oystercove – a quick response before your post slips off the bottom of the list.
The first hurdle faced by Owners Corporations (O/C), and mores the pity, is that they’re not “persons” under the terms of the NSW Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) , and consequently unless tenants are in breach of a By-Law, O/C’s can’t take any action against them in the Tenancy Division of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) – incorporating the former CTTT.
So with regard to the possible use of the Unit for commercial purposes, again, in the absence of a Special By-Law of your Strata Plan prohibiting that, your Owners Corporation (O/C) needs to rely on the conditions of Council’s original approval for the development, which I’m sure you’ll find is for residential use. However, I wouldn’t recommend heading down that path in too much detail, as Councils sometimes delve too far into that detail and discover a range of other non-compliances that end up just costing your O/C money to rectify; so gently gently with a general what-if type inquiry on that one!
Concurrently, have your O/C Secretary remind its Strata Manager that they are employed by it (i.e. all Owners), and to instruct them not to deal with tenants concerning phone lines or anything else, but to instead direct them to contact their Landlord or their Managing Agent with regard to any queries / problems that they may have. In that way expenditure by the O/C will be avoided, at least until (and maybe even after) the Owner / Landlord of the Unit makes contact, at which time your O/C and Strata Manager can raise the matter of the suspected commercial use.
Then while they’re at it, have your O/C or Strata Manager write to the Owner / Landlord of the Unit with regard to them providing a Tenancy Notification under S119 of the NSW Strata Schemes Management (1996), which by the way can by application to the NCAT attract a penalty to that Owner / Landlord of $550 if it’s not provided within 14 days of a Lease commencing.
Your O/C and Strata Manager will then know the names and numbers of legal tenant/s and when the Lease ends, will be able to conclude whether any non-tenants are in “occupancy”, and will be in a better informed position to discuss possible breaches of Council’s Consent, of the Lease itself and of the RTA with the Owner / Landlord, which by the way states that premises covered under their provisions are those “used or intended to be used as a residence”.
Also look for any breaches of your Plan’s By-Laws, such as those relating to parking in circumstances where there are so many “occupants”, because your O/C is a “person” who can initiate action in the Strata Division of the NCAT against any residents (i.e. Owners and tenants) who breach By-Laws.
Hope that info. helps, but if nothing else it will avoid your O/C spending money on investigating phone lines or indeed anything else in the absence of a formal request from the Owner / Landlord of the Unit concerned, at which time the O/C can tackle them about the suspected commercial use of their property and its implications, and advise what if anything it may or may not do about any maintenance request/s involving common property.