Combustible cladding · Owners corporations
Combustible cladding and the owners corporation: obligations in Victoria.
External walls are common property. The duty to maintain them — including dealing with non-compliant cladding — sits with the owners corporation. Here is what the Act requires and how a committee actually makes the decision.
Common property
External walls are an owners corporation responsibility.
Under the Owners Corporations Act 2006, the external walls of a strata-titled building are common property — meaning they are owned and maintained by the owners corporation collectively, not by individual lot owners. That includes the cladding system, whether brick, render, glass, metal panels, or composite cladding. Where the cladding fails to meet current National Construction Code requirements, the obligation to address that sits with the OC, not with any individual owner and not with the strata manager. The owners corporation is the legal duty-holder.
Statutory duty
What the Owners Corporations Act requires.
The Act sets out a general duty to maintain common property in good and serviceable repair. For combustible cladding, that duty has been interpreted to include identifying non-compliant systems on the building and taking reasonable steps to rectify them. The Building and Plumbing Commission and the VBA have enforcement powers — they can issue building notices and orders. The Act also imposes a duty on the OC to maintain insurance that covers reinstatement of common property, which insurers increasingly tie to the cladding situation at renewal. None of this is legal advice — an OC committee should engage a strata lawyer to interpret the duty in its specific situation — but the principle is clear: the obligation is the OC's.
Decision making
Who decides — and how an OC committee approaches it.
An OC committee cannot fund or commission cladding rectification on its own authority. The mechanism is a formal resolution, typically requiring a special-resolution majority (75% of owners), and most rectification projects need to be funded through a special levy. That collective-decision process is what most distinguishes OC cladding work from a building owner's decision — and what most often slows it down.
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Getting a committee resolution
The committee proposes the resolution; owners vote at an annual or special general meeting (or by ballot). A defect report is usually the foundation document — without it, owners cannot evaluate the proposal or its cost.
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Special levies and budget planning
Most OCs do not hold sufficient capital works funds to absorb a rectification cost. A special levy spreads the cost across owners proportional to their lot entitlement. Strata-finance specialists can advise on multi-year levy structures or loan facilities.
Inaction
What happens if an OC does nothing.
An OC that knows about non-compliant cladding and does not act creates a stack of risks. Insurance is the most immediate: insurers asking about cladding at renewal can impose exclusions, surcharges, or refuse to renew altogether. Regulatory: the Building and Plumbing Commission can issue a building notice or order with specific timeframes for action, and failure to comply attracts penalties. Civil liability: in the event of a fire, owners and the OC face liability claims that depend on whether reasonable steps were taken. None of these is necessarily immediate — but the trajectory is one-way, and the cost of waiting tends to compound.
Strata managers
Working with a strata manager on cladding.
The strata manager facilitates: organising meetings, coordinating documents, managing the levy process, and being the day-to-day interface between the OC and consultants. The strata manager is not the decision-maker — the OC is — and is not usually the technical expert. The most effective cladding projects have a strata manager who runs the administrative side competently, a facade specialist who handles the technical assessment, and a strata lawyer or finance adviser engaged on the more complex resolutions. The strata manager's job is to make sure the right people are in the right room at the right time.
The sequence
The steps from awareness to compliant rectification.
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01
Concern raised
Owner, committee, insurer or external trigger raises a cladding concern.
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02
Commission assessment
Committee resolves to commission an accredited facade specialist to assess the cladding.
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03
Report to committee
Defect report received and presented at a committee meeting; rectification options scoped.
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04
Owner resolution
Proposal put to owners at a general meeting or by ballot; special-resolution majority typically required.
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05
Special levy or existing fund
Resolution authorises the levy or use of existing capital works funds to fund the works.
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06
Works procurement and completion
Registered building practitioner specifies and delivers the compliant rectification.
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07
Compliance record
Works documentation filed as ongoing evidence — for insurer, regulator and any future owner.
Questions
OC cladding obligations, answered.
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