straita

Repairs & Maintenance

Who is responsible for pest control in strata?

Short answer

As a general rule, pest control affecting common property is the owners corporation’s responsibility, while a pest problem confined within a single lot is usually the owner’s. So termites in the building structure or rodents in common areas typically fall to the owners corporation, whereas pests contained inside one apartment are generally that owner’s to deal with. Where a pest affects both, the strata plan and the source of the problem help decide.

How responsibility usually divides

Pest responsibility tends to follow the same lot-versus-common-property line as other repairs:

  • Owners corporation — pests affecting the shared building, such as termites in the structure or rodents and other pests in common areas, as part of maintaining common property.
  • Owner — an infestation contained within a single lot that doesn’t stem from common property.

This is the usual pattern rather than a fixed rule; where a pest problem originates in common property but shows up inside a lot, responsibility can turn on the source, and the strata plan defines the boundary.

Why termites are treated seriously

Some pests — termites especially — threaten the structural integrity of the whole building, not just one lot. Because the damage is shared and can be severe, prompt reporting and regular inspections protect everyone, and a structural infestation is squarely a common-property concern. Leaving it to one owner to notice and act is a risk to the entire scheme.

Staying ahead of it as a self-managed scheme

Pest management is as much about regular inspection as reacting to an outbreak. A system such as Straita lets a self-managed committee log reports, schedule and record inspections, track the pest contractor’s work and hold the history — so recurring problems are visible, structural risks like termites aren’t missed, and the scheme has a record of staying on top of it.

Primary sources