Issued 19 July 2021 to Strata Title Management (STM) clients:

PERMITTED: ESSENTIAL MAINTENANCE WORK, CLEANING OF COMMON PROPERTY AND WASTE MANAGEMENT

We’ve just received confirmation of new changes to restrictions for the Greater Sydney area including the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour. 

All other restrictions currently in place will remain in place. The finalised Health Order – Government Gazette is available to review.

NEW STRATA RELATED RESTRICTIONS

Essential cleaning, waste management, repairs and maintenance work only from 12.01am Monday 19 July.

Construction

• All commercial and residential construction and renovation work must stop.
• Urgent work that is required to ensure safety or to secure a site may be carried out.

Fire Services

SCA (NSW) has sought clarity from the Fire Protection Association of Australia (FPA). According to their latest member advice, fire protection maintenance is urgent to maintain the health, safety and security of premises for residents and for attending emergency services, with the exception of non-urgent work within residential units.

An excerpt of their advice relating to permissible works is below, and full details can be found here.

1. The following work must continue on fire safety systems and features during the lockdown period:

• routine service work;
• annual assessment; and
• rectification maintenance.

​​2.  All work must be carried out using appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and safety procedures.
3.  Base building fire systems should be assessed, but common sense and health considerations should be taken with respect to servicing single occupancy units (SOUs); and
4.  Where access cannot be obtained practitioners should work out alternative arrangements in the short term to satisfy themselves that systems are performing, and arrange to reinspect at a later time.

Cleaning and Waste Management

• Cleaning, waste management, repairs and maintenance work can only be provided if it is essential to ensure the health, safety and security of residential premises, or in an emergency.
• Cleaning within individual lots is not permitted.
• Commercial cleaning and waste management is permitted within common property of strata buildings.

Gardening

Due to no exemption to the contrary, landscaping and gardening works are to be deferred unless for an emergency i.e. potential damage to property or safety risk.

Repairs

SCA (NSW) recommends Strata Managers take a common sense approach to what repairs are critical and what is non-critical to meet the Government’s desire to reduce movement and gatherings in the Greater Sydney area.

This common sense approach should include where a piece of building infrastructure needs to be maintained to ensure the building and its occupants are not placed at risk. An example would be lift outage, garage door malfunctions, or hot water / pump repairs.

General maintenance such as lift and garage doors servicing should be delayed until further advised by the Government.

We will continue to provide you with timely updates as information comes to hand. Just a reminder to refer to the NSW government website for any clarification or contact your STM Community Manager.

Continue to stay safe.