PROFESSIONAL REPORTS
We recommend all buildings under our management engage specialist consulting engineers to provide a detailed building condition report and a scheduled maintenance program. After a professional opinion has been obtained HSM can provide the Executive Committee members with realistic annual budgets which will take into account required and projected maintenance and/or replacement of common property. By adopting this procedure Owners Corporations can budget realistically and avoid imposing unexpected additional levies on their members.
TRADES AND COMPLIANCE
We provide a seven-day service by independent licensed and insured trades people, whose only obligation is to provide the strata schemes under our management with prompt and efficient service at a reasonable cost. All our trades and service providers are required to comply with the legislative requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2001 and all risk assessments suggested by Work Cover NSW. We do not solicit nor accept any commission or payments from trades and service providers with the exception of insurance commission, which is disclosed, in our management agreement.
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY REPORTS
We recommend that each strata scheme resolve to obtain an Occupational Health and Safety audit report as soon as possible in order to identify any hazards that need eliminating. If eliminating the hazard entirely is not reasonable, then the risk such hazard represents must be controlled to the fullest extent possible. Under Occupational Health and Safety legislation Owners Corporations control premises used by people as places of work and there is a legal requirement for a controller of premises to undertake hazard identification and risk assessment and to implement risk control measures.
LIABILITY AND RISK AVOIDANCE
Whilst the Occupational Health & Safety legislation may not apply to strictly residential strata schemes, mixed use residential & commercial strata schemes and industrial strata schemes are required to provide OH & S audit reports. Every owners corporation must endeavour to eliminate or minimize the risk of injury, disability or death resulting from use of its common property. OH & S audit reports and compliance with the recommendations contained therein provide owners corporations with a valuable defence tool should an accident occur on common property. After an accident, in court proceedings, the worst case scenario for an owners corporation is being unable to prove that any risk and safety assessments were carried out in relation to the common property and consequently no safety and risk avoidance measures were put in place to avoid accidents and liability. If the answer to the question "What action did the owners corporation take to avoid risk and liability for accidents and injury caused as a result of use of its common property?" is "We did not take action to identify risks and avoid them" then your owners corporation will be unnecessarily exposed to the maximum penalties provided for by the relevant legislation. Such penalties are extremely severe.
