AML acts for Lot Owner in successful Supreme Court Owners Corporation Appeal
In Damjanovski v Owners Corporation 1 Plan No. PS503570D [2026] VSC 656 (8 October 2026), the Supreme Court of Victoria allowed an appeal from a decision of VCAT concerning responsibility for the repair and maintenance of balcony tiles, screed and waterproofing membranes in apartment developments.
Abrahams Meese Lawyers (AML) acted for the applicant lot owner, Mr Damjanovski, with Dr Julian Wyatt appearing for the applicant as solicitor-advocate.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) had found that the tiles, membrane and screed on the lot owner’s balcony were lot property and that it was the lot owner’s responsibility to repair the balcony floor, walls and drainage. On behalf of the applicant, Abrahams Meese Lawyers challenged the VCAT decision on a number of alternative grounds arising from the interpretation and application of the Plan of Subdivision and the Owners Corporations Act 2006 (Vic).
Mr Damjanovski was successful on the first of three alternative series of grounds of appeal against the Tribunal’s principal findings, with the Supreme Court determining it to be unnecessary to resolve other important legal questions of Victorian Owners Corporations law that had been raised in the appeal submissions. Her Honour Justice Harris accepted Dr Wyatt’s primary submission that the “interior face of the building”, and therefore the boundary between the common property and Mr Damjanovski’s lot, ran along the top of the tiles rather than along the top of the slab, as had been concluded by the Tribunal in the decision under appeal and in prior VCAT decisions. As a consequence, the Court held that the Tribunal had erred in concluding that the relevant balcony components formed part of the lot owner’s property and that the lot owner was responsible for the repair and maintenance of the balcony.
The decision provides important guidance on the interpretation of subdivision plans and may have significant implications for apartment owners and owners corporations where lot boundaries are defined by reference to the interior face of the building.