You are not alone! My own EC was defeated in an almost identical case by failing to provide enough of the right paperwork in a clear-cut issue of a by-law breach.
The problem here is the process which allows for a initial adjudication based on written material only. So we get these jumped up failed solicitors making rulings based on nothing more than what they read and understand – which is often limited in itself – without either side able to correct any misapprehensions.
Appeal and you or your strata manager will be able to present a case in person at a hearing where there is a much better chance of common sense prevailing. This system is so fundamentally flawed that there is a very, very good chance that it will be swept away in the next review of strata law.
Meanwhile, we have to live with a system where the wackiest clowns of the CTTT make bizarre rulings based on a picket-fence attitude to property, rather than a sense of what the majority of a community wants. The sooner the paper adjudication goes and some of these paper shuffling simpletons can be put out to pasture, the better.
I have to say,though, in our case it doesn’t help that a couple of dominant members of our EC are running a covert agenda to have air-con allowed into the building.