How Does a Strata Committee Get an Independent Waterproofing Inspection Approved?
The same way it approves any other spend: the strata manager or building manager puts a scope and a quote in front of the committee, and the committee decides. Two things determine whether that goes through first time and turns out to be useful. The scope has to say exactly what will be recorded, and everyone at the table has to know what an inspection can answer and what it cannot.
Who buys, and who coordinates
In a strata scheme the building manager or strata manager rarely holds the spend. They gather quotes, put them to the committee, and coordinate whatever is approved. The owners corporation, through its committee, is the buyer. That means the document that matters is not the conversation with the manager. It is the scope and quote the committee reads, often without anyone from the inspection side in the room. It has to stand on its own.
The situation the committee is usually in
A lot is leaking into the one below. There are quotes on the table for works, and at least one of them was written by a trade who is also the only party to have assessed the problem. The lot owner has one opinion, the committee has another, and the item has sometimes been on the agenda for years. The committee wants an independent line drawn before it commits the owners' money, and it wants to know which parts of the quoted works are the waterproofing and which are a renovation on top of it.
That is a reasonable thing to want. It is also two different questions, and only one of them is an inspection.
What an independent inspection can answer
It records what is there. In the affected lot and the one below, and in any common property between them: the visible condition of the wet areas, the falls to each waste measured with the instrument in frame, the products where they can be identified from labels or documentation, the junctions between one system and another, the paths water could have taken as far as they can be seen, and what could and could not be verified without opening up concealed work. Every observation is photographed, indexed by lot and room, and reported usually the same or next business day once the inspection is complete; for several lots the timing is set in the quote.
What it cannot answer
An inspection record on its own does not determine the cause of a leak, the minimum works required, whether a membrane is defective, or whose responsibility the repair is; working out the cause is a separate leak investigation, which can include flood, tap or spray tests. The cause, the minimum works and whether a membrane is defective belong with an engineer or building consultant who puts their name and their professional indemnity behind them. Who is responsible for the repair is a question for the owners corporation and its advisers. A committee that expects an inspection report to make those calls will be disappointed, and a report that makes them without that standing is not one the committee should be relying on.
What the record does is give the person making the determination the evidence to make it from, and give the committee a document that was not written by anyone quoting for the works.
What to put in the scope
The committee approves what is written, so write it in the same terms as the report:
- Which lots and areas will be inspected, including the lot below and any common property between.
- What will be recorded in each: wet-area condition, falls, products, junctions, water paths, and the limits of what can be verified without opening up.
- What will not be determined: cause, minimum works, defect status, responsibility.
- The deliverable: a photographic record indexed by lot and room, measurements with the instrument in frame, a written report, usually the same or next business day once the inspection is complete; for several lots, timing set in the quote.
- Access: who will contact each occupant and when, so that it is one visit.
- Who receives the report: the strata manager, the committee, and the engineer or consultant the committee has engaged or intends to.
A scope in those terms is approved on its face, because there is nothing in it to argue about.
Access and coordination
The hardest part of any strata inspection is not the inspection. It is getting into several lots on the same day. A scope that names the lots lets the building manager give notice once and book one visit. A report indexed by lot means the committee reads a single document rather than a chain of emails.
Practical takeaway
Before the committee approves works quotes, put the record in front of it. It costs a visit, it is written by someone with no interest in which quote is accepted, and it is what the engineer will ask for anyway. The quotes are then for what is there, rather than for what each party says is there.