- This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 7 months ago by .
-
Topic
-
I am owner/occupier in a block of 18 units in NSW. In August 2017, I arrange for a letter of demand from a solicitor to be sent to our Strata Manager about a long, ongoing issue of broken, lifting and marked tiles in a common stairwell in our building. The tiles were also made of bonded asbestos.
A decision was made to finally fix them and this has been done this week. All of the tiles have been removed and replaced with new tiles. It has taken 6 months.
Given this has now been done, I was wondering if I had any recourse to recoup the amount of money I spent on the solicitors letter (several hundred dollars) that I organised to be sent?
Would be good to hear any feedback…
-
Replies
-
I admire your determination to get things done and you could submit a bill to the owners corp for the legal fees.
However, if I were the OC or strata manager, I would say there were other avenues you could have pursued that would not have required the use of a lawyer – such as seeking mediation and then orders via NCAT.
Worth a try but I wouldn’t go to the barricades over it.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
Thanks Jimmy T
I did think of that at the time, but the issue had just been going on and on (14 years on record) and the SC were completely ignoring decisions that had been made previously… I was secretly hoping that there was something in the Strata Management Act that stated I could recoup legal costs, otherwise I know that the Strata Manager wouldn’t oblige.
supersleuth, Jimmy T is correct about the other avenues. The legislation doesn’t provide for recovery of legal expenses of this nature by an owner, though I am happy to be corrected. I always advise owners in this situation to take action through mediation and NCAT asap, 14 years is an extraordinarily long period of time without such action.