It is just a matter of time before individual unit owners will be asked to pay multimillion-dollar damages if a child falls from their apartment building, the head of a strata industry body says.
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Parents denied safety nets for children in high-rise
Mark Lever, the CEO of industry body the Strata Community Association, said that while strata schemes were required to have at least $10 million in public liability insurance, damages payouts for severe injuries where a duty of care was owed could go much higher.
''You would not have to go far in the insurance industry to find that a severely brain-injured child, if it came to a liability claim, would cost you significantly more than $10 million,'' he said. '
'The owners individually would have to make up the shortfall. It's certainly a matter of time before it's tested.''
Mr Lever's views were supported by a strata specialist lawyer, Colin Grace, whose company, Grace Lawyers, acts for owners corporations.
''The horror scenario is a child has up to 18 years of age to sue,'' said Mr Grace. ''If you've got a young child and their entire life is gone, and they can't earn any income - I can see the day where a plaintiff law firm could come up with a pretty serious case.''
Dangers lurk in high rises
Mr Grace said multimillion-dollar cases were rare but increasingly forseeable as more young families move into apartments.
Sydney's two biggest children's hospitals treat, on average, three children a month for critical injuries after falls from buildings.
This month an 18-month-old girl and a three-year-old boy were critically injured after falling from unit windows in incidents in Campsie and the central coast.
Owners corporations have a duty of care to keep common areas safe. Liability is clear where an owners corporation has failed to repair a faulty balcony railing and someone is injured after falling through it.
But some strata law experts argue there may be a further duty of care where the owners corporation has been told about a potential safety risk - such as balconies with low balustrades or windows without child safety locks installed - and has chosen not to act despite the forseeability of accidents.
Jesse Borthwick, from the state's biggest strata insurance company, CHU, said it was seeing more claims for injuries as a result of failure to implement occupational health and safety standards, mostly from incidents in older buildings.
But citing the example of a child climbing on furniture and then falling from a balcony or window, he said it would be ''very difficult to portion any liability to the owner of the unit or the building. People do have some level of responsibility.''
A spokeswoman for the Department of Fair Trading said insurance requirements would be considered in the government's current review of the strata and community title legislation.