Infrastructure

Owners Corporation:

The Owners Corporation and looks after the following (common property) infrastructure:

The internal Pagewood Park black bitumen roads. (Note; this includes the black bitumen surface right up to the garage door of most properties. The black bitumen road in front of the garage door looks like a private driveway but for most lots it is in fact common property),

• Street lighting of internal roads,

• Swimming pool,

• Community Hall and surrounding pathways,

• Water mains,

• Drainage mains (these run under the centre of the internal roads),

• Some fences within the Estate,

• Common garden areas.

Owners:

Owners are responsible for the following Infrastructure:

• Water supply plumbing inside the house up to where the water pipe connects to the common property water supply main. 

• The Committee received advice from Victoria Body Corporate Services (VBCS) in March 2018 that a lot owner's responsibility is defined by Clause 129 of the Owners Corporation Act 2006. Clause 129 states "Care of lots. A lot owner must- (b) maintain any service that serves that lot exclusively."  The plumbing ownership issue was raised in March 2018 in relation to the question of who pays for the installation of a dual check valve just before or after the main stop tap of a house. The issue was again raised in in late 2021 regarding to who pays for a plumbing item called a 'tapping saddle'. The Committee obtained legal advice in Nov 2022 which supported the VBCS interpretation of the OC Act.

• Drainage pipes and connections from the house to where the pipe enters the main drainage pipe.

• Tree roots originating from a Lot may cause an owner to be financially responsible for root damage.

• The Committee has the following policy regarding repairing water leaks (agreed at the 09-Nov-2021 Committee meeting).

  • The owner will pay for "exclusive use" plumbing as per Clause 129 of the OC Act 2006. For example a tapping saddle (see B, E or G in the graphic below), or a Tee connection (see I or K below) to a "main" along with any associated fittings and the branch pipe to the house and it's stopcock.

  • The OC will pay for exploratory work such as leak detection. 

  • The OC will pay for road repairs, even if they are partly on a private lot. 

  • The OC will pay for private garden restoration impacted by common property plumbing repair work.

• There may be variations to the policy because of the impact of trees or other complicating factors. Example, the Lot owner may be liable if the roots of a privately owned tree on a private lot cause damage to common property infrastructure.

• Owners may be responsible for some connections to other services such as electricity, gas, telecoms.