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Topic
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I want to apply to my Owners Corporation for permission to put in bi-fold doors. It is an 18 apartment block built in 1973 so technically the current sliding balcony doors belong to the owner but obviously would change the appearance. The sliding doors are original and many need new rollers, etc. I have lived in the block for six years and applications are always a battle. Only four owner occupiers live there and only 8 – 9 people ever attend the AGM. One investor is incredibly difficult, she has owned her apartment for 30 years, rents it out and objects to EVERYTHING but she is one vote.
Do I have to pay for a by-law draft first to submit that to the AGM? I applied for an awning about four years ago and that was passed by the Executive. I then paid for a by-law which was passed by the Owners Corporation. If only those who attend the AGM vote, is it based on 75% of those votes or do all 18 apartments have to vote? The bulk of the owners are investors and never pay any interest in voting.
We have a new Strata Manager who has told me I have to outlay at least $800 for the by-law and pay for a special extraordinary meeting if I don’t want to wait for the AGM. However, I am concerned that I will have to pay this money and it could be knocked back. I would then have to go to NCAT which I have heard can be a nightmare. Am I able to just have the request included in the agenda and it to be voted on? I would then proceed with the bylaw and registration if approved.
There is another owner who is keen and it would be good for owners to have the option of bi-fold doors which wouldn’t really look that much different to the sliding doors once they were open. My apartment is on the top floor at the back of the building so I wouldn’t be altering the view from the street with my bi-folds.
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monique – As you’ve had no responses I’ll jump in before your post drops off the bottom of the list…
Firstly, you’re correct in stating that in the absence of any special by-law that your owners corporation (O/C) may have Registered or any specific notation on the Strata Title Plan to the contrary, the existing balcony doors would form part of your lot and are therefor your responsibility.
That’s important because the general meeting procedure that your strata manager is talking about to consider your proposal as a special resolution (where by the way the 75% in favour involves only those in attendance both personally and by proxy), followed by a special by-law that would ordinarily be necessary to among other things hold you and subsequent owners of your lot responsible for the maintenance and repair of the balcony doors IS NOT APPLICABLE – because the doors aren’t the common property of the O/C; they’re yours!
So the primary hurdle that you need to jump is the model by-law #17 about owners “not maintaining within the lot anything visible from outside the lot that, viewed from outside the lot, is not in keeping with the rest of the building” without the prior written consent of the O/C, where the fact that your lot’s at the top floor rear would assist in compliance / gaining consent.
The secondary hurdles relate primarily to any impacts that your proposed works may have upon neighbours (e.g. work times & noise), tradespeople moving themselves and materials about the common property, and the O/C’s interest in ensuring that those tradespeople hold insurance to cover public liability and workers compensation.
You needn’t worry about checking the Strata Title Plan just yet by you should check for any relevant special by-laws that may have in the past been Registered, and if that’s all clear (as I anticipate) then you need to write to your Executive Committee Secretary (via the strata manager) to request that they convene a meeting of the Committee (E/C) as soon as practicable to consider your proposal, and include with that correspondence:
- a statement that the wall within which the existing sliding door is located and within which the proposed new doors are to be located is yours and not common property.
- the full scope of your proposed works
- the style and colour of your proposed bi-fold doors; that you should try so far as is possible to match with the existing sliders.
- your tradespersons’ name/s incl. their licence and insurance details
- your preferred start / end dates and times / days of work, together with an undertaking that you’re willing to comply with any reasonable variations required by the O/C.
- and a statement to the effect that you will continue to be responsible for the on-going maintenance, repair, replacement of your bi-fold doors; and
- an undertaking that all building debris will be removed from the common property and be properly disposed of off-site.
As your proposed works will not involve the common property, your E/C will be able to grant consent on behalf of the O/C, and if it wishes to at some stage legitimise future proposals of a similar nature that may more directly involve by-law 17, then it may choose at the collective cost of the O/C to have a generic special by-law drafted in suitable terms for consideration at a general meeting (e.g. an AGM).
In the event that the strata manager persists with their original approach, then quote to them the relevant provision of the Strata Schemes Management Act [Sect 65(A)]where that approach only applies among other things where the works involve adding to, altering, and/or erecting a new structure on/to the common property, and where even then a special by-law is optional in the circumstances described.
Good luck!