74 However, in this case there was much more than the resolution raising the levy. The Hemptons were the moving party so far as the repairs and renovations were concerned, and Mr John Hempton and Mr Stephen Hempton had relevant expertise. Mr Stephen Hempton had, without objection, performed the repair works on the eastern stairs. The Stolfas left to the Hemptons the detail of planning the implementation of the works, but wished to be consulted and kept informed. There were, in my view, entirely innocent misunderstandings on each side during the relevant period in 2007. The Hemptons could see economies in using Stephen Hempton to do the mid-front garden works, including the Void. With their trade background, they believed that they had spelt out what they proposed in the 30 April letter. The Stolfas, who did not share the building expertise of the John and Stephen Hempton, did not fully understand what that letter described, at least so far as the Void was concerned. But objectively viewed, the proposed works were detailed in that correspondence. Once the resolution to raise the levy was struck, and Mr Stolfa had not proceeded with his proposal to obtain another quote, the Hemptons assumed that the Stolfas were content for them to implement the mid-front garden works. In that assumption they were correct: the mid-front garden works were overt and the Stolfas could not but have seen them underway; and they did not object to the Hemptons arranging and undertaking them. The 23 June email again provided information about the works, in a manner that showed that they were imminent, and elicited no objection. What provoked objection on 5 July was the inconvenience occasioned by the programming of the works, in respect of which the Stolfas believed they had not been sufficiently consulted - not the identity of who was performing them, or their extent. Ultimately, on 19 July, it was the Stolfas' (incorrect) belief that some of the works on common property in the mid-front garden sector went beyond "repairs" that founded their objection - not any view that the mid-front garden works had not been authorised at all. Indeed, in her initial affidavit sworn in the proceedings, on 13 August 2007, Mrs Stolfa deposed, in respect of the totality of the works to the building (para 23, emphasis added):
The building works commenced in January 2007 and are being carried out by S. Hempton on his own behalf and on behalf of the Owners Corporation.
75 In my view, the Owners Corporation (and, insofar as it may be relevant, the Stolfas) knew that the Hemptons assumed that they had the Owners Corporation's approval to perform the common property repairs, including the mid-front garden works; knew that the Hemptons were proceeding with those works reliant on that assumption; and stood by while they did so from 15 May until at least mid July 2007, by which time most of the disputed works had been completed when, if they objected to the Hemptons' authority, they ought to have made that objection known. As a result, the Hemptons expended labour and money (specifically, their $15,000 additional contribution) on the mid-front garden works, which they would not otherwise have undertaken, substantially for the benefit of the Owners Corporation, and for which they would not be compensated if their authority were now denied. If there was no formal authorisation, nonetheless the Owners Corporation, and the Stolfas, are estopped from denying that there was.