Port Stephens has a significant strata property market, from holiday apartment complexes in Nelson Bay and Shoal Bay to residential townhouse schemes in Corlette and Salamander Bay. In any strata scheme, the question of who is responsible for maintaining, repairing, and resurfacing common area concrete, driveways, car parks, pathways, and entertaining areas, is governed by the strata management framework under NSW law, not by individual lot owner discretion.
Quick answer (BLUF)
Common area concrete in a strata scheme is the responsibility of the Owners Corporation (body corporate). The Owners Corporation is legally required to maintain and repair common property to keep it in a “good state of repair.” Funding comes from the strata levies (administrative fund for routine maintenance, capital works/sinking fund for major replacements). Individual owners cannot commission or authorise work on common property without Owners Corporation resolution.
The legal framework: who owns common property
Under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW), a strata plan divides a property into:
- Lots, individually owned by lot owners (typically apartments or townhouses)
- Common property, owned collectively by all lot owners through the Owners Corporation
Common property typically includes:
- Driveway, car park areas, and visitor parking
- Shared pathways and access ramps
- Entrance areas and lobbies (in residential schemes)
- Shared entertaining areas and gardens
- Boundary fencing and retaining walls
What may be lot property:
- A private garage or car space that is defined as part of the lot
- A private courtyard or garden within the lot boundary
- A private driveway extension within the lot boundary
Review your strata plan carefully, the boundary between common property and lot property is defined in the registered strata plan and can vary between schemes.
Maintenance obligations of the Owners Corporation
The Owners Corporation has a legal duty to “properly maintain and keep in a state of good repair” the common property. This means:
- Reactive maintenance: Repairing defects promptly once identified, cracks, subsidence, drainage failures, delaminating surfaces
- Preventive maintenance: Scheduled sealing, cleaning, and inspections to prevent deterioration
- Capital renewal: Replacing or significantly resurfacing common area concrete at end of useful service life
Failure to maintain common property can:
- Expose the Owners Corporation to liability claims from lot owners or third parties injured due to the neglect
- Result in complaints to NSW Fair Trading or Strata Commissioner
- Reduce property values across the scheme
Planning and funding common area concrete work
Administrative fund vs capital works fund
The Owners Corporation maintains two funds:
Administrative fund: For routine, recurrent expenses, cleaning, minor repairs, annual sealing, gutter cleaning. The key test is whether the expense is expected to recur annually. Regular concrete sealing would be funded from the administrative fund.
Capital works (sinking) fund: For major, non-recurrent expenditure, resurfacing a car park, replacing a driveway, installing a new drainage system. These are capital items with a defined service life.
NSW law requires Owners Corporations with four or more lots to maintain a 10-year capital works fund plan that includes projected major capital expenditure. Common area concrete resurfacing should appear in this plan.
Obtaining committee or general meeting approval
The approval pathway for common area concrete work depends on the cost:
- Minor maintenance (below the committee spending limit, typically $5,000 to $10,000): Can be approved by the Owners Corporation committee without a general meeting
- Major expenditure (above the spending limit): Requires a vote at a general meeting, with notice to all lot owners
- Special levy: If the sinking fund is insufficient for a large project, a special levy may be required, this needs general meeting approval and can be contentious
For a typical Port Stephens residential scheme of 10-20 lots, a full car park resurfacing at $15,000 to $40,000 will require general meeting approval.
Getting quotes for common area work
When the Owners Corporation is ready to proceed with concrete resurfacing, the committee should:
- Document the defects, written condition report with photographs, ideally from a building inspector or quantity surveyor
- Obtain at least two to three independent quotes, from licensed contractors with commercial and strata experience
- Ensure quotes are like-for-like, same scope, same product specifications, same warranty terms
- Check contractor insurance, public liability minimum $20 million for commercial/strata work; workers compensation current
- Engage a strata manager if required, for complex projects, a strata manager can coordinate the tender and approval process
Common area concrete work is subject to Work Health and Safety requirements, particularly if residents must be managed around the work site.
What individual owners can and cannot do
Cannot do without Owners Corporation resolution:
- Commission any resurfacing or repair work on common property
- Modify the surface finish or colour of common area concrete
- Install drain points or drainage modifications in common areas
Can do:
- Raise a maintenance issue formally with the committee or Owners Corporation
- Vote at a general meeting on proposed common area works
- Engage a building inspector to provide an independent assessment of common property condition
- Request a by-law amendment to permit private modifications to common property
If an individual lot owner commissions private work on common property without authorisation, the Owners Corporation may require the work to be undone at the lot owner’s expense.
Common area concrete in short-term rental-heavy schemes
Shoal Bay and Nelson Bay schemes with a high proportion of short-term rental lots experience accelerated wear on common property. Higher foot traffic, holiday maker use patterns, and reduced owner care create more rapid deterioration. Owners Corporations in these schemes should plan for more frequent maintenance cycles and maintain adequate capital works fund contributions to address this.
FAQs
Our body corporate has been ignoring the cracked car park for three years, what can I do as a lot owner?
Start by formally raising the issue in writing to the strata committee and requesting it be listed on the agenda at the next general meeting. Attach a building inspector’s report documenting the condition and any risk it presents. If the committee fails to act on a documented defect creating a safety risk, you can escalate to NSW Fair Trading and the Strata Commissioner. Fair Trading can order the Owners Corporation to take action.
Who is liable if someone trips and injures themselves on deteriorated common area concrete?
The Owners Corporation is generally liable for injuries on common property where it can be shown they knew or should have known about the defect and failed to act. Documented complaints about the defect that were not acted on significantly increase liability exposure. Prompt repair of documented defects is both a legal duty and a liability risk management practice.
Can the Owners Corporation charge back the cost of common area concrete work to individual owners who use the area more intensively?
Generally, no, common area maintenance costs are shared proportionally through lot entitlements, not based on usage. If a specific lot owner has caused damage to common property (e.g., by vehicle impact), the Owners Corporation may seek to recover repair costs from that owner through the dispute resolution process. Routine wear from higher-turnover short-term rentals is typically borne by the Owners Corporation as a whole.