Strata Plumbing Emergencies: Who Pays and What to Do
Common property or lot property, the emergency path, and evidence everyone can rely on.
$0 CALLOUT FEE IN BUSINESS HOURS | FREE QUOTES | SAME DAY SERVICE
NOW SERVICING NORTH SYDNEY
WE ARE AVAILABLE
- 35+ Years of Combined Experience
- Yes, a Real Plumber Reads These Messages Too
- The Kettle Is Always On at Head Office
- $0 Call Out Fees
- Every Job Photographed, Every Price Upfront
- We Answer the Phone. Revolutionary, We Know.
- Trusted by 15,000+ Sydney Families
- No Call Centres. You Get a Human in Sydney
- Your Neighbours Probably Have Our Fridge Magnet
- Onsite in 30 Minutes Guaranteed
- Boots Off at the Door. Every Single Time.
- 2,800+ Google Reviews and Counting
- In the community For the community
THE SHORT ANSWER
In short
In NSW strata, the owners corporation must repair common property, such as pipes in boundary walls and under the floor, and each owner repairs plumbing serving only their lot, such as internal pipes, taps, toilets and their own hot water system. In an emergency, make it safe, notify the strata manager and call a plumber. The source of the water decides who pays, so find it before anyone argues. An owner can seek a refund from the owners corporation if the fault was common property and the repair was urgent.
WHO REPAIRS WHAT
Common property or lot property?
| Usually the owners corporation | Usually the lot owner |
|---|---|
| Plumbing in boundary walls and under the floor | Plumbing in internal walls, and fixtures such as baths, toilets, sinks and showers |
| Floor drains or sewers in common property | Pipes after the stopcock serving only your lot, not in a common wall |
| The main stopcock to a unit | Taps, the S-bend under sinks and basins, the toilet bowl and cistern |
| A hot water service outside any lot or serving more than one lot | A hot water service serving only your lot |
| Stormwater below ground, roof and gutters | Water damage coming from inside your lot |
From strata repairs and maintenance (NSW Government) and the common property memorandum, which applies only if your by-laws adopt it. Check your strata plan and by-laws.
General information only, not legal or insurance advice: your lease, by-laws or policy decide. Checked 1 November 2026.
COMMON SITUATIONS
Who usually pays in common strata emergencies
| What happened | Usually responsible | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A flexi hose bursts under your kitchen sink | You, the lot owner | A fitting serving only your lot |
| Water comes through your ceiling from a leaking pipe in the bathroom wall upstairs | The owner upstairs, if it is an internal wall | Lot plumbing, and water damage from inside a lot is that owner’s |
| Water comes through your ceiling from a pipe cast into the concrete slab | The owners corporation | Plumbing under the floor is usually common property |
| The sewer stack blocks and several units back up | The owners corporation | The stack serves more than one lot |
| Your toilet blocks and no other unit is affected | Usually you | Unless the blockage is found in the shared drain beyond your fixture |
| The central hot water plant fails | The owners corporation | It serves more than one lot |
| A box gutter overflows into a top-floor unit in a storm | The owners corporation | Roof, gutters and stormwater are common property |
| Tree roots block the shared sewer line under the car park | The owners corporation | Below-ground drains in common property |
| A renovated bathroom leaks into the unit below | Check the by-law | A resolution that changes common property must say who maintains it |
Based on strata repairs and maintenance and the guide to strata law changes (NSW Government).
IN AN EMERGENCY
The emergency path
- Make it safe: water off at the unit stopcock or the meter, power off if water is near electrics.
- Notify your strata manager, using their after-hours line, and check their list of emergency tradespeople.
- Call a plumber. If the manager has no emergency list, you can choose who to hire.
- Take photos, and ask the plumber for written details of the problem and the fix.
- Tenants: call your agent or landlord first; your lease names who to use for urgent repairs.
- Knock on the door of the unit above or beside you if water is coming from there. Their stopcock may stop it faster than anything you can do.
FIND THE SOURCE
Finding the source when water comes through
In strata the source decides who pays, and water rarely shows up where it starts. It runs along the top of a slab, follows pipes through penetrations and drips from the lowest point, which can be a light fitting metres away.
We work from the wet area outwards: turning off one unit’s water at a time to see whether the leak stops, then using moisture readings, thermal imaging, acoustic listening and pressure testing to pin down the pipe, usually without opening walls. The written report then says whether the fault sits in a lot, in a boundary wall or under the floor, with photos and readings.
Half of our 39 priced leak detection jobs for commercial and strata customers since 2019 cost between $276 and $1,595, including GST, with a median of $724. Who pays for the search follows who is responsible for the source, and some insurers pay to find a hidden leak.
THE LAW
The owners corporation’s duty to repair
The owners corporation must maintain and repair common property, a duty set out in section 106 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. Since 1 July 2025, an owner has six years, up from two, to claim damages from the owners corporation for loss caused by a failure to repair, and the owners corporation cannot delay a repair while it pursues whoever caused the damage, if the delay would affect access to or use of common property or a lot (NSW Government).
Since 27 October 2025, NSW Fair Trading can investigate and enforce the duty to repair, with compliance notices, penalty notices, enforceable undertakings and Tribunal orders, including appointing a strata managing agent. Building managers must also act promptly and alert the owners corporation to repair and safety problems.
Money for emergencies: two quotes are needed for work of $30,000 or more, but emergency work such as a burst pipe is exempt, and a special levy for an emergency repair to a serious and imminent threat to health or safety needs at least 14 days’ notice, not the usual 30 (NSW Government).
GETTING REPAID
Paid for a common property repair?
An owner who pays for an urgent repair can seek a refund from the owners corporation by showing the fault was something it is responsible for, such as plumbing in a boundary wall, and that the repair was necessary and urgent (NSW Government). Send the strata manager the invoice, your photos and the plumber’s written explanation, and ask for it to go to the committee. If it is refused, NSW Fair Trading offers free strata mediation.
Our photos and written report record what we found and where the fault is. They are evidence: who pays is decided by the lease, the strata by-laws or the policy, not by our report.
FOR STRATA MANAGERS
How we work with strata managers
- Work orders acknowledged 24/7, and onsite in 30 minutes, guaranteed, for emergencies
- Photos before, during and after every job
- A written report that says where the fault sits: in a lot, in a boundary wall or under the floor
- Invoices to the owners corporation or the lot owner, as you direct
- One account contact for your buildings
From our records: since 2019 we have completed 2,523 jobs for strata customers, across 217 buildings we can identify by strata plan number. The causes we recorded most often were water leak (392), tree roots in the drain line (223), burst water pipe (136), silt and debris build-up (134) and worn tap washer or cartridge (123). Half of our 2,920 priced general plumbing jobs for commercial and strata customers since 2019 cost between $332 and $1,162, including GST, with a median of $509.
INSURANCE
Strata insurance and contents
Strata insurance is mandatory in NSW, with at least $20 million public liability. The contents of each lot are not the owners corporation’s responsibility, so owners and tenants should insure their own belongings (NSW Government). Who pays an excess depends on your by-laws and policy.
Water damage claims under the building policy usually go through the strata manager. Our report of the source and cause is what the insurer’s assessor asks for first. How to claim
QUESTIONS
Strata emergency questions
MORE HELP
Emergency help
24/7 EMERGENCY PLUMBERS
Plumbing emergency? Call us now
A licensed plumber onsite in 30 minutes, guaranteed, any hour. We make it safe first, then give you a fixed price before any repair.
Onsite in 30 minutes, guaranteed
Open 24/7, 365 days
Licensed NSW 285594C
4.9 from 3,000+ reviews