This area holds the largest collocated health precinct in NSW: UNSW alongside four major hospitals, a workforce of around 22,000 and more than 58,000 students. A very large share of the people living in the flats around here are students or hospital staff, frequently on postings measured in months rather than years.
Which means that in a lot of these buildings, the household dealing with an emergency has lived there for a few weeks. In a block with an on-site manager that would not matter. In a small self-managed walk-up, where the building only knows what its residents know, it matters a great deal.
In a small self-managed block there is no office, no manager and often no records, so the building's knowledge lives entirely with the people in it. If those people turn over every few months, that knowledge disappears. Ten minutes on the day you move in, finding the isolation valve and who to call, is worth more than anything you can do at 2am.
- Find your water isolation valve and check it actually turns
- Find out whether there is a building isolation, and who can reach it
- Get the name and number of the strata secretary or agent
- Ask the neighbours whether anything in the building has a history
- Write all of it somewhere that is not only in your head
On this page
1. Why these buildings forget everything
A small walk-up has no manager, no office and frequently no professional agent, because a block of six to twelve units is often self-managed by its owners. There is no filing cabinet, and the building's history exists as things various people happen to remember.
Now add turnover. Where a large proportion of residents are here for a semester or a clinical rotation, the people who remember the last burst pipe leave, and the people who arrive know nothing. Within a couple of years a building can lose everything it ever knew about itself.
That is not anybody's fault and it is not fixable by an individual. What is fixable is your own position on the day something happens, and that takes ten minutes.
This is about you being able to act in the first five minutes, not about taking on responsibility for a block you rent one flat in.
2. The ten minutes, on the day you move in
- Find the isolation valve for your flat. In a walk-up it may be under a sink, in a cupboard, in a common corridor or in a shared cabinet. Find it, and turn it to check it actually moves.
- Find out whether there is a building isolation, and who can get to it. You may not be able to, and knowing that in advance matters.
- Get a name and number for the strata secretary, a committee member or the agent, whichever exists.
- Look under every sink at the flexible hoses. If they look old, mention it to the agent in writing now, while it is not an emergency.
- Find the meter or the main tap for the building if it is accessible.
- Write it down and put it somewhere findable. A note in your phone is fine. Memory at 2am is not.
That is the entire exercise, and it is the difference between a burst hose being an inconvenience and being three flats needing new ceilings.
3. Ask the neighbours, because they are the records
In a building with no files, the longest-standing resident is the archive. It is worth one conversation, and people are generally happy to have it.
What is worth asking: has anything in the building leaked before, and where? Does any fixture in your flat have a history? Is there a drain that blocks regularly? Who actually answers when something goes wrong?
The answers cost nothing and they are frequently the difference between calling somebody out for a known recurring problem and calling them out for a mystery. They also tell you whether the building is one that gets things done or one where nothing much happens, which is worth knowing early.
4. When something does happen
- Isolate it if you can. This is what the ten minutes was for.
- Photograph it, dated, before anything is touched.
- Tell the agent or the strata contact, in writing as well as by phone.
- Tell the neighbours if there is any chance it affects them, particularly downstairs.
- Do not authorise work on anything that might be shared. Whose pipe it is comes first.
- Keep every message. In a building with no records, yours become the record.
The last two are the ones people get wrong under pressure, and both cost money rather than time.
Something burst and you have been here six weeks?
Ring. We will talk you through isolating it before anybody drives anywhere.
5. What not to take on
A short-term resident in a building with no manager can end up carrying a great deal that is not theirs, simply because they are the person standing there.
Repairs to shared pipework are not yours to commission. Decisions about the building are not yours to make. Chasing an unresponsive committee is not your job, however frustrating it is.
What is reasonably yours is acting sensibly in the first few minutes, telling the right people promptly, and keeping a record. Beyond that, the agent deals with the owner and the owner deals with the building, and it is worth letting that structure do its work rather than absorbing it.
6. And when you leave
One small thing, and it is genuinely useful to whoever comes next.
If anything happened while you were there, leave a note of it. Where the isolation valve is, which drain is slow, that the hot water was replaced in a particular year, who actually answers. Leave it with the agent, or literally in a drawer.
In a building that forgets everything every couple of years, that is the only mechanism there is for it to remember anything. It costs five minutes and it is the sort of thing that makes a whole block work slightly better.
- This area holds the largest collocated health precinct in NSW, so turnover in these flats is high.
- A small self-managed block has no records, so its knowledge lives with its residents.
- When residents change every few months, the building forgets everything it knew.
- Ten minutes on move-in day: isolation valve, building isolation, strata contact, hoses.
- The longest-standing neighbour is the building's archive. One conversation is worth it.
- Do not take on shared repairs or building decisions. Act, notify, and keep the record.
New to the building FAQs
Where is the water shut-off in a walk-up?
It varies: under a sink, in a cupboard, in a common corridor, sometimes in a shared cabinet you need access to. Find yours on the day you move in, and turn it to make sure it actually works, because a valve nobody has operated in decades is not guaranteed to.
There is no manager and I cannot find anybody. Who do I call?
The agent, if you are renting, because they deal with the owner. In a self-managed block the other contact is the strata secretary, who is another owner. Getting that name before you need it is the whole point of this guide.
Should I tell the neighbours if something leaks?
Yes, particularly anybody below you. Water travels downward through more than one home, and somebody who knows early can move things and limit the damage. It also stops the situation becoming adversarial later.
The flexible hoses look old. Can I just replace them?
Raise it with the agent in writing rather than doing it yourself. They are the lot owner's responsibility, it is a small job, and a written request now is a far better position than a conversation after one has failed.
I am only here for six months. Is any of this worth doing?
The ten minutes, definitely. A burst hose in a flat where nobody knows where the valve is affects the whole building, and it is the one thing on this page that pays for itself immediately.
Am I responsible for repairs in a shared building?
Not for shared pipework, and not for building decisions. Anything about your own obligations as a tenant is a question for NSW Fair Trading or the Tenants' Union rather than for us.