Apartment maintenance is one of the most common sources of confusion for residents in Liberty Grove. Who is responsible for repairs and common areas depends on a layered set of rules: your lease, the strata by-laws, the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, and the specific makeup of your building. Getting the boundaries wrong can mean costly disputes, delayed fixes, and strained relationships with neighbours or management.
The basic split: lot versus common property
Everything in a strata building sits in one of two categories: your lot, or common property. Your lot is everything inside your apartment, generally from the inner surface of the walls, floors, and ceilings inward. Common property is everything outside that boundary: the external walls, roof, stairwells, lifts, foyers, car parks, pools, and gardens. The owners corporation (the collective body of lot owners) is responsible for maintaining common property. Individual lot owners are responsible for their own lots.
The distinction sounds clean. In practice, it creates plenty of grey areas. A leaking pipe inside your wall might serve both your lot and your neighbour's. A balcony railing is typically common property even though only you use it. When uncertainty arises, the strata by-laws are the first document to check. The strata living guide for Liberty Grove covers how by-laws operate in this estate specifically.
What the owners corporation must fix
The owners corporation carries legal responsibility for keeping common property in good repair. That includes:
- External walls, roofs, and structural elements
- Common-area plumbing and drainage (outside the lot boundary)
- Lifts, intercom systems, and fire safety equipment
- Foyers, corridors, stairwells, and car parks
- Shared facilities: pools, gyms, tennis courts, and landscaped areas
Owners can't opt out of these obligations. Failing to repair common property in a timely way exposes the owners corporation to liability if someone is injured. If a repair has been raised formally and ignored, lot owners can escalate through NSW Fair Trading or the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT).
What individual owners are responsible for
Lot owners maintain what's inside their lot. That means internal walls, flooring, internal plumbing fixtures (taps, toilets, showerheads), window glass, internal doors, and all appliances. If your dishwasher floods the kitchen, that's your repair bill. If the external waterproofing fails and water comes through the wall, that belongs to the owners corporation.
Owners also can't make changes to common property without approval. Fixing a cracked tile in your bathroom is straightforward. Installing something that affects an external wall or a shared pipe requires a by-law or a written resolution from the owners corporation. The rules around apartment renovations in Liberty Grove explain the approval process in detail.
What tenants are responsible for
Tenants sit one step further removed from the maintenance chain. Under the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 in NSW, tenants must keep the property reasonably clean and avoid damage beyond fair wear and tear. Tenants report maintenance issues to their landlord or property manager. They don't deal directly with the strata committee or building manager, except in genuine emergencies.
Tenants are not responsible for structural repairs, appliances supplied by the landlord, or anything that falls under common property. A broken built-in oven is the landlord's problem. A broken oven the tenant owns and brought in is theirs. The boundary is what was part of the tenancy at the start of the lease.
The role of the building manager
Many Liberty Grove apartment buildings employ a building manager who handles day-to-day operations. Building managers coordinate tradespeople, log maintenance requests, oversee common-area cleanliness, and act as the first point of contact for repairs. They don't make strategic decisions about spending or policy. Those decisions sit with the strata committee.
If you report a common-area issue to the building manager and nothing happens, the next step is contacting the strata committee directly in writing. Document every request with a date and a brief description of the fault. Building management roles and responsibilities in Liberty Grove covers this chain of command clearly.
Urgent repairs versus routine repairs
Not all repairs move at the same pace. NSW strata law recognises urgent repairs as those affecting health or safety: a burst pipe, a failed fire system, a broken lift in a building with elderly residents. Building managers and strata committees have authority to approve urgent repairs without calling a full meeting. Routine repairs go through the normal process: a maintenance request, a quote, committee approval, and scheduling.
Tenants facing an urgent repair that the landlord hasn't addressed within a reasonable time can arrange the repair themselves and recover the cost, up to a capped amount. The NSW Fair Trading urgent repairs guide sets out the specific rules and cost limits.
Common disputes and how to avoid them
Water damage is the single biggest maintenance dispute in apartment buildings. It's rarely obvious whether a leak originates inside a lot or in common-property plumbing. The owners corporation has the right to access your lot to investigate a suspected common-property fault. Blocking that access can make you liable for consequential damage.
The other frequent flashpoint is balconies. Residents treat balconies as private space, but the structure itself is typically common property. Drilling into balcony floors, attaching items to external railings, or installing shade sails without approval can trigger a by-law breach notice. Check before you act.
Good maintenance management in a strata building rests on clear communication and written records. Know your lot boundary, report faults promptly, and use the formal channels your by-laws set out. Most disputes that reach NCAT could have been resolved with one clear email sent early.