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What should a record of owners corporation building defects include?
Defects usually come to light through residents: a stain spreading across a ceiling, a balcony draining towards the door, cracked render along a slab edge or a basement wall weeping after rain. Each report can look like a small maintenance job, yet together they may point to one cause running through the building.
Start a defects register when the first report arrives, and keep it where the committee and the owners corporation manager can both reach it. Ask residents to report in writing with photographs, and record each item the same way:
- The date first noticed and the date reported, which often differ
- The exact location: building, level, lot, room and the wall, ceiling or balcony affected
- Who reported it and how to arrange access
- Photographs with a reference point in frame, retaken at intervals to show any change
- Weather or events at the time, such as heavy rain or a leak from the lot above
- Any damage caused, and anything already done about it
Keep original photographs and emails as they were received. To correct an entry, add a dated note and leave the earlier text in place. A register kept this way helps an assessor see patterns, and it may later show when the owners corporation first knew about a problem.
Why get an independent assessment before discussing scope with the builder?
A visible defect is often a symptom. A ceiling stain may come from a failed balcony membrane above, a poorly sealed window, a cracked hob or a plumbing fault, and repairing the stain without finding the source means paying twice. An independent building consultant or engineer, engaged by and reporting to the owners corporation, investigates the cause, sometimes by opening up linings, water testing or lifting tiles, and reports on what is wrong, where, and what the repair must achieve.
Commission that assessment before the original builder or any contractor proposes a fix. Anyone who may pay for a repair, or be paid to do it, has an interest in its extent, so the owners corporation needs its own advice first. Ask for a report that lists each defect by type and location, flags anything urgent or unsafe, explains the likely cause and recommends a rectification approach. Active leaks into lots and safety risks should be made safe straight away, without waiting for the report.
If the defects may come from the original construction, the owners corporation may have rights against the builder or developer. Whether a claim exists, against whom, what notice is required and how long the owners corporation has to act are legal questions for a lawyer who works on building disputes. Bring the lawyer in early, because the assessment report and the defects register may become evidence.
How does a defect report become a scope of works the committee can tender?
An assessment report explains what is wrong. A scope of works says what a contractor must do about it, in enough detail that every tenderer prices the same work and the result can be checked against it. It is often prepared by the consultant who wrote the report, or by a project manager with the consultant's input.
A rectification scope for an occupied building usually covers:
- Each item of work, its location and the extent of removal and replacement
- Repair methods, systems and materials, and the standards and manufacturer instructions to follow
- Access by scaffold, swing stage or rope access, and how residents keep using entries, lifts and car parks
- Working hours, noise limits, protection of lots and common areas, and access to lots for internal work
- Inspection hold points, such as checking a new membrane before it is covered, and any testing required
- Provisional items for conditions hidden until work starts, priced at a rate
- The documents, warranties and certificates due at handover
Some work needs a building permit or design input from an engineer or architect, and the scope should say who provides each. If planned capital works such as repainting or roof replacement are also due, combining them with the rectification can share scaffolding and access. Keep their costs separate so each can be accounted for and, where relevant, claimed.
What does a building defects committee decide, and how are lot owners kept informed?
The owners corporation's committee, or a building defects committee or subcommittee set up for the project, makes the decisions while the consultant and project manager advise. What the committee can approve on its own depends on the owners corporation's rules and the size of the decision, so ask the owners corporation manager at each step whether a resolution of lot owners at a general meeting is needed.
The decisions usually come in this order:
- Engaging an independent assessor, and later a project manager
- Accepting the assessment report and choosing the rectification approach
- Seeking legal advice where a claim against the builder or developer is possible
- Setting a budget that covers the works, consultant and permit fees, temporary measures and a contingency
- Deciding the funding, from the maintenance fund, a special levy or fee on lot owners, or both, and updating the maintenance plan
- Approving the scope for tender, then the contractor and the contract
Minute each decision with the documents it relied on. A short written update to lot owners at each stage helps: what was found, what was decided, what it will cost, when work will happen and what residents need to do, such as clearing balconies or giving access. Check with the lawyer before sharing anything about a claim.
How do you tender defect rectification works and compare quotes like for like?
Tender prices can be compared only when every contractor prices the same scope on the same terms. Send each one the same package: the scope, the assessment report and photographs, any drawings, the proposed contract and special conditions, access and working-hour limits, and a pricing schedule that follows the scope item by item. Ask for evidence of registration or licence, insurances and similar recent work.
Invite contractors who regularly do this work on occupied buildings, offer a site inspection, and answer any tenderer's question in writing to all of them so every price rests on the same information.
When tenders come back, the headline price is only a starting point. Line the prices up against the schedule and check:
- Exclusions, qualifications and items priced differently from the scope or left out
- Provisional sums and rates, tested against a realistic quantity
- Preliminaries, access equipment and how long scaffolding will stay up
- The proposed program, staging and crew size
- The method, systems and products offered, and their warranties
- Departures from the proposed contract terms
Adjust each price to a common basis, clarify gaps with the tenderer in writing and check references. The committee then receives a recommendation report setting out the comparison and the reasons for the preferred contractor.
Who oversees the works, and what does a capital works project manager check?
Once the contract is signed, someone with construction experience needs to act for the owners corporation on site. That may be the consultant who wrote the scope or, on larger rectification or capital works, a project manager engaged by the owners corporation. Volunteer committee members can rarely attend site in working hours or judge whether a membrane has been laid correctly, and they should not have to.
Oversight follows the contract and the scope:
- Inspections at the hold points, with photographs of work before it is covered up
- Each progress claim compared with the work actually completed before the owners corporation pays
- Variations questioned before approval: is the work genuinely extra, is the price fair and does it move the finish date?
- Regular reports to the committee on progress, cost against budget, open issues and decisions needed
- Coordination with the assessor, engineer, building surveyor and owners corporation manager, and notice to residents before disruptive work
Rectification often uncovers more than the assessment could see, such as damaged framing behind a failed membrane. Agree at the start how hidden conditions are recorded, measured and approved, and whether the project manager may approve small variations up to an agreed limit, so work keeps moving between committee meetings. Site safety stays with the contractor throughout.
What should the committee receive at handover?
Before the owners corporation accepts the works as complete, they are inspected against the scope, and unfinished or faulty items are listed and fixed. Where waterproofing has been replaced, a flood test of each balcony before tiling may be part of the scope, with the results kept on file. Any building permit is closed out with the building surveyor.
The handover file should include:
- The final scope, every approved variation and a final account showing what was paid
- Certificates, compliance documents and building permit documentation
- Product and installer warranties in the owners corporation's name
- As-built information and photographs of concealed work, linked to locations
- Maintenance requirements for the new work, such as how often membranes and sealants should be checked
- The defects register, with each original item marked as fixed and how
Note when the contract's defects liability period ends and book an inspection before that date, so anything that has failed can be put to the contractor while the contract still requires a return. Add the new maintenance requirements to the maintenance plan, and keep the file with the owners corporation's records so future committees can see what was done and why.
Where does Sami Strategy Co. fit?
Sami Strategy Co. is a Melbourne construction consultancy that acts for owners corporations as an independent client-side project manager. On a defects or capital works project we can review defect reports, prepare the scope with the committee's consultants, run the tender, inspect the works, check claims and variations and assemble the handover file, reporting to the committee throughout. The committee keeps every decision, and legal questions stay with its lawyer.