Strata plumbing on the Gold Coast, who pays for what

The basic principle, common property vs lot property

Queensland's Body Corporate and Community Management Act splits everything in an apartment building into two categories:

• Common property: structure, shared infrastructure, anything that serves more than one lot, body corporate maintains and pays
• Lot property: everything inside your unit's boundaries, you (the lot owner) maintain and pay

For plumbing, this generally means:

• Common property: the shared sewer stack, shared water mains, fire services, common-area plumbing, roof rainwater system
• Lot property: everything from your in-unit isolation valve forward, your hot water system, taps, mixers, toilet, shower, internal pipework

Sounds simple. In practice there are edge cases that cost real money.

The shared stack, who's responsible when it blocks

The vertical sewer stack that runs through all the units stacked above you is common property. If the stack itself blocks (between floors, in the riser), that's body corporate.

BUT, if the blockage is between your unit's S-bend and where your branch joins the stack, that's lot property (yours). The branch line from your toilet to the stack is part of your lot.

Practical rule: if water backs up only in your unit, it's almost certainly your branch line (your problem). If water backs up in multiple units simultaneously, it's the stack (body corporate's problem).

Hot water systems, depends on the building

Two arrangements you'll see:

1. Centralised hot water: the building has a large boiler in the plant room, hot water is distributed to each unit. Lot owners pay a flat rate via body corporate fees. The system itself is common property, body corporate maintains.
2. Individual hot water units: each lot has its own hot water unit (often in a hallway cupboard or on the balcony). Lot property, owner maintains and replaces.

Most Gold Coast apartments built post-2000 use individual units. Older buildings (1970s-80s) often have centralised systems being progressively replaced as they fail.

The leak from upstairs that ruins your ceiling

Common scenario: water comes through your ceiling. Source is the unit above, usually a failed shower waterproofing, burst flex hose, or leaking dishwasher.

Liability sequence:

• The upstairs owner is responsible for the cause (their lot's plumbing failure)
• You're responsible for repairing your damaged ceiling and contents (but you can claim against the upstairs owner's home insurance)
• Body corporate building insurance usually covers some shared losses but won't cover your contents

Practical advice if it happens:

1. Photograph everything immediately
2. Get the source stopped (the upstairs plumber's repair)
3. Notify the body corporate manager and the upstairs owner in writing
4. Lodge a claim with your own contents insurer to start the process, they pursue the upstairs party
5. Don't repair anything until insurance assessors have visited (unless ongoing damage requires it)

Bathroom renovations in strata units

You can renovate your bathroom in your unit, but you can't change anything that affects common property, which includes the slab penetrations, the sewer branch alignment, the shared waterproofing membrane (sometimes).

Things you generally need body corporate approval for:

• Moving the toilet, shower or basin (changes the slab penetrations)
• Removing or breaching the waterproofing membrane
• Anything affecting common-property pipes
• Any work that generates significant noise or trade traffic

Things you don't need approval for:

• Replacing fixtures in their existing position (toilet, basin, shower mixer)
• Repainting / re-tiling within your existing wet area
• Standard mixer cartridge replacements, washers, etc.

Get approval in writing before you start anything substantial, body corporates can require restoration if you've affected common property.

Emergency plumbing in apartments

Burst pipe at 11pm in an apartment is a problem for the building, not just your unit. Common sequence:

1. Isolate the water at your in-unit isolation valve (usually under the kitchen sink or in the laundry, find it now, not in an emergency)
2. If you can't isolate at the unit level, you need to isolate the floor or the riser, building manager has access
3. Call your emergency plumber. We respond to apartments routinely, we know how to navigate building access and isolation valves

For tenants, your landlord/agent should be the first call, but if there's water actively damaging the unit and you can't reach them, call the plumber yourself. Document everything for reimbursement.

What we see most often in Gold Coast apartments

Repeated patterns from the buildings we work in around Surfers, Broadbeach, Main Beach, Hollywell, Coolangatta:

• Leaking shower trays in 80s-90s buildings, the waterproofing has aged out and needs full bathroom redo
• Failed flex hoses behind toilets and under sinks, causing the most water damage events
• Hot water unit failures in individual-unit systems past 10 years
• Shower mixer cartridge failures in heavy-use units (e.g. holiday letting)
• Toilet cistern issues, running, slow-filling, weak flush
• Shared stack blockages from inappropriate items being flushed in upper-floor units

Tenant vs landlord plumbing responsibility

For rentals (lot owned by an investor, occupied by tenant):

• Landlord pays for plumbing repairs (wear and tear, system failures)
• Tenant pays only for damage caused by tenant misuse (e.g. blocked drain from inappropriate items flushed)
• Body corporate plumbing (stacks, mains), neither tenant nor landlord pays, body corporate fees fund it

Got an apartment plumbing issue on the Gold Coast and not sure who's responsible? Ring us, we deal with the lot owner / body corporate question routinely and can advise honestly. 0472 657 042.