refused to open the sliding gate to allow the surveyors a line of sight down the west side. Access is still possible through the cellar but involves climbing through gaps in the foundation walls and walking over building rubble. (Photo link.) It was decided some years ago to undertake to lower the level of lot 10 courtyard to improve sub-floor ventilation, however this work has not proceeded mainly due to the problem of access.

            With the early strata minutes having been destroyed it is difficult to work out how things came about. However, I have found a copy of a letter I sent to the committee in 1998  which sets out the facts as I saw them at that time and I have also found the minutes from an AGM in 1998  which show that the sliding gate was not approved by the OC and permission for its construction was refused.

            This issue continues to hamper the management of the building.

Alterations to common property.

Management of strata blocks has moved on from 25 years ago. Today, if an owner wants to alter common property they need to get a special resolution passed at a general meeting and register a by-law accepting the cost of future maintenance. In past days this was not done: the committee just gave the nod to an owner to do an alteration. For instance, all the sunroom windows (except perhaps a couple) have been replaced by owners. Lot 11 is the only lot with a by-law in place. The owners corporation is now faced with the problem of maintaining alterations into the future. Some alterations in the building were approved at meetings and some were not. As our previous strata manager destroyed (or lost) the old minute books it is hard to work out how alterations came about. We have to piece together what documentary evidence we still have in the form of minutes and Sydney City Council documents. Thus, some of the following is speculative but I give reference to what documents we have.

Unauthorised alterations to common property.

Lot 2 Sliding gate.

The original council approval for the brick fences around the courtyards of lots 1 & 2 provided for a brick fence to extend to the western boundary with a metre wide wooden gate. (link to plan.)

The council documents bear the OC’s seal. The owner of lot 2 however, put in a later application to install a sliding metal gate over the western segment. (link to plan) This council document does not have the OC’s seal and approval for the gate was formally rejected at a general meeting on 16^th November 1998 (link to minutes.) Yet the gate still remains, causing problems when access is required down the west side of the property.

Hot water heaters on common property.

Gas hot water heaters have been put on the exterior walls adjacent to lots 1, 2, 11, 3, 6 & 9. (link to photo 1, photo 2 ) I can’t find any record of approval being made for these attachments to common property and there are no by-laws registered to cover them. Lot 10 also has a water heater located on the small porch at the bottom hallway which is undocumented.

This issue stems from the changes made to regulations regarding gas fired heaters, that have come into force since the building was renovated and strata titled. The gas hot water heaters that were in all lots have an s-shaped exhaust flue (to enable the pipe to go out through the top of the kitchen window space). Modern regulations require a straight vertical flue. Thus, owners have been forced to locate their new heaters on the external walls.

The owners resolved some time ago to have a by-law drafted and registered that allows owners to locate their hot water heaters on the east or west external walls, provided the location is approved by the committee. We are still waiting for action on the matter to be taken by our strata managers.

Problem with reading the building water meter

For some time now the building has had to pay estimated water bills because the meter reader hasn’t been able to access the water meter (to take a reading of usage). The meter is located in the south east corner of the courtyard attached to lot 1, next to the small wooden gate in the courtyard wall. Just recently I discovered on the council plans for the wall, the stipulation that the gate was meant expressly for reading the water meter. (link to plan) The original gate was set with a 200mm gap between the bottom of the gate and the stoop below, allowing the meter to be read through the gap. The owner of lot 1 (a couple of owners back) put in a new gate that has no gap, the original reason for the gate design being forgotten. The current tenant has refused to allow the lock on the gate to be set to a water meter reader’s key to allow access, but the managing agent (Bresic Whitney) has undertaken to take readings and forward them on to the water company. Hopefully this situation can be simplified in the near future.

Authorised alterations to common property

Balconies and French doors in lots 3, 6 & 9.

October 2021

In 1997 the owners of three lots (3, 6 & 9) proposed removing three north facing windows in their apartments, extending the openings to floor level, installing three sets of wooden French doors and constructing two small balconies (on each apartment).

 

This was approved at an EMG held on 23^rd April 1997. This meeting adopted a special by-law, allowing the work, and vesting the responsibility for future maintenance with the three owners concerned. The wording of the by-law also states that all expenses involved with registering the by-law were to be met by these owners.    Agenda      Minutes 

 

The work was carried out late in 1997 and in 1998. Having approved a by-law, the committee never questioned that it had been registered (a matter for the strata managers and the three owners).

 

In 2017 a new regulation came into force requiring the OC to maintain a by-law register. A search was made of by-laws registered to the strata plan and the by-law relating to the French doors & balconies was not there. When committee members made enquiries about the strata records, the managing agent informed them they had destroyed all but the past 7 years of strata records.

 

By this time, the original owners of the flats with the new French doors had sold up and moved on, and the current owners were asking the committee to repair and maintain their doors and balconies. Only 2 of the 1997 Owners Corporation were still in the building, and they didn’t have minutes, nor could they recall the details from 1997.

 

The committee has maintained the attitude that because the French doors were constructed by owners, they should be maintained by the current owners of those flats. Also, they point to the fact that the doors and balconies are not recorded on the strata plan.  Strata Plan

 

The current owners of lots 6 & 9 say that they bought their units in good faith (both in 2018), thinking the balconies and doors were common property. The committee has pointed to the strata plan, EGM minutes of February 2018 and this Richmond Hall blog (put up in early 2018). 

The issue is due for mediation on 8th November 2021

This is the version of this post as it was in March 2018:

Balconies and French doors in lots 1, 2, 3, 6 & 9.

In 1997 the owner of lot 9 obtained OC and Sydney Council permission to remove 3 existing windows on the north wall of the building, extend the openings down to the floor, install French doors in the openings and construct two metal framed balconies. (Links: Council approval; plan only.)

   The next month lots 1 & 2 applied to extend their front windows into French doors and put walls up around their courtyards. (Link. ) Then a couple of months later the owners of lots 3 & 6 applied to install French doors and balconies to match those proposed for lot 9. (Link.) Note that lot 9’s application was for 4 sets of French doors (not the 3 sets that were installed). We don’t know whether they were approved by special resolution or not but we do know that no special by-laws were drawn up and registered to make the various owners responsible for the future maintenance of these alterations and extensions to the common property. (An attachment to the agenda of an extraordinary general meeting held in February 2018 explains the situation in some detail.) The plans for lot 9 bear the strata corporate seal but those for lots 3 & 6 do not. It would be interesting to see the original application documents--perhaps a job for the future.

            The balconies and French doors are not shown on the strata plan (a feature that would add 4 or 5 square metres onto the floor area of the units). The OC has offered in the past to allow the plan to be altered if the owners of lots 3, 6 & 9 take on the responsibility for the maintenance of the doors and balconies. This they have refused.

            A motion at the February 2018 extraordinary general meeting to raise a $35,000.00 special levy to have the 9 sets of French doors replaced (with high quality locks and door hardware) was defeated and now the owners are suggesting the doors can be repaired for around $8,000.00. (See EGM minutes. )

 Dec. 2022  The latest update to this issue is that the current owners of lots 3, 6 & 9 have agreed to have a by-law registered and assume responsibility for future maintenance of the doors and balconies, and the OC has agreed to contribute $15,000 towards the process of repair or replacement and by-law drafting and registration.

Other Issues

Damp problem in lower flats (10 & 11)

There has been a problem with mould and dampness in the two lower flats (10 & 11) for many years. It is referred to in the oldest engineers report I have of 1993 (link to engineer's report ). Some recommendations have been carried out: soil clearance to below floor level in cellar area; metal grill doors to the sub-floor area. But owner improvements of the courtyard areas have added to the problem and the OC has refused to go ahead with excellent quotes (around the $5,000 mark) to install wall vents and fan assisted sub-floor ventilation which would markedly improve the situation (link to quote).  Hopefully we can deal with this issue in the near future. 

Use of garbage bins by non-residents

We are the only building in the street that does not keep their garbage bins in a locked area. So for years we have had the problem of residents of other buildings putting their rubbish in our bins rather than accessing their own. The worst offenders are residents of Tennyson House directly across from us. Their garbage bins are kept in a cellar area, so their residents tend to use our bins on the way to the railway station in the morning rather than detouring down into their basement.

Lack of ventilation and shade on the western side of the building

Back in the 1980s the western side of the building enjoyed a pleasant, sunny aspect looking over the ABC radio car park through a line of poplar trees. There was also a pleasant view north to the harbour.

            The construction of the Horizon complex saw the demise of the poplar trees and the encroachment of buildings. Then the construction of the Formula 1 Motel on William Street put an end to the harbour views, the sun and air flow. The strip of land is now populated with celtis australis trees (classed as a noxious weed), that complete the shading. They are also now shading the clothes lines on the roof and drop a black residue over the roof and walls of the building (links to photo1, photo 2 ). The air flow is blocked by the motel and the dark, dank conditions are alive with mosquitos in the summer.

            All but one of the trees are located on land belonging to the Horizon and because of their size the trees need a council permit to prune or remove, even though the species is classed as a noxious weed. There is little inclination to deal with this situation.

The backyard (including drainage)

Cabling in the hallways

The store room on floor 2

Renovation of the common hallways