I have been a Strata Manager for a long time and do manage a variety of strata schemes in this area.

The best advice I can give you is to do a Strata Search. You are able to get a company to do this search for you and provide you with the report for around $250… the advantages of asking a company to do this for you is that they know exactly what to look for and if you are concerned about an outstanding defect claim and can ask them to look specifically into this.

However, if you understand the in's and out's of strata the least bit; it may be possible for you to do the search yourself – however there will be a small fee pay to the managing agents (normally approx $28.60/hour). In this time you can check:

 – the minute book – (all records of General and Committee meetings should be recorded here) and may provide some information on the outstanding defects

– the Correspondence – this should show any correspondence that the Strata Manager has dealt with in relation to this ppty and will most likely hold the most information about the defects. Just make sure you go through it carefully.

– the Income & Expenditure Statements & Ledger – Here you can find out where the money is being spent. You may find that the Owners Corporation have appointed a consultant to deal with this issue (which can amount to a lot of $$$ – resulting in your levies increasing)

There are a lot more items that come up in a Strata Search however if you are trying to find out more about the construction issues, I believe the above 3 documents will give you the most information.

Keep in mind depending on the age of the building the construction issue you are talking about may be covered under the Home Owners Warranty Insurance.