Not sure why one would take the committee (the OC in fact) to mediation or NCAT on this. The OC’s ‘duty’ in this matter is where in the Act? I think you might find there is no express obligation to act on this complaint.
Not so. Just because the obligation is not spelled out in the Act doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Former Fair Trading Minister Victor Dominello told me himself that he made this clear in his second reading of the Act back in 2015.
If you care to check Hansard you will find, he said, in reference to Section 232: “Members of the strata committee will now have a statutory duty to act for the benefit of all owners and to exercise due care and diligence in their role.” That is why section 232(2) exists, to compel committee members to fulfil their obligations under the Act. This is what it says:
The Tribunal may, on application by an interested person, original owner or building manager, make an order to settle a complaint or dispute about any of the following—
(e) an exercise of, or failure to exercise, a function conferred or imposed by or under this Act or the by-laws of a strata scheme.
It could not be any clearer. The strata committee has obligations and they can be compelled to fulfil them. If this is not the case, please quote an instance where such an action has failed because it was incompetent in that regard.
Just as an aside: there is case law (Supreme Court) that says the OC is not mandated to Act on by-law breaches.
By “not mandated” do you mean not empowered to or not compelled to? Either way, please quote the case and its relevance to this issue, as it would undermine the whole premise of strata laws and by-laws if strata committees had neither the power nor obligation to enforce their by-laws.