If something goes wrong with this building, am I personally on the hook?

It's the question most committee chairs ask themselves at 2am, usually after a difficult AGM or an unexpected repair bill. And the answer is more complicated — and more concerning — than most people realise.

The short version: yes, in certain circumstances, you could be personally liable for failures in your building. Not just the owners corporation. You.

But here's the thing — most of this liability is entirely avoidable. The problem is that too many committees don't know where the risks actually sit, and too many building managers aren't equipped to help them manage it.

The Liability Gap Nobody Discusses

Let's start with how strata actually works in NSW.

When you join a strata committee, you're not just volunteering your time for meetings. You're becoming part of the governing body of a legal entity — the owners corporation. That entity has obligations under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, the Work Health and Safety Act, the Building and Development Certifiers Act, and a stack of other legislation that most committee members have never heard of.

The owners corporation is responsible for maintaining common property, ensuring compliance with safety regulations, and managing the building in a way that doesn't create unreasonable risk of harm to residents, visitors, or workers.

Here's where it gets uncomfortable: while the owners corporation is the primary duty holder, committee members can face personal liability in certain circumstances. Particularly where there's been negligence, a failure to act on known risks, or a breach of statutory duties.

"But I'm just a volunteer" doesn't always cut it.

If a committee knowingly defers critical maintenance, ignores compliance deadlines, or fails to verify contractor insurance — and someone gets hurt — the legal exposure can extend beyond the owners corporation to the individuals who made (or avoided making) those decisions.

This isn't about creating fear. It's about understanding the reality so you can protect yourself properly.

The Five Most Common Liability Triggers

In my experience, personal liability exposure for committee members almost always comes back to one of five things:

1. Fire Safety Compliance Failures

This is the big one. Every building with essential fire safety measures needs an Annual Fire Safety Statement (AFSS). It's not optional. It's not something you can push to next year's budget. If your building's AFSS is overdue, your fire doors haven't been inspected, or your smoke detectors are past their use-by date — and there's a fire — the committee's decisions (or lack of them) will be scrutinised.

2. Uninsured or Underinsured Contractors

A plumber falls off a ladder on common property. Turns out he let his workers compensation lapse last month. Guess whose problem that becomes? If your building manager isn't verifying contractor insurance before every job — and I mean actually checking certificates, not just assuming — you're exposed.

3. Work Health and Safety Breaches

Asbestos disturbance, working at heights without proper controls, electrical work by unlicensed tradies. WHS legislation creates personal liability for "officers" of an organisation who fail to exercise due diligence. In a strata context, that can include committee members who approved unsafe work or failed to ensure proper safety systems were in place.

4. Deferred Maintenance That Causes Injury

That cracked tile in the lobby you've been meaning to fix for six months? The loose balustrade that's "on the list"? The pool fence that doesn't quite meet the current code? If someone gets hurt and there's evidence the committee knew about the hazard and chose to defer action, that's negligence. And negligence creates liability.

5. Insufficient Documentation and Record-Keeping

This one catches people off guard. If you can't demonstrate that you took reasonable steps to manage risks — through proper meeting minutes, maintenance records, compliance certificates, and contractor documentation — you lose the ability to defend yourself. Good records are your evidence that you acted responsibly. No records means no defence.

The Building Manager's Role in Your Protection

Here's where building management becomes critical — and where most buildings are underserved.

A competent building manager should be your compliance shield. They should be tracking fire safety deadlines, verifying contractor insurance, flagging maintenance issues before they become hazards, and maintaining the documentation that protects you if something goes wrong.

But here's the problem: most building managers in Australia come from administrative backgrounds, not technical ones. They know how to process invoices and coordinate contractors. They don't necessarily know how buildings actually work — how they're constructed, how systems interact, what early warning signs of failure look like.

This is what I call the "severed link" between construction and building management. The people managing complex technical assets often don't have the technical background to understand what they're managing. So they react to problems instead of preventing them. They tick boxes instead of truly assessing risk.

And when compliance gaps emerge, when maintenance gets deferred, when contractor insurance lapses go unnoticed — it's the committee that carries the liability. Not the building manager.

Questions to Ask Your Building Manager

If you're a committee member reading this and feeling slightly uncomfortable, good. That discomfort is the first step toward protection.

Here are the questions you should be asking your current building manager:

"What's your process for tracking compliance deadlines?" You want to hear about systems, not just intentions. A calendar reminder isn't a compliance system.

"How do you verify contractor insurance before work begins?" Look for actual certificate checks, not assumptions. Insurance can lapse between jobs.

"What's the current status of our AFSS?" If they can't answer immediately, that tells you something.

"How do you identify and escalate potential safety hazards?" Proactive managers find problems before they become incidents. Reactive managers wait for complaints.

"What documentation would you provide if we faced a liability claim tomorrow?" The answer should make you feel confident, not concerned.

Protecting Yourself Starts with Awareness

Committee membership shouldn't feel like a liability minefield. With the right building manager — someone with technical competence, proactive systems, and a genuine commitment to compliance — most of these risks can be managed effectively.

The key is knowing where the risks sit, asking the right questions, and ensuring your building has the professional support it needs to stay compliant and safe.

Because the 2am question shouldn't be "am I on the hook?" It should be "I know we've got this covered."

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