[NSW]: Strata refused to repaint after plumbing leak damaging ceiling?

I always in the Strata meeting every year.

 

Yes, that does make sense.

 

I have an insurer with a similar issue on a free standing house. Mine is consistent with policy wording

1. Accidental damage to a pipe upstairs. Insurer covered claim as accidental damage and paid the claim less excess
2. resulting damage to downstairs room was a separate claim. Second excess. Second claim had to be lodged. Apparently the policy says if a pipe bursts or is damaged then the accidental damage only covers the pipe and any resulting damage is a separate claim.

We were luck it was the same insurer and policy. The claims person tells me if its strata that the resulting damage is the owner issue not the strata policy issue. Apparently the owner owns the exterior of the ceiling !! The exterior needs the repaint etc. If the strata claims it may ONLY cover the ceiling and not the repaint etc. The repaint etc will not exceed most excesses so its a lost claim. The insurers generally consider that the owner pays, some policies are different.

Bizarre damned policy wordings too.

 

Hard to call but:-

If the water ingress can be construed as a failure on the part of the owners corporation to properly repair and maintain the common property, then under Section 106(5) of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW):

(5) An owner of a lot in a strata scheme may recover from the owners corporation, as damages for breach of statutory duty, any reasonably foreseeable loss suffered by the owner as a result of a contravention of this section by the owners corporation.