Licensed tradespeople
The first question an OC should consider is whether the work is restricted and a licence is required. In NSW, specialist building work includes plumbing, gas fitting, electrical wiring work, installation or maintenance of certain refrigeration systems and air-conditioning work.
Specialist building works must be completed by properly licenced tradespeople, and the OC should ensure that tradespeople engaged are licenced and insured.
Licences can be checked online with NSW Fair Trading and insurance can be confirmed by requesting a certificate of currency.
Volunteers replacing others (non-specialists)
An OC may or may not have by-laws in place limiting the work that can be undertaken by volunteers.
An important issue is that the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (the Act) has no restriction on this type of work. In fact, it could be argued that the Act contemplates that this type of work will be done within an OC.
Section 164(d) of the Act, however, does require OC’s to take out insurance for their potential liability in respect to volunteer workers.
Another complexity for OC’s is that, owing to restrictions in Commonwealth legislation, strata insurance policies do not provide cover for expenses relating to medical costs for volunteers.
Protection for volunteers
It is critical that volunteers have the pre-approval of the OC or strata committee before commencing any work on common property. In addition, an OC should ensure that their strata insurance policy includes adequate protection for those volunteers.
A well-designed strata insurance policy will provide protection for any volunteers where they are injured while undertaking voluntary work and as a result are unable to, at least partly, engage in or attend their normal occupation, duties, profession or business.
Reducing risk for an OC
An OC should consider carefully the risks and potential impacts of any volunteer work which could include:
- Outsourcing specialist work to experts with the relevant licences and insurance in place
- Reducing volunteers’ exposure by securing strata insurance protection, including a reasonable schedule of benefits
- Developing a by-law that provides for certain works to be approved by the strata committee before it is undertaken by volunteers.
For more information, OC’s should contact their strata manager, insurance broker or insurer.
This information is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute financial product advice or legal advice. Before acting on this information, you must consider its appropriateness having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs.