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We had the issue of another Lot in our strata where the owners renovated their bathroom, without approval and without registering a by-law. They then immediately sold up. They were on our committee.
Can we ask new owners to go through the by-law process to cover existing renovation done by previous owner?
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I think the principle of “buyer beware” applies here. I’m not a lawyer but I think in theory that the new owners should have realised through the property inspection that the bathroom had been renovated and through strata searches that the vendor had not received the appropriate permissions.
So you could ask them to agree to a by-law transferring responsibility for the renovations to them.
Or you could pass a motion declaring that there have been illicit renovations in the property and that the new owners will be responsible for any repairs and maintenance required moving forward. If there are any repairs required after that, then they can chase the OC for payment, rather than the other way round.
At least that way it will be on the record that the new and subsequent owners can’t expect the OC to fix the bathroom if repairs are required.
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We have a similar issue unfolding in our building. Owners bought a year ago and asked to do cosmetic renovations. We gave them a list of what they could and could not do and made it clear that they couldn’t touch common property without coming back to the Committee with full plans and a draft by-law. They did the renovations but then refused entry to anyone to inspect. OK.
Later in the year – more renovations – no permission asked, none granted. Relations between all the owners in the building were a bit tentative, so no one requested an inspection and no one had the stomach to go to NCAT and get an order for an inspection.
They are about to sell so we have minuted in our most recent Committee meeting (they are now members of the Committee but did not attend the recent meeting) that the OC will inspect prior to sale. I’ve bought the popcorn already and I’m sitting back waiting for the fireworks. We may need an order from NCAT for an inspection. Or we can use the open-for-inspection period to do our own inspection and walk around loudly talking to each other about any illegal renovations we spot.
To be fair, they requested and received permission to install aircon. We bent over backwards to accommodate that request which has gone some way to thawing frosty relations.
The simple answer may be to put a motion to the committee that unknown renovations have taken place, inspection has been denied and the resulting work may require the current or any future owners to remediate and remove any work done to common property without the appropriate by-laws in place.
When you say “they are members,” I assume you mean one of the owners is a member of the committee, as they can’t have more than one member from one lot.
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