Apartment Camping Reduces Strata Rent Losses
Amirchian v The Owners – Strata Plan No 99357 [2023] NSWCATAP 286
GoStrata’s CaseWatch is a short, sharp and easy-to-understand review of important and interesting Court and Tribunal decisions affecting Australian strata title stakeholders.
Quick Read
The NCAT Appeal Panel decision is about a strata owner’s loss of rent claim for her Westmead apartment because of water leaks that made it uninhabitable and unrentable. The primary issue was whether the strata owner could claim rent losses when she hadn’t actually rented the strata lot and lived in it until the common property repairs were finished. The NCAT Appeal Panel awarded rent loss because it believed that her intention to rent the strata lot was genuine, but reduced the amount to the time the common property repair work was delayed and because she got some benefit from living in it. The decision is another example of the exposure strata buildings face when common property faults mean strata lots cannot be rented. But it also provides clues about how strata buildings can reduce their exposure by getting repair works done promptly and when strata owners get offsetting benefits.
Implications
The key implications of this strata case are as follows.
A strata owner can claim for lost rent under s 106(5) when a strata building doesn’t maintain, repair or replace common property.
Provided there is basic [prima facie] evidence to establish things, NCAT can accept it unless it is contradicted.
A strata owner’s intention to rent their lot is enough for a rent loss claim, even if it never happens.