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Wetherill Park NSW 2164

Several Wetherill Park schemes sharing one entry road and no committee

Four separate schemes are reached from one road. Each has its own committee, its own budget and its own contractor, and the road they all depend on has no committee, no budget and nobody who has ever been responsible for it.

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In short

Where several Wetherill Park schemes share an access road or entry area without any body governing it, there is no forum in which a decision about it can be made. Each owners corporation controls only its own land and none has authority over the shared approach.

Clean Best quotes such areas to whichever party is prepared to fund them, on their own arrangement. Where several schemes want to share the cost, one is invoiced and the arrangement between them is theirs to manage. Whatever is agreed between schemes is theirs to record in their own minutes.

A shared asset with no shared governance

Estates that developed over time frequently end up with access arrangements that were never formalised. A road serving several schemes may be owned by one of them, held under an easement, or sit in an arrangement nobody currently involved can explain. What is consistent is that no body meets to decide about it and no budget contains a line for it. The arrangement predates everybody currently involved in any of the schemes.

The result is predictable. The road deteriorates, everybody notices, and each scheme concludes it is somebody else's responsibility because acting alone means funding something that benefits three neighbours. That is entirely rational behaviour and it produces an outcome none of them wants. Establishing who actually owns and is responsible for the land is the necessary first step, and it belongs with each scheme's strata managing agent.

Somebody has to go first

In practice these situations resolve when one scheme decides the entry matters enough to fund and simply arranges it, usually because its own occupiers are complaining loudest. That is not a fair distribution of cost, but it is often the only thing that happens, and the alternative is an approach that continues to deteriorate while everybody waits. Waiting for a fair distribution usually means waiting indefinitely.

A scheme in that position is better off doing it deliberately and modestly. A defined arrangement covering the entry and the first section of road, priced as its own line, is manageable and can be presented to the neighbouring schemes as something they might contribute to. Several arrangements have started that way and become shared once the improvement was visible. A visible improvement is a more persuasive argument than any amount of correspondence.

Sharing a cost without a formal body

Where two or more schemes do agree to share, the practical structure is that one is invoiced and the others reimburse it under whatever arrangement they reach. A contractor splitting an invoice informally between several owners corporations creates confusion in everybody's records and makes the arrangement hard to unwind. Simple billing is also easier to unwind if the arrangement ends. Records that are simple to read are also records that survive a change of agent.

Whatever is agreed should be written down briefly in each scheme's own records, because arrangements between neighbouring committees are made between individuals and lost when those individuals move on. A paragraph noting the arrangement, the split and the contractor is enough to survive several changes of committee, which is more than most such understandings manage. Most informal understandings between committees do not survive one turnover.

Shared road points for a Wetherill Park estate

  • Ownership and responsibility for the road established first
  • Each scheme's strata managing agent asked to confirm the position
  • A modest defined arrangement rather than an ambitious one
  • One scheme invoiced with reimbursement handled between them
  • The arrangement recorded briefly in each scheme's records
  • A visible improvement used to invite contribution
Clean Best supervisor reviewing office and strata cleaning quality in Parramatta NSW

Working in Wetherill Park and the Western Sydney

Wetherill Park in Western Sydney carries large industrial estates, manufacturing and distribution premises, with areas that developed over time into clusters of separate strata schemes sharing access roads and entry points. Arrangements covering those shared approaches were frequently never formalised, leaving several owners corporations depending on land none of them clearly controls and no forum in which anything about it can be decided. Each scheme acting alone funds a benefit shared by its neighbours. Clean Best services Wetherill Park from Seven Hills and quotes such areas to whichever party is prepared to fund them.

Questions about Wetherill Park

Who is responsible for a road serving several schemes?

It depends on ownership and on any easement or arrangement recorded on title, which varies considerably. Each scheme's strata managing agent is the right party to establish the position. It is worth doing before anybody funds work, because a scheme maintaining land it has no responsibility for is spending owners' money on somebody else's asset. The enquiry costs nothing and the assumption can cost a great deal.

Nobody will act. What can one scheme do?

Act modestly and deliberately. A defined arrangement covering the entry and the first section of road, priced as its own line, is manageable for one scheme and produces a visible improvement. Several shared arrangements have begun exactly that way, with neighbours contributing once the difference became obvious to their own occupiers. Modest and defined beats ambitious and stalled.

How should several schemes share the cost?

One scheme is invoiced and the others reimburse under whatever arrangement they reach. A contractor splitting an invoice informally between several owners corporations creates confusion in everybody's records. Keeping the billing simple and the arrangement between the schemes is considerably easier to administer and to unwind if it ends. Each scheme's records then show only what it actually agreed to pay.

Will an informal arrangement between committees last?

Only if it is written down. Agreements between neighbouring schemes are made between individuals and disappear when those individuals move on, which in committee terms is usually within a few years. A short paragraph in each scheme's records noting the arrangement and the split survives several changes of committee. A paragraph is enough; nothing elaborate is required.

Is it worth doing at all if the cost is unfairly shared?

That is a judgement for the committee. The unfairness is real, and so is the alternative of an approach that continues to deteriorate while everybody waits for somebody else. Many schemes decide their own occupiers' experience of the entry justifies a modest arrangement regardless of what the neighbours do. Occupier experience of the entry is usually what decides it. Waiting for fairness has its own price.

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